There are tens of thousands of pokie machines or slot machines that you can play at online casinos in Australia. Because the online gambling industry is constantly growing and thriving, new casino games are constantly coming out, and a lot of these are slot games.
This article covers some useful tips to help you pick the best slot machine to play. Read on to learn what makes slots different and what you should be looking out for. When you’re done, head to an Australian online casino and claim a bonus such as no deposit free spins Australia 2023 so you can play slots without paying.
Playing Slot Machines for Real Money
Like other casino games, slot machines can be played for free or for real money. There are two ways that you can play slot games for free:
- Using casino bonuses such as free spins or bonus money.
- Playing a free demo version using virtual credits.
If you play a slot machine using a bonus, you’re technically playing for free because you’re not paying for each spin. Even though you’re not paying, each spin counts as a real-money spin. Therefore, you can win real money.
As for slot machine demos, there’s no real money involved with these at all. You can play demos of slot machines as much as you like, and your online casino balance won’t be affected.
For this article, we’ll assume that you want to make as much money as you can from playing slot machines. Below are 7 tips to help you find the best pokie machine and boost your chances of winning.
Pick a Slot Machine With a High RTP
Every online casino game has an RTP. This term stands for ‘return to player’, and it’s represented as a percentage. RTP lets you know roughly how much of your money a game should pay you back over long-term play. The higher it is, the better.
RTP is calculated by simulating millions of turns. When you play slots or other casino games, sometimes you’ll strike it lucky and score a big win, making a significant profit. Sometimes, on the other hand, you might make a loss. The more you play a game at an online casino, the closer your average payout per turn should get to the game’s RTP.
Physical slot machines in land-based casinos tend to have lower RTPs than online slots. This is because physical casino games are more expensive to run.
Always play online if you’re serious about making money from slot machines. Of course, you can still win big from playing at a land-based casino, but you’re more likely to get a better long-term return if you focus on online casinos.
Each slot machine should list the RTP in the paytable. If not, the casino you’re at should list it. If you can’t find the RTP anywhere, a quick online search should solve the problem. Most online slot machines have RTPs of around 96%. Ideally, you’ll play slots with higher RTPs. These aren’t too common, but they do exist.
Claim Casino Bonuses
We mentioned earlier that when you play slot machines with bonuses, you’re not paying for the spins, but you can win actual money. Taking advantage of casino bonuses is a great way of cutting down on your spending while still giving yourself a chance to win.
Bonuses are limited, of course, and a lot of them have terms and conditions that can be pretty restrictive. They’re still worthwhile because they let you spin the reels of slot machines for no cost.
The two types of bonuses you should claim from online casino sites are:
- Free spins. Lots of Australian online casinos hand out free spins to new players when they join. These spins can be used on one or more select slot games. Each one is worth a set amount of money that determines how much money you can win.
- Bonus money. This is free casino credit that you can spend on games but not withdraw. To earn some, you have to make a deposit, and the amount of bonus money you receive is a percentage of your deposit, up to a maximum amount.
Every online casino has some sort of special offer for new players when they join and make their first deposit. Some sites even have a no deposit bonus, which you can claim once your account is running and before you’ve even made a deposit.
Casinos have plenty of bonuses for existing players as well, so there are regular chances for those already signed up to earn bonuses.
Take Slot Machine Special Features Into Account
What makes the slot machine such an appealing casino game is that it can have a wide variety of special features. These include bonus rounds, progressive jackpots, randomly activated enhancements.
If you want to make money from slot machine games, it’s a good idea to focus on ones with lots of special features. This is because some features can be very rewarding and can help you make a profit. Some of the many special features you’ll come across when playing slots include:
- Free spins. A typical free spins round comes with some sort of extra bonus such as additional wilds or a multiplier. Sometimes you can earn more spins and make the round last longer. There are even some slot machine games with several different rounds, each with its own bonus feature.
- Pick-me game. This is a game where you have several objects and have to pick a small number of them. Each one reveals a cash prize that’s yours to keep.
- Progressive jackpot. A progressive jackpot is a prize fund that grows whenever someone places a real-money bet on the slot. When it’s won, the progressive jackpot resets to a specific value.
