Slots are infamous for being the most unpredictable game in a casino – online or offline. While this might be true to some extent, we’ll show you a couple of ways to boost your long-term chances of winning when playing slot games at .
Amazing Free Slot Games You Can Download to Your PhoneFirst things first – there’s no foolproof strategy that can guarantee profits from playing online slots. Any system that promises different should be taken with a grain of salt. There are, however, several useful pieces of information that can help you maximise your profitability from spins on the reels. Below we’ve covered everything from theoretical concepts to handy tips and tricks that should put you on the path to becoming a better-equipped slots player. Let’s get started!
How to Improve Your Chances of Winning on Online Slots
Before we start giving out tips and advice on how to become a successful slot player, it’s important to understand what the role of skills is in this type of game. Most players see a casino game as something where skill plays no part. Poker is a great example of a game that’s mostly skill but also contains an element of chance.
Slots, on the other hand, contain absolutely no element of skill whatsoever. Every spin is determined by luck alone. Regardless of whether you’re using our tips or not, you’re results will always boil down to how lucky you get. This means that any strategies or systems you employ are trying to increase your level of luck rather than improve your skill in the traditional sense.
With this in mind, it makes more sense to talk about reducing losers and improving your long-term ‘luck’ rather than ways to win. So, without further ado, here are our top tips for getting more from your online slot-playing experience!
1. Play Slots with a High RTP
The first thing you need to know if you want to increase the chances of winning while playing online slots is the RTP of the games. The return to player ratio shows you the percentage of each wager that goes back to the players in the form of winnings. Although it has a theoretical nature, the RTP can give you a good idea of how generous a slot machine is. In general, the higher the RTP, the better the chances of winning.
You can normally find the RTP of an online slot in the game info or rules. It’s usually expressed as a number followed by the letter “R” inside round brackets. For example (“96R”) means that the game delivers approximately 96% in winnings for every $100 wagered. Although this is just a rough guide, as wins and losses don’t work in equal measures, this is a good rule of thumb.
The RTP of most slots falls between 90% and 97%. This doesn’t mean that for every $100 bet, you’ll get $90 to $97 back. Over a large sample size, the amount will probably be very close. However, the variation in small samples can be massive. You could blast through $100 and get nothing back or win big on a bonus and be up $200.
When choosing which slots to play online, try to pick games with an RTP that is closer to 97% than 90%. Even a few points difference can have a significant impact on your long-term fortunes.
What is a Good Return to Player Percentage (RTP)?
As mentioned above, the RTP represents the portion of total wagers that will be returned to the players in the form of winnings. Therefore, if you wager $100, and the game’s RTP is 95%, you can expect to win around $95.
Slot Machine Games You Should Never Play at a CasinoEven though this seems counterintuitive, considering the “law” of casino gaming, this is how it works. Games with a high RTP are beneficial for players in the long run because they align their return rates with the amount that’s wagered.
So, what is a good return to player percentage? Well, any number North of 95R is considered above average. Usually, slots that fall into this category pay 94% to 95% in winnings for every $100 wagered. Some operators even offer games that have an RTP of over 97%.
On the lower end of the scale, an RTP of 80%-85% is not unusual for slots labeled as high volatility. As you may be able to guess, the higher the volatility of the game, the lower its RTP will be. To learn more about volatility and RTP, check out our blog post focusing entirely on these two key metrics.
2. Understand Variance – The Key to Controlling Bankroll and Bet Size
Every game comes with what’s known as volatile or has variance. This is the amount by which the results of thousands of spins deviate from the expected value.
To demonstrate how this works in practice, let’s imagine that you’re throwing a fair coin in the air 1,000 times and betting $1 on tails each time. If we give a RTP rating to this experiment, it would be 50% x $1 = $0.50. Over 1,000 spins, you would expect to lose about $50.
