David,
The paytable is lousy. But I don't really care all that much about paytables. I am not playing the machines for a living, nor playing them a lot, so what does it matter to me?

Those who do try to grind on the poker machines might need to pay attention to them. I go along with the theory that if you are going to hit then you hit. So I play the machines I enjoy playing. Or ones that have a high progressive. Last December the progressive on one poker machine got up to about $165,000 on a single hand $1 machine. Lousy paytable. I played it a lot & did not hit the progressive. But I did hit a lot of 4 of a kinds which helped keep me around even for the month or so I tried to hit the progressive. So you never know.

The reason for the 20 bets is that you are making 5 bets on each of the 4 hands. Of course you do not get to play all 4 hands a lot of the time. If you do not hit anything on the very first hand & move up to the second hand then you paid 20 bets for that one hand. So it is not like it is "only" 20 bets. If you do not hit anything on say 5 hands in a row you have made 100 bets.

Andy - Las Vegas