Why High Volatility Slots are the Best Players’ Choice
A rating of High Volatility slots (including top casinos in your country)
I have been around the online gambling industry for more than 10 years, and my experience has always been telling me that this statement makes a lot of sense.
Also I have spoken to one online casino owner and one CEO of another online casino regarding this matter, and both of them have confirmed that High Volatility casino games (including video slots) are the worst ones for online casinos, which makes them the best option for players.
From the very beginning, I would like to stress out that what we are going to discuss is not some dubious “winning strategy” in a sense that you still won’t be able to profit in online casinos in the long run. However, it will definitely put you in a better position in the short term, and, jumping forward, online casinos are quite scared of such tactics.
With that being said, to better grasp the topic, we need to dive a bit deeper pertaining how the gambling industry’s economics work.
How exactly do online casinos make money?
Everybody knows that “the house always wins”. I would only add that the house always wins in the long run since we can definitely win (and quite a lot) for some period of time.
The house always wins, because all casino games are mathematically designed to cause losses for players. This phenomenon is called House Edge (or RTP if we are speaking about slots), and it is measured in percentages.
If an online slot has RTP (return to player) level of 96%, it means that each bet you make playing this game you are going to get back 96% of your bet in the long run.
For example, let’s say, you are betting 1 EUR each spin, which means you are theoretically losing 4 cents each spin (you are getting back 96% of 1 EUR bet, that’s how 4 cents was calculated). Each new spin adds 4 extra cents to your “losing” bracket. The more bets you make the better for casinos.
However, there is a quite common misconception circling around that the more money you deposit the better for online casinos. It is actually not like that at all.
Let’s consider these two examples, and everything is going to become crystal clear.
Player A makes a deposit of 500 EUR and makes 5 x 100EUR spins in some High volatile video slot (with RTP of 96%). Player A losses all 5 bets which results in 500 EUR total loss. But what is the theoretical loss for this scenario in the long run?
Player A losses per spin in the long run: 100EUR x 4% = 4 EUR
Player A has lost theoretically in total: 4 EUR (lose rate per spin) x 5 (number of spins) = 20 EUR
So here we have that an online casino has made only 20 EUR in the long run, not 500EUR as so many casino players deem it. Why? Because if you consider 1,000 players A, then some of them are going to win, some of them are going to lose. But on average they are going to lose exactly 4% per spin (since return to player equals to 96%).
Ok, let’s consider another situation.
Player B makes a deposit of 200 EUR and makes 500 x 2EUR spins in some Low volatile slot (with the same RTP level of 96%). After these 500 bets the balance of Player B is gone. Let’s take a look at what overall theoretical loss is going to be.
Player B losses per spin in the long run: 2EUR x 4% = 0.08 EUR
Player B has lost theoretically in total: 0.08 EUR (lose rate per spin) x 500 (number of spins) = 40 EUR
Here we have that player B has made twice more money for the online casino than player A. Even though the nominal loss of player A is much bigger.
Hence, online casinos (as any other businesses) care only about turnover, not the nominal amount of money we spend.
In case with player A turnover was 500 EUR (5 spins x 100 EUR), whereas player’s B turnover was 1,000 EUR (500 spins x 2 EUR).
The best and the worst player from the casinos’ perspective
From the previous chapter, it follows that the best player for online casinos is the one who has got higher turnover, or, to put it simply, who plays more. While the amount of money we deposit does not really matter.
However, there is one more crucial detail why playing High volatile slots (especially for high stakes) is a nightmare for online casinos. The answer lies in the realm of the psychology of human beings.
High volatile slots “eats” money fast, but they allow us to win really big. Whereas Low volatile slots allow us to enjoy gaming sessions for a longer period of time, but winnings are much less lucrative there.
I guess nobody will argue that players who have managed to hit a decent winning (let’s say x10 of your deposit sum) are more likely to withdraw the money. And such winnings are much more likely to happen in High volatility slots.
On the other hand, players who have managed to hit a moderate winning (x2-x3 of your deposit) are more likely to continue playing. Moderate winnings are a common thing to have in Low volatility slots.
That’s why online casinos are not happy at all about high volatility games. Exactly in such games players either win fast and withdraw all the money or lose fast. Both scenarios mean lower turnover for online casinos or lower profits. For online casino players, lower turnover means exact opposite or the lowest possible losses.
Exactly for this reason I encourage everybody to play High volatile slots.
That’s why there are different max bet limits for different volatility slots
In some video slots you can bet even 100 EUR per spin, whereas in others maximum bet limit can be as low as 10 EUR per spin.
There is 100% correlation between the Volatility level of a particular slot and its max bet limits.
The more money a particular slot game allows to win per spin (such slots are considered to have high volatility), the lower max bet limits to be expected.
That way online casinos try to prevent that you win a lot, withdraw the winning and never come back.
However, for the majority of online casino players, 10 EUR per spin max bet limit is more than enough. So that you can take advantage of this loophole, and online casinos can really do nothing about it.
Why online casinos can not just simply ban high volatile games
They can’t because the online gambling industry is overly competitive nowadays. If you don’t allow your customers to enjoy high volatility games, be sure your competitors are going to do it instead of you. For the record, there are thousands of online casinos currently on the market.
Low and Medium volatility slots are not evil
People play casino games mostly to get fun, not money, since we all know that it is impossible to play in online casinos for a living (do we?).
The more time you spend spinning the reels, the more fun you get as the rule of thumb.
In High volatility slots, you are going to spend much less time (you either win a lot and fast or lose fast) in comparison to Low volatility games. Thus, casino players are arguably getting less fun in High volatile slots, although it is more reasonable to play them from a purely financial perspective.
The bottom line is that it is not imperative to play only High volatility slots. I have brought up all that stuff mostly to share an interesting story how high volatility affects economics.
However, if you do not feel comfortable having your gaming sessions to last very short (this is exactly what is going to happen in High volatility games), then feel free to play medium or even low volatility games. They are also fine, but keep in mind that the more you play, the more money you theoretically lose.
A rating of Low volatility slots
A rating of Medium volatility slots
Conclusion
A rating of High Volatility slots (including top casinos in your country)
Hopefully, you have learned something new and interesting from the article. Summing up, the volatility level not only affects gaming experience in a big way, but economics as well. I guess, the situation with High volatility slots makes it quite obvious.
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