Real Money Slots – Your Guide to Playing Online vs. Offline

Slots are the most popular casino game in the world and as such, they come in thousands of exciting variations. If you want to play this simple but extremely engaging game for real money, then you have two options: you can either go to your local pub and play the available fruities there or visit an online casino and enjoy your favourite game in the comfort of your home or on your mobile device while you’re on the move. In this article, we’ll take a look at the advantages and disadvantages of both options and explain why playing on the Internet is the better one. Want to try it right away? Then pick one of the top 3 slot sites listed below – all of them are trustworthy and safe, as they are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. Therefore, whichever one you choose, you can be sure that the outcome of each spin will be 100% random and fair.

The Advantages of Playing on the Internet

To some of you, the advantages of playing slots online as opposed to fruit machines at pubs might seem obvious. On the Internet, you can play whenever you want, from the comfort of your home or even on your mobile device while you’re on the move and all of this while you’re claiming generous bonuses which is something not that usual for brick-and-mortar casinos. Furthermore, at Internet casinos you can find way more variations of the game. After all, there’s not a pub or land-based casino in the world that can accommodate 500 different slot machines while this is something more than usual for online casinos. Though these are more valid reasons for choosing to play at an online casino, there’s one more, even bigger advantage of playing slots on the Internet and that’s the RTP percentage.

RTP stands for ‘Return to player’ and refers to the percentage of the money wagered on a specific casino game that goes back to the players as winning in the long run. The higher this percentage, the better for the player. At online casinos this percentage is significantly higher, usually, over 94%, which means that you are expected to win more in the long run than if you were playing at a pub or a land-based casino, where the RTP is around 85%. With such a difference, it’s needless to say which is better – playing online or playing “IRL”.

Top 5 Current Favourite Online Slots

As I mentioned previously, there are quite a few slot variations on the Internet so for new players it might be quite challenging choosing which one to start with. Moreover, casino games developers constantly release new slot games so the players’ favourites constantly change. Below, we have prepared a top 5 ranking of the current player favourites with short overviews of the games.

5Rocky SlotThis 5-reel 25-payline slot packs a powerful left hook as you take on Rocky Bilboa’s enemies to not only claim the heavyweight title but also pocket a tidy sum of cash. The range of the coin value goes from a tiny £0.01 to a huge £5. The maximum line bet is £50, making it a whopping £1,250 per spin, which makes this an ideal slot for all the high rollers out there. The bonus round features a full-motion video from the most popular Rocky films and gets the adrenaline flowing without you ever needing to visit the gym! If you want to learn more about the slot you can check out our full review in here.

4Little Britain SlotI’m pretty sure that the TV show needs no introduction unless you have been hiding under a rock for the past 15 years or so! This typically British comedy created by Matt Lucas and David Walliams pokes fun at the English way of life. The game features all your favourite characters from the show such as fat fighters Marjorie Dawes, the masculine lady Emily, Lou and Andy and of course who could forget the hilarious Vicky Pollard! This Playtech-powered 5-reel online slot features 30 paylines, simple but effective graphics and is great fun to play.

3Millionaire Genie SlotMillionaire Genie is one of the most famous online slots you will find as this game is promoted practically everywhere online and on TV. It can be found on both desktop and mobile platforms and has a progressive jackpot. In order to get the jackpot, you don’t need to match any symbols, as it is awarded randomly. Since 2010, the jackpot drops on average once a year and has an average jackpot payout of £2,154,268. Apart from the huge prize pool it offers, the game is really enjoyable with its high-quality 3D graphics and captivating theme music. There is an auto-play option and when 3 or more scatter symbols appear on the reels at the same time, the genie will be released and will give you free spins. The generous Genie will also make sure that you have wild symbols on the reels during those spins. Want to learn more about the game? Read our full Millionaire Genie slot review!

2Terminator IIBased on one of the few films where the sequel is as good as the original! Microgaming’s Terminator II is a 243 win line slot which features clips from the original film to enhance the action. Set eleven years after the original movie, it heavily features a young John Connor who is trying to avoid the shape-shifting T-1000. Arnold Schwarzenegger is never far away as the revamped T-800. A great thing about this online slot is the free spins feature. When this feature is active the game becomes a huge 1024 win line slot. This highly engaging game is perfect to have some fun and try your luck.

