Slot Playing Tips

There are some people who will look at playing slots as a battle between them and the machine, whilst some people will simply load the slot up with credits and sit there quite happily spinning the reels game after game, hoping that Lady Luck will flip them a big win or even a jackpot.

However there is another type of person, and this is the slot player who will do whatever it legally takes them to do to give them the very best winning chances each and every time they play slots. They will leave as little as possible to chance and will always know when the best time to play and the best time to stop playing is.

Below we have compiled as many of the best slots playing tips as we could find, and whilst we cannot guarantee using any of them will help you win repeatedly there are some valueable ones listed which could, if nothing else, improve your slot play and give you a better chance of winning.

Published and Certified RTP’s

It doesn’t matter if an online slot machine has an exciting or unique theme, lots of playing features or even a huge potential jackpot, the only slots you should consider playing are those which have the highest long term return to player (RTP) payout percentages.

You need to check whether the online casino at which you are considering playing at has published the RTP’s of all their slots, and whether these have been independently verified as true.

It will often come as a shock to players who haven’t checked the payout percentages of the games they have been playing when they discover what they are, as some of them can offer RTP’s as low as 80% when others boast payout percentage in the 96% to 98% range.

Look out for online casinos who are powered by companies such as Wagerworks and NetEnt, as these sites are always happy to let you know the RTP’s of their slots, however others keep these facts and figures a closely guarded secret.

Also be aware that online casino game suppliers such as Real Time Gaming offer the operators of casinos powered by their software the ability to set their slots to payout one of three different payout percentages on the majority of their slots, and whilst many of them will set them at the lowest setting, which for reference is 91.5%, however some of the more respected RTG powered casinos will opt for one of the higher settings which are 95% and 97.5%.

Progressive Jackpot Stake Contribution

Some players will always play the progressive jackpot slot machines, no matter whether they offer true value for money or not, however there are some aspects of these games which you need to be aware of to ensure you can make an informed decision on whether to play them or not.

In regards to progressive jackpot paying slot machines you need to be aware of the fact that a proportion of your base game stake will be used to fund the current jackpot as shown on the jackpot meter, and this can often reduce the RTP (return to player payout percentage) that the base game offers.

Take for example the WMS slot machines which have found their way in recent years into the online gambling environment. on the face of it most of them boast quite high payout percentages, take for example the Jungle Cats game, this has a verified and published RTP of 95.19%, however from that 2.99% is made up of the progressive jackpot part of the slots paying structure.

This means that if you do not win any of the progressive jackpots this slot machines offers, then the expected long term payout percentage of that slot becomes a not so generous 92.2%, which makes it quite a low paying game.

Slot Bonuses – Good or Bad?

With there being so many online casinos open for business the competition between them all is huge, and as such they will all be battling for your custom, and as such each one will offer you some form of slot bonus. However many of these bonuses are not worth claiming as they offer extremely poor value.

There are several aspects of a slot game bonus which will make it either desirable or one that you should forget about claiming. The value of the bonus coupled with its play through requirements should be the two main parts of a bonus which you carefully check, many online casinos will offer massive deposit bonuses but will attach huge play through requirements and as such these will give you no chance of ever cashing out any winnings unless you hit a series of large jackpots!

Also one sad fact of many slot bonuses is that more and more casinos are attaching a maximum cash out to them, meaning even if you finally manage to make it to a point where you have reached the play through, they will then cap the winnings!

So one tip for playing slots in regards to accepting a bonus is to think long and hard, look for reasonable play through requirements and only ever take a bonus which has no maximum cash out value attached to it.

New Slots or Old Slots?

When a new slot game is wheeled out onto a land based casino floor, you will often find people queuing up to play them, and being business minded the operators of these slots will often increase the payout percentage that these new slots offer for a limited time when they first go onto that floor, and will then drop the payout percentages lower after a short time.

So it can often pay for you to put a new slot game through its paces when you first see it available in a land based casino. However be aware that online slot games from the majority of major software providers do not have any ability to tamper with the payout percentages, and as such you are just as likely to win on one of these slots than you are by playing one which has been online for over a decade!