It doesn’t matter what you’ve heard: there is no easy way to beat the casino. However, by looking at the numbers, you can greatly improve your chances of success. The more you know, the more often you can win, and this is something that all players are now considering.
To help players on their strategic quests, online casinos are now filled with data, all of which can help members to better understand the games they’re playing and to try and gain an edge. Here are just a few of the ways that casinos have embraced datasets in recent years:
Slots
The paytable/info section is your best friend when playing slot machines. Accessed via the hamburger icon (three horizontal lines) or the “i” icon, this section contains everything you need to know about the game.
In the old days, this screen would be reserved for information about the bonus game and symbol sizes. These days, it contains location data on all of the slot’s paylines, as well as payout information, volatility, and the slot’s RTP.
The RTP and volatility are both key to determining how likely you are to win on a particular online slot.
The RTP tells you how much money you can expect to win over an extended gaming session. Typically displayed as a percentage, it’s best understood as a dollar amount following a $100 session. For instance, if the RTP is 96%, this means you can expect an approximate return of $96 for every $100 you bet.
Of course, this is just the average and it’s calculated over millions of spins, so you could win a lot less or a lot more. However, a higher RTP generally means your odds of winning are higher, and you can use this number to compare slots.
As for the volatility, this dictates how likely a game is to payout in the short-term and how big that payout will be. A high volatility game is one that pays out infrequently but generally triggers large wins, whereas a low volatility games releases smaller wins more regularly. If you’re planning a short gaming session, you should opt for a low volatility game, while saving high volatility ones for longer gaming sessions.
Roulette
Roulette games display something known as a house edge, which tells you how much of an edge the casino has over you and is essentially the opposite of an RTP. These games will also tell you what the odds of winning each bet will be, and this is key, as some bets are much more likely than others, even if the odds are very similar.
Players often incorrectly assume that all Roulette games have the same odds and payouts, but this simply isn’t the case. Games of American Roulette have nearly twice the house edge of European Roulette, while French variants have the lowest odds of all. Once you consider Speed and Multi-Wheel variants, these odds change even more.
The numbers don’t end there, either. Roulette casino games also keep a log of all previous outcomes, allowing you to trawl though the data and make your decision based on this data. Of course, just because the last 5 spins have been Black doesn’t mean that the next one will be Red, but if it makes you feel better to think this way, this date is very useful!
You can also use this information if you’re utilizing Roulette strategies like the Martingale, which requires you to keep track of all previous bets and outcomes.
Lottery Games
Games of Keno, Bingo, and instant lotteries, just like games of Roulette, also contain information on every previous outcome. Again, this doesn’t always mean anything as previous results don’t impact future ones, but if you like to look for patterns, you will have a lot of fun trawling through this data and trying to make sense of it.
Sports Betting
Betting data is not limited to online casino games. It’s also something you’ll find on sports betting sites, and this is when the data really comes to life. By studying the form of football games, for instance, you can determine the most likely outcome and place your bet based on that outcome. Of course, it’s worth noting that the odds are set based on this data, but that doesn’t mean you can’t find something that the oddsmakers have missed.
For instance, odds often take into account recent results, player form, and the number of fouls, corners, and free-kicks. But it rarely takes into account what happened when those teams last met, nor does it consider what happens when a prolific striker goes up against a solid shot-stopper who knows the striker well. These are all things you can take into account when placing your bets.