No matter what kind of lifestyle you lead, at one point or another — we could all use some thrill. That’s why gambling is one of the oldest pastimes in the world. Since the dawn of mankind, people have enjoyed playing for real money. It’s no wonder, seeing as the possibilities of winning big and losing large bring a kind of excitement that few other experiences can match. So while many people abhor gambling, it’s a hobby that definitely has its upsides if handled responsibly.
But when you enter real-money casinos these days, you’ll find that playing there is anything but a simple experience. Once you set foot on the casino floor, you’ll most likely be greeted by a dazzling array of flashing lights and piercing sounds. For people who haven’t spent a lot of time gambling, all of that can certainly feel overwhelming; primarily, because you don’t know where to start playing. There is an excellent variety of casino games available these days, and choosing one is a tough choice for inexperienced gamblers.
Keeping that in mind, there is no better choice than slots. If you want a casino game that brings all the excitement of a real gambling experience but with streamlined gameplay, slots are definitely your best bet, in every sense of the word. But what real money slots should you play? Don’t worry; that’s just what we’re here to tell you all about!
How Do Slots Actually Work?
Table of Contents
As you’ll see, there are a couple of factors to take into account while choosing which slots to play. But before we get into all of that, there’s one crucial question to answer first: how do slots actually function, in practice? As we’ve mentioned before, in terms of gameplay, this is an incredibly simple casino game. If you’re playing in a land-based casino, you just pull a lever or press a button and await the combination as the reels spin. And if you’ve hit a winning one, you’ll earn a prize. But even with games as straightforward as these, knowing their intricacies is always useful.
Even with the most basic game on the planet, you’d be smart to learn the rules before you started playing. If you apply that principle to slot games, you’ll want to find out how they work in a technical sense. Or, in other words, what determines the outcome of any given spin of the reels. So how does this game decide whether you’ve won or lost?
The Magic of the Random Number Generator
Basically, all casino slots contain a part that you can’t see, but it’s still the most important component of the game. And that’s a computer chip dubbed the Random Number Generator, or RNG, in short. The RNG has one sole task — to continuously generate sequences of random numbers the entire time a slot is active. As you might have guessed, when you press the button on a slot, what you’re actually doing is selecting one of these generated sequences. And these numbers correspond to the symbols you actually see on the reels. So each sequence is actually a winning or a losing combination.
What does this mean for you in practice? Knowing this, you immediately realize that there’s absolutely no way of influencing the outcome of a slot game. The player input is minimal, and the result depends on pure chance. So there’s no ingenious strategy to implement during the game that will make sure you win. At the end of the day, all you’re doing is choosing one of the combinations at random. And there’s nothing that will change that. With that in mind, though, is there something you can do to increase your chance of winning? Actually, yes. But it’s not about what you do during the game itself. It’s about choosing what slot you’ll play in the first place and where.
Playing Slots at Online Casinos
Up until now, we’ve mostly talked about how slots function in land-based casinos. But this isn’t the only place where you can play them. And for that matter, it isn’t your best choice either. These days, most veteran slot players rather opt to play at online casinos. For a variety of reasons, if you want to gamble online, real money slots are your best option.
First of all, online gaming is a lot less physically limited. There’s no tedious drive to the casino or staying at an expensive hotel in Vegas. If you want to play online slots, there are only two things you need — the Internet and a device which is connected to it. So whether you want to play on a computer, or even a tablet or phone, online slot machines are available on all of them. Really, when you think about it, there is absolutely no reason not to play slots online. Let’s be honest — not even having to get up from your bed to play is definitely tantalizing.
And if you’re wondering if slots work the same when you’re playing a virtual machine, the answer is a resounding yes. The only difference is the fact that none of the slots’ mechanics are tangible. Here, the Random Number Generator is just another piece of computer code, instead of an actual chip. But for you, that makes absolutely no difference.
Plus, when you’re playing online casino games, slots aren’t your only option. While a particular brick-and-mortar casino may not have every game you’d like to play, at online casinos, this is rarely a problem. When you want to dabble in something other than slots, like video poker, you’ll be able to choose from almost every variant in existence.
Also, unlike land-based casinos, online establishments offer a variety of deposit bonuses, free spins bonuses, and other types of promotions to their players. So why wouldn’t you want to play with bonus money when you have the option to? Even though you’re playing games for real money, that doesn’t mean you want to spend more of it than you have to. And when you do want to gamble with actual money, online casinos offer many more payment options than land-based ones. Indeed, if you’re playing online, there are lots of ways of paying for real money slots: PayPal, Bitcoin, cashier’s checks, and basically everything else you can think of. But even once you decide to play slots online, you shouldn’t just play anywhere randomly.
