Big Red pokies: the approved RTP settings behind an Aristocrat classic

Big Red pokies in one paragraph

Big Red is an Aristocrat pokie made for pubs, clubs and casinos, and the place it is documented in most detail is not a marketing page but the ACT's legislation register. Aristocrat's current product site has no stand-alone Big Red page, so we have not described symbols or features we could not check. What the ACT Gambling and Racing Commission's approval instruments do show is more useful to a player: the return to player (RTP) settings each Big Red version was approved to run, and how far apart they are.

Where Big Red appears in the official record

Each approval below names Aristocrat Technologies Australia Pty Ltd as the manufacturer and lists Big Red as a game on the machine.

Two things stand out. Big Red has mostly been packaged with other Aristocrat titles in multi-game cabinets, such as Queen of the Nile, Wild Stallion and Indian Dreaming in Classic Edition. And the maximum bet on these machines was $10, with no Big Red version in these records starting below 20c a credit.

One game, five returns

Big Red Legends shows the point most clearly. The same Big Red game was approved at five different settings, and the setting decides how much of your money the machine keeps on average. Expected loss is simply turnover multiplied by (100% minus RTP).

In our calculation the lowest setting costs 2.33 times as much as the highest for the same play. Put in session terms: 300 spins at $2 is $600 of turnover. At 87.83% that averages a $73.02 loss; at 94.78% it averages $31.32. Real sessions swing far above and below those figures, because these are long-run averages, not predictions. You can run your own numbers in the pokies calculator.

Denomination changes the return, and the bet

The 2015 Gold Jackpots approval lists Big Red at three denominations under each setting. Under the first setting the figures were:

High Limits shows the same pattern in a smaller way: 89.08% at 20c against 89.12% at 50c and $1 on its lowest setting.

Do not read that as "bet big to win". A higher denomination raises the size of every bet. Five hundred spins at $1 on the 20c game's 90.00% averages a $50 loss. Five hundred spins at $5 on the $1 game's 92.06% averages $198.50. The better percentage loses almost four times as much money, because you staked five times as much. The same logic applies when you compare venue machines with the published returns on our highest RTP pokies list: the percentage sets the rate, your bet sets the bill.

Pundit tip: choose your spend in dollars first, then the bet that fits it. The RTP only tells you the average rate at which that spend disappears.

The legal floor under every setting

Every Big Red setting above clears the minimum for the ACT, where Gaming Machine Regulation 2004 s 76 sets an 87% minimum payout and counts any linked jackpot contribution towards it. Approvals can add conditions of their own: High Limits allowed its lowest combination (89.08% for 20c Big Red) only on a machine connected to a mystery link. Minimums differ by state:

None of these numbers is a promise about your session. They describe the average over a machine's life, across millions of games.

How to find the setting on your machine

The approvals tell you which settings were allowed, not which one a particular cabinet runs. To find out:

1. Open the machine's information or help screens before you play and look for a return to player figure or range.
2. If the game is part of a linked or mystery jackpot, look for the total return and the share that comes from the jackpot.
3. If you cannot find it, ask the venue's gaming staff.

Our Queen of the Nile pokies guide walks through every item Victoria requires that screen to show, line by line.

Big Red free play and online

Aristocrat's own free option is Heart of Vegas, published by Product Madness, its social casino studio. The Australian App Store listing names the "Big Red slot machine" among its games, carries an R 18+ rating and states that the game "does not offer gambling or an opportunity to win real money or prizes". It is free to download, but it sells coin packages from $1.99 to $49.99, so treat any purchase as money spent, never as money you can get back. Our free pokies guide explains what a demo can and cannot tell you about a venue machine.

Real money Big Red online is a different matter. Under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001, online pokies cannot legally be offered to people in Australia, and ACMA blocks illegal offshore sites. It is not an offence for you to play, but you have no Australian protection if a site withholds winnings. We also found no announcement from Aristocrat Interactive, Aristocrat's online business for regulated overseas markets, that Big Red is among its online titles.

For how Big Red sits alongside the rest of the maker's range, see our guide to Aristocrat pokies. If a night at the pokies is costing more than you planned, free and confidential help is on our gambling help page.

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