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How to Play Online Slots: The Basics, Tips, and Strategies

The Ultimate Guide to Playing Online Slots: Strategies, Tips, and Everything You Need to Know

Online slots are wholly randomized gambling games that spin reels of symbols with the aim of lining up matching symbols to trigger wins. The online slots space now is colossal, spanning thousands of games that explore every kind of theme, reel layout, payline count, and feature mechanic imaginable.

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Since their days as hefty standing machines in arcades, bars, and casinos, slots have been incredibly popular because of their big win potential. While wholly randomized, so players can’t beat online slots like they would blackjack, the biggest payouts are often hundreds or thousands of times bigger than the bet of any spin.

Also helping the popularity of online slots, in particular, is the variety on show. Being hosted by digital platforms has allowed slot developers to get incredibly creative. This can be in the way they animate the games, how features can be triggered, and even how generate a jackpot – such as with the hit progressive jackpot range.

PLAY SLOTS

Getting Started: Before You Spin

Setting Up an Account

To register to play online slots, simply press the signup button to the top right of the page – the one with a little person and a plus sign on it. Fill in your email and make your password. Next, add your name, date of birth, mobile number, and address. You should also set a Session Limit at this stage. Finally, you can pick your bonus.

An essential part of the account-making process is verifying your identity. This way, online casinos can ensure that players who shouldn’t be using the platform aren’t given access.

To make a deposit, you’ll be able to use your Mastercard or Visa bank cards, MuchBetter, Apple Pay, Interac, or Neosurf.

Understanding Bonus Offers

Welcome Bonuses

For anyone who wants to play online slots, it’s always good to review the welcome bonuses that offer free spins. While the more standardized deposit match welcome offers do give you funds for spinning slots, most online casinos recognize how popular slots are. So, they bundle in free spins that either have a decent value to them or are tied to the casino’s most popular games.

Free Spins

Free spins in casino bonuses tend to be fixed to certain games. As such, picking your perfect bonus may be swayed by the slots games that the free spins are tied to. Even with free spins that offer a greater value per spin than most, such as $1 rather than the usual $0.10, the spins will likely be tied to a top game like Gates of Olympus.

Wagering Requirements

Wagering requirements are the most important part of any bonus to understand. This part of the terms and conditions dictates how many times any wins made from bonus cash has to be bet again to convert it into real money.

For the most part, the industry standard for wagering requirements on free spins and matched deposit bonuses is around 40x. It’s because of the necessary wagering requirements that bonuses, particularly welcome bonuses, should be treated as additional time to try out the real casino experience rather than free money.

Understanding Online Slots

What are Slot Machines?

Slot machines are gambling games in which the user puts money into the machine and then pulls the lever or hits the “Spin” button to run the reels. The reels feature hundreds, even thousands, of symbols, but overall, there’ll be around six to 12 unique symbols. When the reels stop running and land, if any multiples of the same symbol align along one or more of the paylines that go from left to right, the player will win a payout.

History of Slot Machines

The first rendition of the modern slot machine dates back to 1899 with the Liberty Bell. Its symbols were bells, horseshoes, and the four playing card symbols that ran on three reels. This game proved to be incredibly popular, spreading across the United States and, eventually, to casinos around the world.

Evolution to Online Platforms

As the internet began picking up, some savvy developers began working on a way to bring casino games to the online community. The first to achieve this was Microgaming.

The company based on the Isle of Man that would later be responsible for the Tomb Raider, Immortal Romance, and Break Away online slots launched the first online casino software in 1994. From there, without any limitations of physical components or floor space requirements, the online slot scene expanded rapidly.

How Online Slots Work

Random number generators are the foundations of the online slot gaming experience. Every spin triggers the RNG, which runs its randomization function and then produces the results on the digital reels. It’s this that keeps every spin wholly random and fair for every player.

To get a win in an online slot game, you’ll need to watch the symbols on the reels and where those symbols land along the paylines. Every reel has a set count of every symbol available in the game. When the reels stop spinning, the symbols will line up on the stagnant slot screen.

You’ll then win if a combination of the same symbol is present along one of the paylines. These paylines will usually run from left to right, needing symbol combinations to start on the leftmost reel and carry onto successive reels of at least three neighbouring reels.

Playing Online Slots: Step-by-Step

How to Choose a Slot Game

Online slots are built to be entertaining, and while the spinning and sometimes the winning is the core entertainment mechanic, the theme and graphical fidelity also play into the overall enjoyment. Most of the top slot games have exceptionally good graphics, so it’s about picking a theme or art style that you enjoy.

In terms of gameplay, the two most important elements are the volatility and RTP ratings. Starting with the latter, the Return to Player indicates how much of the total amount paid into a game will be paid out in prizes over time. This is shown as a percentage. Generally, you’ll want a minimum RTP of around 92 percent, but the higher the RTP, the better.

Volatility determines, on average, how often a slot will pay out and how large those payouts will be. Low volatility online slots, on average, pay out more often than high volatility online slots but in what are generally smaller sums than their high volatility counterparts. This can have an impact on your bankroll strategy.

Placing Your Bet

On every slot game, you’ll see that your betting options are limited to a minimum and maximum bet. You can select any in the range. In most cases, changing your bet size to the minimum, for example, won’t impact your chances of securing a win.

Coin values and bet levels are a somewhat outdated system of betting. They let you select the size of the coin that you want to place on each payline and then up the bet level to multiply that coin value. Generally speaking, with this kind of betting method, the key is to just watch the Total Bet figure when picking your values and levels.

