The slots have really been geared towards what players have enjoyed over the last five years or so: bonus rounds and big-money bonus rounds. When the slots are designed with these bonus rounds and in order for the machines to remain profitable, you either encounter infrequent bonus rounds with big payoffs or more frequent bonus rounds with smaller payoffs. To offset these bonus winnings, you're going to experience less wins before the next bonus round (through probability not rigging, of course). So what you experience are very quick dips in your winning streaks. If you don't hit a bonus round, you lose fast.

Same goes for video poker with these double-double, triple-double bonuses and the like. You'll see that the winnings are lowered rather dramatically on non-bonus hands due to the double winnings on other hands...same effect...if you don't get a bonus win your money dips FAST because you're being paid much less for the non-bonus hands than you would have on a non-bonus machine. Bigger wins come with bigger risks.

People have obviously enjoyed these types of machines with the draw of a big quick bonus win but the bonus rounds are just too infrequent to make someone with a smaller pocketbook able to endure the dips before a bonus hits. I personally avoid machines with HUGE jackpots compared to the denomination.

As with everything Vegas, if people stop playing these "tight" (big bonus) machines, they'll come up with machines people like, but people need to keep in mind the amount they're betting...even on the penny machines. The casinos quickly discovered people would bet more in pennies than they would in nickels or even quarters because "they're just pennies."