Slot Strategies: The most important Tips and Tricks

Susanna Bock
Susanna Bock Author
Casino Strategist

Have you always wanted to play at an online casino, but aren't sure how to go about it? Or maybe you've been playing at online casinos for a while and are investigating how to improve your chances of winning or your gaming experience? In either case, a solution to your situation lies in slot strategy. Depending on the angle with which you approach the game or select the titles, your gaming experience can improve noticeably.

In this article, we provide you with the basic strategies for playing in online casinos. In addition, there are many helpful smaller tips and tricks that will give you additional advantages.

This guide focuses mainly on slot machines. Slots are among the most popular games in online casinos and are often the first port of call for new players. Since this article is also aimed at inexperienced players, it is only fitting to take a closer look at the basis.

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Our slot strategy at a glance

Before we look at the details of the most important tips, you will find a practical overview of all our tips here. This way, you know exactly what to expect. So you can also get more specific information about the tip that interests you the most:

As you will surely notice, our tips can basically be divided into two groups. The first group concerns preparations to be made before the start of the game. These are at least as significant as the game tips themselves. Good preparation and the right attitude contribute significantly to success. The second set of tips is about choosing and playing slots yourself, informing basic characteristics and strategies.

Choose the right online casino

The first tip doesn't deal directly with slot machines. But don't worry, he's really helpful for that. Before you decide on a slot machine, you should first think about which online casino you want to play at.

If you are wondering how to choose the best online casino, don't worry, we have summarized the most important criteria for you:

1. Secure lucrative bonus offers for yourself

One of the most important aspects when choosing a new online casino is the bonus offer of the provider. Even if you are superficially interested in a fun slot experience, it is worth taking a look at the welcome package for new players.

Pay particular attention to whether free spins are offered. These are free game rounds for slot machines, but they can bring you real winnings. Online casinos often add these free spins to their bonus offer, which gives new players the opportunity to try out the provider's game portfolio and, with a little luck, to win their first winnings.

Of course, free spins are especially rewarding when you like slot machines the most in an online casino. This way, you can easily and without risk familiarize yourself with the provider's game portfolio and maybe even find your new favorite slot.

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If you already have a favorite slot, there may even be the possibility that the respective casino offers free spins for exactly this slot. But even otherwise, getting as many free spins as possible is a core element of any slot strategy and you can already achieve initial success in this area when choosing a casino.

2. Pay attention to the game selection

Of course, the welcome bonus offers you a first insight into the game portfolio of the respective online casino, but it is still recommended to find out more about the other offers.

This is especially true if you have a favorite title that should absolutely be available in the casino. It would be an unpleasant surprise to sign up for a new online casino only to find out that your favorite slot is not offered at all.

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By the way, the same applies if you are a fan of a certain genre. For example, there are genre or franchise slots that are dedicated to a certain theme. Slots that are set in an Egyptian or Aztec setting are especially popular.

Of course, slots with the classic fruit motif are also very popular. If you have already developed preferences in this regard, you should make sure that the online casino of your choice has the largest possible range of corresponding slots in its repertoire.

Set a budget that suits you

The next important step of preparation is to set the right budget for you and stick to it.

It doesn't matter whether you are a high roller or want to play with a limited budget - if you lose more drive in than you want or can actually afford, it is very annoying. To avoid this negative experience, it is significant to commit to the right budget at the beginning.

Of course, the amount of the budget looks different depending on your personal situation, and the frequency of your casino visits also plays a role. If you play regularly, you logically need more capital than if you visit the casino only occasionally.

A helpful trick to increase the startup budget for your slot experience a little, is again the bonus offer of the respective online casino. Besides the already mentioned free spins, almost every casino also offers deposit bonuses - mostly even in combination.

A deposit bonus is a percentage bonus, the exact amount of which depends on the size of your deposit. A deposit bonus of 100% is common, which consequently doubles your deposit and thus your starting capital. However, the casino usually sets a maximum bonus amount so that you are not free to use the offer as you wish. However, you can move freely within the given framework.

Get out in time

If you keep winning and winning, at a certain point, the winning streak will break and losses will reoccur. Therefore, the kind of casino gambling is to know when to stop and cash out your winnings.

For this reason, before you start, it's best to set a game goal that you want to achieve. When you actually achieve that win, you'll know it's time to quit.

The agony of choice - which slot machine is the most promising?

Part of any casino strategy is choosing the right slot machine. Fortunately, there are some aspects that can be used to basically classify and compare different slots:

1. The RTP value

The first indication of a slot machine's winning potential is the title's payout percentage. The payout ratio or RTP (Return to Player) refers to the average total winnings of all players. The RTP is expressed as a percentage value. For example, if the RTP is 96%, you can imagine that for every euro invested you will get 96 cents back.

