A lot has been written about the honesty of land-based slot machines. An excellent article by Steve Bourie is titled, “Are Slot machines Honest? ” and originally appeared in the 1999 American Casino Guide 안전놀이터. (It can be found online by searching for the title in Google or Yahoo!. ) Physical, land-based slot machines have a lot of “variations” (being polite) than can deceive the player. Of course, they are all illegal and do not happen. But read the article, closely.
On the other hand, online casino slots use an electronic “random number generator” or RNG, operating inside a very large computer program that manages the game graphics, the player accounts of those who join the game, the statistics of every hand played, and much more. The random number generator is hard-coded software instructions that do not change. There is no “sense switch” (see the Bourie article) that can be flipped to give players worse odds. Regarding control parameters, each use of the RNG is the same as the last use, and will be the same as the next use. The numbers will come out randomly, but the pattern of randomness never changes. This is a true advantage of software-based online casino slots.
Land-based slot machines can also have payout percentages as low as 83%, which is not true with online casino slots. In online gaming, each machine has the same winning percentage as the other machines. You can see the payout percentages for many online gaming sites, and you will see that it rarely drops below 95% – that is, the house makes a 5% profit, on the average. In fact, most casinos can document that their payout percentages are in the 97% – 98% range. This means that you can spend an hour, gamble your $100 stake about 3 times, and on the average it will cost you $7. 50. But players don’t gamble to be average: the true reward is the high-paying win. And the high-paying win is balanced, of course, by a number of players who lose and finance that win.
So are online casino slots fair? Yes, they clearly are. The software that operates the games is tested regularly by independent testing laboratories (look for logos at the bottom of the casino website), and no game is individually controllable to be biased. That is a far cry from the situation with land-based slot machines, appropriately called “one-armed bandits”. When i first started playing at online casinos few years ago, I was a real bonus whore who tried out every possible way of getting free casino cash, every free dime and gambled it away. I never purchased maximum amount of money back then to receive maximum amount of bonus money, because I always thought: “Hey, I am going to win eventually anyway, I don’t want to spend extra $50 for getting more green to my casino account! ” Of course, I lost it all and was quickly depositing again, this time without bonus, which clearly meant I was not very good handling my jumpy bankroll.
This is not what I do know. Although nowadays I don’t play slots, blackjack and craps very often at online casinos, I still hop by once in a while and give myself a shot. Some might call me a “bonus whore” even now, since i choose casinos by bonus. I don’t do that systematically anymore since i run my own gambling website and I keep getting generous bonus offers that i mostly keep for my visitors.
What I do now – I search the most generous bonus amount I can get from a casino with my first purchase and I buy myself that bonus. Searching the generous bonus amount includes reading terms and conditions carefully and doing some research work to make sure I am not getting ripped off.
I call these huge bonuses high roller bonuses, since they are perfect for people who like playing long sessions and who are willing to spend a lot of money in order to win big. High rollers are also aware that they are going to lose in a long term, but if they are going to lose anyway, why not lose the minimum amount of money? This is the root of online casino bonuses that every player should understand.
Since most of these high roller bonuses have similar terms and conditions, I will bring you few examples from random casinos and explain them to you. The following is essential, since if you don’t follow the terms you might lose all the winnings and the bonus itself as well.
The first example is from Racetrack Casino, that has 20% first deposit bonus up to $500. In the interests of fair gaming, they require you to have wagered a minimum of six times the total amount deposited plus bonus, up to a maximum wager of $18, 000 for each deposit plus bonuses made during the bonus promotion time. The following is extremely important for you to understand! – If you make a withdrawal before wagering six times your deposit and bonus, the bonus money and winnings will be removed from your account.
The other example comes from Europa Casino. This casino claims to have $2400 welcome bonus for all the players, although it isn’t quite so. They have one of the trickiest bonus systems. I have personally only used the $500 welcome bonus, which is actually a 25% first deposit bonus. “Low rollers” have to do with 100% first deposit bonus with many times smaller first purchase.
To the bonus: In the interest of fair gaming they’re ordered to cash out any amount of money you must wager at least twelve times your play bonus plus deposit. Players depositing in U. K. Pounds must wager at least eighteen times your play bonus plus deposit. If you withdraw before having reached the minimum wagering requirements, your bonus and winnings will be void. So, again the similar bonus structure.
At least now you can understand why casinos offer those bonuses – it’s not very likely you have lots of money left when you have wagered at least twelve times your play bonus plus deposit. But you can always get lucky, and this is what we all want when we step in to a casino!