- Bonus rounds. When playing a pokie machine, you may launch a special bonus round, a sort of mini-game with decent winning chances.
- Random features. Some slot machine games have special features that can trigger at random on any spin. These can include extra wilds, extra scatters, fully wild reels and even guaranteed wins.
It’s important not to forget about RTP when looking at pokies games. Let’s say you’re stuck between two slot machine games. They have the same RTP, but one has lots of features, and the other doesn’t.
Play both of them lots of times, and your average payout for each should be roughly the same. The slot machine with the special features, however, can give you bigger wins due to its features, but these are balanced out by more losses.
By all means, choose games with lots of features. Just don’t forget to take a slot machine’s RTP into account when picking one to play.
Consider Bet Sizes and Payouts
If you want to have decent chances of winning when playing pokie games, you shouldn’t just look at the game features a slot machine has. You should also consider things like minimum and maximum bet sizes and what the payouts for each winning combination are.
Pokie games vary quite a lot in how much you can bet on them and how much they pay out. You should pick a winning slot whose bet sizes are suitable for your budget.
Generally speaking, the smaller the bet sizes are, the smaller the potential payouts are. Having said that, you can still earn a massive win from betting a small sum of money on a slot machine. Before you start to play an online slot machine, you can find out its bet size and payouts easily enough. To see how much a slot pays, check its paytable.
This shows all the symbols and how much they pay, respective to your bet size and how many instances of the symbol there are in the winning combination. All pokie games have a paytable, and it’s worth looking at it when you pick a winning slot.
To find out what the bet sizes are, simply load the slot, and you’ll be able to adjust the bet size using the main interface. When playing slots, it’s important that whatever bet size you end up choosing, you’re able to stick to your budget and not spend too much money.
Volatility/Variance
When deciding on a slot machine to play, it’s a good idea to consider volatility, which is also known as a variance. This refers to how often a slot machine pays out and how big its payouts are. There are three main levels of volatility: low, medium and high. If a slot machine has low volatility, this means you should have frequent wins, though the amount of money you win will be on the smaller side.
On the other hand, highly volatile slots don’t give payouts too often, but when they do, the winnings can be quite large. Slots with high volatility are quite risky to play. Medium. Slots with medium volatility combine the potentially large wins of high-volatility games with the frequent, lower payouts of low-volatility games.
If you’re lucky, you can play a high-volatility slot game and score a big win without spending much money. Having said that, you could just as easily play a highly volatile slot for ages and not have a big win come your way.
Again, it’s a slot machine’s RTP that matters the most. However, you should still think about volatility when picking a slot machine to play. Medium volatility slots are probably the best because they’re not too risky, they give you some regular wins, and you still have a chance of winning big.
Read Reviews
If you’re still stuck on finding a winning slot machine, read some reviews. There are loads of slot reviews readily available online. Read some and see what other players have to say about some slot games. You can end up finding some great new games to play from reading other people’s reviews of them.
Slot machine reviews typically cover the game’s main features and symbol payouts. They run through the basics of how to play and how the features are triggered. After reading a review of a pokie game, you should have a pretty good idea of what it has to offer and what playing it is like.
Check for a Casino Licence
If you want to play a winning slot machine, you should only do so at a casino that’s reputable, fair and trustworthy. The good news is that nearly all gambling sites in Australia are legit, and when you join one, you shouldn’t have any major problems.
The easiest way to tell if a site can be trusted is by checking for a license. Look at the bottom of a casino’s web page, and there should be some information there explaining where the site is licensed. If it’s clear that the site is operating without a license, you should avoid it and play at a licensed site instead.
Summary
We’ve looked at some things you can do to help you find a winning slot machine. Remember that no matter what slot machine you play, your winning chances are never guaranteed. In other words, there’s always a chance that you won’t win money and will walk away with a loss. That being said, it’s still possible to land a valuable winning combination or trigger a special feature that turns out to be lucrative when playing a slot machine.
The easiest way to boost your winning chances is by playing high RTP slots. Play some high-payout slot games and see if your improved chances of winning help you score some wins.
