Online Slot Games – Guide for 2024

Posted by Harry Kane on Sunday, March 4, 2018

In many ways, slots have always been the most popular and immersive type of casino game. From the upright machines that populate land-based casinos to the contemporary range of online slots, these titles combine characterisation and pop-culture narratives with exceptional gameplay to wow players from across the globe.

This is particularly true in the digital age, where slots are thought to account for 80% of online casino revenues and have seen activity levels grow by around 327% during the last seven years alone.

In this article, we’ll explore the magic of online slots and offer a brief guide on how you can become a superior player.

Slots Through the Ages – A Brief History

It’s fair to say that slots have made up a great deal of ground on more established games such as roulette, blackjack and poker. After all, while many of these games have their roots in the 18th and 19th centuries, the origins of slot machines can only be traced back to the late 19th century.

It was in 1891 that New York innovators Sittman and Pitt created the world’s first slot machine, which featured simple gameplay, five drums and a total of 50 playing cards. The slot was installed in numerous bars and saloons and cost a nickel to play, with various non-cash prizes such as cigarettes and alcohol offered for lining up specific poker hands on the reels.

These prizes were not automated, however, meaning that hosts had to reward players in instances when they were successful. This changed in 1895, when Charles Augustus Fey developed a ground-breaking, upright slot that would allow for automatic, cash payouts. To achieve this, he reduced the complexity of reading a win by replacing the five drums with three reels, while cards were replaced for iconic symbols including hearts, diamonds, spades, horseshoes and the famous liberty bell.

As the design was not patented, many innovators copied Fey’s machine and outlets throughout the U.S. soon became saturated with slots. This caused the government to ban them in 1902, but the decision to prohibit cash payments ultimately heralded the age of the fruit machine. These machines borrowed heavily from Fey’s design, simply swapping cash payments with gifts of sweets and chewing gum for lucky winners.

The popularity of slots continued during the post-war years, as gambling laws relaxed and designers were able to return to offering automated cash prizes.In 1964, the market witnessed a groundbreaking development with the introduction of the world’s first electromechanical slot machine, laying the foundation for the creation of the inaugural video slot just 12 years later in 1976. This evolution has been a crucial factor in online roulette being overshadowed by the popularity of slot games over the last decade.

Interestingly, and despite being electromechanical, the 1964 slot Money Honey by Bally retained the mechanical level that had become synonymous with slot machines. Designers felt that players would struggle to get to grips with the game without the lever, and be deterred from enjoying the experience.

The first video slot featured a modified, 19-inch Sony TV for its display, and made its debut in 1976 in the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. The company that manufactured the slot, Fortune Coin, was acquired by IGT in 1978, and so began the drive to populate video slot technology and make it accessible to a wider audience.

During the last 22 years, slots have finally made a successful transition online and become a mainstay for virtual casinos operating across the globe. 1996 saw the development of the first video slot to include a second screen bonus round, and this just happened to coincide with the Internet boom that ushered in the digital age. While the first online casinos emerged and built their foundations on more traditional games such as roulette, by the turn of the century video slots were launched by a number of operators and quickly came to dominate the space. This trend has continued to this day, with modern slots boasting exceptional graphics and gameplay and capable of transcending the gambling industry.

Basic Slot Gameplay and Strategy – What You Need to Know

The online slot game market has seen significant diversification during the last decade, and this is one of the main reasons behinds its incredible popularisation and growth (a little more on this later). Still, the fundamental principles of slot gaming have largely remained unchanged during this time, with contemporary gameplay and structures have evolved from the classic patterns that underpinned the first-ever machines.

With traditional slot and fruit machines, for example, players would earn prizes by lining up specific combinations along the reels. In instances where they landed three identical icons, they would be eligible to win a jackpot prize.

Online slots work to a similar premise, although there are several subtle differences to bear in mind when you play. Firstly, the vast majority of titles boast five reels as opposed to three, and this is something of a throwback to the very first slot machine that was launched in 1891 (which included five separate drums). There are a select few slots that offer three reels, however, and others that include nine, 12 or in some instances 25 identifiable reels as part of the base game.

The methodology of winning has also changed with the advent of online slots, as the flexibility offered by digital screens means that players no longer need to line-up symbols horizontally to win. In fact, online games enable you to win with lines that run vertically, diagonally and even in a zigzag in some instances, with these diverse combinations known as “paylines”. Contemporary slots can feature anywhere between 15 and 243 available paylines, with larger amounts made possible by adding rows to the bottom of the grid and creating winning combinations in which matching symbols do not need to sit next to one another.

