Online Slots – Free Slot Machines

After the player selects an online slot game to wager at he has to make up to three important decisions before he can start spinning the reels. This set of decisions is known as betting options. It includes selecting the number of paylines, the number of coins wagered per payline and the coin size. Most slot games allow players to choose all three betting options. Some slot games fix the number of coins wagered per payline, usually at one, and this choice is removed from the betting options. There are very few slots that fix both the coin size and the number of coins thus effectively freezing the line bet.

Before the betting options are discussed two terms need to be clearly defined. The line bet is the amount wagered per payline and is the product of the coin size and the number of coins per payline. The total bet is the total amount wagered per spin and is the product of the line bet and the number of paylines selected.

Most online slot games allow players to choose the number of paylines. However this is only a nominal choice because it makes little sense to play the online slot game without enabling all the paylines. Winning combinations, except for the scatter wins, result in payouts only if they occur in an enabled payline. The worst nightmare for a slots player can be to see five of like symbols in a payline that is not enabled. Progressive jackpot online slots emphasize the need for selecting all paylines even more pointedly. The progressive jackpot usually pays out only when the stated combination occurs in the highest payline. By selecting all paylines the total bet per spin can increase drastically, especially if the player has chosen a slot game that has 50 or 100 paylines. In such cases the player should enable all paylines and reduce his line bet so as to remain within budget.

The coin size and the number of coins per payline together contribute to the line bet. Some slot games allow only one coin to be wagered per payline, but they have a larger coin size range with a fair degree of choice within that range. The slot games that allow players choose the number of coins usually have a smaller coin size range with fewer stops in that range. Either way it usually works out to the same thing.

Consider the slot game Mayan Queen that offers one coin per payline with the following coin size range: 0.01, 0.02, 0.03, 0.04, 0.05, 0.06, 0.07, 0.08, 0.09, 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1, 2.5 and 5.00. This gives a line bet range from 0.01 to 5.00 with 15 stops. There is another recently released slot game Moonlight Mystery that offers up to 5 coins per payline and coin sizes of 0.01, 0.05, 0.1, 0.25 and 0.5. This gives a line bet range from 0.01 to 2.50 with 18 stops.

Hence the coin size and number of coins per payline have to be chosen in conjunction with each other so that the player gets the desired line bet. The line bet must be decided based on the players bankroll for the session and the number of spins that he expects to play. Suppose that the player has a bankroll of 100 credits and wants to play 100 spins. Then he should go for a line bet of 1.00. In games like Mayan Queen he simply chooses the coin size of 1.00. In games like Moonlight Mystery he can choose 2 coins of size 0.50 or 4 coins of size 0.25. Both options are essentially the same. Whatever the player wins can be kept aside for another day.

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