At this point, the question naturally arises as to how a player can make winnings when less is paid out than is deposited. Don't worry, everything is above board. It must be emphasized that the RTP is the average winnings of all players.

Accordingly, the RTP does not provide any binding statement as to how high profits you can expect. So, of course, there are players who make big profits as well as those who unfortunately mainly have to complain about losses. This results in an average RTP, which says little about your chances of winning.

Instead, the use of the RTP is a rough guide for you about which slots are beginner-friendly and fair and which you should rather keep your hands off. Basically, an RTP of 95% is reasonable, so you can take this as a guideline.

Here you will find a table that contains a selection of slot machines that are characterized by particularly high RTP values. This way, you can get a quick overview of which titles are characterized by a particularly good RTP and could therefore be of interest to you:

Nr. Titel RTP Provider
1. Ugga Bugga 99,07 % Playtech
2. Mega Joker 99,00 % NetEnt
3. Nemo’s Voyage 99,00 % Williams Interacitve
4. Ooh Aah Dracula 99,00 % Barcrest
5. Jackpot 6000 98,86 % NetEnt
6. 1429 Uncharted Seas 98,60 % Thunderkick
7. Blood Suckers 98,00 % NetEnt
8. Jokerizer 98,00 % Yggdrasil
9. Good Girl Bad Girl 97,80 % Betsoft
10. Retro Reels Extreme Heat 97,50 % Microgaming

You must have noticed that no slot has an RTP of 100% or more. This observation is briefly explained: the missing percentages represent the casino's profit generated from the slots. Logically, a casino needs to earn a little from its players' money; otherwise it would not be worth starting up. The goal of every player is precisely not to be among the users who lose more than they earn from playing.

2. The appropriate volatility

Besides the RTP, there is another measure that can provide information about the winning behavior of slots. This is the volatility of the slot machine. Volatility refers to the fluctuations in the win rate. A slot machine with high volatility is characterized by less frequent payouts. However, the winnings are more frequent and can often compensate for the losses made before. A slot with low volatility, on the other hand, offers more regular winnings, but smaller ones.

Since the average winnings are usually balanced in both variants, the choice between high and low volatility is a question of the type of player you are. For example, if you like to play risky, high volatility might be right for you.

However, you might have to face very long dry spells without any winnings. Especially inexperienced players might get discouraged by such a situation. So, if this is one of your first casino visits, it is recommended that you rather bet on a title that works with more reliable odds.

On this basis, you can also develop a better strategy. If you work with more regular wins, you can better estimate whether you can compensate for your losses again. That's why lost game rounds hurt less because you should recover from them in the foreseeable future.

The right number of stakes

At this point, you've probably already worked out your budget. The next step is to allocate the budget as sensibly as possible for the individual game rounds.

Thus, at the beginning, it is recommended to play with low stakes for now. It is likely that you will not be too familiar with the game mechanics of the slot during your first rounds of play. Accordingly, it would be unnecessarily frustrating to gamble away large portions of your budget during this early stage. Accordingly, it is advisable to approach the game with smaller stakes until you are familiar with all the mechanics.

The game moments in which high stakes are particularly worthwhile are, on the other hand, more difficult to generalize. This is because bonus rounds and special features differ from game to game. Nevertheless, there are some rewarding game mechanics that can be encountered more often in slots. The best example is expanding wild symbols. Wild symbols are game symbols that act as wilds and thus seamlessly fit into a winning combination. This way, wins can be upgraded or newly unlocked.

In the case of an expanding wild, the wild symbols remain on the game field for further rounds, so that a real winning cascade can be triggered. Since the numerous wild symbols provide for extremely high chances of winning, it is accordingly a good idea to place larger bets at this moment.

Conclusion: The best slot strategy

In summary, it can be said that the right slot strategy consists of several factors. Not only the playing itself is relevant, but also a good preparation.

Firstly, it is important to choose a quality online casino that offers you the best lucrative bonus offers. In addition, it is best to set a budget that fits your individual situation before you start playing.

When it comes to the gaming itself, it is significant to pick a beginner-friendly slot machine. Helpful hints are to have the highest RTP possible, so you can be sure that you won't invest your time in a machine with a below-average payout ratio. Furthermore, it is advisable to select a slot that has a lower volatility. This way, you can best judge when you should continue playing or rather abort.

Susanna Bock Author
Casino Strategist

Susanna is a casino strategy expert and crypto gambling pioneer who uses her mathematical knowledge to develop and share detailed analysis and strategies for online casino games and crypto gambling.

Last updated on 01/07/2024 um 9:44 p.m.