There are a few different strategies and tactics that you can use to help improve your chances of winning, ranging from the obvious to the more technical.
Below you will find our 22 tips on how to win at online slots and improve your chances of winning. We have also collaborated with John Grochowski to provide his 7 strategies to use when playing slot machines.
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How Online Slots work
Slots operate using random number generators. These ensure that everything is completely random.
The purpose of the Random Number Generator, RNG for short, is to ensure that online casino games are fair and that players can't predict what the next result will be. A Random Generator picks a large set of numbers and then assigns them to outcomes.
So the next time it is called upon, the computer will pull out another number from the available pool. If this sounds complicated, that's because it is! The RNG must be highly complex to ensure that each result comes up randomly. Essentially as soon as you press the spin button, the outcome is predetermined by the RNG.
It is necessary to have an independent third-party test the RNG to ensure its integrity. Examples of these companies are eCogra and AGCO.
Winning Slot Tips
Choosing how to win money Online Slots:
1 Choose your slot game very carefully. This may not seem like such an important point, but it is. Each slot has different settings and features, including volatility, hit frequency, return-to-player percentages, bonuses and more, which will affect the outcome. There's a lot that goes into choosing the right slots to play. So, we've got a more detailed section on that below.
2You must understand the rules of the slot before you begin to play. Every slot will have a paytable in place. In this section of the slot info, you will find all the betting limits and different symbols within the game. The paytable will tell you how much each of the symbols is worth. This will be listed for the minimum number landed (usually three) and how much the maximum number of matching symbols will pay. In this way, you can see which are the higher-paying symbols and which are the lower ones.
3 Reviews from players will be very honest as they outline their experiences. If a slot is repeatedly paying out, it could be a good idea to try it out. Similarly, slots that get bad reviews should be avoided.
4 Many casinos will offer free spins as part of a welcome offer or subsequent promotions. By taking up these offers, you can try out the games without risk to your own bankroll. This means you can try the slot game for free and collect any winnings you make at the end of it, provided you have met the wagering requirements.
Some of the key terms:
Payline — the payline is the line along which the matching symbols must land to score a win.
Wild - a bonus symbol that will replace other symbols to help make winning combinations. Usually, it cannot be used to replace other bonus symbols. Wilds can have other in-game features attached to them, e.g. expanding, walking, stacked and sticky.
Scatter — a bonus symbol that generally triggers any free spins or bonus games. Usually, you will need to land a minimum of three scatters on any reels to trigger the bonus features.
Hit frequency — this is the frequency that a slot game will payout. The lower the number, the better it is for you. For example, a slot with a hit frequency of 4 can be expected to pay out every fourth spin.
Multiplier — This bonus can be native to the slot game or triggered by an extra feature during gameplay. When landing a win with a multiplier the win will be multiplied by the specified number. Depending on the game, the multiplier can be anywhere from 2x to 5000x and more.
Practice Free Games:
5 A big way to improve your chances of winning online slots is to try free games. Many online slots can be played for free no download or registration required. These games can be found on your online casino or the developer's main page.
6 By trying out the free or demo games, you can run through a slot several times to better understand the game mechanics. For example, see the hit frequency, what kind of wins you can expect, and how the bonus features work. It will also allow you to check out the more boring game mechanics, such as bet size, autoplay and so on, before playing for real money.
7 Getting some practice in should not be underestimated. It can help you to see which games you enjoy and improve your chances of winning.
8 Many online casinos offer bonus cash. Making the most of these casino welcome bonuses is a great way to get ahead when trying different slot games. You can reap the reward of the slot features without risking your money. This is one of the many advantages of playing online slots rather than at a land-based casino.
9 See what in-game bonuses are available. Some, like Castle Builder slot, have many in-game bonuses that increase with each level you pass. With a save game option, this is perfect for building on where you left off. Unfortunately, most slots don't offer this, but rather have a ton of in-game bonuses that trigger randomly throughout the game.
Check Wagering Requirements!
You will need to check any wagering requirements that come along with the bonus and free spins. Most bonuses will have wagering requirements attached to protect the casino from fraudulent players. These can be anything from 2x to 70x.
If you are given free spins with a wagering requirement of 20x and win C$10, you must play through your winnings to a total of C$200. As a rule, the lower the requirements, the better your chance of meeting them.
By meeting these requirements, you can withdraw any winnings you have made from the free spins or bonus. However, it is also important to note that most casinos will set a cap on withdrawable winnings from free spins. Make sure that you check the T&Cs to avoid disappointment.
We suggest you take bonuses with a wagering requirement between 20x to 30x, as these are more manageable.
Control Your Budget:
10 A very important point for success is to create a slot budget. You should set aside the money you can afford to lose before you begin playing. Crucially, you then need to stick to this. If you lose it all, you should not start dipping into other cash you may have. Once your budget for the day is gone, it's gone.
