Slots
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Classic slot machines as found in pubs are fairly simple. The government have by now imposed stricter rules on the placement of slot machines. Thankfully you can still find them in online casinos. And if you play the game online, there obviously will not be an actual lever and you simply operate the game with one push on the button. If you play online slots and win at the right moment, you might just walk away with hundreds of thousands of euros.
The entry-level for most online gamblers is the humble slot. That should be the not-so-humble slot these days because the slot machine that once sat in the corner of a bar waiting for an unsuspecting passer-by to pull a handle to spin the reels is now a surround-sound, animated graphics, bonus-game-packed, multi-platform monster. Or maybe it isn’t. Because today’s online slots market also takes in slot machines that really are as simple as that original one-armed bandit. Just click, spin, and see if you win. What a varied market. And what an exciting time to be alive.
If you’re fascinated about this world of online slots, be our gues to this slots guide and see how slot games work, learn about the different types of slot machines and check our tips on how to choose an online slots casino site. Not lastly, claim an online slots bonus and play real money slots at your favourite slots site with a free spins bonus!
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5 tips to choose an online slots casino
If you love slots you need a place to play. Thankfully you’ve never had more choice. Unfortunately, having more choice doesn’t make making the choice any easier!
An informed consumer makes the best decisions, so here’s how to keep your mind in the game.
1 – Always be safe
The most important thing when you do anything online is to do it safely. Scams are few and far between, but you owe it to yourself to do at least the minimum of making sure you’re playing at a legitimate, licensed site, with proper security, customer service, and data protection policies.
2 – Make sure it’s a pleasure
Once you’re sure that a site is safe, you want to know it’s good!
Shoddy sites with bad design and difficult navigation will have you spending more time finding your way around than enjoying your favourite online slots.
No good, honest site will mind you getting a good look at their site before you hand over any money, so click around a slots site and see it works well.
3 – Make sure they treat you well
You’re not a gambler – some guy wandering up to a dusty Wild West saloon or mafia speakeasy – you’re a customer. So look for good customer service: check out withdrawal times and payment methods as well as licensing, and see that it’s easy to contact the site and get a speedy response.
4 – Experience world
The truth of the online slots casino world is that a lot of sites are very similar, and essentially run by a few very large companies. Do a bit of research, and find out which casino systems you like – NetEnt, Playtech, Microgaming and more – and check out those sites first.
A good range of slot games should be expected too, and these days that should mean hundreds of titles and regular new online slots additions.
5 – More than just slots
Few online slots casino sites are just about slots. And that’s something you should look to explore. A range of games will mean all the latest slots from the best designers, but you’ll want to find a site that will work as a one-stop-shop for all your gaming needs – look for table games, live streaming casino games, and maybe some sports betting too.
Demand the impossible! It’s only reasonable.
How to play slots
While slots can seem complicated, they are generally very simple to play. A lot of the complexity of the games is essentially automatic, and most players will get by without too much trouble.
However, it’s worth going over the basics. Most online slots will be operated via a line of buttons at the bottom of the screen. The main button – usually green – will be the “start”, “play” or “spin” button, which does exactly what you imagine it does. Elsewhere you’ll likely see buttons to set the amount you’re going to wager on that spin.
Your betting might be done as a simple total, or it might be done by pay-line. Most machines have multiple pay-lines, which you’ll be able to survey by clicking on the help or “information” button. You can usually select your bet by selecting both a bet amount and the number of lines on which you want to stake that amount. A “max bet” button might cut out some work for you and give you the top stake in a shortcut.
You’ll also find, in most cases, an Autoplay button that will allow you to set the reels spinning without having to click again, often with quite sophisticated controls. The most important button on the screen may well be the “?” though. Either in that form or in the three horizontal lines of the modern menu selection icon you’ll find information, and the information is power, in online gaming as much as anywhere else.
Slot machine secrets and how to win on slots
The best way to win on slots is to play them and keep playing them. Unfortunately, that is also the best way to lose on slots. We’d love to give you a nice easy way to guarantee a win when you click to spin. Sadly, no such trick exists.
There’s a lot you can do to play safely and to extend your playing time, but when it comes down to it you’re up against luck – you might win a life-changing amount of money on your first ever wager! That’s the magic of gambling. And, especially online, you can’t get around the randomness!
What we will advise you to do to get the best experience out of your slot machine experience is to be well-informed, to play the market, and to use your money safely and wisely.
The first thing we’ll tell you – and we’ll tell you for free – is that you won’t win anything at an unlicensed or scammer site! So make sure you’re playing safe. You won’t lose money playing free games.