1Jurassic Park SlotWhen the original 1993 film was released it broke new ground with its amazing visuals and special effects and it made the concept of bringing dinosaurs back to life actually believable! The online slot adaptation features clips from the movie as well as beautifully crisp symbols for the reels. What really struck me about this slot was the amazing parallax scrolling of the background which shows off the Jurrasic Park landscape, it looks fantastic! The game features 243 paylines with the usual multipliers which can stack up to 6 times.

Regulation of Online Casinos

Online casinos that offer real money slots are heavily regulated but what does that mean to you if you decide to play online? Well, physical fruit machines are only covered by a code of practice. This is different to online slot providers who from 1st November 2014 are covered by the Gambling Act, which requires any online operator who provides services to UK players to be regulated by the UK Gambling Commission. bestonlinecasino.com has a site dedicated to the best real money online slots

Part of the licensing conditions are that the outcomes of the games are truly random and the online casinos that provide them are subject to external testing by agencies such as eCOGRA, TST and iTech Labs. In recent years, the industry has become more transparent and many of the companies now provide the actual RTP on their websites for individual games. This new regulation is great news to all slot fans residing in Great Britain as they can easily check what the house edge for a specific game is and choose the one that’s most convenient for them. On top of that, if you choose a site that is licensed by the UKGC, you can be sure that it’s 100% safe and fair and that there your personal and banking details are 100% safe.

Land-Based Slots – A Trip Down Memory Lane

Ever since I was a young man I have loved the thrill of slot machines! For me, they feature all the excitement of a video game but with the bonus of being able to win hard cash. Each year I would have a new favourite fruit machine and would often visit a particular pub just because I knew a particular “bandit” was in there. When my favourite was removed and a new less appealing one was put in its place then I would change pub! Shallow… I know, but such was the enjoyment I got from these machines.

I can’t even pretend to tell you that I was even remotely successful at times and I could share so many stories on how an intended all-day drinking session was cut short because I had fed all my drinking money into a bandit. How my brain would tell me, “come on, it must pay out soon as you’ve put 10 quid in it” or the utter horror of deciding enough is enough and walking away from a machine only to see someone walk up two minutes later and empty the thing!

However, I’ve also had some great wins and even now I get a tingling feeling when I think of the legendary jackpot repeats! I have also great memories of playing fruit machines with mates and singing “we’re going to take your bandit, we’re going to take your bandit, tra la la la” as we all go quid shares in search of a jackpot repeater!

In this section of the page, I want to take you on a trip down memory lane to revisit some of my all-time favourite real-life slots. In the 35 years or so that I have been playing fruit machines, I have travelled to many countries and none of the places I have visited has the same passion for fruities that we Brits have! I have often pondered this and wondered why this is but it just seems that it’s part of our DNA. Few beers, play pool or darts and put a few quid on the bandit…

Growing up in the seaside town of Cleethorpes in Lincolnshire (but Humberside back then), my childhood was largely spent in the amusement arcades. The draw of flashing lights and loud sounds emitting from machines of all shapes and sizes was immense and probably nurtured my love of video games and slots. Even when I didn’t have any money I would hang around watching people playing fruit machines in the arcades, offering advice to adults about the reels on the fruit machine they were playing and when they had nudges I would help them win in the hope of a cut in their winnings. As a 10-year-old boy this was a valuable source of income, of course back then in the early eighties there weren’t the regulations on playing fruit machines like there is now!

Top 5 All Time Favourite Old School Fruit Machines

In this next section, I want to take you through a trip down memory lane as I revisit some of the all-time fruit machines that I have encountered in pubs, clubs and arcades. Picking a top 5 from the many hundreds I have played over the years was quite difficult but also nostalgic and fun. Although some of these machines will be quite hard to find, I have included the reel diagrams when possible. If you do find one of these machines that will come in very handy for when you get nudges so I hope this helps you to play.

5Big Breakfast 7 till 9This slot based on the early morning channel 4 show “The Big Breakfast” which ran from 1992 to 2002 was not the most common fruit machine around and was quite difficult to find. What made this game so fun to play was that the feature was quite regular which made the game engaging and fun to play. The thing I really loved about this machine was that if you lost on the feature then the feature would spin back in on the next turn on a very high number of occasions. This often turned disappointment into joy.

4The Big CheeseOut of all the games on my top 5, this is the one I deliberated about the most as it is just so infuriating! It is one of those games where you are not really sure if you are enjoying yourself or not. What I mean is that you very often get a feature board but this 95% of the time results in a game over. The flip side of this though is once the machine pays out, it tends to really payout! So this means you normally are very happy or very miserable. There have been a few occasions I have promised never to touch this bandit ever again but a week later and a pocket full of quid coins I somewhat changed my mind!

