How to Play Slots Online For Real Money

A quick guide to finding and choosing online slots games

Last Updated: April 24, 2024

A slot machine is the easiest game you can play in a modern online casino. This is because slot machines are purely random: none of your game play decisions affect your chances of winning. What matters though is where you play, which game you choose, and when you should stop. Here’s how you start playing online slot machines if you’re completely new to online casinos in general and slots in particular.

Things You Should Know

Search for slots casinos online, checking the casino’s licenses, terms and conditions, and bonus policy to make sure they’re trustworthy.
Use the casino’s demo mode to try out different slots games to find ones you like. Then, register your name, address, and email with the casino.
Look for the Return to Player rate (the % a game gives back to players) and variance (how much and often a slots pays out) for the slot on the casino’s website.

Steps

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1
Learn how slots work. Despite the seeming variety, the general rules of every slot are the same. Almost every slot has reels, symbols, and paylines. Advanced video slots also have special symbols, like wilds and scatters, that enhance your gameplay, activate special features like bonus rounds and free spins, and grant extra winnings. Here’s a short glossary:
- Reel - a vertical line where symbols are located. Usually there are 3-5 reels in a slot, and each reel fits 3-5 symbols.
  
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- Symbol - basically, any image that is used to create a winning combination along the payline.
  
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- Payline - a virtual line that goes across the reels, usually from left to right. A win occurs when you get a certain number of matching symbols on an active payline as indicated in the game’s help screen.
  
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- Wild symbol - a so-called Joker in slots that substitutes other symbols to create a winning combination. For example, if you get three Cherry symbols and a Wild on an active payline, it counts as four Cherries.
  
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- Scatter symbol - a special symbol in advanced slots. The special thing about it is that it doesn’t have to appear on an active payline to trigger a win. It may be “scattered” across the reels. In most cases it also activates some kind of bonus round.
  
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- Bonus round - a mini-round within a slot game that grants extra winnings. It may be a simple “pick one of the three chests” game, where your pick determines the win amount, a complex multilevel videogame-like experience with shooting aliens, or anything in-between.
  
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- Free spins - another form of a bonus, where you get a number of spins that don’t reduce your balance. It sometimes comes with additional features like extra Wild symbols, win multipliers, etc.
  
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Almost every online casino these days has slot machines in its game library. However, there are casinos that specialize on slots, offering thousands of those from various developers. They also make it easy for you to find the slot you want by filtering the games by themes, features, and paylines. As for reliability, you should check the casino’s licenses, terms and conditions, bonus policy, and the Return to Player rate. There are portals that review casinos and assign them ratings based on the casino’s quality and trustworthiness, you may Google those as well.

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Most online casinos allow you to try out their games without registration. Browse around the casino, find the Slots section, try out some of the games. If you find something that interests you and feel like playing for real - proceed to registration.
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4
Register at the casino. The registration process is usually very simple and requires you to fill in your email and personal details like post address, date of birth, and full name. The casino needs this information to verify your identity in order to pay out the winnings, so make sure the information is correct.
- Be sure to choose an online casino that is legal in your region. For example, if you're in Canada, you'll want to choose an online casino that is licensed to operate in Canada.
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5
Choose a slot. While you can choose whichever game you like based on your personal preferences, there are two things you should keep in mind - RTP and Variance.
- RTP - stands for Return to Player. This is a theoretical percentage a game gives back to players in the long term. For example, if the RTP of a slot is 97%, it means that for every €100 wagered it returns €97 as payouts, keeping €3 in the casino. Note that this number doesn’t necessarily apply to your particular gaming session, but rather to billions of spins made by all players in total in the lifespan of the game. You may win €1000, and it would mean that a hundred other players lost €10 each. The opposite is also true. Good casinos usually publish this information somewhere on the website. Some slots also have this information available in the game rules.
- Variance - this is basically how often a slots pays out. Low variance slots pay smaller winnings often. High variance slots are the opposite: you may not get any wins for a while, but when the win comes - it’s big. This may result in the same overall RTP, so it’s just a matter of personal preference.
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Now it’s time to spin. The controls in slots are fairly simple, so you shouldn’t have any trouble figuring them out. Check the paytable to see the highest paying symbols and paylines, adjust your bet size, and click the spin button - that’s all it takes.
7

Learn when to stop. However much fun you have while spinning the reels, at some point you will have to stop. Set your bankroll limit before you begin and stick to it. It may also be a good idea to set a win limit. For example, tell yourself to stop when you win 20% over your initial bankroll. This way you’ll save your money for withdrawal or for the next gaming session.

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Warnings

Know that there are common mistakes made by slot players. In fact, new players and even more experienced players will be prone to making some common mistakes. Unfortunately, these are often misunderstandings and grave errors, such as hot and cold streaks in slots or believing that the spins are all related to each other.
- As you start to play slot games, sources of misinformation can inevitably lead to misunderstandings about some of the above. Therefore, always be selective about learning to play online slots, especially when you are just a new slot player!
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How to Play Slots Online For Real Money

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