An obvious thing to say, but it bears repeating, so sign on and check out online slot games for free whenever you can. You should also make sure that you know the rules of the game you are playing because not knowing what you are doing is a quick way to lose money. But when it comes to secrets, tricks, betting strategies, timing, and the like – it’s all random. Accept that and enjoy your games, that’s the real secret of successful slots playing.
Type of Slots
Here are some of the most popular type of online slots:
3 Reel Slots
The online video slots games you love so much have a long history. In the real world, they’ve been playing slots since 1895.
When Charles Fey invented that first machine in San Francisco he used three reels.
There is so much about that first machine, called the Liberty Bell, that you would recognise in today’s simpler slots. And you still can play 3 reel slots today.
These machines are more common in the real world than on websites, but the growth of mobile browsing has made simpler machines much more popular so we’re happy to see 3-reelers back and hope you enjoy playing them.
5 Reel Slots
Much more common than 3 reel slot games these days are ones with 5 reels.
The standard modern set-up for an online video slot is a 5-reeler. They’re usually, but not always, 5 by 3 grids that put 15 symbols on the screen.
Five reels mean more symbols, more colours, more pay-lines, more possible combinations… so it’s an attractive choice for players. But the possibility of a better deal for players doesn’t always mean that it’s going to be delivered. Check the rules and the theoretical return to player on the machine you’re playing on to make sure you know what the chances of winning are.
6 Reel Slots
One more reel! Players – perhaps – asked for it, and they got it.
Six wheel slots are relatively new and still quite uncommon. You are very unlikely to see a 6 reel slot game in real life, but in online reel life, you might easily come across one.
The good news for players is that the gameplay won’t change in any meaningful way for players. You should always make sure you know the rules, and you on unfamiliar machines take the time to check out all the pay lines.
Again, another reel adds more possible winning combinations, and also more space for nice, pretty symbols, but it is unlikely to majorly affect your chances of winning.
7 Reel Slots
Novelty hungry players now have the option of playing 7 reel slots. This option really is one you might want to consider playing only at a desk-to site because there’s a lot of information to squeeze onto a mobile slot screen.
But tech is getting faster and more sophisticated, so the option to add more, more, more is very tempting.
Putting these extra reels on makes the games more likely to be low-variance, that is they pay out smaller wins more often, so it’s a good option if you’re not a high roller.
Again, check the pay lines, the pay tables, and the rules before you play any game and you should be able to navigate any 7-reel slot as easily as a 3-reel.
3D Slots
So another level of sophistication gets added to the slot world.
Graphics are an added extra when it comes to online video slots. You could play the game with just a row of ever-changing binary numbers – that’s what is actually going on behind the scenes in the games you are playing.
But players love good-looking slots. Animations have arrived, moving symbols have arrived, and so once 3-dimensional graphics were possible it was only a matter of time before they appeared on online video slots.
The only time graphics become a problem is when they interfere with your concentration on the game. So we do highly recommend that you play some 3D slots for free before you start stumping up too much money.
We know that simpler machines have had a bit of a revival in the mobile age, simply because smaller screens are better suited to simpler graphics. So whether you play by download or in a browser, don’t play a game that doesn’t render well on your screen.
There is a load of 3D slots now, including 3D versions of lots of classic games, and you should be able to play them on all operating systems on platforms. Dig in and give them a try.
Fruit Slots
We reported above that the oldest game in the world was invented in 1895 and was called the Liberty Bell. And those were the winning symbols: three patriotic American Liberty Bells lining up against a backdrop of playing card symbols.
So the pattern was set from the start. But not long after this breakthrough fruits started to elbow their way into the slots world. They became so popular that in the UK it’s still common to refer to any slot machine as a fruit machine.
The symbols aren’t quite the mystery you might think them to be though. America has a long history of banning gambling. So they banned the first slot machines. The fruits were a way of getting around that ban by removing the cards.
Cool, huh!
They still persist to this day. Oranges, lemons, melons and cherries go whizzing around on millions of online reels every day.
Unlike cards there’s no natural order to fruits, so make sure you check the pay-table to check the scores before you play. Higher paying symbols are most often the figure 7 and variations on bars, another long-lived favourite of the slots world.
Fruit slots are great fun. They’re usually colourful and relatively simple to play, but a whole new wave of them is throwing sophisticated gameplay into the mix alongside these much-loved reel symbols.
Penny Slots
A free game is the best game of all. Perhaps next best is a penny slot.
It might not cost a literal penny to spin to win on these games, but it will be cheaper than the average game, which can cost many dollars, pounds or euros to spin even once.
Penny slots dominate the real world casinos of Las Vegas, which, in reality, aren’t quite the high-rolling glamorous places that they’d like us to believe they are. And now they’ve gone online.
Playing for pennies is a good way to explore the market, but go in with your eyes open. If there are multiple pay-lines it’s very easy to turn a bet of a few pennies into something more substantial, so make sure you do your sums.