However, it is unlikely that you will lose exactly $50. You may not win anything and lose all 1,000 of your coins, reflecting a variance rate of 100%. Or you may double your money and win $2,000, showing a variance rate of 100+%. Either way, the law of large numbers states that as the number of spins increases, the actual result will draw closer to the expected value of -$50.
Slot machines work in much the same way except, unlike coin tosses, not all games are 50/50. The simpler ones may be 40% / 60% with a jackpot that comes in every once and a while, skewing the variance rate even further.
Understanding the variance of a slot game is essential if you want to control your bankroll. Simple games with an lowermost shots in the dark, while multi-million jackpot slots have incredibly high ones. If you want to try for the big one, you’ll need to survive the times when the law of probabilities seems like a foreign language.
There are three main factors that affect variance in online slots:
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The Number of Reels – Modern video slots usually come with five or six reels. Classic slots often have three. Therefore, you’d assume that three-reelers offer fewer shots at winning. However, to keep these games entertaining, developers add extra rows to the screen. A typical set up is a three-reeler with three rows and up to ten symbols per reel. Therefore in a maximum three-coin game, you could hit a combo on any spin. Sure, you may only have hit spaces in place of the symbols for a win, but this is where…
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The Number of Coins Bet Max
Many three-reel slots pay from left to right. Although scatters may exclude themselves from this requirement. Because of this mechanism, you need all positions to be filled with the correct symbols in order to win the biggest prize. Five-reel games spread the symbols across a larger canvas, so you have more chances to hit a combination, regardless of how many coins you’re betting. Indeed, in most cases, you can activate fewer lines, and you won’t need to bet max coins to do so. This is not an advantage either, as you’ll see later on in our slot playing tips.
- The Number of Lines or Symbols in a Win
Modern video slots can have hundreds or even thousands of pay lines. To hit the biggest jackpots, you may need to activate all of them. Each line you add increases the number of symbols in play. Furthermore, slots will have different requirements for the number of matching symbols required to make a winning combination. For example, you may need three, four, or five matching symbols to win. Progressive slots often require five matches to trigger. This means you’re nine times more likely to hit a winning combination on a three-symbol than a five-symbol game. Of course, the reverse is also true. You’re nine times less likely to hit someone else’s winning combo meaning you’ll survive longer in the hunt for the progressive jackpot.
Another factor that affects variance is volatility or, as it’s otherwise known, variance. Volatility refers to the stake multiplier of the average winning combination. If a slot pays out regularly but only adds 2x or 3x your bet to your balance, then your variance will be higher than a game that doesn’t stop hitting five-figure multipliers.
3. Find the Sweet Spot between Bet Size and Spin Value
Controlling your bet size can be tricky, especially when you don’t quite understand the relationship between spin value and bet size. When playing online slots, there are two values that you need to distinguish between; the value of a single spin and the amount you’re betting on each line or overall bet size.
Let’s say you’re playing a slot that cost $0.25 a spin with a single pay line and $0.25 minimum bet. In this scenario, your bet size is the same as the value of a single spin. With a little bit of luck, you might get a couple of wins worth $1 or $2. Assuming you bet max coins, you’ll receive the maximum win of four Coins. Each Coin is worth $1, so you’ll cash out $4 at the end of your session.
Now let’s look at a more advanced game. This slot costs $5.20 per spin because it has 25 pay lines, and you must bet 20 cents on each one. The minimum coin size is $0.10, and you must bet five of them. Once again you catch a few wins worth $1 or $2. Max coins in is five, meaning you win 20 Coins worth $20. It may seem like you missed out on this game, but you’ll cash out with $200 in your pocket. That’s the power of bet size versus the value of a single spin.
Controlling your bet sizes is essential if you want to stretch your bankroll as far as possible. We can use the same two examples to highlight this point. Imagine you’ve got a bankroll of $200 and you want to make it last as long as possible. At $0.25 spins, you’ll be able to make 800 spins. If we subtract wins, you should get at least 200 losing spins out of your roll.
