I play 3 card poker at the local casino and they have a progressive jackpot for a royal flush. You have to risk $1.00 to be eligible for the jackpot. The ticker only increases 15 cents per $1.00 risked. In other words, the house is keeping 85 cents and only applying 15 cents toward the jackpot. Does anyone know if there a law regarding the minimum amount that must be applied towards a progressive jackpot in Nevada or California?

Three Card Poker Progressive — Pay Table
Hand Pays Envy Bonus
Mini Royal in spades Jackpot $100
Mini Royal $500 $25
Straight Flush $100 $0
Three of a Kind $90 $0

Is it that pay table or is the only payout on a mini royal? There are no rules about progressives in NV. There is certainly a house edge on it depending on the game. For example, in Caribbean Stud, the house seeds the jackpot $10,000 out of their own money but makes it back as the jackpot grows because they have a hold on the progressive.

Return of this paytable (payouts are on a "for one" basis):

E = number of fellow players
J = Jackpot amount

< Less than Three of a Kind: $0
Three of a Kind: 52/22,100 x $90 = $0.2117647
Straight Flush: 48/22,100 x $100 = $0.21719457
Mini Royal (non-Spade): 3/22,100 x $500 + 3/22,100 x E x $25 = $0.0678733 + 0.00339367*E
Mini Royal (Spades): 1/22,100 x J + 1/22,100 x E x $100 = 0.0000452489*J + 0.00452489*E

Total Return: $0.49683257 + 0.00791856*E + 0.0000452489*J

So if they are adding 15 cents to the meter per dollar played then 85 cents would be paid to non-Jackpot prizes in a break-even game. For an estimate, lets say 4 players on average (E=3) at any given time, and that a spade royal is initially seeded at $2000 (I have no idea how good this estimate is) then the house edge would be:

1 - ($0.49683257 + $0.00791856*3 + 0.0000452489*$2000)/$0.85 = 28.1% house edge overall if only 15c is added to the jackpot each dollar, AND the jackpot is initially seeded at $2000. This is a reasonable house edge for a progressive table game and would be legal in my home state of Missouri (max house edge of 30% allowed on any table game bet).

According to the Wizard:

http://wizardofodds.com/games/three-card-poker/

The return of the game is 47.87% + 4.52% per $1000 in the jackpot + 0.79% per number of other players.

Thanks for the replies. I just wanted to know if the casinos were ripping off the players by putting in less than the minimum requirement towards the progressive. I don't have the link but I did find something in regards to california three card poker. It stated that 15 cents should go towards the progressive, 80 cents towards the reserve fund (for seed jackpots), and a 5 cent administrative fee.