Chances are, if you’ve ever set foot in a casino, you’ve played at a slot machine. Whether that be the old-fashioned fruit slots or the much more modern video slots, they are a staple of gambling culture and provide fun and lots of rewards to players.
Some may assume, however, that it doesn’t take much to play them, especially online slot games. All you have to do is click spin, and there you go! You either win some or lose some. But this is far from true, as you will soon see…
Play Slot Games Online For Real Money
Plenty of online mobile casinos allow you to play slot games for real money. In case you’re unsure, you can often play the ‘demo’ version of an online slot game for free in case you want to see what it’s like first.
This is good because it allows you to get used to the mechanics of each slot before you play. Many are very similar to each other, however, there are some slot games that are unique. You can find online slot games at any licensed online casino.
How Online Slot Games Work
In case you’re unaware, we have prepared a comprehensive guide on the features most commonly found in online slot games. Hopefully, it should help you form a strategy on how to play them better.
- Coin Value: This is how much you wish to put on a single spin. The less you put on, the less you’ll get back, obviously, so higher bets have higher returns but carry more risk. It’s up to you to decide how far you can go. Most online slot games allow you to bet between 1p and £2.
- Paylines: This is the number of lines you can win on. Usually, a slot game has between 20 to 25 paylines. The paylines can be adjusted to help with winning but should be adjusted effectively to ensure you don’t lose large amounts. And depending on how you adjust, you could lower or raise the rate of return as this can make it more or less risky.
- Wilds and Scatters: These help you on your way to unlocking bonuses and/or helping you win a larger amount of cash. Wilds tend to replace other symbols while scatters tend to be the “bonus” symbols, and are (as you can imagine) “scattered” over the reel.
- Bonus Rounds: Bonus rounds in slots can involve almost anything, the most common being an additional reel where you can obtain multipliers or extra spins. These can help you secure a bigger win but more importantly they break the monotony of the main reel and add the fun element to it. These can really make or break a slot depending on how well it’s done.
- Return to Player (RTP) : The RTP of a slot game is determined by how much money a player gets in return over time but this is a rough estimate and shouldn’t be taken at face value. Most RTPs sit around 95-97%. They never reach 100% otherwise no money will go to the casino and the game will be too boring because you’d just win all the time.
- Random Number Generator (RNG): This is how online slot games work. They use an algorithm that produces a different (i.e.: random) combination of symbols every time you make a spin. This makes each and every slot fair and fun to play.
- Extra Spins: Many online slot games come with an “extra spins” round that allow players to play without having to spend a penny. These can be unlocked through a special combination of symbols or accessed in a bonus round.
- Multipliers: Finally, you have multipliers – effective tools which can be gained through gameplay that allow players to (you guessed it!) multiply their current winnings. Some multipliers can get crazy, some going up to 50x your original wager! It just makes the experience much more rewarding.
Online Slot Games – Common Myths Debunked
Naturally, because it’s gambling and gambling is steeped in superstition, online slot games have a lot of myths surrounding them. Here are a couple of the most common and why they are most certainly not true.
- They’re Rigged: The online slot game can’t be rigged because of the RNG. Sure, the odds work somewhat in the casino’s favour (how else will they make money?) but that doesn’t mean they’re rigged. Far from it! This myth came from the same one that plagues ordinary, real-life slots even to this day, and it’s absolute rubbish.
- You Can Beat Them: Many players mistakenly believe that there’s a set formula to online slot games and that if they play a certain way they will be guaranteed a win every time. Again, because of the RNG, this is completely false. There is no secret way you can beat an online slot game. You’ve just got to play it like everyone else.
- No Win Yet, Must Be Close: The RNG renders this train of thought redundant. Luck is an entirely random thing, and you won’t trick an online slot game into coughing up by playing it a certain number of times. Sorry, but it’s the truth.
- They’re for Dumb People: Like we have said before, playing a slot takes a lot more skill than you might think. Adjusting the paylines and knowing what to bet at the right time takes a certainly knowledge, skill and intuition to get right. If anything, you require less brains to play roulette.
- “Cold” Slots Will Pay Up: Similar to “No Win Yet…”, many players think that because they haven’t played one particular slot in a while that means this time they’re going to pay up. We hopefully shouldn’t have to tell you that this is not the case and is, again, an old-fashioned superstition.
