Mississippi’s Loosest Slots Pay Back 92.6% in the North

• Northern region slots paid back 92.58% in September, ahead of the 92.40% statewide rate, Coastal at 92.37% and Central at 92.30%.
• Northern penny machines returned 94.04% on $182.3 million wagered, against 92.55% in Central and 92.27% in Coastal.
• Northern penny progressives returned 89.55%, the lowest rate among the six machine lines with more than 1,000 units.
• Without pennies, the Northern region’s other machines returned 91.44%, below Central at 91.99% and Coastal at 92.43%.

TUNICA, Miss. – The Northern region, centered on Tunica, ran Mississippi’s loosest slots in September, paying back 92.58% of the money wagered, the highest rate among the state’s three regions, according to the Mississippi Gaming Commission’s slots win report. Its penny machines returned 94.04%, while its penny progressives returned 89.55%, the lowest rate among the six machine lines with more than 1,000 units.

Northern Region Leads Central By 28 Cents Per $100

The commission reports each group of machines by its win percentage, the share of wagers the casinos kept, and payback is what is left. Northern casinos kept 7.42% of the $416.2 million in coin-in, the commission’s term for total wagers, across 4,586 machines, so $100 wagered returned an average of $92.58. Coastal returned $92.37 per $100 and Central $92.30.

Statewide, the 19,566 machines returned $92.40 per $100 on $2.07 billion in coin-in and left the casinos $157.3 million in win.

The 0.28 percentage-point spread between the top and bottom regions comes to 28 cents per $100, and even the loosest region kept $7.42 of every $100. The commission publishes results by region and not by property, so the report cannot say which Northern casinos hold the loosest machines. The figures describe the state’s casino floors, one part of legal Mississippi gambling.

Pennies Carry The Northern Lead

Northern penny machines returned 94.04% on $182.3 million in coin-in across 1,925 machines. Central pennies returned 92.55% and Coastal pennies 92.27%, so $100 wagered on a Northern penny machine returned $1.77 more than on a Coastal one. The report’s win-per-unit column shows casinos kept an average of $5,643 per Northern penny machine in September and $10,316 per Coastal penny machine.

Pennies took 43.8% of the Northern region’s coin-in, which is why they decide its ranking. Excluding them, the region’s other machines returned 91.44%, below Central at 91.99% and Coastal at 92.43%.

Dollar machines show how unusual the Northern penny line is. Northern dollar machines returned 94.13%, only 0.09 percentage points more than Northern pennies, while Central dollars returned 93.87% and Coastal dollars 93.89%, both well above their regions’ pennies.

Penny Progressives Are The Tightest Large Line

Northern penny progressives returned 89.55% on $132.4 million in coin-in across 1,607 machines. That is the lowest payback among the six machine lines with more than 1,000 units and 4.49 percentage points below the region’s regular pennies, or $4.49 less per $100. Central penny progressives returned 90.55% and Coastal’s returned 91.45%, so the progressive line trailed its region’s regular penny line in all three.

The Northern line drew 31.8% of the region’s coin-in and produced 44.8% of the casinos’ win, $13.84 million of $30.88 million. The report’s progressive lines combine in-house and wide-area progressives, and it does not say what drives the gap.

Added across the regions, the state’s 7,567 penny progressive machines returned 90.97% on $654.0 million, against 92.68% for 7,986 regular pennies on $884.3 million. The commission publishes denomination lines by region only, so the statewide figures are sums of its three regional sheets. The two penny lines together took 74% of the state’s coin-in.

Nickels And $100 Machines Swing On Small Samples

The loosest line with more than 100 machines is Northern nickels, which returned 97.92% on $19.3 million in coin-in across 110 machines. At the other end, Coastal’s 19 machines in the $100 line lost money for the casinos, paying out $149,309.79 more than they took in on $3.4 million in coin-in, a win percentage of negative 4.35%. A group that small is a one-month sample, and the report offers no explanation for either result.

The Northern Split Held From August

The commission’s August report had the Northern region first at 92.71%, with pennies at 94.31% and penny progressives at 89.71%. Its September 2025 report put the region at 92.63%, so the rate slipped 0.05 percentage points over the year while the statewide rate rose to 92.40% from 92.25%.

What The Percentages Measure

Payback here is 100% minus the commission’s win percentage, measured against coin-in, which counts every wager, including winnings players put back into a machine. A machine that offers several denominations is counted in the lowest denomination available, according to the report’s footnote, so a denomination line describes how the commission classifies a machine and not necessarily what each player wagered per credit.

Each rate pools every machine in its line for the month, so it describes the group and not any one game or session, which can land far above or below it.

The figures include only the casinos the commission licenses, one slice of legal gambling in the United States. Its October edition will show whether Northern pennies stay above 94%.