11 While it may seem smart to stick to smaller bets, this is untrue. As long as your bankroll can manage it, it's a good idea to vary your bet sizes. In this way, you give yourself a chance to win big. A small bet size will never give you a big payout when you land a winning combo playing online slots. However, constant big bets will mean you'll finish your bankroll quickly if you keep losing.
12 Budget your time well. Playing slots can be addictive. Hours can pass when playing, especially if you do keep winning. To help you with your bankroll, it's a good idea to set a time limit for yourself for how long you will play.
13Knowing when to stop is an important part of slot success. If you find that you are losing more than winning, it's not the time to increase your bet. Instead, reduce your bet as this will help you to stretch your bankroll during the dry period. Hopefully, a win will not be far around the corner.
14 It is a common mistake for players to aim for some of those massive progressive jackpots. The biggest jackpot payouts will often only occur if you place the biggest bet. Continually playing with the max bet will destroy your bankroll within a few spins.
15 Think of your bankroll. Some recommended top slots have high minimum bet limits, which can mean you'll lose out in the long run. As such, opting for a slot with a flexible coin size and a lower minimum stake is always a good idea. On the flip side, some slots don't have a high maximum, so if you've got a bigger bankroll, you will want to search for a slot with a higher upper end.
Pick Online Slots with good Odds, Volatility and RTP:
16 When considering how to pick a winning slot machine, volatility should come into play. Volatility refers to the frequency and outcomes of either big or small wins. A game with high volatility will pay out some big wins, but these are few and far between. You can go through dry spells, which can eat up your budget.
17Low volatility slots will payout regularly, almost every spin in some cases. However, these wins will be very small, but it does mean your bankroll keeps ticking over.
18 One of the first points to consider when choosing online slots is the return to player rate or RTP. For instance, an RTP of 96% would theoretically give you a return of C$96 when you wager C$100. However, this is usually calculated throughout thousands of spins, so it might not be the case every time you spin. When considering RTP you should always choose a slot with a higher one — we always recommend over 96%.
19 Many strategies often tell players that they should avoid popular slot games. However, many are popular for a reason — they pay out. Following this, slots with better odds than others will pay out more. These are the slots that have a higher RTP. Of course, you can't tell when a slot will hit, but you will likely have more luck with one of these. Some of the slots with the best odds include: Starburst, Mermaid's Millions and Thunderstruck II
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Choose the Type of Slot You Like — Classic, Video or Progressive
20Classic slots don't tend to have such big wins available. They're simpler and often don't have many bonus features. However, they can often have more regular wins and offer a gentler introduction to slots. NetEnt's Starburst or Microgaming's Bejewelled are two such simple games.
21Video slots, on the other hand, will often have decent jackpots and a myriad of bonus features. These will often have beautiful graphics and vast in-game features to elevate the game. They may be more visually appealing but do not pay out any better. They can have 3 to 7 reels too. Some popular options include Immortal Romance, Gonzo's Quest, and Vikings Go Bezerk.
22 Progressives offer enormous prizes — if you're lucky. However, many of these will not land the big win long. Scoring the top prize on a progressive slot does mean you might be playing for a long time before it hits. Of course, if you're into a bit of luck, players have got lucky after a single spin. Progressives such as Mega Moolah and Mega Fortune have both paid out multi-millions.
7 Strategies to use when Playing Slot Machines by John Grochowski
John Grochowski has been one of the world's most prolific casino writers since launching a weekly Gaming column in the Chicago Sun-Times in 1994.
Slot machines are not games of strategy. With the exception of a tiny minority of skill-based games, slots are games of pure chance with results driven by random number generators.
Nothing you do can change a slot's payback percentage. That's as true with online slots as it has been for generations in live casinos.
Nevertheless, some players like to use strategic approaches to slot play. Rather than increasing the frequency of wins or big wins, strategies target finding high-paying slot machines or managing your money to maximize your chances at wins while minimizing losses.
Let's check out some of the strategies slot players try:
Strategy 1: Bet the Max
Do you need to always bet the max?.
For decades, this was the standard advice for slot players, but it doesn't apply to online slots or video slots in live casinos.
Three-reel slots with one payline and a two- or three-coin maximum wager typically have a disproportionate jump in the top jackpot when you bet the max. For example, a jackpot might be 1,000 coins with a one-coin bet, 2,000 for two coins, then jump not to 3,000 but to 5,000 with a maximum three-coin wager.
Because of that, such machines yield a higher payback percentage with a maximum bet.
Online slots and video slots don't have three-coin maximum bets. They are usually played for lower coin denominations such as pennies or two cents instead of the 25 cents or $1 most popular in three-reel games. Slots online or on video also have many more paylines, with 30, 40 or more being common. Some come in no line but 243 ways to win varieties.
Maximum bets on these games aren't three coins, but hundreds of coins.
Not only that but the disproportionate jump in the top jackpot isn't designed into most online or video games.
