Any post about Class II gaming versus Class III gaming should start by answering some common questions. Gamblers ask these questions about legal gaming classes most often:
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Table of Contents
What’s the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act?
Let’s go straight to the source. Read the National Indian Gaming Commission’s definition of the act: “The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act was enacted by the United States Congress on October 17, 1988, to regulate the conduct of gaming on Indian Lands. IGRA establishes the National Indian Gaming Commission and the regulatory structure for Indian gaming in the United States.”
What Are Class II and Class III Games?
The phrases “Class II” and “Class III” games are legal gaming classifications used by state gaming boards to control the types of machines that can be played in casinos and other legal gambling venues. Also known as gambling classes, these are ways of categorizing casino games.
Does Class I Gaming Exist?
Yes, Indian gaming law defines three classes. You hear less about Class I games. These are social games with small prizes on tribal land. They usually play these games as a part of tribal ceremonies and celebrations.
Where Can I Find a List of Legal Game Classes?
The National Indian Gaming Commission maintains a running list of opinions on game classifications.
I cover this list in more detail later in the post.
Legal Gaming Classes History
The entire history of American tribal gaming owes a huge debt to Ronald Reagan.
That sentence seems odd, but it’s 100% true. As President, Reagan initiated programs aimed at creating self-sufficiency for American tribal groups. Out of those initiatives rose the tribal gaming programs that today bring billions of dollars in revenue to various American tribes.
A single Supreme Court case – Bryan vs. Itasca County, 1976 – finding that states have no jurisdiction over civil regulatory laws on reservations. This new interpretation of federal law led to economic development on reservations. Some of these (gaming) caught on. Others (raising emu as livestock) did not.
Concerns over organized crime involvement in the growing industry led state governments to request federal intervention. Regulation, partially in the form of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, helped establish the conventions of modern American tribal gaming. Tribal groups wanted to maintain as much sovereignty as possible, for obvious historical reasons. State governments wanted as big a piece of the pie as they could get. And they wanted additional resources from the feds to help regulate and enforce those regulations.
The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act
President Reagan signed the IGRA into law on October 17, 1988. The coolest part of the law is that the FBI has jurisdiction over crimes at Indian gaming establishments. That’s something I didn’t know before I read more deeply into the law.
The main impact of the IGRA on slot machine players is the classification of tribal games. There are three categories: the infamous Class I, Class II, and Class III. These are also known as gambling classes.
Class I Gaming
The law identifies Class 1 games as “traditional Indian gaming” that’s “part of tribal ceremonies and celebrations,” as well as “social gaming for minimal prizes.” As far as I can tell, Class 1 gaming was included to cover small bets placed on traditional Indian games like stickball and other tribal contests. These aren’t games you’d typically find in a casino. Most bettors will never come across Class 1 gaming or Class 1 games.
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Class II Gaming
Class II games are the most common games found in tribal casinos in America. The legal definition of Class II games is complicated. And it’s full of enough loopholes to provide some interesting play options.
Here’s what the IGRA says about Class II games:
“… the game of chance commonly known as bingo (whether or not electronic, computer, or other technological aids are used in connection therewith) and, if played in the same location as the bingo, pull tabs, punch board, tip jars, instant bingo, and other games similar to bingo.”
Without too deep of a read, that may seem like Class II games are basically just bingo games.
That’s not exactly the case.
Slot machine manufacturers working closely with tribal groups have developed ingenious games based enough on the rules of bingo to pass as Class II games by law.
But they look and play just like traditional casino games. You can find bingo-based slots, video poker, blackjack, and other casino classics, all modified to meet the definition of a Class II game. You can easily identify a Class II game in a tribal casino by the bingo card on the face of the game.
It’s easier for tribal groups to host Class 2 games, as part of a Class 2 gaming license. As part of the IGRA, tribal groups maintain full authority to conduct, license, and regulate class 2 games. They just have to be legal in the state where the casino operates. Class 2 gaming licenses are simple compacts based only on existing state gaming law.
Many — if not most — of the slot machines you’ll find at casinos in Oklahoma like Choctaw, or the slot machines at the Riverwind, or even the 8500+ slots at Winstar — are Class II games.
Class III Gaming
The IGRA definition of a Class 3 game is broad. It includes all forms of gambling that aren’t easily identified as Class 1 (tribal/social games) or Class 2 (games based on the rules of bingo). Essentially, this means every game in a typical Vegas casino is Class 3, aside from maybe keno, which may pass as a bingo-style game under tribal law.
Tribal groups aren’t totally restricted from hosting Class 3 games, but these games are heavily controlled. For example, you can’t host any Class 3 game at your tribal casino that isn’t legal in your state. Also, a tribal group has to make a specific compact with bigwigs in state government in order to host these games – a long, expensive, and complicated process of acquiring multiple Class 3 gaming licenses.
It’s possible for tribal casinos to host Vegas-style games, but they have to earn a Class 3 gaming license for each game they want to add.
For the most part, tribal groups that want to host Class 3 games like roulette and casino-style poker have found ways to create bingo-based games that earn Class 2 legal classification.
Does this clarify Class II gaming versus Class III gaming well enough?
NIGC Game Classification Opinions – Class II Gaming versus Class III Gaming
At the time I wrote this post, the NIGC has opinions on the legal classes of 121 games available, ranging from video poker and slots to machine versions of blackjack and bingo. Games are identified as either Class II or III, and are identified as either bingo or non-bingo, card game or non-card game, and categorized by whether they are pull-tab games, or if a game is also available online. You can also see the date the opinion was released.