Choosing a Good Online Casino
As we’ve already pointed out, when it comes to winning at slots, most of the important choices you’ll be making are the ones that happen before the game itself. And among these, your choice of a reputable online casino may be the most important one. To understand why, you need to realize how the world of online gambling works.
At the risk of oversimplifying things, know that online casinos are much easier to run than land-based establishments. That’s because online casinos have much less overhead, as the operational costs are much lower. Consequentially, there is an ever-increasing multitude of online casinos, and they’re not all reputable.
In fact, there are quite a lot of rogue casinos that have extremely questionable business practices. That’s why you want to do some basic online research before you deposit any actual money at any casino and start playing slots there. Take a look at what selection of slots they have and what their characteristics (more on that below) are. Also, make sure that players haven’t reported any outstanding issues with their payouts and customer support. Once you do all of that, you’ll be certain that a specific casino is worthy of your money. On the other hand, if you don’t want to play for money at all, online casinos offer free games of all kinds, including slots.
When you consider all of this, you’ll come to the conclusion most people arrive at. Simply put, the offerings of old-fashioned casinos pale in comparison to what online casinos can provide. And as you’ll learn soon enough, there are other technical aspects that make online casinos more favorable to players.
Understanding the Return to Player Value
When you try to learn about any sort of casino game, there is one crucial thing you need to familiarize yourself with. Specifically, what your chances of winning are. And there are two values that describe this for any casino game: the house edge, and the Return to Player percentage. Basically, these are mutually inverse values. The house edge represents the odds of the game from the perspective of the casino, while the RTP focuses on the player. So if the house edge is 3% in any given game, the RTP will be 97%. And in terms of finding where you can win real money slots online, this is an incredibly important value.
Basically, the Return to Player percentage represents how much of all the bets played at a slot will be theoretically returned to the players. Though, correctly understanding how this works is imperative. Namely, a high RTP does not mean you’ll have great chances in the very next round of slots you play. This percentage only illustrates the collective odds of all players over the lifespan of the slot. And knowing that you might ask — why is this value important if it doesn’t directly influence every single round? Well, when you’re picking the best slot game, you only want those with a high RTP because that means you at least have theoretically the highest chances.
All things considered, we advise only playing on slots where RTP is higher than 90%. And going back to why online casinos are a better choice; that’s true in terms of RTP as well. On average, online slots offer much better RTP values than physical slot machines. But stay tuned, because that’s not the only value you’ll have to think about.
Understanding the Concept of Volatility
There is one last characteristic that you’ll need to learn about before you can make a truly informed choice among online slots. And that’s the concept of a casino game’s volatility. Generally, a game can have either high or low volatility. This showcases how often the slot will pay out and how high the prizes will be. If you’re dealing with a low volatility game, that means the slot will pay out quite often. But as a consequence, you’ll be dealing with far lower prizes. Conversely, a high volatility slot pays out much higher values. However, it does so at a significantly lower frequency.
At the end of the day, the volatility of a slot doesn’t influence your objective chances of winning. However, casinogoers with different playstyles may find that choosing a slot with particular volatility suits them more. If you have more time to devote to your slot gaming and a bigger bankroll to spend — a more volatile slot will suit you better. The prizes won’t come as often, but when they do, you’ll win big. And seeing as you have the money needed to stay in the game long enough, that may be a goal worth chasing.
Are Progressive Jackpots Worth It?
Lastly, while you’re looking at the different kinds of slots you can play online, you may come across ones with progressive jackpots. These are special kinds of progressive slots that have a different way of doling out rewards.
These slots are called “progressive” because they don’t have fixed jackpots. Rather, their jackpots “progress” as more players make bets, growing each time. If many people play a particular slot, these jackpots can grow to substantially high levels. And when someone hits the jackpot, the prize resets and starts building up again. Furthermore, if multiple casinos have the same slot, sometimes their jackpots link up into a single huge one.
However, while these slots may offer a life-changing valuable prize, most of the time, they’re simply not worth it. You’ll find that they’re more expensive, and your actual chances of hitting the major jackpot are low. So if you’re playing for fun, we definitely recommend sticking to regular slots.
Final Thoughts
If we could put everything you need to learn from all of this into one succinct message, it would be: choose your slot game carefully. As we’ve mentioned before, you can’t really do anything to steer the outcome of a single spin on any slot game. But by choosing a respectable online casino in which to play and a quality slot, one thing is sure — your chances of winning prizes will be higher overall. So what are you waiting for? We’ve armed you with all of the important information on slots — your search for the best prizes may now begin!