If you move up to $5.20 spins, you’ll only get 40 spins for your $200. Once again, factoring in losses, you may only get 100 to 125 spins. However, each of those spins will be worth two or three times as much as the ones on the cheaper slot machine. This is controlling your bet size and understanding the value of a single spin.
Caesars Casino Offers for January 2023In theory, you should lose less on the more expensive slot. However, you could quickly run out of spins and the opportunity to win big. This is why finding the right balance between bet size and spin value is crucial to your long-term success playing online slots.
4. Ensure You Are Playing at the Best Online Casinos
One of the best tips for online slots we can give you is ensuring that you play your favorite games at the right casinos. There are hundreds of internet gaming sites, but not all of them offer a high enough RTP for slots players. Our experts have spent years developing an intricate ranking system that allows us to separate the best sites from the rest.
The rank better than others due to the combination of various factors, including slot bonuses, RTP, payout rates, software providers, platform security, banking options, and more. Each operator is unique, so we weigh up different aspects differently. However, certain fundamentals remain constant.
All of the recommend:
We conduct regular reviews to ensure all our recommended casinos continue to meet our exacting standards. This means you can pick any of the operators we’ve listed and feel confident that you’ve chosen one of the best sites on the internet.
5. Avoid Discounting Smaller Wins
It’s human nature to remember the big wins and forget the smaller victories. However, it’s the cumulative effect of all your wins that determines your long-term profitability.
Discounting smaller wins is particularly prevalent among players who are trying to hit a progressive jackpot. They plow money into a game day after day, hoping to witness a life-changing win. Along the way, they endure numerous dismal sessions, remembering only the occasions they came close. Then one day, they’ll log on, hit the max coin button, and bet £50 on a single spin. If that spin hits the jackpot, they’ll remember it forever. They’ll fail to consider the dozens, perhaps hundreds, of similar sized bets other players made before they.
By the law of large numbers, the more spins you perform, the greater the likelihood of hitting the jackpot. However, the longer you play, the more money you will lose attempting to reach that goal. This is where setting a bankroll comes in.
6. Set a Bankroll and Stick to It
Bankroll management is a fundamental concept in sports betting, poker, and horse racing. Unfortunately, many slots players discount its importance. Regarding online slots, bankroll management is about survival rather than profit.
A bankroll is simply the amount of money you can afford to lose on slots in a session, week, month, or year. It will vary depending on your personal circumstances but, as a general rule, you should never risk more than 5% of your bankroll on any single spin.
For example, if you’ve got a $200 bankroll, the maximum spend on each spin should be $10 at . Spending five spins, you can have two hours of solid play time, and the lower number of spins at $50 an hour ensures your bankroll lasts much longer.
Not only does this help you survive the swings of variance, but it also enables you to take advantage of expectation theory and hit that elusive jackpot.
Expected Value (EV)
Expected value (EV) is a mathematical concept used in decision theory, probability theory, and statistics. It tells you the predicted outcome based on a series of decisions and known probabilities. This figure can be positive, negative, or neutral.
In the context of , EV refers to the theoretical value of placing a particular bet. More specifically, it highlights the amount you will win or lose on average. Positive EV bets will make you money in the long term, while negative EV bets will cost you in the end. Neutral EV bets will break even over time.
Just because you win or lose on a particular bet doesn’t mean it was the right decision or the wrong decision. Outcomes and outcomes uncertainty are two different things. A casino player may flip a coin and it may come up heads eight times in a row. But the tenth flip is still more likely to come up tails (neutral EV) than heads (positive EV).
One of the best ways to improve your expected value when playing online slots is rebates. Some casinos offer rebates or cashback on losses as an alternative to traditional first deposit bonuses. These incentives will boost your neutral EV and turn it into a positive EV, thus making the game profitable in the long run.
Another way to enhance your EV is by taking advantage of free spins bonuses. These offers enable you to play online slots without risking your bankroll. If your win rate is higher than the RTP of the games, these promotions will improve your bottom line.
