Loosest slots in Nevada, by city
Every reporting area the state publishes, ranked by what penny machines actually hold. These are the regulator's own figures — not estimates, not a survey, not somebody's trip report.
The spread is wider than most people assume: Sparks at 5.9% versus Laughlin at 10.66% — the house keeps 81% more per dollar played at one end of the state than the other, on the same denomination.
Nevada Gaming Control Board · trailing twelve months through June 2026
| Area | Penny hold | $1 hold | Multi-denom | Penny units |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 Sparks | 5.9% | 5.04% | 5.24% | 1,137 |
| 2 West Wendover | 5.97% | 4.36% | 5.31% | 867 |
| 3 Reno | 6.76% | 5.17% | 5.42% | 1,980 |
| 4 Carson Valley | 7.25% | 8.33% | 6.16% | 1,013 |
| 5 North Las Vegas | 8.66% | 4.8% | 7.5% | 1,065 |
| 6 Mesquite | 9.1% | 4.97% | 6.74% | 512 |
| 7 South Lake Tahoe | 10.03% | 7.66% | 8.07% | 495 |
| 8 the Las Vegas Strip | 10.54% | 7.2% | 7.6% | 6,677 |
| 9 Downtown Las Vegas | 10.62% | 6.24% | 8.27% | 2,146 |
| 10 Laughlin | 10.66% | 6.03% | 7.65% | 1,601 |
| Statewide | 8.87% | 6.3% | 6.96% | 28,551 |
Ranked loosest first. Hold is win divided by handle over the trailing twelve months — a realised result, not the theoretical par a machine ships with.
One thing the regulator doesn't break out
The airport. Harry Reid International has more than a thousand slot machines, but it is not a reporting area — we searched the full 48-page filing and the word "airport" appears 0 times. Those machines fold into Clark County Balance of County and disappear into an average. We wrote up what that means →