Hitting Spin or Autoplay

It’s always advised that, particularly for new players and players on a smaller bankroll, you only do manual spins. Manual spins mean that you can play at your own pace, change your bet as you see fit, and more swiftly stop the game if you want to move on. That said, the autoplay function does streamline the gaming to try to get you to features faster.

Strategies for Success

Managing Your Bankroll

The key to any session on casino games is setting your budget. This is also known as setting your bankroll. You’ll want to set a cap on how much you want to bet, and that cap can’t be any sum that you’d miss were you to lose it all. Once you’ve bet your chosen budget or bankroll, step away with whatever winnings you have and end the session.

The Stop-Loss strategy of bankroll management is about setting a maximum amount that you’re willing to lose and cutting out when you hit that limit. You stop when you hit that final loss. The Win-Limit strategy is far riskier. It sets your goal at a set profit, and when it’s hit, you cash out.

Understanding Volatility and RTP

Low vs. High Volatility Slots

Slots come under five categories, which are: low, low-medium, medium, medium-high, and high. An example of a low volatility slot would be Aztec Gems Megaways. The hit slot game Big Bass Bonanza is a medium-high game. Then, Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead is the most famous of the high volatility slots.

Volatility is an indicator of what you can generally expect from an online slot’s gameplay, which can also be the basis of a strategy. In low volatility slots, on average, the wins are more frequent but in smaller amounts. The opposite is true of high volatility slots.

So, the strategy would be to bet higher on low volatility slots to make the most of the more frequent, but smaller-sized, win. On high volatility slots, it’d be about staying in the game for longer, waiting for the rarer payouts to arrive as they’ll usually be bigger.

How RTP Impacts Your Odds

The RTP value of an online slot game does have an impact on your odds of a payout overall. Luckily, RTPs are now pretty standardized, but if you want to find the extra edge, go for very high RTP slots like Sugar Rush 1000.

Maximizing Bonus Opportunities

Getting into the free spins mode and the bonus rounds of slot games tends to be the goal. These will have different mechanics that tend to have higher winning opportunities. Plus, once they’re triggered, they tend to be played to their fruition without you needing to place another bet. So, bonuses present a big opportunity to win in slots, which is perfectly demonstrated by the free spins fishing bonus in Fishin’ Frenzy and the rest of its slots series.

Advanced Tips for Enthusiasts

Timing Your Play

In terms of trying to get a winning edge, there isn’t a best time to play online slot games. For you as a player, the best time to play slots is when you’re relaxed, have some time for entertainment, and want to see if you’ll win on the spin with your given bankroll.

Evaluating Slot Performance

Payout percentages are shown as a game’s RTP. You can use these to gravitate towards online slots that, on average and over time, pay out more than others. To evaluate a slot, you can keep track of your own RTP experience by noting how much you’ve bet in total against how much you’ve returned in a session.

Keeping a focus on how well a slot game is paying out and how often can help you evaluate an online slot. After each spin, note if you’ve lost or how much the spin won, and run that for whatever your chosen sample size is. Next, you can analyze the figures, see what percentage of spins yield a win, and see if you’re up over the sample.

Myths and Misconceptions

Two of the most common slot myths that simply don’t hold up are that you can increase your chance of winning by betting more and that slots payout more often at certain times of day. Both can be debunked by the fact that online slots are governed by a regulator-certified RNG that randomizes every result regardless of bet or time.

A slot is considered to be “cold” if it hasn’t paid out much in a while, which some say means it should be avoided. “Hot” slot machines, on the other hand, pay out loads at once so everyone should play. Neither will ever be the case as slot payouts don’t cycle; every slot result is wholly randomized.

FAQs

What is the Best Slot Game for Beginners?

The best slot game for beginners would be a low volatility one so that the payouts are more regular. So, Wheel of Wishes and Agent Jane Blonde Returns would be in the hat as good online slots for beginners.

How do you play slots for the first time?

Slot games are really easy to get started with and quite intuitive. All you need to do is find the slot you want to play, place a wager, and hit the spin button. We recommend checking the pay table of any slot you play, especially for the first time. This will help you better understand how the slot works and what you’re looking for on the reels!

How do you play slot games?

Our LeoVegas slots virtual casino floor is full of slot games. Different themes, pay structures, storylines - there’s simply no end to the selection! Browse our lobby and simply click on the game box you wish to join. This shall load and launch the game and in just a few seconds, you’ll be spinning the reels. Each game interface differs slightly, but they are always intuitive. Usually, the largest button is the Spin button but always check how much you’re about to wager per spin before getting started with a click. We recommend taking a slot for a spin for free in demo first, so you can try it out without any risk.

How do you win on slot machines?

Wins on slot machines are secured by landing winning combinations across paylines or ways to win. The outcome of these spins is determined by a random number generator to ensure fairness.

Are slots easy to win?

That’s debatable as any click of the Spin button can garner a win, but there is certainly no guarantee you’ll win - ever! Slot games are games of pure chance. The outcome of each spin is totally random and as such, there is no way to be ‘good’ or ‘bad’ at playing slots.

Is it better to play one slot machine or move around?

There are so many brilliant online slot games available that it would be foolish to not try different ones out. Of course, if you have a favourite slot game you really love, or a style or genre that you feel strongly about, stick with it. But, new games are added weekly so it’s always fun to keep an eye on our most popular top games and new slots additions to see what’s shaking in slots.

How do you know when a slot machine is ready to pay out?

You don’t! There is no way of knowing when a slot machine is ready to pay out despite the many slot myths out there! Slots use random number generators (RNG), meaning that each spin is totally random. There’s simply no secret sauce here!