Whenever I talk about online slots to someone who doesn’t really play them, it’s funny just how often people think they know what they’re talking about. In most people’s minds, slots are nothing more than what they’re shown to be in the movies, primitive devices that blink a lot and make annoying noises when you win. In fact, as of recently they’ve become rather complex devices that blink a lot and make annoying noises when you win. If you’re a season slot player, then chances are you’re not going to find much of value in this article (unless you want to send it to one of your non-gambling friends, in which case go right ahead), but if you’re new to the world of slots, then this will be an invaluable read that will definitely clear some things up!
Misconception #1: Slots Are Simplistic
”I don’t get what the big deal about slots is! I mean, you just pull a lever and look at 3 symbols falling down!”
Actually, what most people are referring to when they’re saying the word “slots” is fruit machines, which are actually fairly simplistic, yes – they don’t have fancy graphics, usually only have one line and aren’t particularly pretty to look at. Slot machines, on the other hand, are MUCH more complicated. I mean, sure, most of the time the player interaction still boils down to essentially pulling a lever (well, more like clicking a button, but still) and watching, but what’s happening behind the scenes is far more interesting. First of all, almost all slots actually have three rows instead of just one and five columns instead of just three, which at first seems to decrease the chance of winning… but what if I told you that you’re actually MORE likely to win on slots than you are on fruit machines? The secret comes in the form of paylines, which are a bit more difficult to explain, but imagine it like this – in most fruit machines, you only win if you line up three identical symbols in the center, right? Well, in most slots you can win if you have two symbols in the centre row, one right above it, another one in the middle and one below it! Every slot has multiple paylines – sometimes there’s only about 20, while sometimes there’s over 10 times that number, but they’re generally kept between 25 and 40, making it that much more likely to win. In addition, there’s also special symbols, such as the Wilds which can substitute for any other symbol (so if you have 4 identical symbols and a Wild on one of your paylines, you get paid as if you have 5 symbols – and you can often win on multiple paylines with the same Wild, too), and don’t even get me STARTED on the bonus features. Speaking of which…
Misconception #2: Slots Aren’t Interactive
”You yourself admitted that the way to play slots is to just push a button and wait, and then push a button and wait again! Where’s the fun in that?!?
Well, not quite – I just said that MOST of the time this is what you do when playing slots, but not always. The best slots around have bonus features and bonus games which are fully interactive. Sadly, due to legal reasons these games need to be pretty simplistic (as slots aren’t legally allowed to be considered “skill games”, but that’s probably going to change soon thanks to some new laws), but they can still be very interactive. For example, the slot “South Park”, based on the popular show, gives you several bonus games if you meet certain conditions – you need to cross the street while looking out for cars, for example, or you need to chase hippies out of the bushes, and if you’re successful you win even more cash. “Spider-Man” gives you the chance to engage in a fighting game which, while simplistic, comes with all staples of the genre such as special attacks and combos, and “The Avengers” gives you four bonus games, all of which award you free spins. So yeah, while I’ll completely agree that for the most part playing slots can be rather monotonous, it’s definitely a lot more complex than you thought. While not every slot has its own bonus game (some just offer free spins with no game attached to them, and a few don’t offer anything special at all), the ones that do have put a lot of time and effort into making them very entertaining. Activating them may be a tad difficult, but when it happens it’s definitely an event, and you’re gonna win some good money!
Misconception #3: Slots Are Scams
”Slots have been specifically designed to just take your money and run! They’re scams that always take away more money than they give!”
Well, if I’m to be honest, both of these statements are correct, to some degree. Slots ARE designed to keep a certain percentage of the money to themselves, and by extension, yeah, they do take more money than they give. Each slot has what is known as an RTP – Return To Player percentage. In physical slots they’re mostly hidden unless you know where to look, but with online slots it’s pretty easy to look it up online. Basically, slots are designed to keep a certain percentage of all profits for itself while dispersing the remaining randomly among the players. So let’s imagine for a second that four players have deposited £25 each into a slot with a 96% RTP (which is more or less the default – sometimes it’s as high as 98%, sometimes it’s about 94%, though of course there’s some with an even lower RTP, but you should stay away from them). Out of those £100, the casino will keep £4 for itself, and the remaining £96 will be spread randomly between the people who played, so for example Person A will get £50, Person B will get £30, Person C will get £16 and Person D will get nothing. Obviously, you want to be Person A, but sometimes it’s just up to fate. And yet sometimes it’s not! Which brings me to…
Misconception #4: You Can Only Win At Slots If You’re Lucky
”When you play games like blackjack you can win based on your skills, at least in part, but slots rely 100% on luck! If you’re unlucky, there’s no way you’re winning!”
Well, first of all, it’s important to remember that there’s no such thing as “luck”. Nobody is born lucky or unlucky – there’s chance and probability, and also human perception. We as humans tend to only notice things that go wrong – getting into a traffic jam would make us think we’re unlucky, but we didn’t even think twice when crossing the last few dozen miles that were completely jam-free. As the old saying goes, if you do your job right nobody will know that you’ve done anything at all. Sometimes things go right, sometimes they go wrong, but either way, it has more to do with variables and probability than with something so abstract as “luck”. The sheer concept of “luck” implies the presence of a higher power that somehow remembers whether you’re supposed to have “bad luck” or “good luck” and then alters reality around you in order to fit your alignment, which when put like that I’m sure you’d agree is ridiculous. So now that we’ve completely debunked the notion of “luck”, let’s examine the rest of this statement, shall we? It implies that no matter what you do you’re entirely dependent on random chance in order to win at slots, which is simply not true. Finding the right slot to play, making the right bet, choosing the optimal amount of paylines and more are all variables that you’ll need to be taking into account which can influence whether or not you win, and how much. So while a good amount of slot success has to do with random chance and probability, luck isn’t really a factor.
Misconception #5: The Only Way To Win A Substantial Sum Is If You Get The Jackpot
”Even if you win at slots, the most you’re ever going to get is just small potatoes. The only way you can win a considerable sum is if you win the jackpot”
What if I told you that sometimes you can win a bigger sum by getting a standard win than you would have if you’d gotten the jackpot? It’s true – the slots with jackpots in the millions are actually fairly rare, there’s only between half a dozen and a dozen slots like that in the UK, and of course your chances of winning those, statistically speaking, are lower than winning the lottery. Most slots actually have relatively modest jackpots – enough to maybe get you a decent car, but not nearly enough to completely change your life. As a matter of fact, most one-time winnings (jackpots or not) aren’t enough to allow you to live the life of a celebrity. But even then, you can get some pretty substantial sums just from regular wins. A bonus feature in a certain slot which turned several columns into Wilds once netted me about £1,000 in one spin. Another slot’s bonus game got me about £4,000. The most I’ve ever won at one point without a jackpot was about £15,000 in a free spins feature that went very, very, very right for me (with me getting about 200 free spins at a huge multiplier thanks to pure chance). That’s actually more than many jackpots (for example, the Marvel Super Power – one of the four jackpots you can win by playing Marvel slots – is at £20,000 as I’m writing this), and it wasn’t even a special one-time win, it was something that anyone could do. But in any case, wins like that are rare – for the most part you’re going to be making your profit slowly and steadily.
Hopefully you’re now a little bit more savvy about how slots work! If you found this article helpful and informative, then feel free to share it with your friends and show them that, as the Weird Al song goes, everything they know (about slots) is wrong! Now that you’re all caught up with the world of slots in 2015, we’ll soon start exploring other subjects, such as how to pick the best slot for you. Stay tuned!