What You Should Look for in an Online Slot

The humble slot machine was devised by a man named Charles Fey. This inventor was born in Bavaria but settled in the United States and his slot machine was called the Liberty Bell.

Although slot machines have been on something of a journey in the hundred-plus years since then, many of the features have remained the same. A slot game is one that comes with reels containing picture icons, a handle or button to spin them and pay lines to put the coins you wish to bet into.

If you want to make a slot game work, you simply put your coins in and start the reels spinning. You win if a matching row of icons appears across one of the reels.

The biggest change is that more of the slots are online these days and there hundreds of them, because they are so popular. So what should you look for when choosing one to play? Keep reading to learn.

A Fun Theme

The slot games of old offered more or less the same fruit reel icons – which led to them being nicknamed ‘fruit machines’. Online slot games have a lot more variety in terms of subject matter though and the best ones are fully-developed mini stories.

Take the Fishing Frenzy game for example. This title has been a big hit with discerning slot lovers because the fishing theme is so nicely developed.

All of the reel icons are related to the theme and the video graphics depict a fishing expedition on a deep blue Caribbean sea to try to claim a lucrative catch. There is the boat, the fisherman and an ocean full of lively coloured fish waiting to take the bait.

It is also a good metaphor given that every slot player is ‘fishing’ for cash payouts and is an object example of how to bring a slot theme to life with classy, colourful visuals.

A Good RTP

In the slot world, RTP stands for ‘return to player’. It is a simple percentage that tells you how much you are likely to win for the sums you wager on a slot.

The rules are clear: the higher the RTP, the better your chances of a win are. Thus you should only ever choose a game that has a reasonable RTP, with 95% being a decent cut-off point. Anything below that is almost certainly not worth putting your money into.

Again, if we take Fishing Frenzy as an example, the RTP is 96.12%. That is another reason for its popularity.

Bonus Icons

Bonus icons are reel icons that the creators of online slots sometimes throw into the gaming mix and they are a big advantage for players. They help to make the games more unpredictable and interesting, but also increase the odds of a win.

Some examples of such reel icons are a Scatter, a Wild and a Bonus. The first of these will usually activate a free spin of the reels if you land a certain number of them on the board.

The second takes the place of a missing icon to provide you with a matching – and thus winning – reel. The third triggers any bonus round that the game has.

It makes sense to pick a game with these bonus icons rather than one without them. On Fishing Frenzy, the Scatter icon is the boat, while the Wild is the fisherman icon. They both work in the way that you would expect and mean it is a game where the winning prospects are good.

Medium Volatility

The volatility of a slot game just means how often it produces wins and what level of risk there is in betting on it. A high volatility slot is also high risk; it does not pay out very often but if you do win, it is likely to be a sizeable sum.

A slot that is low in volatility will pay out a lot, but the actual wins will only be small amounts. Ultimately, a slot which is of medium volatility provides the best balance of risk and reward.

Fishing Frenzy is a medium volatility slot that delivers reasonably sized payouts for its players on a regular basis.

The Jackpot

The ultimate dream of every online slot player is to land the top jackpot and it needs to be big enough to make the game tempting. The last piece of advice in our slot tips guide is to find out what the maximum jackpot is for a game before starting to play it.

On Fishing Frenzy it is a fine 1,000x the bet; just one more reason why people love it.

Look for a slot that delivers on each of these different elements to get the most from your play.