Dummies guide to playing (and winning) slots

[mabozza]

Hi guys
I did ask this on the MBing forum earlier, but, that is such a busy forum I thought I would start a new thread.
Thanks to Jon for answering my other one, but I am clearly doing something wrong with slots, I am fine with free spins (Self explanatory) but its doing the sign up which is getting me confused. Today I found I had a welcome casino bonus I forgot I had on Betsafe... They would match my deposit for a casino bonus, I stuck £40 in and got £80 to play with. opened a slot and played max lines min stake (20p) on one and just let it autoplay. I checked my available balance (that I could withdraw) it was and still is at zero, been spinning a few hours now and keep checking the balance every 10 mins, anyway I am now down to my last £1 and look likely to bust out. I was told that they have an RTP (return to player) of about 90 odd % but I am about to lose my £40. Is there a clear guide anywhere on how to play the slots? Should you only do the sign up/welcome offers that are on PA? I also get loads of emails from various bookies offering x amount of spins on next deposit etc... have no idea how to separate which are spam and which are worthwhile? Any help from you experts please?

 

[Jon]

You did a slot offer and it didn't work out

Welcome to the world of slot offers

I just do the slot offers that appear on the reloads section in PA

they tell you what to do and tell you if they are low risk or no risk etc

There is no magical secret to it - just do the offers and spin

As long as you keep doing the ones in the reloads you WILL end up UP (see [member=143]auntygeek[/member] posts as examples)

 

[auntygeek]

I would stick with the ones on PA - FOR NOW. As you do them you will learn how to calculate if other offers are worthwhile and build up a list of slots you like.

PA will tell you how to do them - what slot, exactly what you need to do, and an average value of the offer.

Generally deposit offers aren't worth doing. The wagering requirements are too high to end up on average in profit.

usual types of offers:
- wager X to get X free spins
- wager X to get X bonus

The free spins and bonus can sometimes also have to be wagered meaning you can end up busting out - having no bonus funds left. You can also end up in profit or make a loss from initial wagering. These offers have an element of risk. What you can guarantee is that you won't lose MORE than the initial stake. Eg wager £10 and get 10 free spins. Go into it accepting you MAY lose £10 but NO more. If you can accept this, then 99.9% of times you will do better than losing the entire £10. However due to variance you might do a load of the same offer and the same slot and end up:

£5 down
£10 up
£7 down
£19 up
£1 down
£3 down
£70 up

Brace yourself for this variance but know that if you do all the offers PA recommend then your casino winnings will grow - but not always in a straight line! I personally am around £450 up in casino offers since the end of December, around 25% of my total profit. Some offers I have lost money on, and I think - oh poo sticks, if I hadn't done that offer I would be £50 better off. If I had got that bonus round like Jon did I would be £80 up. That's the way these offers go.

BUT the only thing that is certain is if I hadn't done ANY casino offers I would be £450 down from where I am now.

WELCOME to the emotional rollercoaster that is slots - you'll love it, and you'll hate it!

 

[mabozza]

You did a slot offer and it didn't work out

Welcome to the world of slot offers

I just do the slot offers that appear on the reloads section in PA

they tell you what to do and tell you if they are low risk or no risk etc

There is no magical secret to it - just do the offers and spin


As long as you keep doing the ones in the reloads you WILL end up UP (see [member=143]auntygeek[/member] posts as examples)

Thanks Jon (again) So the secret really is just stick to the ones on PA? Just got a huge win (£82) on what was my second last spin before busting out LOL, so, I can just keep plodding on with this and see if I get past wagering (Cant find anything that tells you how much wagering has been done)

 

[mabozza]

Thanks Aunty... great advice there... one question, you say that if you deposit £10 then bust out you wont lose more than the tenner, so, on the one am doing just now £40 deposit get £80 to play) had I not got the big win and bust out could I stick another £10 in and that would not lose?

 

[auntygeek]

Other tips and tricks:

Use auto spin and a notebook to jot down how many spins you've done to keep track of wagering

For wagering use slots with highest RTP (return to player) which you can find out from googling. High RTP include: Halloween fortune, a night out, Santa surprise, lotto madness, wild gambler.

Minimum stakes reduces variance. On the whole you shouldn't lose big amounts but you won't often have big £100-200 wins either. The bigger wins come from upping your spins (Jon mostly does £1-2) but this increases variance meaning you can lose big... I lost £165 wagering £1300 on £1 spins today! But I won £115 last week doing £1 wagers and hitting good bonuses. Swings and roundabouts!

Don't chase losses. If you finish an offer down, just move onto the next one. Don't sink loads of your own cash into the slot without a prospect of bonuses to try to win back your money - that's just gambling.

The silver lining to all of this is the bookies love you using the casino as the house edge on every single damn game means they profit no matter what. Therefore if you want to spin through 10x£1 spins on wild gambler on a Monday after having a load of free bet offers on the weekend this won't hurt - and hey you might just win (I won £70 doing just this when there was no offer on).

Be careful, keep your head - and keep us updated

 

[auntygeek]

Thanks Aunty... great advice there... one question, you say that if you deposit £10 then bust out you wont lose more than the tenner, so, on the one am doing just now £40 deposit get £80 to play) had I not got the big win and bust out could I stick another £10 in and that would not lose?

No... Your offer is deposit £40 and get X bonus. Whatever happens you won't lose MORE than that £40. If you put more money in then yes you can lose that as well!

 

[Uhhhhh]

Just to add...

The amount of wagering needed will often determine it's value - for example if you get a £10 bonus that needs wagering once (i.e. you just need to do £10 worth of spins then you profit whatever is left over from those winnings) then that's great value and you're more likely to get a bit of profit even if you don't get a big win, however if you get a £10 bonus that needs wagering 20 times (so you need to do £200 of spins) then the likelihood is that you will 'bust out' (lose all of your own money that you deposited) before you ever come close enough to fulfilling the wagering.

If ever in doubt about an offer, then ask people on here or on the 'Is this offer worth doing?' thread on PA - that's what I do

 

[auntygeek]

The way to work out if an offer is theoretically profitable on average is:

Calculate total amount of wagering

Multiplied by

(1 - RTP of the slot)

If that amount is less than the bonus you get or amount you should get from free spins that has negative value and isn't profitable long term.

Eg: wager £10 x20 for a £5 cash bonus

Total wagering : £10 X £20 = £200
Multiplied by (1-97%) is £6

£5 cash bonus - £6 = -£1

On average you'd lose £1 from doing this offer so it is not worth doing

If the bonus was larger however that would cover the losses from wagering (in theory, on average) so would be worth doing

Actual results subject to VARIANCE!

 

[Queen]

This has confused me lol.
As I said in the MB thread, my pennies are tied up. So, I was gonna do the winner casino offer. What do you reckon

 

[asajj]

Came across this when googling something and should say it is a good thread

I can't get my head around max lines minimum stakes thing though. Perhaps good thing as I don't have much money to lose at the moment and keeping clear from these.