For obvious reasons, you’re hardly likely to come across many casino slot fans who’d happily sabotage their own chances of winning. Quite to the contrary, the whole point of slot gaming in the eyes of most of those taking part is working towards those plentiful prizes.
We all know it’s supposed to be about fun and enjoyment, but still…you’d hardly be tempted to play if the jackpot on offer was zilch!
Nevertheless, research would seem to suggest that a surprising proportion of dedicated slot fans and followers are in fact sabotaging their odds of winning, without even realising it. It’s never particularly pleasant to be told you’re doing things wrong, but if looking to make improvements, learning from your mistakes represents a good place to start.
So for those who favour slots both online and offline, what follows is a brief overview of just a few common ways in which you may be sabotaging yourself right now:
1 – Failing to Research Slots RTP
First and foremost, it is always in your best interests to research the RTP of the slots you intend to play. The RTP representing exactly how much money the machine in question pays out in accordance with how much is paid in. For example, if you find a slot that has an RTP of 97%, this would mean that for every £100 put in, it pays £97 back and keeps £3. As such, the higher the RTP, the more the respective machine pays out. However, what’s important to remember about RTP is that it isn’t quite as black and white as it seems. Just because the theoretical machine outlined above pays back £97 for every £100 taken, this doesn’t mean that you yourself will win £97 for every £100 you put in. Quite to the contrary, you could easily lose thousands and the next gamer win every penny of it.
2 – Not Reading the Rules
Far too many gamers simply select an online slot for the way it looks or its reviews/and recommendations and begin throwing money at it without a second thought. They don’t bother to read the rules of the game or take into account any aspect of its special features, bonuses and jackpots. Which depending on the specifics of the slot can be a recipe for disaster. It could be that your approach entirely eliminates you from contention for the jackpot, that you don’t realise you could be maximising potential wins with higher stakes or simply that you’ve no idea what kinds of features and bonus rounds you should be playing for. Long story short – if you can’t be bothered to read the instructions in full, don’t bother pumping a penny into the slot.
3 – Ignoring Loyalty Schemes
This may only apply to those who play regularly, but it’s always worth considering what’s available in terms of loyalty schemes. In some instances, you’ll find yourself invited to all manner of interesting and exclusive tournaments, competitions and so on. In others, free spins and other bonuses are handed out on a regular basis. As these are all the kinds of goodies that are technically available free of charge, you might as well get involved.
4 – Only Playing for Big Progressive Jackpots
Progressive jackpots can be exceptionally tempting, but the actual odds of taking one home are astronomical. In fact, you’ve just about as much chance of winning the lottery jackpot as you have scooping up a top-level progressive jackpot. Hence it being better to view these kinds of life-changing prizes as lotteries in their own right – never the kinds of slots you should stick with exclusively. Given the size of the prizes available, progressives tend to have spectacularly lower RTPs than their more modest counterparts. Meaning that not only are you highly unlikely to win the jackpot, you are also considerably less likely to win anything at all!
5 – Always selecting auto play
The biggest problem with auto play is the way in which it becomes far too easy to lose track of exactly how many unsuccessful spins you’ve made so far and how much money you’ve lost in the process. What’s more, handing control over to an automated system to a large extent removes every bit of enjoyment from the equation. This is where slot gaming becomes more habitual and robotic than a pleasant and entertaining way of passing time. While there’s definitely a time and place for features like auto play, selecting them instinctively typically isn’t the way to go.
6 – Not playing the field
Just because you’ve found what may be an incredibly entertaining and enjoyable slot doesn’t mean that there aren’t dozens of even better slots out there with your name on them. With such an extraordinary library of titles to choose from, staying put for too long really doesn’t come highly recommended. The privilege of being able to play the field and try out as many slots as necessary is one thing gamers in general should be taking advantage of.
7 – Believing in ‘hot’ machines
One of the worst things any slot gamer can do is convince themselves that there is such a thing as a ‘hot’ machine. That being, a machine that is either on an apparent streak of prize payouts, or is ‘due’ to hand over the goods in the very near future. The reason being that there’s no such thing as a hot machine – there never has been and there never will be. It is all completely random, so don’t go wasting your time on false hope and presumptions.
8 – Overlooking free spins
Last but not least, you can be as sceptical as you like when it comes to casino bonuses – a little scrutiny here and there can be a good thing. However, to overlook the kinds of bonuses that include free spins really isn’t in your best interests. One reason being that regardless of wagering requirements and attached terms, they’re still inherently 100% free spins to play or at least practice with. And given that it isn’t unheard of for gamers to hack their way toward decent cash prizes from the free spins they’ve been handed, it simply makes sense to at least give them a go!