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(CNBNews)(January 13, 2021)--One of the biggest industries in the world is the gambling industry, which is worth about $443.2 billion, and consists of many forms of gambling. One of those forms of gambling are casinos, physical and online, and both of those subindustries are equally as successful. Over the years, there have been many strategies developed for the many casino games that millions of people enjoy every day, such as blackjack, poker, and roulette among others. 

One casino game though, that has maintained its popularity and evolved over the years, from using physical decks of cards with symbols on a reel to flashy, high-quality animations, is slots. I’m sure you have heard many people say that they have a surefire strategy to beating the reel, or that a machine is hot. 

As a result, the biggest question related to casino gaming has always been; is there any strategy when playing slots? The short answer is no, however, continue reading to find out some tips for your first time playing. 

Choose the right game

One of the absolute most important things that you could do is to choose the right game. This is because every single slot game has different odds, or house edge if you will. Those odds are comprised of many different factors, but two of the most important are payback percentage and hit frequency. Payback percentage is the potential amount won by the player when winning, which is made up of all the total bets of all players. Hit frequency is how often winning takes place when playing a certain game. 

Every game has different payback percentages and hit frequency, so choosing the right game can definitely increase your odds of losing less often. 

Some people prefer to use the theoretical return to player rate (RTP), this is an indicator of how much the game will payout over a long course of time. Of course, this percentage is always less than 100%, but you can find high RTP casinos like Vera & John where their RTP is around 97%. This means that for every $100 deposited on average you will return $97.  If you’re interested in learning more about Vera & John you can check out an in-depth review here.

Make use of welcome bonuses

If you are new to playing online casinos, then you might not be aware of welcome bonuses. Some casinos apply welcome bonuses automatically and others require you to sign up for them. There are many different kinds of welcome bonuses, such as no deposit bonuses, deposit bonuses, match bonuses, but the one you want to look out for is the free spin bonuses. These are what the name suggests; free spins that you will receive when registering with an online casino. 

One important thing to note is that different casinos will have different wagering requirements, and it might take some time to read through and understand, but it worth doing if you want to withdraw any winnings made from using the bonuses. 

Don’t go for big jackpots

One thing that many new players do, and you might have thought about doing it too, is trying your luck at the big jackpots. While this may seem very lucrative, and it would be amazing to win millions, the reality is that it probably won’t happen. To understand why this is, you simply need to consider where the funds for that jackpot come from; all of the bets from players who did not win, and in order for jackpots to get that big, it must be a lot of losing players. 

A better idea, although still not advisable, is to play the smaller jackpots, but make sure to make big enough bets in order to qualify for it, otherwise, you will just be wasting your money. 

Play higher denominations 

So now that you have an idea about what payback percentage is, another factor that influences the amount you win is the denomination you play. While this may sound like common sense; higher denominations mean winning more, it’s not always so straightforward. 

Some games actually pay more for slightly lower denominations. In other words, it would be in your best interest to research the pay tables for the games you are interested in playing to see which denominations pay the most.

Have a budget 

While it might be extremely exciting playing for the first time, and the opportunity of winning may be extremely alluring, it would be a great idea to have a budget when playing. 

This will minimize the amount of money you will be spending, and guarantee that you will be able to come back to play another day. In addition to this, the worst thing that you can do is chase your losses. If you lose, you lose, but chasing losses will result in you losing even more.