If you’re new to the world of online casinos, deciding what to take a punt on can be tricky. There are many different games available at non Gamban gambling sites and each offers their own thrills, chances of winning, and, of course, prizes.
In this article, we look at the differences between two of the most popular games at the online casino. Those games under the microscope will be the timeless classic roulette and the modern and highly innovative digital versions of slot machines. Ultimately, as you should discover, each game offers different advantages, and which one is preferable depends on what the player expects from a game.
Real-Life Appeal?
Like most other online casino games, both slots and roulette are based on real-world versions of the same games. However, whereas roulette generally stays quite true to popular game that inspired it, slots have increasingly become further removed from their physical counterparts.
Digital versions of roulette feature the same wheel and board on which to place your bets that you’d find at a real gaming table. The odds of winning and the pay-outs are the same as those you’d find in a brick and mortar casino. There are a few subtle differences between the two versions of the game though. For instance, you can usually increase the speed of the spin, which makes it possible to place more bets on the game per minute.
Additionally, roulette is one of the most popular titles offered by Live Casino providers like Evolution Gaming. Featuring webcam streams of real dealers and physical equipment, the Live Casino offers the closest thing to a trip to a real-life casino.
Some players favour Live Casino games over digital counterparts. This might be because they enjoy feeling like they’re actually at the casino and can chat with other players and the dealers via chat boxes. This level of interaction is missing from either digital versions of roulette or slots. Suspicious players also believe that an actual wheel produces a more random outcome than the random number generators used in strictly digital games. However, with millions spent on auditing online casinos each year, the random number generators provided by industry leaders is assured.
Variety?
Whereas roulette offers that real-world appeal, it doesn’t provide much variety. The format is set in stone. You have a wheel, a ball, and a table on which to place bets. The position the ball lands in provides the result of the game upon which bets are settled. There isn’t a lot you can tweak with the formula but the game’s enduring popularity continues despite the lack of variety.
Slots, on the other hand, are increasingly moving away from the games that inspired them. At the birth of the slot machine, games would feature three reels and one-win line. The reels would spin and if symbols matched up on the win line, the player would receive a prize.
Since online slots are entirely digital, there’s loads of scope to put unique twists on them. Different companies have come up with various slot dynamics that simply aren’t possibly on a real-world machine. The cascading symbols of a game like Gonzo’s Quest are an example of such.
Online slots often have lavish graphics, interesting special features, amusing reel animations, and other distinguishing additions. This allows for tremendous variety between different games and this has allowed developers to get really creative with modern titles. Today, you’ll find all kinds of weird and wonderful slots that are pretty far removed from the real-world machines that inspired them. For example, Megaways machines offer hundreds of thousands of different winning combinations and many slots even have storylines that progress the more you play.
Massive Prizes from Tiny Bets?
The pay-outs from both online slots and roulette games are radically different too. Just like in the real-world, the largest prize you can win when playing is 35x the total bet. You’ll receive this if you bet “straight up” (on a single number only) and it comes in.
There are plenty of other bets you can place on roulette but none have the same win exposure as a straight up bet. A row bet in American roulette (bet on both Zero and Double Zero) and bets that are split between two numbers pay at 17 to 1, for example.
Meanwhile, it’s possible to bet on a much wider selection of numbers. Known as “Outside Bets”, these have more chance of coming in but pay less. Perhaps the most famous Outside Bet is on either red numbers or black numbers. Winning this bet will pay-out double the stake.
On no roulette table is it possible to win life-changing money with small change. Online slots, on the other hand, do award such massive prizes.
Many slots will have jackpots of more than 1,000x the total bet. A single spin costing £1 will return £1,000 on such games. However, some slots, known as progressive slots, have even juicier prizes.
A progressive slot will be part of a progressive slot network. The largest one in existence today, by Microgaming, has awarded more than €1 billion in prizes in total. Progressive slot prizes routinely reach tens of millions and any player that bets for real on them stands a chance of winning.
Progressive slots work by taking a small percentage of every bet made on that game or series of similar games and adding it to the progressive prize pool. Different casinos that have no relation to one another offer the same progressive games and they all contribute to the same pool. With many players at a host of venues playing, the progressive jackpot total soon reaches money comparable to lottery wins. For those interested in learning more about this exciting and potentially lifechanging casino game, check out this directory of no deposit bonus casino sites.
Better Odds of Winning and Less Variance?
Of course, the larger the prize, the lower the chance of winning actually is. Whereas progressive machines and other slots with large pay-outs can pay huge money, it doesn’t happen often. Prizes of €15 million or more, aren’t won every day!
In terms of the house edge, European roulette typically offers the casino a 2.7% advantage. This edge is created by the fact that there isn’t a 50/50 chance of winning on bets that pay even money (Red/Black, for example). European roulette wheels always include a Green Zero section on the wheel. Whenever the ball lands on this section of the wheel, all outside bets are losers. Consider if you bet on both Red and Black at the same time. You’d break even until a Zero landed, at which point you’d lose money to the house. This is how the roulette edge works.
Different slots offer different Return-to-Player (RTP) ratings. Those with the highest return-to-player ratings can actually offer a lower house edge than roulette. However, many slots have house edges of 10% or more.
It’s also worth noting that the sheer number of possible outcomes makes slots higher variance than a game like roulette. RTP ratings are an average and for the numbers to converge at this average often requires hundreds of thousands of spins.
There are considerably fewer potential outcomes in roulette. This means that pay-outs are more likely to align with the house edge advertised much quicker than on slots. It’ll still take thousands of spins but far fewer than required on a slot. This means that roulette, by nature, is a lower variance game than most slots – even those advertised as low variance.
It’s All Personal Preference!
As you’ve now seen, slots and roulette are world’s apart. Each has different qualities that appeal to some players and less so to others. If you’re all about lower variance and an experience that closely resembles the real-world casino, you’ll probably prefer roulette. However, if more dynamic, innovative games with the potential to win huge prizes sounds like a better time, we think you’ll get more out of playing slots. Of course, you can always just try them both out for yourself to see. Practically every online casino offers versions of both roulette and slots. You can often play them for free before risking your own money too.
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