How Much Money Can You Make Playing Online Slots?

Reel-spinning games are the most popular casino mainstays and the most played gambling options on virtually all gaming floors. Real money slots were invented in the late 19th century but morphed into their current form in the early-1960s when Bally Manufacturing created the first series of electromechanical machines.

Online iterations of casual gamblers’ favorite betting pick showed up two years after Microgaming developed the first internet casino software in 1996 when online casino USA sites debuted thanks to proprietary technology developed by Toronto-based WagerLogic.

Now, over twenty thousand online slots and other online casino games are floating around the digital sphere, reigning supreme above all other gambling genres. Thus, they leave many laypeople with no previous experience wondering – just how much money they can make playing online slots at mobile casino sites.

In the sub-headings below, we will explain key slot specifications, how they define payouts, and what you can expect to win on different types of reel-spinners?

RTP & Variance

RTP is the slot term for house edge.

RTP stands for return-to-player. It is a game spec that signifies the odds a slot offers. For example, the current industry average for a reel-spinning game is an RTP of 96%. That percentage means that for every $100 wagered on a slot, that title has programing that tells it to keep $4 and pay back $96 to its players over time.

The term overtime refers to millions of spins and derives from simulations designed to check the implemented math model that tries to define the number of wins a game produces. Since this percentage derives from an enormous number of reel rotations, it does not apply to single gaming sessions. Hence, if you see a game with an RTP of 96%, that doesn’t mean that it will for sure give back to you $96 of the $100 you bet on it. There is no way to calculate what prizes it will generate in the short term.

Variance is a famous economic principle defined as the expectation of the squared deviation of a random variable from its sample size. In a slot context, it reveals how often a game will generate winning spins and the size of these prizes. High variance denotes sizeable rewards that get awarded rarely, while low variance indicates the frequent generation of smaller wins by online games.

RTP and variance are correlatable and work together to manage player expectations. As a rule of thumb, high variance slots feature a below than average RTP, while low variance titles usually have an RTP of above 96%. So, high variance slots can often yield wins above a thousand dollars, and low variance ones will give out prizes below one hundred.

In general, most slots do not fall into the category of games that have the best odds. Naturally, exceptions exist, as you can find reel-spinners with RTPs as high as 99%.

Max Exposure Explained

Max exposure is a metric that most gamblers want to know right off the bat. It tells you the highest amount you can win in a given game. However, this spec is highly dependent on the max bet option. Two games can have the same max exposure, let us say, of 5,000x. Yet, one can have a maximum wager size of $100, while the other of $50. That means that the first can payout a top prize of half a million dollars. And the peak reward of the second will be a win of half that.

The simplest way to learn about the max exposure of a given slot is to read online casino reviews. Such articles will for sure outline all relevant title metrics.

Mega Moolah is the most generous online slot ever.

Progressive slots do not have a max win setting. Their prize pots grow until some lucky player hits the desired symbol combo and rakes in all the gathered dough. Microgaming’s Mega Moolah is this industry’s online progressive monster, with a record win of $21 million won in April 2021. That is almost $19 million short of the land-based record set on the Megabucks machine at the Excalibur casino in 2003. The mentioned $39.4 million reward ranks as one of the biggest casino wins of all time.

High variance spinners have max exposure settings in the several thousand. Low variance games only have ones that payout top wins that multiply your bet several hundred times over.

What Are Your Odds of Hitting a Jackpot in Slots?

You must understand that a jackpot is simply a term for a game’s top prize. A jackpot win can be a prize of $10,000 or ten million dollars. It all depends on the product in question. As discussed, progressive jackpots are something entirely different. They do not have a fixed value and no upper cap. What they do have is a seed amount. It is the sum to which the prize pot resets following a win.

Going by all this, it should be clear that game developers set the odds of their products, and then operators like Ignition Casino have the option to tweak them. The creator of the Megabucks machine, IGT, has famously stated that the chances of winning this game’s jackpot are one in fifty million. Still, over the decades, over a hundred people have won prizes in the several millions of dollars on this land-based physical slot.

Concerning online spinners, the odds in play are similar. Mega Moolah’s winning chance en route to its main reward is one in 49,836,032. It is vital to mention that regarding progressive spinners is that the odds get better if you make the max bet possible on a single spin. Also, some jackpot online slot machines offer several sized jackpots spread apart in different groups.

How Much Can you Lose on a Slot?

Of course, that depends on how much you bet and how long your session lasts. Some may get shocked to learn that games like Playtech’s Age of the Gods: King of Olympus exist, titles that offer a max bet size of $2,500. Conversely, some slots accept pennies as bets. Notable such titles include Blaze of Ra, Book of Dead, Golden Colts, and Valley of the Gods.

According to a Canadian study, the average monthly threshold for casual gamblers is $75. That is the amount allocated for this pastime per month, not the sum bet during 30 days. It stands to reason that betting excessive amounts on high variance slots will likely result in you incurring substantial losses, as those games can quickly go through your budget before paying out a win.

Still, how much one can lose at an online casino is mainly reliant on having proper impulse control and knowing how to avoid common pitfalls.

How Do Bonuses Help?

Bonuses are tools that give you more chances to win.

In short, greatly so. Claiming an online casino bonus is for sure something that everyone should explore. Nevertheless, not all bonuses are worthwhile. Many feature unfulfillable stipulations that makes them worthless.

The best way to check if an online casino promotion is a quality deal is to run it through an expected value calculator. That software will tell you if its terms are realistically completable and if you can expect to profit when you eventually fulfill the deal’s associated wagering requirement.

Know that hundreds of free spins are not better than a decent amount of complimentary gaming cash, as both come with a max bet limit that restricts how much you can win on a given spin. Moreover, some bonuses also have a max win cap. It is a restriction that limits the overall win potential of an offer. These rules apply for no deposit bonuses. Standardly, such promos get linked with high variance slots and feature a max wager limit.

If you desire a steady stream of slot wins, high variance titles are not among the best online slot games to win prizes. That is so because their focus is only on churning out massive rewards.

The Safest Approach

The most commonly given slot advice from experienced players is for newbies to stick to playing low variance reel-spinners with a high RTP, called quick-hit slots. The best options from this batch are Derby Dollars and Diamond Dozen from pioneering provider RealTime Gaming. They both boast an RTP of 97% and a low variance setting, with betting ranges that move from a penny to one hundred dollars. Hence, that makes them suitable for a diverse crowd of gamblers.

Sticking to low variance spinners with a high RTP will guarantee that you will snag a win every fifth spin or so, on average. Therefore, these games are your best bet of staying out of the red and closing your browser with more money in your wallet than what you had when you sat to play. They will not make you rich but ensure that you will not incur considerable losses when enjoying gambling fun.

Another handy piece of advice is to avoid popular betting strategies when gambling on slots. Most of the genre’s options have seven to eight wagering picks, which vary dramatically, making them inappropriate for patterns like the Fibonacci, Paroli, or Martingale betting system.

In closing, no one can tell you how much money you can win when playing slots, as all results get determined by chance. The potential prizes can range from a few dollars to a few million.