How to win at Online Slots
If you’ve ever set foot in a regular casino, you’ll probably see rows and rows of large shiny machines sounding out coin jingles as people sit rooted at the screen for hours, hitting the same button over and over. Online casinos would be no different.
What are you missing out on?? Can you make money with slots?
Easily the most popular game in casinos, slots is(or can be) a low stakes game with a low house edge that’s great fun for passing time or even going for a great short run for profit.
Plus, there’s always the jackpot. But is that the only way how to win at online slots?
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How to play Online Slots (all kinds)
(skip ahead if you already know how to play)
The premise is simple: different wheels in a row spin to show various symbols. If the symbols line up in the right combinations, you win.
There are different kinds of slots, but they all follow this same premise of spinning wheels lining up to show the right combinations.
The combinations are not always in a straight line. There are dozens of combinations from partial, diagonal, and multiple row combinations, but they do not need to complicate the best way to play slots.
What kinds of slots are there?
Online Classic Slots are video slots built based on your traditional 3-wheel slots that have smaller (usually 1) payline, and also simpler gameplay with just 1 symbol shown per wheel.
You just decide your bet amount, then hit spin to try and line them up.
Given the computerized nature of Video Slots, it’s easy to create more complex machines with more wheels, combos, and paylines.
Here’s an example of a 5 wheel slot machine with 4 symbols displayed per wheel. From left to right, you can see options to:
- how many paylines would like to bet (usually up to 40)
- The option for betting the maximum number of paylines
- The ‘spin’ button to let the wheel start spinning
- Automatic play option
- How much you would like to bet
What are paylines in slots?
As we saw with classic slots, there’s only one symbol displayed per each of the 3 wheels, which means the only way to form a combination is 3 across horizontally. So that’s the first kind of payline.
With a 5-wheel slot that displays 3-4 symbols per wheel, we’ve opened a lot more potential combination.
To start off easy, if there are 4 symbols per wheel, we now have 4 horizontal lines instead of 1, and even more combinations to win at slots.
And what if the lines didn’t have to be straight? Take a look at how the payline combinations usually work:
5 Wheel, 3 symbols per wheel, maximum 30 lines.
5 Wheel, 4 symbols per wheel, maximum 40 lines.
So, depending on your choice of slot machine, when you select the number of paylines you would like to bet on, those are the combinations that you would be betting on.
And don’t worry about missing out on paylines – online slots are automated, meaning any winning combinations will automatically be highlighted.
Themed Slots
Other kinds of online slots include Themed Slots, which are basically slots with a graphic theme that may appeal to certain players who are also fans of the theme.
3D Slots
Similarly to Themed Slots, 3d slots have a stronger graphic and visual appeal, some even being interactive.
Jackpots
One of the biggest attractions of slots if the fabled jackpot. How often do people hit it? What are the chances? Firstly, we’ll look at what kinds of jackpots there are.
Fixed Jackpots are as they sound – they offer a fixed jackpot amount for when you hit it.
Slot machines with Progressive Jackpots are much more enticing: these are slot machines linked together in a network where a small percentage is taken from player bets and then added as a contribution to a shared jackpot of usually very large amounts.
Bonus features
The last thing we’d need to cover in explaining how slots work is the kinds of what bonus features in slots you can win:
- Free Spins
Sometimes if you don’t win outright, you may still get some free spins. Free spins also sometimes come as part of a signup bonus - Pick-and-Click
Similar to the game with 3 cups where you need to pick the cup with the card or ball inside it.
You’ll probably get a few items to pick and see if they reveal any prizes. - Cascading Reels
Winning symbols are replaced by new symbols that increase your potential for more winning combinations.
Online Slots House Edge
What is the casino house edge for online slots? Calculating it is a little different. With games like blackjack or baccarat, there are established universal rules, with minimal variations across casinos, to ensure that the house edge is based on game rules.
When it comes to online slots, the house edge differs from slot machine to slot machine.
The house edge for slots is basically each slots’ Return-to-player (RTP).
Each slot’s RTP is expressed as a percentage (usually between 90-99%). What it means is basically what percentage of wager a player can expect to get back over time.
So for example, if the RTP is 95%, the casino is expected to 5 euros for every 100 euros being bet through this machine, whereas the player can expect to retain 95 euros.
If you’re looking to a low-risk, fun way to pass the time, slots might just be it for you.
Plus, there’s also the online slots jackpot chance too.
But if you’re looking to see how to make money from slots, read on.
Best Slots Strategy – how to win at slots
Firstly, we need to establish that online slots may not be the best casino game to win money. It’s real draw is hitting the jackpot (more later on) but otherwise if you’re looking at how to win money with slots, it’s about keeping your losses to a minimum, and capitalizing on short winning runs.
