We all know gambling is a game of chance, even more so than sports betting, for example, where Bet Calculators of various sorts are very popular as they serve to give the player an edge. Let’s examine how math can help us win more often on casino games, specifically slots.
Know the house edge
Boring advice everyone already knows is to be aware of the house edge of a specific game, so you can either choose not to play it because the house edge is too high, or you’ll play that game because the house edge is low. We won’t dwell too much on this, everyone knows games like blackjack, baccarat and single-zero roulette have low house edge, and so do some slots. You do want to check the slot game’s theoretical return to player (RTP) percentage to see if it’s good or not.
As a rough guideline, you want your slots to have 96% RTP or more, though you can go down to 95% or even below that number if the slot game really plays well and is of the type that can produce mega wins. Very often you’ll find that high-RTP slots don’t necessarily pay that well while you can win money on low-RTP slots. This is due to variance, as RTP is calculated with an infinite number of spins. With several hundred spins, RTP is bound to vary wildly. But it’s still a useful indicator of the overall quality of the slot game.
Other numbers and things to consider
You won’t get far if you have money for 100 spins of $2 on a slot game that’s designed to require a long playing session. You’ll just lose your money as 100 spins is too low of a number to drill into the best things the slot game has in store for you. Often you have to drill much deeper, say, 500 spins, so you have to adjust your bet per spin accordingly.
Slot game’s win frequency will give you some hints, and then you also have to look at the paytable to see if the slot game does have the potential to deliver big wins on a single winning payline or not. Then you also have to consider the bonus features and see how are they embedded in the game. Some slots rely on bonus features exclusively while the base game only serves a purpose of giving you small wins, while other slots will have features available on every spin. This mostly goes for falling block slots, which regularly have re-spin game mechanics.
Variance of the game can be described as low, medium or high, but variance is much more detailed than this three-way classification. The slot game may have a free spins game that pays a decent amount every time, or it can have a free spins game that gives you a shot at a monster win but will regularly leave you with peanuts, which means the variance of that feature is high. So, while a slot game can have an overall variance level, do consider the variance of each of the slot game’s parts as well.
Does the paytable have only one really powerful symbol, or two or more of them? It’s easier to play if there’s more of them, and you’ll win more frequently.
The more you examine a slot game, the more you’ll know about it, and will then be able to make conclusions. The general idea is to only play a game that went through your examination and did well, and to play that game the way it’s supposed to be played. Math helps you with this, and the more data you have, the better.