Finally, as we mentioned earlier, targeting online slots with a high RTP will have a positive impact on your EV. Conversely, playing games with low RTPs will drag your figures down toward the gutter.
Best Online Casinos in Canada (2023 Best Sites)Exploiting Comps to Boost Your SLots Profitability
Almost all of the offer some form of complimentary rewards to loyal depositors. These perks can include anything from exclusive promotions and special events to enhanced prizes in loyalty schemes and physical gifts delivered to your doorstep.
The best way to exploit comps is to find a casino that suits your individual needs and earn points with them. We recommend taking full advantage of welcome bonuses before focusing on earning reward points on all your subsequent deposits.
Different operators weigh up contributing factors differently when calculating comp points. It makes more sense to deposit $500 every week at a site that gives you $500 weekly bonus than it does to deposit $2,000 once a month somewhere else.
Even if you cannot access a welcome bonus multiple times, you will be stretching your bankroll further, and boosting your expected value, which can only be a good thing according to the .
8. Do Not Chase Losses
Chasing losses is one of the biggest mistakes in gambling. Many people confuse this strategy with bankroll management because, on the surface, it appears to be the same. However, the differences lie in the details.
Playing slots with 5% of your bankroll per spin gives you a much greater chance of winning a progressive jackpot than betting 50% in an attempt to recoup recent losses. Let’s look at both methods in more detail to explain why.
A 5% bankroll management approach means you’ve got nine 5.71% shots at winning the jackpot before you go bust. If your bankroll is $200, and you’re betting $10 per spin, you can make 800 sensible attempts at hitting the jackpot before you run out of funds.
Betting 50% of your bankroll on a single spin only gives you two opportunities to win the jackpot before you go broke. I think you’ll agree that two shots are fewer than nine. It gets worse because, in the first scenario, you’ve got a 91% chance of making all nine shots. In the second scenario, you’ve only got a 67% chance of making both.
Johnny Zs Sportsbook Review : ClosedThis is the danger of chasing losses. It feels like you’re increasing your activity rate, but you’re actually decreasing it while raising your breakeven point at the same time.
9. Don’t Believe the Myth About Loose Slots on Progressive Hits
Contrary to popular belief, slots do not loosen up when they hit a progressive jackpot. There is a common myth that says when one slot network hits its progressive limit, the excess money is redistributed throughout the related games. Therefore, in the days and weeks following a jackpot win, the RTP ratios of related non-progressive slots will exceed 100%.
This notion stems from the way progressives work. Rather than being held centrally by the casino, these jackpots are distributed across a network of related games. Each spin on any of those machines contributes a tiny amount to the pot.
When someone hits the jackpot, it means they’ve managed to land the required combinations on the designated symbols on the pay line with max coins bet. The amount the player wins will depend on the size of the progressive pot at the time. Let’s say the base prize is $1,000, and the progressive has reached $100,000. If another player lands the same combination, they could win up to $101,000.
Some operators reset the progressive to a base amount immediately. Others leave it running to build up to an even bigger payout. Whatever their method, none of the action takes place behind closed doors. You can check the recent win history of any slot network at the casino cashier.
Assuming the game updates in real time, you can see if the jackpot has been hit recently. You may also be able to see when it was last hit and for how much. Based on this information, you could the next game in the network is tighter than Tony Stark’s abs. RandomRIFT’s slot review section includes this information for all the games in its Avengers-themed series.
However, these progressives are seeded at mega levels on a daily basis. For every spin on every related game, a chunk of cash gets added to the network. There is no reserve pot that gets redistributed to loose games. This theory is pure nonsense peddled by people with too much time on their hands.
10. Make Use of Demo Modes to Test New Slot Games
Most of our expert slot reviews come with demo modes. This allows you to test games without spending any of your bankroll. It’s one of the best ways to find new titles and determine whether they’re suitable for you.
