I'm sad to report that the old FPDW (101%) at the Palms are gone, replaced by machines that -- according to the placard above them -- are "full pay." Now I'm old school and have been around for the heyday of video poker, so my definition of "full pay" is the original definition of "full pay," which is 100% or more if played properly. The machines at the Palms that replaced my beloved FPDW pay 99-something percent if played optimally.
Here's my observation and my point: the placards say "full pay," but also quote the exact percentage return if played optimally. Every time, anywhere in LV, that I've seen a machine signage with the words "full pay," the signage also quotes an exact percentage for optimal play.
Now being a cynical boy, I strongly suspect that the reason for this isn't to enlighten the players as to the machines' percentages, but because there is some legal original definition of "full pay" on the books that probably requires casinos to add the exact percentage to the signage if the words "full pay" are used but the machines do not return 100%.
To test my theory, I ask the forum members to check out any signage in LV with the "full pay" adjectival phrase, and let me know if any of these signs are NOT accompanied by the exact optimal percentage.
My suspicion is that courts did not or will not buy the casino-push-polled definition of "full pay" as "the most common" or "best common" variation of a machine, as this definition could change every hour and does the consumer no real service. So casinos, while touting "full pay" with their own preferred definition, still have to toe the line and report the actual percentage when using the "full pay" advertising slogan.