How long will my slot bankroll last?
Enter your budget for the cruise, your bet and how much you plan to play. See what the plan is expected to cost, then 10,000 simulated trips: how often the money lasts, how it usually ends and how fast it goes when it runs out.
The expected cost of a plan is simple: spins × bet × the hold. Five sessions of two hours at 600 spins an hour is 6,000 spins; at $1 a spin and 92% payback that's $480 expected. Whether $500 lasts is a different question, and the answer depends on luck and on how swingy the machine is. In our simplified medium-volatility model it lasts the whole plan in 35% of the simulated trips. A stop-loss doesn't change the price of a spin; it means fewer spins. With a $100 stop-loss and a $200 win goal for each session, the same trips lost $167 on average instead of $315, because they played about 2,200 spins, not 6,000.
Your money and your plan
The simulation reruns a moment after you stop typing. Leave the limits empty to play every planned spin.
If you play every spin of the plan
10,000 simulated trips
In 35% of 10,000 simulated trips, $500 at $1 a spin lasted all 5 sessions of 2 hours (6,000 spins). Half were left with less than one bet; one in ten ended above $676. When the money ran out, half the time it was gone within 4.9 hours of play. 16% finished ahead. Played to the end, every spin of the plan is expected to cost $480.
Show the chart as a table
| When | 10th | 25th | Median | 75th | 90th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 | $500 |
| After session 1 (2 hours) | $130 | $244 | $398 | $546 | $710 |
| After session 2 (4 hours) | $0 | $34 | $296 | $516 | $728 |
| After session 3 (6 hours) | $0 | $0 | $156 | $460 | $732 |
| After session 4 (8 hours) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $394 | $702 |
| After session 5 (10 hours) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $305 | $676 |
The simulation runs in your browser with a fixed seed, so the same inputs always give the same figures. Nothing you enter is sent anywhere; the link you copy keeps your plan after the # in the address, which isn't sent to our server.
How the simulation works
The expected loss needs no simulation. The simulation answers the questions an average can't: does the money last, and how does a trip usually end?
- Expected loss. Spins × bet × (100% − payback). It's exact if you play every spin of the plan. If the money runs out, or a limit ends a session early, you play fewer spins and lose less than that on average, which is why the simulated average loss can be lower.
- The spin model. A simplified model, not any real machine or pay table. Every spin costs one bet and either loses, pays a small win or pays a big win (pays include your bet back). For each volatility level the two win sizes are fixed, and their chances are solved so that the spin pays back exactly the payback you chose, with exactly that level's standard deviation per $1 bet: 3 (low), 6.349 (medium) and 13.6 (high). Those are the three presets in our range-of-results calculator, so the two tools mean the same thing by low, medium and high. Real machines have many more prizes, bonus rounds and a rare top jackpot, so their results are more lopsided than this.
- The trips. 10,000 simulated trips, each with its own stream from a seeded random-number generator (mulberry32). A trip plays your sessions in order from one bankroll. It runs out when it needs a spin and has less than one bet left. A stop-loss ends a session once you're down that much since it began; a win goal ends it once you're up that much. The next session starts from wherever you are.
- The figures. "Lasts the whole plan" counts the trips that never ran out. The ending balance percentiles sort the 10,000 endings: the 10th percentile is the amount one trip in ten finished below. The median time to run out counts hours of play, among the trips that ran out. The chart shows the same percentiles at each session's end.
| Volatility | Spins that win | Small win, how often | Big win, how often | Std. deviation per $1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Low | 33.1% | 1.5x, 1 in 3 | 20x, 1 in 44 | 3 |
| Medium | 26.3% | 2x, 1 in 4 | 100x, 1 in 249 | 6.349 |
| High | 22.1% | 2.5x, 1 in 5 | 500x, 1 in 1,356 | 13.6 |
Hours per session and spins per hour are what you plan, not what the casino measures. What a machine pays back over a few thousand spins can land far from its long-run payback; the volatility section of the game-math guide shows how far, with real PAR-sheet figures. For a single average, without the simulation, use how long will my money last? in the same guide.
Play responsibly
Every slot has a house edge, so the longer you play, the more you're expected to lose. Trips that end ahead are luck, not a system. Set a budget for the cruise before you board, and a limit for each day, and don't add money to win back losses.
If gambling stops being fun
Call 1-800-GAMBLER, or the National Council on Problem Gambling's National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET (call or text), for free, confidential help in the US.
Sources
- Slots at Sea — The math behind casino games (payback and hold, the 85% to 96.2% range, the volatility presets and the 600-spin pace, with its sources)
- Slots at Sea — Cruise casino myths: "Ship slots are tighter than land casinos" (cruise lines publish no paybacks or holds)
- National Council on Problem Gambling — National Problem Gambling Helpline (accessed Oct 22, 2026)