From an expectations perspective, demo modes are neutral since you weren’t spending any money in the first place. However, from a practical point of view, playing for free is definitely a good thing.
Unlike sports betting and horse racing, there are no slot tipsters that can alert you to lucrative slots. Everyone starts at zero when they sit down at the virtual machines. The only way to determine the quality of a game is to play it for a while. And the only way to do that without spending money is to use a demo mode.
Of course, demos will only give you an indication of how a game performs. One session could see a dozen Bells and Jacks cross the pay line but draw blank on the Coins. Another could produce nine Coins but no bells or jacks. Only prolonged periods of play will provide meaningful data regarding expectation.
Applying Slots Tips to Win Real Money
Based on the tips and tricks discussed above, here’s a short step-by-step guide to applying them to your own sessions.
- ¡Find the best online casinos with a proven track record for offering high RTP slots and attractive promotions.
- ¡Create an account and claim any available welcome bonuses to boost your bankroll and expectation.
- ¡Use demo modes to test new games and determine their win frequency and volatility.
- ¡Set a bankroll and stick to it. Never chase losses and always consider the implications of increasing bet sizes.
- ¡Look out for promotions that boost your expected value, such as rebates and free spins.
- ¡Make sure the volatility and variance of the games suit your bankroll and the amount of time you can spend playing.
Can you give me online slots tips to win real money?
Yes, our experts have developed 10 top online slot tips that will help you get more enjoyment out of your spins. From controlling your bankroll to controlling your variance, these hottest slot tips will help you stay alive long enough to hit that progressive jackpot.
What are the best tips for playing online slots?
Firstly, find reputable casinos and slots. Then, understand how variance and bet size work. Next, don't discard smaller wins, manage your bankroll, and exploit complementary services. Finally, don't chase losses, and don't believe the myth about loose slots following big jackpots.
How do you play online slots and win?
Follow our top 10 tips for slots: find the best casinos, understand expectations, control your bankroll, exploit complimentary services, don't chase losses, and don't believe the myth about loose slots following big jackpots. Finally, test games with demo modes and consider Expectated Value (EV).
Is there a trick to slots?
No, there isn’t a trick to slots. They are random entertainment devices. However, there are online slot tips that could help you get more enjoyment out of your spins, from control variance and bankroll management to exploiting comps and expectation.
What is the secret to slot machines?
There is no secret to slots. You can improve your chances of winning by understanding how they work. Our ten tips cover bankroll management, expectation, complements, variance, and more. You can read them to prepare yourself for a slots adventure.
Summary of the Top 10 Slot Tips for Players
That brings our online slot tips to an end. We hope you’ve found them helpful and interesting. Remember, there is no such thing as the best way to win at online slots because there is no such thing as a slot machine strategy.
The games are random entertainment devices. No matter how much you bet, how you bet, or when you bet, every spin is independent of the last. It is up to you whether you accept this reality or waste vast sums of time searching for a system that doesn’t exist.
If you understand expectations, volume, and bankroll management, you will get more enjoyment out of your slots experience. The ten tips for online slots players highlighted in this piece will certainly help you do that. Now, we’ll leave you with a quick summary of each point.
- Play at the with a high RTP.
- There is no such thing as the best online slot tip to win real money, but these ten are highly regarded.
- Use to test games and manage your expectations.
- Set a bankroll and stick to it, never forgetting bet size and spin value.
- Exploit such as rebates and free spins.
- Do not discard smaller wins, especially when hunting progressive jackpots.
- Control your : Survive the swings of variance and wait for lady luck to come calling.
- Do not chase losses. You will survive longer and have a greater chance of winning the big one with small bets.
- Do not believe the myth about loose slots following jackpot winners.
- Use to find volatility and variance information, then apply your knowledge to expectations.
Now you have our ten tips for playing slots, why not put them into practice? Just make sure you start at one of our leading online casinos.
