Most players sit down, put money in, and only look at the pay table when something pays. By then they've been playing it for an hour.
Checking takes less than a minute. Here's the routine.
1. Find the game name
The glass or screen names the game: Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus and so on. Each one has its own full-pay table, so you need the name before the numbers mean anything.
On multi-game machines, every game on the menu has its own pay table. Check the one you'll actually play.
2. Read the one-coin column
Find the full house and flush rows and read what they pay for one coin. On Jacks or Better, 9 and 6 is full pay. On Bonus Poker, 8 and 5.
The full-pay guide lists the numbers for every popular game, or you can type them into the pay-table checker.
3. Check the royal at five coins
Look along the royal flush row. It should jump from 1,000 at four coins to 4,000 at five. That jump is part of every published return, so plan to play five coins.
4. Note the denomination
The same game often pays better at $1 than at 25¢ in the same casino. If the quarter version is short, look for the dollar version before you give up on the game.
5. Be careful with progressives
A progressive meter looks exciting, but many progressive machines run a weaker base pay table. The jackpot only makes up for it once the meter is high enough.
If the base table is short and the meter is low, it's usually just a worse machine with a light on top.
6. Card in, then play
Put your players card in before the first hand. Cashback and points are paid on everything you put through the machine, so an uncarded session is money left on the table.
If the machine fails any of these checks, walk. There is almost always a better one in the same room.