The payback percentage advantage to maximum wagers doesn't apply online or on video, leaving bet the max as a strategy for old-style three-reel games.
Strategy 2: Bet enough to Activate all Game Features
This means wagering one coin per line in most online and video slots. That activates all paylines so you won't miss out on winners on an inactive line. You can bet more than one coin per line, and that's fine as long as you can comfortably afford the wagers. But you don't have to bet more to maximize payback percentage.
Some games have features that require bets of more than one coin per line. Some progressive slots require an extra bet for jackpot eligibility. If you will play such a game, make a progressive bet. Choose a different game if you don't want to bet enough for the progressive. You won't get all a game has to offer if you don't activate all the features.
Strategy 3: Scout the Machines
This applies to Progressive Jackpots.
Online, this applies mainly to progressive slots. Check the progressive games you like periodically to get a sense of the rollover value where the top jackpot starts building after a winner. Also, determine how big the jackpots get before there's a winner.
There will be a lot of variation in jackpot size at the top. If the rollover value is $1,000, you might see the meter get to $1,200, $1,500, or even $2,000 or more before there's a winner. You might also see an occasional winner at barely more than $1,000.
Ignore the low jackpots and pick a value near the middle of the range of winners. Then play only when the jackpot nears that amount.
The system won't increase your frequency of jackpot wins. The odds of winning are the same no matter how long it's been since a jackpot has hit. However, because you're playing only for bigger pots, the average size of your jackpot will be bigger than the overall average. That means your overall payback percentage will be higher than average.
A warning:
There is no guarantee you'll win the jackpot at all. You face the same risk of a losing session as everyone else.
In live casinos, some players scout machines by checking meters to see the cashout totals for the previous player. Some scouts play only machines that have paid a lot under the assumption it's a hot machine. Other avoid those that have paid out, assuming it's due for a cold streak.
Neither assumption is a clue as to what the game will do next. Results are random and the odds are the same after a cold streak as after a hot streak.
Strategy 4: Hit and Run
Take advantage by playing a small, set number of spins
Sometimes, players claim to notice a pattern where machines pay a lot early in a session, then go cold.
They try to take advantage by playing a small, set number of spins, then moving on to another game.
How many spins? Some recommend as few as five, a rapid-fire method that has you on the move to search for a fast-starter. Others suggest 10, 25 or even 50 spins.
This system comes under the heading of "no real harm." With random results, a big payoff is no more likely to come in the first few, or few dozen spins, than it is after 100 or more. All machines have cold streak, sometimes at the beginning of play and sometimes later.
This system makes the opposite assumption of hit and run. It suggests a slot has to warm up before it's ready to pay off.
Prime the pump players start with minimum bets, then increase at regular intervals. You might start with the minimum bet to cover all lines, then increase to two coins per line after 15 spins, then three coins per line after another 15 spins.
A couple of warnings need to be issued. With random results, there is no real tendency for a game to pay more later than earlier, nor is there a tendency to pay more earlier than later.
Most important:
Never use a system that calls for increasing bets if it causes you to risk extra money. You can have fun with systems, but stay within your budget and never risk money you can't afford to lose.
Strategy 6: Climb the Steps
Step systems work on the same assumption as prime the pump. Step players want to see that a machine is paying off before they make larger bets.
One aggressive step system suggests making minimum bets until you have a winning spin, then increasing the wager. If you win again, increase the bet. Keep increasing as long as you are winning, but after any loss, drop back to the minimum bet.
The idea is to catch a hot streak and make your largest bets when the game is paying frequently.
Players can define "winning spin" as they see fit, but with multiline online and video slots, many spins pay less than the bet. Don't increase your bet after you're paid 12 credits on a 40-credit bet, for example. Wait for a win that returns more credits than you wager.
The same caveats apply as in prime the pump. Results are random with no real pattern of wins and losses. There is no tendency for a hot machine to stay hot. And never make bets too large for your comfort zone.
Strategy 7: Fool the Ring
A reader suggested this one. She believed casinos want to reward their biggest players, so she always started a session making bets at the top end of her range to tell the random number generator she was a big player.
If she got a big win on a top-end bet, great. If not, she played 10 spins, then dropped to wagers in her comfort zone and hoped the RNG would reward her as a big player.
The problem is, the RNG doesn't know how much you bet. It generates numbers in the same proportions regardless of whether you're betting 40 or 400 credits.
None of these systems can affect the random numbers being generated. But for those who like systematic play, as long as the methods don't cause you to overbet, they can be fun to try.
Gayle Mitchell is the leading female expert on casino gambling and has written extensively, presented seminars and was editor of four gaming newsletters. She is the author of seven books, 12 Ebooks, and five Tips booklets. Online since 1999, Mitchell has owned and operated 4 gaming websites. Her writing and teaching style is targeted at educating novice and passionate casino players.
