You could lose hundreds of dollars and the person behind you could win on their first pull. In order to pay a $5,000 jackpot, a 5% machine needs to collect, over time, $100,000. If you're playing on a $1 slot machine that contains a 7% chip, that machine will, over time, return 93% of the money that's put into the machine a machine with a 5% chip will return 95%, etc. With slots, it's all about your being in the right place at the right time. Louisiana casinos can't change these chips without the presence of Louisiana State Police Gaming Control Officers, so they aren't changed very often. Variance between casinos in the same area with machines of the same denomination is usually one or two percentage points, at most. Machines of like denomination usually have chips that hold the same percentage.
There's no such thing as 'tight slots.' Each slot machine has a Player Tracking Device (PTD) with a chip that determines the hold (the percentage of play that the house keeps). I worked in the IT department of a casino.