Classic Slots
We’ve looked at a number of variations of online slot machines. Despite a history of over 120 years, slot machines – even online – haven’t changed a great deal in some ways. There may be a whole load of bells and whistles on the front screen, but the gameplay and the mechanics behind the scene would be recognisable to a player who put a nickel in that first card machine back in 1895.
So a classic slot is something of a misnomer in some ways – all slots are classic. What we’re looking at most of all is a classic or old-fashioned design.
So what should you expect from a classic slot?
It will have either three or five reels. Anything with six or seven reels is not really a classic.
You’ll also see a traditional design. Fruit symbols – as mentioned above – are very classic; cards, bells, bars, sevens… all very traditional and classic.
You might expect the gameplay to be relatively simple. If a machine has several bonus rounds and wilds that do the dance of the seven veils before exploding onto the reels it’s not a classic.
Controls should be simple too. You won’t have too many decisions to make with a classic slot. You might just have a start button to push!
Some classic slots go beyond the call of duty and completely replicate some of the classic machines that stood in bars, arcades and casinos many years ago, down to the quite frankly infuriating beeping soundtrack.
That’s too classic for us, but you may have your own views on that.
Classics keep coming because they deliver everything you could possibly want from a slot game. That includes big wins. These games caught on because they’re good fun to play, easy to pick up and have plenty of suspense, and if you put your money in you have as much chance of picking up a giant jackpot as if you were playing on the flashiest machine on your favourite casino site.
Video Slots
All online slots are video slots really. But in the context of game style, they are a little more sophisticated than the classic slot.
All those features that we’ve listed about as not featuring on classic slots are ones you’re likely to see featured on video slots.
That’s not to say that video slots should be considered difficult or complex to play. They’ve maintained the simple gameplay that we all love in our online video slots. You press a play button, a load of stuff goes on, and some outcomes are rewarded.
The difference between a classic slot game and a video slot game really lies in that central section. A load of stuff will happen invisibly and that will be much the same, but a video slot is likely to have a lot more visible stuff going on!
If you like animations, moving symbols, symbols that rumble or drop into place, and extra video effects too.
The gameplay is likely to be a little more complicated too. There will almost always be a bonus game, and quite possibly four or five of them. And these bonus games will be more complicated and might make some demands of the player – video slots are moving closer to video games in some parts of the industry.
Wilds might work in multiple ways too.
All this shouldn’t put you off playing video slots! They’re great fun, and it’s a stupid designer who actually makes a game that’s difficult to play.
However, as we say with every game or style we cover we will say READ THE RULES of video slots carefully and make sure you know what you’re doing. If a bonus round needs you to make some decisions, you don’t want them to be rushed.
We love video slots. There’s nothing wrong with sophisticated and enjoyable graphics and – as long as they don’t get in the way of getting on with games – a good intro sequence and some animation add to the experience too.
Progressive/jackpot slots
You click, the reels spin, and you win. Or you don’t. That’s the deal. The prizes are set by a pay-table that’s based loosely on the odds of the particular combination that pops up on your spin.
Progressives are a bit more exciting than that. If any game can actually deliver life-changing wins it’s a progressive slot.
This is because of the way the machine works.
Progressives contain a form of lotto in the prize make up. Each time you play a tiny amount of your stake is taken off you and added to a prize pot. This is the progressive jackpot. It pays out rarely, but when it does it might be a massive amount.
Because you’re paying into a pool you’ll find that the theoretical return to player is going to look a little lower than on non-progressive slots.
Lots of progressive slots operate on their own. That is, the cash from each player builds up over time, but only in the specific machine, you are playing. Locally networked progressives can network up over a particular casino site. And wide-area, progressives tie together a load of sites.
The first two of those types are more common in real-life casinos. The internet has opened up massive networks, and this is how online progressive jackpots are able to build up such huge jackpots, including what are probably two of the biggest wins in gambling history, both of them on the way to €20million from a single spin.
Not all progressive slots will offer such easy wins, and you might find yourself going through several stages of bonus play before you’re able to actually play for the progressive. Some pay out a guaranteed number of times a year.
Play progressive slots in the same way that you would play any other slots. That means to play them primarily for fun. Factor in that slightly lower RTP if you’re making your choices and make sure you’re clear that the big prize is very unlikely to be yours. But if it is…!
What is an online slots tournament?
A further way to turn online slots into some sort of communal play is by joining an online slots tournament.
Playing online slots in real life can be a rewarding social experience. That’s harder to do online, but it’s no longer impossible, and players are getting more and more from social features like chat in their online casino experience.
Tournaments are a way to do that more often.
