What is Dead Spin?

A dead spin is a spin that returns nothing at all. Not a small win, not a return of part of the stake — zero. The term matters because hit frequency is usually quoted as the share of spins that pay something, which means the remainder are dead spins, and on a high-volatility slot that remainder is most of them. Nolimit City's Tombstone R.I.P. states a hit frequency of 9.08%, so roughly nine spins in ten return nothing. That is not a fault in the game; it is the arithmetic of funding a very large maximum win from the same pot of money. A studio can pay often and small, or rarely and large, and the dead spin is what the second choice looks like from the player's chair. Dead spins are also why a session can feel far worse than an RTP figure suggests. A 96% return says nothing about how it arrives.