Slots are currently unrivaled in the category of games of chance. As the most popular casino game in the world, slots bring massive amounts of profit to casinos every year. Players often seek ways to profit from these games and improve their odds. Some players often say that any attempt to improve your odds is mere superstition. This claim is based on the fact that slots are random and dependent on your luck, therefore you cannot realistically increase your chances of winning. But there is one aspect that all slot players agree to call important. That is the choice of online casinos.
In this article, we look at how playing in different online casinos can affect the payout of slots.
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The rising and falling tides of players
When trying to understand what affects the performance of slots, we should consider everything, from the game engine used to the country or region where the player is, to the basic parameters of slot games. One of the latter is the RTP percentage.
The RTP measures how much of the slot’s lifetime wagers are paid out to players as winnings. The RTP is measured by spinning the slot a large number of times (1 million and above) and calculating the total losses and wins. Then, a ratio of losses and wins is calculated as a percentage and presented to players as the RTP. It is a generally accepted guide to how a game will perform.
Therefore, we could draw a parallel here to how the game is affected by wins and losses.
- If a slot pays out a massive win, in theory, it has deviated from the RTP and will aim to equalize. It would do so by taking in players’ bets and avoiding further payouts. In theory, the slot would become “tighter”.
- If a slot hasn’t paid out any wins in a while, in theory, that means that the game’s RTP is dropping. When it becomes lower, it will aim to rise again, so in theory, some big wins could be expected.
If a player trusted this logic, we could imply that the payout of slots is affected by the number of players, and therefore is different in competing casinos. Busier casinos might have games that are more volatile due to the increased rate of bets being placed. However, this theory could be challenged by the random aspect of all slot games. Thanks to the RNG, the games that we play are completely random and anything could happen.
Different game engines/software
Moving on, we have another aspect that is more reliable in differentiating the payouts of slots on competing casino websites. Different casinos use different software which can impact the performance of the slot directly.
- The same slot could be run on two different software which will mean direct differences in the coding of the game. This can impact the game’s hit rate (frequency of wins), variance, and overall experience. Watch out for the software credentials when the game is loading, if you spot 2 different software for the same slot in 2 different casinos, these games will differ.
Your location can impact the game
In games like progressive jackpots, the prizes are built from players’ bets. Some progressive slots operate worldwide – for example, the Mega Moolah slot. This means that anyone in the world can win the main prize. Other slots, like NetEnt’s Divine Fortune, tend to be offered to specific regions, for example, the US players all play one version, while the UK plays another.
Again, we could imply that by playing the same game in different casinos (regionally) we are effectively playing 2 different instances of the same slot.
Conclusion
Due to casinos using different software and different servers, we could imply that the payouts will be different from site to site. In simpler terms, the games are likely to run at different intervals in different casinos, therefore their payouts will not be matching.
However, when asked about which casino will be the most profitable, the question cannot be answered for sure. Only the casinos know the algorithms and active states of their games and this information is carefully hidden from the public. The best that the player can do is try out a range of different casinos and find their favorites.
Do not forget to gamble responsibly and follow us for more content!