Tournaments allow you to take on other players. The usual deal is: a site sets up a tournament on a certain game. Players are allowed to play that game for a set period of time. Points are awarded for wins. At the end of the tournament the player with the most points – or the highest balance increase – wins the tournament.
This will probably mean that the winner gets a cash prize! Though if you’re the lucky winner you might find yourself granted bonus funds or free spins.
It’s a fun way to play, particularly if the time limit is a very short one, meaning there’s almost a feeling of being in a race. Longer tournaments often allow you to buy in extra spins if you’re not doing so well and you want to make up ground.
It’s a different experience in a slots tournament. In some ways, it’s more akin to playing a free game because you don’t gamble on each spin but on a final outcome in the game.
Online slots tournaments aren’t necessarily for everyone, but it’s a very good extra for a site to offer in our opinion, showing some variety in gameplay options for players.
It might seem to go against the very idea of what is so often a solitary pursuit but we recommend giving these a go. Your loss potential is often limited by the lack of individual betting, you might win a big prize, and you might get to meet some great people on your casino site!
Why play free slots?
You are probably wondering why we’re bothering to ask this question.
Well, don’t worry because the answer is exactly as simple you imagine it to be.
You should absolutely play online free slots. It’s almost always a good deal.
Almost.
So remember that not every deal is what it seems. Free is never really free. If you have to sign up to a site then you are giving them something for your “free” games. They will use the information that you give them to try to market more of their services to you. You should also know that handing over the information these days comes with its own set of risks.
So when you’re playing free online slots you should have your wits about you perhaps even more than when you sign up for the full casino experience.
But don’t let this put you off. A lot of the time you can play free slots not just at casinos in free mode but also at online casino portals like OnlineCasino.eu.
That’s something you should definitely do because it seems to be as close to catching free as it’s possible for a deal to be. Yes, the game will be offered to you free in the hopes that you will play it for cash somewhere down the line, but as long as you’re aware of that then you should be good to go.
Use free slot games well, and learn your way around a game, how it works, what to expect in a bonus game and more.
Throughout our guides, we always emphasise the power of knowledge. A player who doesn’t know games will not get the most out of playing them. Reading about games is a good start but it will never equal the depth of experience you can get for playing for free. Do it now!
Why claim free spins and online slots bonuses?
Again, an obvious question has an obvious answer.
It’s a good idea to claim free spins and online slots bonuses wherever you see them. With – of course – a few caveats.
Let’s go through the positives first. Free stuff is great. Free spins – especially if they’re without restrictions – are a wonderful way to discover games. They might even give you some big wins. Look out for them around new titles in particular. Also when you sign up at sites or when new slots sites appear.
The same is true for online slots bonuses. You will probably have to deposit some cash of your own, but in doing so you’ll get a big bonus – 100% is a good starting point.
But here we come across one of the issues with free spins and slots bonuses. There are catches and restrictions.
In the bonus world that often means a restriction on how much of your own money you will have to put up in order to start to claim winnings from the money you get. This is often described as a play-through restriction.
It’s a catch, but it shouldn’t be a deal-breaker. Just be sure that you know what it is and what it means. And the same goes for free spins too – always read the rules.
The final warning we would give on claiming free gifts is that you should be aware that you may be cashing in a one-time deal for a site. The site will certainly want you to know that because they would like you to sign up now and start playing now. They’ll tell you that this offer can never be repeated.
But that may not be the case, and when next month a better deal comes around and you’re already signed up and can’t claim it you might well regret rushing to sign a deal.
Take care and be informed and you should enjoy free spins and casino slots bonuses both.
Tips to Play Real Money Slots
In the end, while online slot machines can be great fun, there is a reason why most people play them, and that reason is to win money.
So, in the end, after all the free spins and slot bonus funds in the world you’ll probably want to stick some real money in and start spinning those reels for real money prizes.
When you do that make sure you know what you are doing.
Go through all the checks you can to make sure the site you’re using is safe and legal. Make sure the money you put in your account has gone to a safe place.
Make sure you know your way around the slot you’re playing, including all your bonus rounds, extras and so on.
And enjoy yourself! Because accepting that – while you can win big money – slot games are most of all a form of entertainment that will charge you an entrance fee to take part is the best way to enjoy playing them for real money.
Follow the best safe slots gambling rules that you can as well. Don’t gamble with borrowed money, don’t gamble when you’re upset, don’t gamble if you’re desperate for money, don’t gamble with money you can’t afford to lose, don’t gamble on credit.
Surely you know all these warnings by now? But do you know to take them really seriously and to run a check on them every time you play? That’s the level you ought to be checking yourself at.
The truth is that there is no way around the mathematics that makes online video slots random. You cannot beat the slot machine with skill, or with betting in a particular way, or with timing the game in a particular way.
It’s all down to luck, so to play real money slots successfully you need to trust yours.