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Ultimate Guide: How to Manage Your Money Playing Online Slots

Before you gamble with money at an online casino it’s well worth familiarising yourself with a few basic strategic concepts prior to starting spinning. That way you’ll stand a better chance of making decent, regular wins and you’ll be more likely to enjoy a long and rewarding playing career.

Author: Manyspins Published: April 30, 2021 Last update: July 15, 2022

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There are some strategy concepts unique to slots that experienced players like to use, and they’re not hard to get your head around. The following are some tips on how to manage your money playing online slots:

Volatility

Firstly, it’s worth being aware that slots all come with their own volatility levels. Put simply, low volatility games pay out little and often, whereas high volatility games make you wait longer, but it’s usually more worthwhile when they eventually reward you. Volatility isn’t usually freely available information like return to player percentages, but you can search the web for slots that are high, low or average volatility and get a good idea of which games might suit you the best. If you’re looking to manage your budget stringently then a low volatility game might be preferable.

Progressive vs Regressive

You then need to think about whether you’d like to use a progressive or regressive strategy. There’s a huge range of options within this concept, but broadly speaking if you increase your stakes after not winning for a while then you’re using a progressive system. This works on the basis that statistically-speaking, sooner or later you’re bound to land a winning combination – and if you’re betting a larger amount when you do, you’ll not only recoup what you lost on losing spins, but you’ll also come out slightly ahead – which is the aim of the game, after all.

Obviously, a progressive system is a riskier way to manage your money; if you want to keep a tighter rein on your funds then a regressive system might be preferable, reducing the size of your bets after a series of losses to avoid losing too much more.

Paylines

Another great tip is to remember that most online slots have multiple paylines, and they don’t all need to be activated. Paylines can look intimidating at first, but are effectively just a way of playing the same slot several times at once, increasing the likelihood of a win in return for wagering a larger amount. Many multi-payline games let you choose how many paylines to play, starting from just one. Reducing the number of paylines will lower your bet level and stop your bankroll from fluctuating too much.

Developer Research

To gamble with money as efficiently as possible it’s often worth using a little-known trick that professionals and experts like to employ: If you search the web on player forums you can often pick up anecdotal tips about specific slot games and the developers that make them. Some games and studios have a reputation for only paying out decent amounts when you trigger a feature that only appears very rarely, and if you’re looking to manage your budget carefully these will be worth avoiding.

Demo Games

Our final tip is simple, yet often ignored: Most decent casinos and affiliate sites have free versions of slots that you can play in demo mode. Spend time on these and you’ll know exactly what to expect when you come to try the real thing. You’ll get an excellent feel for how often bonus rounds are triggered, or how often base game features appear.

These are just a few suggestions to help you manage your budget, but when playing slots, it’s important to remember that you don’t need a photographic memory or to be a strategic genius. Some players can count cards at blackjack or possess expert poker skills, but online slots outcomes are far more random than anything produced from decks of cards, and don’t require you to play against other people – making strategy formulation much easier.