3Red Hot RollConsidering my love for feature-rich fruit machines, it is probably a bit of a surprise that this machine has hit my top 5 as it doesn’t feature an interactive sub-game or many of the other features I usually look for. However, what makes this game a long-standing favourite is the excellent streaks that happen when you get 3 x roll symbols in view. There are 3 types of streaks on offer. The mixed streak is a combination of blue and red roll symbols, the blue streak is 3 blue roll symbols in view and offers a better payout than the mixed one. Last but not least is the crème de la crème, the red streak which offers by far the best payout. Very simple to play but the buzz of a prolonged streak is still as real today as it has always been.

2Indiana JonesCompared to some of the more modern games, this does seem a bit primitive nowadays but I remember the many hours I have spent on this little beauty. Although the feature is very basic, the use of samples from the film give it an exciting feeling but I guess the most exciting part of the game is the ambush square on the feature! Get shot and it’s game over, the way the bullets slow down in the chamber really builds up the suspense. When I first started playing this game it was back in the days before all cash payouts and would often end up with pockets full of tokens. Luckily for me, you could exchange them for beers at the bar so never was a token wasted!

1Boulder DashProudly sitting at the top of the pile is the excellent Boulder Dash from Barcrest. Like Indiana Jones, this machine looks very basic compared to modern games with their stacked wilds and full-motion video, but for pure playability, it is hard to beat! The machine follows a format very popular in its time which is to have simple symbols (melons, sevens, pounds, bars and a jackpot symbol) with some of the symbols having numbers on which advance the trail on the right-hand side. Manage to get a total of 4 and the bonus would be activated which would allow you to try for the stopper, true skill, super hold, numbers in view and trial boost to name just a few! Numbers past 9 would start the Boulder Dash feature but getting 10 on the trail would give you a bonus, 11 grants you an extra live and 12 grants you a repeat advance. This certainly wasn’t the most generous of machines I used to play but for pure playability and engagement then this is definitely one of the best I have tried.

These machines are quite rare to see nowadays which is a shame and the best bet is looking in older arcades in seaside towns. However, If you can’t find any of these machines I recommend you try out MFME (Multiple Fruit Machine Emulator) – this uses the actual roms that were in the machines so they play exactly the same as the machine themselves, any cheats or ways to win that you discover will work on the actual machines themselves. www.fruit-emu.com is a great source for both emulators and roms.

Online Slots vs Fruit Machines

You would be forgiven for thinking that slot machines and fruit machines are both the same thing, as too many people they are and this terminology is often used to describe either but there are subtle differences that you will notice if you have played pub machines in the past and start playing online slot machines. For a start, fruit machines have an element of skill attached to them, whereas online slots tend to pay and play with little player interaction apart from the bonus rounds. The element of skill on fruit machines can range from knowing the layout of the reels which is useful when the machine offers nudges to recognising hidden features that the machine has. The table below covers some of the most common features.

As I mentioned before, the best feature you can get while playing an old-school fruit machine is if it goes red. Below I’ve included a video of one of the slot machines I included in my personal top 5 – Big Breakfast, where it goes red. A rare thing to see in real life, but really exciting and satisfying when it happens.

So you may think with there being so little skill involved in online slots that they are boring to play and not a good choice to play right? Well, no! Perhaps the biggest reason to play online slots is the vastly improved payout rate. On a typical pub or club machine, you can expect a payout rate of about 70 – 80% which can also vary massively depending on which location the machine is in (pub, club, service station or ferry to name a few) but with an online slot game, you can have a payout rate in excess of 95%. This makes a huge difference to the amount you can win. Also, fruit machines tend to be stand-alone machines and are independent of any others but a progressive online slot can offer jackpots of many millions of pounds. One other huge advantage online games have on their physical brothers is that you cannot get sticky buttons! I’m sure I’m not the only one who has had the pain of using a bandit where the buttons stick so you press the middle one down to nudge one but instead, it sticks and you see your potential win go flying past.

Many seasoned pros will also tell you that the element of skill with fruit machines is mainly perceived by the player and is not really a true skill, in fact, the machines follow a predetermined pattern and there are instances when a “Hi / Low” gamble is not really a gamble as you have no chance of winning the jackpot through gambling. This is one of the main reasons why I, like a lot of people have moved onto online slots as the online casino industry is much more regulated and offers better value to the player.