What is Slot Volatility?
- A highly volatile slot will pay big wins less often, a low value slot will pay smaller wins more frequently
- Highly volatile slots generally have the largest winning potential, but can go through very long periods of dead patches
- Low volatile slots will often award more bonus games, many of which will pay low amounts but extend your game play
What is slot volatility? If you’re a casino slot game player, then chances are that you’ll have heard of and be informed on what the word ‘volatility’ means in relation to slot machines. However, if you’re a newcomer to the slot gaming world, then it’s quite important to learn about slot games and their volatility levels. To make it simple, when referring to slot games, what is slot volatility relates to the level of risk that there is in playing such. Essentially, it explains how frequently and how much you can expect to win in pay-outs from a game during your game play.
To understand what is slot volatility more, you need to know a little bit more about slots on the whole. You see, some titles see players spin the reels multiple times without receiving anything, but then dish out the occasional big win, Golden Goddess is a good example of this. On the other hand, it’s possible for them to reward players with a large number of bigger wins in a shorter period of time. As such, these types of slot games would be referred to as having a high volatility level, or a high risk level. On the opposite side of the coin, a slot game with low volatility, such as Worms Reloaded sees players winning pay-outs on a frequent enough occasion, but with smaller amounts.
Further Understanding High Volatility Slots
As explained, a slot with higher volatility equals a slot with a higher risk level. Despite the fact that pay-outs from such games tend to be higher, they occur on a less frequent basis. This being the case, gamers can often find themselves hitting the ‘spin’ button numerous times only for the reels to bring up zero results, and of course, with every spin there’s a bet in play. Therefore, it can be quite disheartening to play high volatility slots as they will often reduce your balance without giving a lot back. However, if you’re fortunate enough to play when it hits a win, it’s more likely to be a big pay-out. These types of high volatility slot games are great to cancel out any bad feelings from those long, dry spells. A couple of games that exist in the high volatility category are 300 Shields from NextGen Gaming and Immortal Romance from Microgaming.
Of course, now you know more of what is slot volatility, it does beg the question as to why someone would want to play such a slot offering. With such high risks, is it really worth it? However, the answer is that it’s better to play these games when you have a lot of time for game play and a decent balance in your casino account. You’ll need to have patience on your side and not mind watching spin after spin without receiving a pay-out. Naturally, once you hit the big win in such games, it’s a refreshing change of pace, which is exactly why high volatility slots exist in the first place, to give that rush of euphoria from scoring a big win!
What is slot volatility? Understanding Low Volatility Slots
If you turn your attention to those slot games with a lower volatility, you’ll probably find that these are much more suitable for anyone who is new to online casino gaming, after all, they do come with a lower risk factor. Despite the fact that the pay-outs on these slots tend to be lower in value, they do happen a lot more frequently. Because of this they often have a higher entertainment level to them, you don’t need to just sit there and watch the reels spin without receiving any kind of positive result. Smaller wins tend to appear every few spins or so, and every so often larger wins will occur too, however these do seem to appear far more infrequently than those games with higher volatility.
Some of the games that come with a lower volatility level include Starburst from Netent, Grim Muerto from Play’n Go and Foxin’ Wins by NextGen Gaming. As we said, if you’re a newcomer to slot gaming, then it’s probably a safer bet to start out your experience with a selection of slots that have a lower volatility level. That way you can find entertainment and more frequent wins to become accustomed to the slot gaming world.
If you play bookies fixed odds betting terminals or arcades £500 jackpot slots, low volatility games are generally made by Inspired Gaming and Blueprint Gaming, such as Centurion and King Kong Cash.
How Will I Know If a Slot Game Has High or Low Volatility?
Generally speaking, the easiest way of figuring this out is by playing it. If you find that you haven’t hit any kind of win after several spins, there’s a good chance that the game you’ve chosen is a higher volatility one. The information on slot games relating to volatility levels is not something that many casino software providers are too forward with. It’s simply a matter of choosing a few games and figuring out which one plays in the way that suits your own personal preference. However, what we do recommend is that you spend some time free playing these games first. This will, of course help to determine its volatility level while not using up any of your own money in the process. Furthermore, there’s also the option of checking out the paytable that an online and bookies slot usually provides. Should you see pay-outs of somewhat high prizes, then there’s the strong potential for it being on the riskier side of the scale.
An additional thing to note when checking out what is slot volatility is that sometimes you’ll be able to find lists of different casino slot games and their volatility levels. It’s also often the case that the word ‘variance’ will be used instead. This word relates to the exact same thing, how risky a slot game is. Both of them are explaining the same kind of thing to players; high variance and low variance equals high and low volatility.
Why Is Volatility Level Important?
For some people, volatility levels aren’t so important. There are certain gamers who just enjoy spinning slot machine reels, and that’s all. However, for those who are looking to play a specific type of game and have a preference for winning larger amounts but are satisfied to wait longer periods to get such (or vice versa), volatility levels are important. Of course, this all comes down to personal preference again. You should also consider your bankroll when accessing slot games, there’s often little point in playing a high volatility game if you only have a small balance. In this instance, it would be wiser to choose something with a lower volatility level, if only to preserve your funds and earn smaller gains on such.
Ultimately, volatility levels come down to the odds on hitting certain wins. You could even relate this to roulette; Mini Roulette (13/1 odds) would be low volatility, European Roulette (37/1 odds) would be mid-volatility and 100/1 Roulette would be high volatility. You money will probably last longer on Mini Roulette, but are you going to make anything significant to build your bank balance up?