TL;DR
- 16-row centre slot hits 19.64% of drops and pays 0.5x on Low risk. The frequent outcome is a loss.
- Extreme corner slot hits 0.00153% of drops (1 in 65,536). High risk pays 1,000x there.
- The 1% house edge is constant across all risk levels and board sizes. More rows means more volatility, not a worse game.
19.64%. That is the probability of landing in the centre slot on a 16-row Plinko board. The centre slot on Stake Originals Plinko at Low risk, 16 rows, pays 0.5x: you get half your stake back. The extreme corner slots pay 1,000x on High risk, but hit with a probability of 0.00153%, or 1 in approximately 65,536 drops.
High risk on a small bankroll is one of the fastest ways to lose the session before the maths has time to work in any direction.
1.00%
Plinko house edge across all risk levels and board sizes. The multipliers are calibrated so every drop has the same EV.
How Plinko Works
A ball is dropped from the top of a triangular grid. At each row, the ball deflects left or right with equal probability. After 16 rows (on a 16-row board), the ball lands in one of 17 possible slots. The distribution follows the binomial distribution: the probability of landing in slot k (counting from 0 to 16) equals C(16,k) / 2^16.
The 1% house edge is applied uniformly across all risk levels and board sizes. The multiplier at each slot is calibrated so the expected return from any drop equals 0.99 times the stake.
