One of the biggest misconceptions when it comes to online slots is that some players think that you have the same chance of winning when playing any of them.
It is usually the case that when choosing which slot to play, players base the choice on one of two reasons.
- They like the theme of the game. For instance, Irish themed games such as Rainbow Riches are always popular.
- They have previously had a decent sized win on a particular game, so they associate the game as their ‘lucky slot' so they play that slot all the time in an attempt to replicate that win.
The fact of the matter is, if you are a slots player who is it in to make money, both of those reasons shouldn’t even come into your decision-making process.
What you should be basing your decision on is what kind of returns you could be looking at over the long term when playing a particular slot.
This figure is referred to as the RTP (return to player) or EV so let’s look at this in a little more detail.
The Basics of RTP
RTP is based on percentages but if mathematics fills you with fear, don’t worry because it is all very straightforward.
Any online slot machine or even the slot machine in your local pub must state the RTP which is the percentage, over a period of play which return to the players.
The best way to describe how this works is that if I lent you £100, knowing that you were going to give me £100 back, the RTP would be 100%. (I know that is not betting but please bear with me).
If you were playing a game of online blackjack and playing perfect blackjack strategy, the RTP would be around 99%.
When playing online slots, I have seen RTP figures of 90% or even lower but you will find that many slots are 95% plus.
So, if you are playing a slot with an RTP of 95%, for every £100 you wager, you would expect to return £95 over the long term. For example, Age of The Gods RTP is 95.02%.
How about a couple of examples?
No problem.
An example of a slot with a high RTP would be Ugga Bugga by Playtech with an unbelievable RTP of 99.07%.
The thing is though, playing a slot with a high RTP like this usually means lots of small wins which many new players love, the problem is though, any big wins in games like this usually come few and far between.
A slot with a lower RTP would be Book Of Dead by Play'n GO at 96.21%.
That figure is far more common and slots with these kinds of percentages usually offer pretty regular wins with the chance of bigger wins now and gain.
How to find the RTP of a particular slot?
You can usually find the RTP of a particular slot amongst the small print at the online casino but as you have probably realised by now, I like to keep things simple, so I just do a quick Google search of the name of the slot followed by RTP.
What is the point of slots with a low RTP?
Great question.
A lot of the slots with a low RTP may not pay-out on every other spin but they do often have decent sized pay-outs on various winning lines.
Some players, especially the bigger hitters, have no problem at all playing an online slot at not seeing smaller returns on the way because they are waiting for the bigger wins.
These players prefer low RTP slots for this reason, but they are a different breed to those slot players who like to grind out their slot play in the hope of smaller returns.
What is EV?
You may have heard people talk about EV or expected values when it comes to playing online casino games.
EV is usually brought into play when referring to online bonuses because the EV is the amount you could expect to make if you are taking advantage of a welcome bonus, reload bonus or even free spins.
The calculation involves the RTP of the slot, the size of the bonus and the wagering requirement of the bonus.
I could spend the next hour trying to explain this calculation to you but as with most things in life, if someone has gone to the trouble to develop a calculator which will work it all out for you, it would be rude not to use it.
Just Google ‘Slot EC calculator’ and you will see several tools which you can use without any charge.
At the end of the day, especially if you are taking advantage of casino bonuses (which you should be), EV is a great indicator which will help you decide whether to get involved or not.