Online slots also allow you to activate a fixed number of paylines (according to your own, unique strategy) before every spin. At the same time, you’re encouraged to establish a fixed stake per line, and these two factors combined will determine how much you wager on a single spin. Typically, each game will feature a coin range and a maximum betting threshold, with various limits available to suit risk-averse and risk-hungry players.

It’s also important to remember that while betting on a larger number of paylines will increase your chances of winning, this will not necessarily translate into greater returns, but we’ll consider this further later in the piece.

At this stage, you’re ready to start spinning but there’s another important, strategic element to consider when choosing your game. More specifically, there are low, medium and high variance slots to select from, each of which will deliver a different experience in terms of your probability of winning and the size of the jackpot that you’re able to pursue. The variance of a game is also reflected by its associated return-to-player (RTP) rate, which indicates how much of their bankroll players will be able to win back during any given session.

In the case of low variance games, these are titles that usually serve as certified slots with a high RTP. Certified slots generally offer an RTP rate of 97% or above, meaning that players can look forward to small but frequent wins during base gameplay. This type of slot lends itself to casual gamers or risk-averse players, who are interested in playing for longer without losing too much of their capital.

The potential downside here is that low variance slots usually offer small jackpots, meaning that it’s likely to earn large payouts on single spins (even with a high maximum stakes and multiple paylines active). The reverse principle is true for high variance slots, which are aimed at risk hungry and serious gamers with a hefty bankroll at their disposal. While the structure of high variance slots does not allow for small but frequent payouts during the base game, for example, it does offer large (and in some cases, progressive) jackpots on certain winning combinations. These games also tend to leverage bonus rounds to offer inflated prizes to players, while deploying Wild multiplier symbols to optimise the value of individual paylines.

Clearly, the risk here is that it can take a long time to land a winning combination, meaning that you may need to commit a huge portion of your bankroll to claim a worthwhile prize. This is reflected by an RTP rate that can plunge as low as 90% on some high variance slots, although this is offset by some of the largest jackpots in the industry.

In between these two extremes sit medium variance slots, which often appeal to casual players who are new to online gaming. These titles offer both high and low jackpot amounts alongside some low-value winning combinations, and many believe that this provides the ideal balance for risk-averse newcomers who are still keen on earning money.

Playing mid variance slots is often something of a false economy, however, as they arguably fail to meet the precise needs of both risk averse and risk hungry players. Instead, they tread the middle ground and offer a typical RTP rate of around 94% and 95%, and over time players tend to prefer either low or high variance slots depending on their outlook.

Choosing Your Slot Game and Online Platform

At this stage, you should understand the fundamental gameplay associated with online slots and the types of game that are available to players. From here, the next step is to refine your search further and ensure that you choose the right online platform to meet your needs.

Online slots arguably boast a larger and more diverse range of games than any other casino discipline, so you’ll need to use everything that you’ve learned so far to identify the titles that are most suited to your mind-set. One of the key considerations is the aforementioned RTP rate, which should be advertised in the case of each slot and indicate whether or the game is low, mid or high variance. By using this simple metric, you can quickly disregard the games that are unsuited to your bankroll, playing style and underlying philosophy.

You may also be lured by games with a larger amount of paylines, particularly with some slots now offering up to 243 ways to win. Now, while it’s fair to surmise that these games incrementally increase your chances of winning, you should understand that playing this type of game will not necessarily increase the amount that you win on each individual spin.

In fact, these systems use a single stake rather than individual line bets, and while this means that you can play for more paylines for less and subsequent wins are paid as stake multipliers rather than outright cash prizes. This will typically cause the value of each win to depreciate, creating a low variance game that would not appeal to anyone in search of high risk and even higher returns.

So, try not to be drawn in by the fluid reel design and conventional layout of 243 payline slots, and instead focus on RTP, gameplay and whether or not each individual game is capable of meeting your expectations.

If you consider yourself to be a talented player, you may also want to look for slot games that include a skill feature. This enables you introduce an element control over the reels when they are in motion, as you look to land specific symbols and negate the largely opportunistic element of slot gaming. With an understanding of your chosen game and excellent hand-eye coordination, you can counteract the random nature of slot gameplay and achieve a higher frequency of wins.

On a final note, we’d definitely recommend that you compare the market for the best operators when it comes to slot games. After all, the popular, accessible and generative nature of slot games means that operators are always looking to leverage the channel to acquire new customers, largely through the use of lucrative promotions and a fixed number of free spins on selected games.

Many of these promotions will be unconditional and not dependent on you making an initial deposit, so your task is to identify the best promotions on the sites that offer the type of slot game that you’re looking to play.

And with this, you will be good to go and get started with slots in 2024. Hopefully, this guide will enable you to make the most of the experience and identify the slots that best suit your outlook.