There’s no master list of Class 3 slot machines, and the list provided by the NIGC certainly isn’t authoritative, with plenty of popular VGT games unlisted, for example. That’s because this list is written in response to requests from tribal groups and gaming operators who are uncertain about a particular game’s classification.
Most Popular Class 2 Slot Machines
The biggest names in Class 2 slot manufacturing are Ainsworth Game Technology, Scientific Games, WMS Gaming, IGT, and VGT. Most games you’ll play at US tribal casinos are made by one of these five manufacturers.
I’d say the most popular class 2 slot games are VGT slot machines, specifically their famous red screen bonus games.
People love Class 2 slots because they’re essentially the same as playing casino slots, with all of the bingo stuff taking place on the back end, where players never even see it. Without the existence of Class II slots, bettors who live in places like Oklahoma, New Mexico, and Mississippi would have to travel much farther to play their favorite games.
The VGT red screens lots are beloved because of the frequency of the red screen bonus multipliers, which hit about once every five wins. It’s an added element that happens frequently enough to keep slot players invested.
For more on playing VGT Class 2 slots, and their red screen bonuses, check out our VGT slot strategy tips.
Mr. Money Bags – The Best Class II Slot Machine
VGT identifies Mr. Money Bags as their most popular 3-reel single pay line game. Made in the style of old-school mechanical slots, Mr. Money Bags accepts bets in denominations between $0.25 and $25 per spin. The top prize is 2,500 credits, for a total max jackpot of between $625 and $62,500. Mr. Money Bags is one of VGT’s popular red screen bonus games, meaning on some winning spins you’ll have a chance to play a bonus game to multiply your payout.
For a more detailed review on the game, check out our Mr. Money Bags slot machine review.
Most Popular Class 3 Slot Machines
Most slot machines not at tribal casinos in America are Class 3 slots. That’s tens of thousands of different games spread all over the country. That makes things hard when it comes time to talk about the most popular slot machines in class 3. The most popular Class 3 slot machines in any given jurisdiction are bound to be a little different.
That said, we can make some generalizations about what makes a Class III slot game popular:
US slots fans like jackpots – the bigger, the better.
Slot machines advertise their top prizes for a reason – slot manufacturers and game designers know that slot players like big numbers. Sure, there are advantage gamblers who look for machines with low payouts, and there’s plenty of slots players who don’t really look at pay tables when picking a game. But you see the game’s top prizes splashed across the case for a good reason – people love potentially big winnings.
Slot players in America love chasing progressive jackpots.
The most popular search terms for slots in America, besides searches for free games, are about the big money payout slots. Games like Megabucks and Mega Moolah that regularly pay out prizes in the millions of dollars are big crowd-pleasers. People like to think they’re chasing big money, even if the odds of winning these big payouts go down the higher the prize climbs.
The biggest payouts in American slot history came from progressive slots. A Megabucks game in Las Vegas paid out $39.7 million for a single $100 pull in 2003. That’s a 397,000:1 payout, far bigger than anything you’ll typically find in a casino.
American slots fanatics enjoy bonus rounds and special features.
Look at the huge gap in popularity between VGT’s red screen bonus games and all their other titles. I’ve been in small slot parlors before where the only games being played were red screen bonus games. Players love side games, side bets, bonus rounds, and any special bright light flashing opportunity they can have.
I can’t share a list of class 3 slot machines with you – honestly, that list would be way too huge to be useful anyway.
IGT’s Wheel of Fortune Slot – The Best Class III Slot Machine
IGT has been releasing games in their Wheel of Fortune series for 25 years, and they’re still among the most popular games on the casino floor. Besides being a beloved game show with decades of history and millions of fans, Wheel of Fortune slots have that iconic spinning wheel. Gamblers love spinning wheels, which also imply the existence of a bonus game, and we know how much slots players like bonus games.
Wheel of Fortune was the first major licensed slot brand and ushered in the era that we find ourselves in now, where most of the major Class III slots are licensed titles to some extent.
Let’s take a quick look at IGT’s Wheel of Fortune Megaways. It’s a great, recent example of what the company is doing with this mega-popular series of games.
Wheel of Fortune Megaways is the first IGT Wheel of Fortune slot to use the Megaways system. The company acquired this system from Big Time Gaming. It’s a 6-reel game, but there’s no fixed number of symbols on each reel. Instead, each reel will have between 2 and 7 symbols one ach spin. IGT highlights as often as they can that this gives players up to 117,649 ways to win on each spin.
According to IGT, the standard version of this game is programmed to return 96.46% of bets. This gives the casino an edge of just 3.54%. You can’t know exactly what the RTP of an IGT Wheel of Fortune Megaways game is. But that gives you some sense of the game’s probabilities.
Wheel of Fortune Megaways includes a wild symbol, a scatter symbol, and a free spins round that includes expanding wilds. Max bets range from $0.20 to $100 per spin. The game’s biggest payout is 80,150 credits.
Conclusion – Class II Gaming versus Class III Gaming in a Nutshell
Legal gaming classifications are a big deal in states where tribal gaming is a big deal. These legal classes are what determines if a particular game can be offered at a specific tribal casino.
Understanding the difference between Class II and Class III games is important. If you’re planning to gamble in a tribal casino, pay heed.
You might also be interested in my post about slot machines in gas stations. Let that one serve as a warning.
