Online Slots

Exploring Game Features

Modern video slots are some of the most exciting games available at online casinos. They are packed with next-level graphics, fun animations and high quality FX sounds and music. But before you get carried away, it’s worth taking a look at the various features, so you know exactly what to do when the next bonus round happens. Right off the bat, you’ll notice that you can adjust your bet amount for each spin, increase or decrease the number of paylines (the amount of potential winning combinations across the reels) and either spin manually or engage auto-spin so you can sit back and relax while the money rolls in (hopefully!).

The next thing to do is to hit the ‘i’ or ‘?’ icon, which will reveal all the rules of the game along with some vital stats, such as the volatility and RTP (Return to Player). We’ll explain these in a moment. But first of all, check out the paytable in this area, which will tell you exactly how much you can win for each combination of symbols across any of the paylines that you have selected.

Scatter, Bonus and Wild Symbols Explained

Aside from the standard reel symbols, which can be anything from fruit symbols (lemons, cherries and oranges, for example) to playing card symbols (such as Ace, King, Queen, Jack and 10), or they may be themed to the particular game, there are also some special symbols. These are the ones that will land you free spins or bonus rounds or massive wins. Here are the most common types of special symbols:

• Scatter Symbols: Getting these in the right combination across the reels will either trigger a big win or trigger the bonus round (where the wins can get truly huge).
• Bonus Symbols: These are similar to Scatter symbols in that they will also trigger a bonus round, but they have to be lined up in specific configurations to enter that round.
• Wild Symbols: There are many variations on what Wild symbols do in each game, but most commonly they replace any of the other symbols to make a winning combination.

Again, we recommend hitting the ‘i’ or ‘?’ icon in each game so that you can fully understand what each of the special symbols will do in that particular game. You may also see these Scatter, Bonus and Wild symbols explained in the game’s intro sequence, so pay attention!

Learning How to Play Online Slots

Assuming you’ve moved on from the classic 3-reel slots (otherwise known as fruit machines because of their fruit-themed symbols), you’ll be playing a modern 5-reel video slot. These typically have up to around 25 paylines (though some newer games have hundreds of paylines, but we’ll keep it simple for the time being). This 25 payline layout means that your goal is to match identical symbols in straight lines across the reels, or diagonally or in a zig-zag formation. You can, of course, select to play with less paylines, but this decreases your chances of winning on every spin – but it does mean that you aren’t wagering quite as much with each spin. Another way to play is to select a single payline across the middle, which is never a bad idea while you’re still learning the rules of the game and you want to conserve your cash for later.

Exploring Winning Strategies

We mentioned slot volatility and RTPs earlier on, so let’s return to them now to get a grasp of how to play a slot with the aim of winning. Volatility refers to how the game has been set up mathematically. There are three categories of volatility: low, medium and high. Low volatility means that you are likely to get a lot of small wins as you play, with the frequency of those wins being quite high. High volatility is the opposite – you might not win in quite a while, but when you do score a winning combination, the amount of money you win is significantly higher. Medium volatility, if you haven’t guessed already, is somewhere halfway between low and high volatility.

The other important factor when choosing a video slot to play is the RTP. This is the Return to Player and is expressed as a percentage. Let’s take an example. Say a slot has an RTP of 95%. That means, over the course of millions of spins, the average payout will be 95% of what is wagered. So, for every 100 rupees you wager, you can expect to win back 95 rupees, with the other 5 rupees being the casino’s house edge or profit. This in no way means that you can’t win a huge chunk of cash, but just that on average lots of players will lose in order that the lucky ones win.

Playing Online Slots for Free

As we said in our introduction, you can play many of the most popular slot games right here at pro-casinos. These will open up in demo or fun mode, as they call it, meaning you wager virtual coins and win them back in return. The advantage of this is that you aren’t risking any of your own money while you try out a new game or perfect your playing strategy. Our only advice on this is to make sure you don’t play in this mode too long, because there’s some real money to be made out there. Good luck!