The Best Online Slots Casinos

Online slots payouts vs land casinos

In general, most land casino slots payout less than online slot machines. The upkeep of maintaining a physical casino is costlier compared to online establishments. That’s not to say online operators don’t have bills and licenses to pay, but many land casinos are come attached with hotels, restaurants, free drinks, live bands, and more. All of this needs paying for, and lesser payouts are one of the consequences.

The RTP (Return to Player) of most land casino slots hovers around the 90% mark. Meaning, in the long run, a slot will return 0.90 for each 1 spent, theoretically speaking. Online slots, on the other hand, boast varying RTP percentages that average between 93%-97%. NetEnt’s Blood Suckers, for instance, has an RTP of 98%, making it an ideal fit for those who prefer maintaining a steady bankroll.

Choice and convenience

When you visit a land casino, you have a predetermined set of games at your disposal, and there’s not much you can do about it. Your choices are usually wide, but not wide enough, as the number of physical machines that can fit in a certain space is quite limited, despite the size of some casinos.

Sure, the atmosphere in a physical casino is unparalleled. Live action, constant chatter, mingling with your friends – they’re hard to replicate online. Yet, every land casino aims to get the most out of your wallet by offering free drinks, often impeding your judgement and making you chase losses.

We’re definitely not against vising a land casino every now and again in the form of a fun “night out” experience. But in general, online casinos present more choice on what you can play: thousands of slot machines, hundreds of casinos to choose from, a slew of bonuses, all just a few clicks away.

There’s also the factor of convenience. When playing online, you don’t have to make time out of your day and plan a trip to your casino of choice. Moreover, you won’t have to set aside a heftier budget to play with. Sure, you can enter a land casino with 20, but more often than not your trip will be short-lived. Online, you can make small deposits, wager in small amounts, all from the comfort of your home – for however long you like and whenever you feel like it.

Thanks to the convenience of mobile casinos, you can boot up your favorite games regardless of your location – a bus ride home, your couch, at a coffeehouse. As long as you have an internet connection and a portable device, you’re good to go. More importantly, online casinos let you play slot machines for fun for as long as you like. This lets you get a feel of a certain slot before you play slots for real money.

Casino bonuses and free spins

Perhaps the biggest advantage of all is slots bonuses. The online casino world is overflowing with all sorts of attractive bonuses, and they’re all centered on slot machines. The online gaming competition is fierce. There are hundreds of virtual casinos a player can choose from, and a player can switch between them with just a few clicks or taps. This is why online casinos open their arms to new players with a tasty welcome bonus or two, alongside plenty of additional promotions in the form of cash rewards or free spins.

Welcome bonuses

A casino welcome bonus usually comes in the form of a 100% or 200% match of your first deposit. This bonus will often extend to your second and third deposits as well. Meaning, if you’ve made a deposit of 100, you would have 200 to play with. Is this free casino money? Well, not exactly. If a casino was just to give out free cash to every player in that manner, it wouldn’t be long before they become bankrupt.

How to wager slots bonuses

Almost every bonus you claim needs to be wagered before you can withdraw any leftover winnings. Wagering simply means playing through a certain amount of cash on select casino games. If a 100 bonus needs to be wagered 30 times, you would need to play through 3000 on casino games before you can request a payout. Wagering simply means placing stakes, regardless if they’re winnings bets or not. You can often track your wagering progress via an online casino’s interface. Best of all, most online casinos bonuses can be wagered by playing slots only, which is perfect if they are your game of choice already.

Free spin bonuses

Besides match bonuses, online casinos will try to entice you with free spin bonuses. They will either be a part of the match bonus i.e. 100% match + 50 free spins, or a standalone offer. Bonus free spins can be played on select games of the casino’s choosing, and any winnings generated from them will often need to be wagered as well. Some casinos offer wager-free rewards that are yours to withdraw immediately.

