Everybody knows that much of what happens in online slots is down to luck. The key word is “much”, for there is an element of strategy you can use in slot games. While this won’t guarantee wins, it will certainly help improve your chances of success. In this article, our Go Spin expert discusses slot strategies that, if followed, should help you get a little closer to spinning the reels and walking away with a prize.
What Are Slot Strategies?
Slot strategies won’t guarantee wins. There isn’t a single casino game in the world where any strategy guarantees a jackpot win. However, players can certainly do things that boost their chances of success.
Random number generators control each slot spin, guaranteeing an unpredictable outcome. Therefore, when we talk about slot strategies, we’re referring to a series of decisions you can make to ensure that you play the games that give you the best of winning. It’s all about setting up the right conditions for success. The first thing players should consider is RTP.
RTP – In a Nutshell
The first thing we’ll discuss is RTP, known in slot circles as “Return to Player” rates. These represent the amount of each stake that goes into a theoretical pot for all players to win over all time. For instance, if an online slot has an RTP of 96%, this means every $0.96 of each dollar wagered is made “winnable”, with the other four cents going into the casino’s pocket. Over time, all these $0.96 stakes add up into a theoretical pot, from which prizes come.
With that said, the first strategy you should use is straightforward – pick slot games that have high RTP rates. The industry standard hovers between 95% and 96%, so the higher your game’s RTP rate, the fairer it is. Avoid slots with RTP rates of 94% or lower.
Volatility Explained
Slot volatility also plays a part in our strategy guide. Slots can be low variance, medium variance/volatile, highly volatile, or varying measures of the above. Volatility, or variance, as it is sometimes known, determines how often the slot pays and what size wins it likely yields. For instance, a low variance game will cough up the goods regularly, but to offset that, the cash prizes are small. Highly volatile games may see you go through lengthy losing streaks until a win occurs, but when it does, it tends to be a whopper.
The general strategic rule concerning slot volatility is also straightforward to grasp – low variance slots are ideal for those on a tight budget, where small wins will sustain your balance and lead to prolonged gameplay until a big win occurs. Highly volatile gambling games are suitable for those with big enough balances to sustain losing spells until an epic win comes your way. Try to pick games that complement your balance.
Top Tips for Choosing the Best Slots
Part of being successful at playing slots also involves making use of slot tips. Tried and tested tricks can help you find the perfect game to play. When we’re talking about slot strategies, it’s all about picking the right sort of games to bolster your chances of success. Again, our Go Spin expert has shared their finest titbits:
- Fewer Symbols: Try picking games with fewer symbols. The more symbols a slot has, the more likely you’ll end up with unwanted icons appearing and ruining your payline combo. The fewer symbols in a slot, the more likely you’ll line up a win. For classic slots, we’ll say around 5-6 symbols are sufficient. For video slots, we wouldn’t go beyond eight or nine symbols. The more reels and paylines a slot has, the more symbols we’ll tolerate.
- Combined Special Icons: The same advice applies to special symbols. The more of these there are, the less likely decent paying symbols will crop up on paylines. Ideally, try to find games with special symbols that serve multiple purposes. Scatter wilds (commonly found in book slots) are a great example of this. These take on the roles of both bonus-triggering scatters and wild symbols.
- Don’t Buy Bonuses: Many games may attempt to twist your arm by making it easier to trigger bonuses. Buying bonuses outright can be ruinously expensive. Instead, find slots with an abundance of features that are triggerable normally. If a game is asking you to purchase features, have a look around. You’re very likely to find another similarly themed slot with almost identical mechanics available from any developer, and those features will likely be triggerable for free.
- Keep Your Wagers Light: Don’t blast your cash. Keep wagers light until you’ve built up a significant windfall. Even then, only increase your stakes incrementally. Play with all the paylines, but keep the stakes low when starting out.
- Avoid Jackpot Symbols: Older progressive games may require you to land jackpot symbols on a very specific payline to win. The inclusion of these symbols may make them useless unless you land them all, and being forced to acquire them on a specific payline lessens your chance of success. Opt for progressives with prizes triggered at random or via bonus rounds instead.
Five Other Slot Strategies to Consider
Play for long enough, and you’ll undoubtedly come across other ways to hone your slot-playing skills and improve your chances of success. Here are five other things you may wish to pay attention to:
Hit Rates
You’ll often see hit rates published in slot reviews. This saves you the trouble of doing overly complicated equations to work them out. Hit rates tell you how often you will likely land a winning combo, trigger a bonus, and so on. This probability appears as 1 in X, with the latter (X) being the number of spins until you are successful. However, some sources may also showcase it as a percentage. Again, the fewer the number of spins or the higher the percentage, the better.
Free Play Demos
There’s nothing to lose in playing free slot demos. True, you won’t win real money having a crack at them, but you won’t lose anything, either. You can gain insight and knowledge into how games work, and that may be beneficial when working out the volatility, RTP or other aspects of a game beforehand.
Look Out for “Hot Games”
Online casinos love to showcase “hot” and “popular” games in their lobbies. These are usually games that they choose to promote, or they want you to play, though. They may not necessarily be the titles that give you the best shot of winning or the fairest. Take suggestions such as these with a pinch of salt, and do your homework, as we’ve explained above.
Tournaments Offer Extra Wins
Tournaments offer additional cash prizes based on your performance playing slots. It is tempting to join any tournaments and play the games the casino recommends that are currently part of the competition. You could end up ploughing in plenty of cash on games you don’t really fancy just to win a tournament prize. We’ve got a better idea, though.
Go Spin doesn’t encourage you to play in slot tournaments for nothing. Instead, we recommend joining slot tournaments that feature your favourite slots and games. The main reason is that you’ll play these games anyway, so picking up any additional prizes via tournaments is a win-win scenario.
Make Use of Wager-Free Bonuses
While there’s nothing wrong with snapping up a few free spin bonuses, no deposit deals or a cash match offer, there should be criteria. For starters, never claim anything with overly excessive wagering requirements, low maximum win/withdrawal caps, and other dubious T&Cs, such as deposit-to-withdraw rule. Ultimately, pocketing a promo can help you win, but only if the terms and conditions are fair.
With that in mind, Go Spin encourages you to explore wager-free bonuses. We know these are rare, but if you come across one, snap it up. You’ve nothing to lose by claiming wager-free bonuses. By their very nature, they allow you to play for free, potentially win real money and withdraw any winnings with no strings attached.
Amalgamate All You’ve Learned
As you can see, an abundance of options exist to make winning slot games easier. Again, and we’ll stress this – there is no such thing as a certified slot strategy that guarantees wins. However, if you incorporate our advice on this page, you’ll improve your odds of landing prizes.
Ultimately, just following a few of the tips mentioned above will help. However, amalgamating all you’ve learned here and putting all the advice into good use is the best solution. Do that, and you can spin the reels in confidence, knowing that you’ve done everything possible to give yourself the best shot of success at online casinos.
