Real-life strategies to implement into playing online slots

Let’s kick off by looking at how slots have changed since the turn of the last century. By providing a background, we can see how to implement real-life strategies from the ground up.

1891: Before Charles Rey there existed a machine in New York that had five drums containing 50 playing cards. Players would insert a coin and pull a lever to spin the drums. Whether this was a true slot machine is debatable as it didn’t offer pay-outs. Instead, a winner was determined by the cards revealing the best poker hand combinations.

1895: Charles Fey, a San Francisco mechanic, created the first true slot machine known as the Liberty Bell. It had three spinning reels with five symbols: horseshoes, diamonds, spades, stars and, of course, the Liberty Bell If the same symbol appeared on all three reels a bell would ring, and the machine would eject coins. Three Liberty Bells offered the largest payout of fifty cents and the machine became an overnight sensation.

1902: Anti-gambling forced Charles Fey to modify his machines, reinventing them as chewing gun dispensers. Fruit symbols were employed to describe different gum flavours, and the rest, as they say, is history.

1963: Money Honey was the first-ever electromechanical slot introduced by Bally Technologies. It used electronic components alongside mechanical parts to allow for automatic playouts.

1976: A modified 19-inch Sony television screen was the original face of the video slots. Arguably, this was the most exciting development before slots went online as it was visually dynamic in a way never seen before.

1990s: Microgaming launched the first online casino in 1994 and, of course, it featured a bunch of online slots and quite literally changed the game.

2010s: The next major change pretty much brings us up to date with smartphones and tablets allowing players to enjoy slot games on the go. But there had also been other behind-the-scenes development, such as the introduction of RNGs (Random Number Generators) to ensure fairer gameplay.

Having said that, it was the new generation of slots with their immersive graphics, themes, progressive jackpots and bonus rounds that was really driving the business forward. And with Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) waiting to drop, we could be on the verge of a new slot-gaming revolution.

This brings us nicely to the first of the real-life strategies required for playing online slots. But note how they differ from land-based machines.

With online slots, there is greater potential for you to bring in strategies, but to implement them it’s crucial to understand the risks in advance…

Know the Rules

Things change at a rapid rate when it comes to online casinos, and they’re not there to benefit you! Changes to rules or additional features (good and bad) might catch you unawares, so ensure you’re periodically pausing to check you’re playing the game you’re expecting.

Be Safe

Ensure that the website you’re using has a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), identifiable as that lock logo to the left on the internet address. It might be a good idea to use a VPN for an added layer of security too.

Check the casino’s license to ensure they’re legit. This can change depending on where you are located, so cross-referencing the parameters is essential.

Finally, in this section, never pass on any personal information, which means not paying for a game via a bank transfer. Instead, a digital wallet such as PayPal can add an additional layer of protection, or better still, use crypto…

Practice Makes Perfect

We’ve had this phrase drummed into us since we were kids by our parents and teachers. Guess what, folks, never has such real-world advice ever been more useful when it comes to slots.

So, take a deep, deep dive into the game you want to play. Check it out via YouTube, relevant forums and by any other means at your disposal.

When you’re ready, play it for free online and practice until you’re bored. After checking the rules one final time, get stuck in.

Become a Detective

Checking SSL certificates and licenses is kids’ stuff. To get under the skin of a slot, investigate its Return to Player (RTP).

This is the percentage that represents the amount you’ll get back from what you put in. Think of the % as a dollar, if the RTP is 96, you’ll get 96 cents back from every dollar you spend, but there is a caveat: Volatility.

Some machines have high Volatility, some low. Low means regular, low-sum payout, and high denotes irregular high-sum payouts. But be aware, in the latter instance, this means that the RTP might not kick in for ages.

And Finally

Always play for fun! Why? Well, you saw the RTP, didn’t you?