No deposit slot bonuses

No deposit bonuses are every gambler’s favourite bonus. The reason is self-explanatory, you don’t have to make a deposit to claim it. It gives you a chance to get a feel of the casino with zero risk on your part, and you might earn some cash in the process. These bonuses come in the form of no deposit cash or no deposit free spins. They will usually limit your winnings to 100, and have steeper wagering requirements, but hey – when it comes to free money, who can complain.

How to play online slots

Playing online slots is simple. You can choose to play for free to your heart’s content before depositing real money. Simply choose a casino you like, create your account, and make your choice from the hundreds of slots on your screen. You can select how many paylines you wish to play on alongside the bet value of each payline.

How do online slots work?

Before you start spinning the reels, it helps to understand the basic features of online slots. Here are the main things to look out for:

Paylines

Paylines are literal lines in which symbol combinations need to be formed across the screen to win a pay out. They can be straight,curved or zig-zag patterns. Some slots payout winning combos on paylines both-ways, meaning it doesn’t matter if your winning combination was generated from left to right, or vice-versa.

Most video slots feature 25 paylines. Simply enough, the more paylines you select, the higher your chance of winning. We always recommend betting on maximum paylines, as the general minimum stake per line is 0.01, resulting in a reasonable 0.25 per spin. You can adjust the value of your stake per line as much as you like, resulting in slots letting you bet up to 250 per spin, but we don’t recommend you do that for obvious reasons.

Wilds

Wild symbols are a common feature of online slots. They act as a filler substitute for any other symbol. If a winning combination requires 3 Orange symbols, for example, you would receive the same outcome with 2 Oranges and 1 Wild.

Scatters

Scatters are another type of special symbol that is usually tied to bonus rounds. Usually, if you get 3 Scatters on a payline or anywhere on the reels, a bonus feature will be triggered.

Bonus symbols and triggers

Slot creators have come up with a range of creative bonus features over the years. Some are peculiar mini-games with extra rewards, some come in the form of simple free spins with extra payouts – it all depends on the slot machine in question.

Certain slots feature bonus symbols or random trigger events which will generate a bonus round or a direct payout anytime during play. One such example is the popular gothic-themed Immortal Romance by Microgaming. Its bonus rounds introduce you to each of the main characters in the slot, who will reward you with free spins or extra achievements for symbols.

Cascading reels

Video slots with cascading reels are becoming more common as time passes by. If you’ve ever played Tetris, then this slot type won’t need much explanation.

When a winning combination is formed, the spin continues as those symbols disappear and make room for additional symbols to drop down from above. Therefore, these slots can quickly accumulate a decent payout on a single spin if you get a lucky streak. Gonzo’s Quest by NetEnt is a typical example of what we’re describing.

Online slots payout percentage

There are two main factors that determine a slot’s payout: RTP and variance or volatility.

RTP

RTP stands for Return to Player, and it represents the theoretical long-term payout of a certain slot. Slot machines’ RTP can range between 90-98%. Almost every slot features RTP information that is easily accessible online, or in our slot review section.

However, as slots are inherently based on luck, and come with a combination of factors that determine the payout, RTP should not be your guiding point when you determine which slot you want to play. A slot with 93% is not necessarily worse than one with a RTP of 97%. What’s more important is the slot variance, and the best paying slots feature a good mix of solid RTP and medium variance.

Volatility and variance

Slot variance gives you an idea of how frequently a game pays out. A low-to-medium variance slot will usually dish out frequent payouts, but in lesser amounts. They are ideal when operating with a smaller bankroll. On the other hand, high variance slots feature infrequent payouts, but in larger amounts. That’s not to say a low-variance slot can’t reward you with a sizable sum, and vice-versa. Slot variance is not information you can directly acquire just by looking at an information chart. You usually get a feel for this by playing the game, but there are some ways in which you can identify a game’s variance.

For example, if the reward amount for 3 symbols of the same type is significantly smaller in comparison to 4 or 5-symbol payouts, then you may be dealing with a high variance slot. One more sign of a high-variance game would be if a slot’s major winnings are primarily concentrated in its bonus round, leaving little rewards by way of regular play.

Check out our slot reviews for more information on specific games, so that you can focus less on researching and more on gaming.