All You Need to Know About Odds at an Online Casino
When it comes to gambling at casinos, the odds are always stacked against you. The house always wins, because they have something called the “House Edge.” Like casinos in Vegas and Macau, online casinos too have this built-in advantage.
Why the “house always wins”
Running a casino is a very risky business. The entire process of gambling is based on odds and luck. You cannot survive in business for too long if you rely on blind luck. This is why casinos, both offline and online, use the power of math to ensure that they have a small edge in all the games they offer.
For instance, in offline blackjack, the house edge comes from a blind card which the dealer holds and you can’t see. It is quite fair and legal too since gambling at casinos is meant to be a form of entertainment. Consider the house edge to be a form of “fee” the casino levies for the services they offer.
The difference with odds in online casinos
At online casinos, the games are virtual, are programmed on computers and use software and graphics. In these games, the house edge is mathematically programmed into the algorithms that decide the outcome in each round of betting.
All casino games have preset odds, which is called RTP or Return to Player. RTP is just house edge displayed in reverse. For example, if a game of Blackjack has an RTP of 98.5%, it means that the house edge in that game is 1.5%.
Likewise, Playtech’s popular Age of Gods slot has an RTP of 95.02, which means that the online casino has a house edge of 4.98% in that particular game. In all modern online slots, table games, and digital slot machines, the RTP is beyond the control of you, the player.
Take classic blackjack at a Vegas casino to contrast this. If you are good at cards and math, you can try using card counting techniques to gain an upper hand. But with digital games, this is simply not possible. The outcomes are programmed to be random, decided by secure and tamper-proof RNG software.
Understanding how RTP works
A simple explanation of RTP goes like this – take Ocean’s Treasure slot from Netent, which has an RTP of 96%. If you bet $100 on this slot, your average return in wins will be $96. But this comes with a very important caveat – it does not mean that you will get 96% of your stake back in every gaming session at this slot.
Slot RTPs are calculated across long gaming sessions, involving hundreds of thousands or even millions of betting rounds. Due to the random outcomes programmed into each slot, there will be some variations.
Some days, you may get $150 back on betting $100 while on other days you may only get $50 back. But in general, higher RTP slots will give you a better chance of frequent wins that lower RTP slots.
Using RTP to improve your odds at online casinos
One of the major elements that can influence odds is a game’s RTP. However, you have to remember that once you start a particular video slot at an online casino, you have zero chance of influencing the odds in any meaningful way. But outside the game, when you are browsing the online casino’s lobby, it is a different story altogether.
No two games are alike at online casinos when it comes to RTP. Each slot’s RTP is decided and set by the company that created that slot. In online slots, RTP can vary vastly between individual titles.
For example, huge jackpots like the Mega Moolah Atlantean Treasures by Microgaming have a low RTP of 92%. You will find most regular slots around the 95-96% range, with Netent’s Cash Noire, Quickspin’s Arcane Gems, and Betsoft’s The Angler all solid examples.
At the other end of the spectrum, a handful of games like Pragmatic Play’s Pirate Gold, Blueprint’s Gorilla Gold Megaways, and Quickspin’s Big Bad Wolf have a high RTP of 97%. As we already mentioned in the previous section, if you pick slots with higher RTP, your odds of winning will be much higher.
Tactics involving volatility, jackpots, and bonuses
Apart from RTP, there are many tricks to turn the odds in your favor. One is related to volatility. Each slot is programmed to be one of three types – high, medium, and low volatility. In general high-RTP slots tend to have low volatility – meaning smaller prizes, but they will be more frequent.
High volatility is found on jackpot slots – they pay out insanely huge wins, but only hit very rarely. Medium volatility slots constitute the vast majority of slots. If you want low risk, guaranteed wins, you can boost your odds by picking low volatility slots. But if you want to chase that big prize and don’t mind the extra risk, play those jackpots!
Bonuses are offered by all online casinos – they give you free spins (with real money bets) and bonus cash to boost your bankroll. Some new player bonuses even come absolutely free. Using such bonuses give you several advantages. You get to test new slots and practice. And if you get lucky, you also get paid!
No deposit bonuses are extremely good for this. Since they are 100% free, there is no risk involved. Plus, you can claim them at many different online casinos. As long as you don’t try to claim the same bonus twice at a single casino, you are fine.
