All Oregon Lottery video poker games have an auto-hold feature in which the game recommends a card-holding strategy during each individual game. Auto-hold strategies vary by game, based on the particular features of a game and do not necessarily result in theoretical payouts. Players have the option of overriding the game’s selections anytime. Jan 10, 2019  Oregon Lottery leaders plan to increase profits from video games by $10 million, or 3 percent, in fiscal 2014. The focus clearly is on electronic slot games - “line games” that mimic slots.

Oregon lottery VP games are indeed like Nevada games, but for the paytables and top-award limits you noted. They're based on RNGs and proper deck shuffling, not like the predetermined pull-tab games as in Washington.
It's not a disadvantage per se to make a max-coin bet, it's just a different paytable. The top award is capped so the lower parts of the paytable get fatter on a per-coin basis. I haven't done an analysis on the RTP of each coin level, but I'd be surprised if it went down as you increased your wager. Plug the paytable numbers into the Wizard's calculator to verify.
Either method of dealing replacement cards for discards is equivalent. The card you wanted to see is equally-likely to show up (a) next in the deck or (b) behind a given initial card.

A card I can't see is a card I can't see so it doesn't matter right?

You are correct, it makes no difference.
In Montana, games are capped at a $800 win and a $2 max bet, so VP is often set to pay 400 for a royal, but the other pays are increased to compensate for the lower royal.

You are correct, it makes no difference.
In Montana, games are capped at a $800 win and a $2 max bet, so VP is often set to pay 400 for a royal, but the other pays are increased to compensate for the lower royal.

Same with bars/restaurants in Illinois: max $500 win with a max $2 bet. And paybacks do increase all the way to 8 quarters, but playing max bet only seems to add about 0.1% from 5 credits and 0.4% from 1 credit and at max bet you have to hold a lot more straight flush draws since any straight flush is often worth the max payout at max bet.
And Oregon bar poker is generally terrible. Like 92% terrible. You'd be better off visiting an Indian casino in the state if you could.

Thx everyone. Ya I know it's 92% terrible, it says so right on their site. I won't be within range of any of the Tribal casinos and this will be just to pass some time.
They do have the 'double up' feature available. In theory I should play that all the way up to the $600 max right? It appears to be a 0% edge feature.

Theoretically it would be better since you will have less hands of actual vp, but it's a very high variance way to play. And also I would make sure they don't charge taxes on a $600 win. That's the usual threshold for other games run by the lottery.

Theoretically it would be better since you will have less hands of actual vp, but it's a very high variance way to play. And also I would make sure they don't charge taxes on a $600 win. That's the usual threshold for other games run by the lottery.

South Dakota and Montana do not write tax forms for $600+ wins. Also, as for Montana, the game I played called something like 'Montana Mania' (some double joker game) only improved the bottom pays the same increments as the bet went up, even if the $800 max was reached for the royal. I am nearly positive the return went down as you wagered more coins, at least on that game.

So you have to pay state taxes on a $600+ video lottery winning. Makes it even more of a ripoff.

Oregon Lottery Online Games

Well, sort of...

Oregon Lottery Odds

The reporting requirement would only apply to a single ticket with a value of $600 (or perhaps $600.01+) and the max payout is $600 even on 4/5/6 coin bets. I don't think I've ever seen someone put more than $100 into a machine at once and usually they're feeding $20 bills as needed. With that style of play, it would just be a matter of playing it down to $599.99 or less before you cash out.
You could cash in multiple $599 tickets and never pass the mandatory reporting threshold.

Oregon Video Lottery Odds

There are some non-poker games with progressive jackpots that exceed $600 by quite a bit, and in that case you'd be stuck with a tax bill even if you were an out-of-state visitor. But if you stick to video poker it should not be too difficult to avoid the tax man even if you hit the top of the pay table multiple times.

Oregon Lottery Slot Games

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