Common mistakes people make when playing slots

Of all the industries that have boomed in the last few years, from the automotive to the mobile industry, the casino industry is probably one that has seen some of the most growth. The collective total of both the physical and online casino industry reached $227 billion in the middle of last year, which is impressive since the global gambling industry as a while was worth $449.3 billion just 2 years before.

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One of the most iconic and popular games of both physical and online casinos are slot machine games, alongside blackjack, poker and roulette. Evidence of this is the fact that there are about 1.1 million slot machines found in casinos around the world, and probably twice that number found on online casinos.

Even though it is so popular, many people make mistakes when playing slot games, and here are a few common mistakes that are made time and time again.

Choosing the wrong casinos

Since moving online, hundreds of thousands of online casinos have been launched in the past few years. Because of this abundance in choice, many people aren’t sure which casinos to choose, and end up choosing the wrong ones.

This naturally makes the experience unpleasant as some casinos have slow servers which lead to long loading times, not a wide variety of games, or even a limited number of withdrawal and deposit methods.

This is why it is important to browse around first before choosing a casino, even if that casino has your favorite game; you might want to change it up in the future and find that the lack of variety in games doesn’t allow you to. If you’re really stuck when choosing a game we would recommend checking a third party review website and choosing one of their top rated casinos. An example of this would be Jackpot City Casino on Casino Reviews.

Playing the wrong games

Similar to choosing the wrong casino, many people choose to play the wrong slot games. This is quite understandable as an average online casino usually has about 500 slot games, so it can be quite difficult to choose. It is however very important to choose the right game to play, as every slot game has different odds. Two of the most influential factors that determine your odds at winning are hit frequency and payback percentage.

Hit frequency is how often a slot game will have the right combination of symbols that lead to a win, and payback percentage is the amount of money from all bets made, by all players, that you receive when winning.

Not understanding the terms and conditions

One mistake that many people are guilty of making is not reading through the terms and conditions when registering with an online casino. These terms and conditions are very important if you have accepted a welcome bonus as they state the conditions that need to be met in order to withdraw any winnings accumulated when using the welcome bonus.

For example, a site may offer 50 free spins, but they also stipulate a wagering requirement of 40x. This means that if you earn $200 with the free spins, you have to bet 40x with that amount before you can withdraw the winnings. This is why reading those terms and conditions is very important.

Not managing money

It can be quite easy to be caught up in the spin of the reel and not budget for the games you are playing. This is a mistake that many people make. It might not sound like a big mistake considering that a spin can cost $1 or less, but slot machines can spin between 600 – 700 times per hour, and that can be quite costly if you are playing without a budget, and not counting the spins. To avoid this, always set a budget before playing, as this can save you a lot of money in the long run.

Playing while drinking

One mistake that is quite common is drinking while playing, and is especially easy to make if you are enjoying yourself. The reason this should be avoided is because alcohol tends to dampen our self-control, which results in impulsive and reckless behavior.

The last thing that you want to do is start making impulsive bets, or playing recklessly, as this could lead to chasing losses or using more money than initially intended. A good idea is to take frequent breaks if you are going to be drinking, as well as drinking plenty of water.