The best way to play slots to win money starts with picking the right online slots machine to play based off 2 factors: RTP and Volatility.
Since we’ve established what RTP is, the sensible thing is to pick the highest RTP online slot machine (read on to see how to find slot machine RTP).
But what is a good RTP for a slot machine? We’d recommend at least 95% RTP.
Volatility
Slots volatility basically means 1) how often a machine pays out versus 2) how much each pay out usually is. Here’s a simple table to help you visual volatility:
| Volatility | Pay out frequency | Pay out amount |
|---|---|---|
| High | Low | Larger |
| Low | High | Smaller |
So essentially, low volatility slots pay out smaller wins more often. But high volatility slots pay out large wins, less often.
Your choice of slot machine volatility should be based on the best way to play slots for you, or your style: Are you looking to quickly hit a good win and stop? Or are you looking to prolong your play time and enjoy yourself over a longer session?
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How to find slots RTP?
Before playing on a slot machine, look for its RTP. It’s usually quite easy to find by one of these ways:
- Look for a ‘help’, ‘info’, or ‘Pay table’ icon. Usually, it might just be an icon. Among the information given, the RTP would be amongst that information.
- Ask Customer Support. This will be of course different for each casino, but the recommended online casinos here will tend to have very strong support systems.
How to find slots Volatility?
The first, most direct way is the same as finding RTP: click into info and check. However, volatility might be a little more nuanced than that:
- Check for a paytable. This is a chart that details out what combinations pay out what amount. If you see a sudden jump in the payouts, you might be dealing with a high volatility online slot game.
- The other way is to play the demo. Most online slot games will offer a free demo for you to try. Play it for a bit, and you can start to gauge the volatility for yourself.
Best way to play slots
Now that you’ve found the best/right online slots for you, what’s the best way to play slots, assuming that you want to win at online slots instead of just pass the time
Let’s start by looking at some systems that you can apply based on your play style to win at slots.
Firstly, the ever-popular Martingale system can be used, but it comes with the same warnings as when used in the other games like roulette or blackjack.
Martingale Strategy in Slots
This strategy is built on the premise that you can’t lose forever, and so if you always just double down on your bet every time you lose, you will recover everything you’ve lost when you eventually win, and hence, you will theoretically never lose IF there are no bet caps and you have infinite bankroll.
To win at online slots, you would keep the amount of paylines somewhat consistent (we recommend around 20), while keeping the bet amount low in order to make sure you can sustain long losing streaks if you use this system.
As we’ve also warned before, betting caps and the lack of infinite bankroll means if you apply the Martingale system long enough, you will lose.
The REVERSE Martingale Betting Strategy/Paroli System
The kryptonite of the Martingale System is a losing streak long enough to either empty your bankroll or hit the betting cap.
So how about your winning streaks? The Reverse Martingale system recommends that you increase your bet whenever you win, so you can maximize your winning streaks.
It can be summed up in a single rule: Double after a win, then return to the starting amount after a loss.
Both systems are great for short runs, especially if you have a strong bankroll. If that’s the style of play for you, here’s some casinos with high online slots bet caps.
How about the famous online slots jackpot?
If we’re looking at how to hit the jackpot in slots, unfortunately (but expectedly) the slots with the highest jackpot chances also tend to have the lowest RTPs.
So, what are the odds of winning a progressive jackpot in online slots? At least 1 in 75 million.
Fixed Jackpots would have much better odds, but they are still extremely remote.
To win a fixed jackpot in slots, you would need 1 specific combination within the slot machine. So to properly calculate the odds of that, we’ll need to first count the number of potential combinations.
So, for a 5-wheel slots machine with 20 symbols per wheel, the total number of possible combinations would be 20^5 = 3,200,000. This means your odds of winning a fixed jackpot in online slots are about 1 in 3.2 million.
Other mistakes to avoid
On top of the above playing strategies, the usual disciplined approaches apply on how to win money with slots, as with any other game: control your bankroll, playing time, and don’t get desperate or chase losses.
See a more detailed breakdown and more on our previous guide.
Conclusion
Online slots are certainly not the most profitable game out of there, but the jackpot (however small of a chance) might just make it worth your while (it is also the most definite way to win at online slots). The chances are extremely remote, but someone does have to win at some point.
If nice, low stakes fun time with the lurking excitement of a massive win is how to play slots for you, go right ahead. We think this is the best way to play slots – for fun and with low expectations.
Otherwise, we recommend other games with more applicable strategies and a lower house edge if you’d prefer more control over your playing.
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Author
Says Quah
Boasting over 10 years of experience in the creative industry, Says’ true passion has always been seeking the balance between the thrill and danger of gambling…
Read more about Says here!