Should you play slots online or at land based casinos?
May 1st, 2009There’s been a great deal of discussion about online gambling
recently with legislators, operators and the global community of
gamblers trying to fathom complex matters such as Internet
″locality″. In the midst of these deliberations, many players
have been wanting to assess the relative merits of gambling
online or at land-based casinos.
Through all of this there has been a lack of focus on the
experience of the person who actually plays money at a casino.
How about the gamblers who are central to any issues concerning
casinos? We pose the sensible opening question - which are
better, online or land-based slot machines?
Land-based slots are the world’s most popular casino game. They
pay more winnings to gamblers than all of the other casino games
together. But how well does this cherished form of land-based
gambling adapt to online play? The vast majority of slots
enthusiasts believe it has made the transition splendidly. The
online versions of slots have become the most-played form of
online casino games, owing in part to the ease of finding slots
on the Internet (they’re also easy enough to find and play at
land-based casinos) and in part to the fact that the game play
is so simple. Slot machines at land-based casinos have been
controlled by computers for many years, so it’s relatively easy
to adapt the game to play online. Some players are puzzled when
you tell them a land-based slot machine is no more than a
computer in a fancy case, but this is exactly what it is. These
slots are driven by a microprocessor with a built-in random
number generator. They work just like the online versions
because the operating software is hard-coded in the
microprocessor.
This means there is not much of a difference between the way the
game works and how the odds compute for online or land-based
slot machines. But there are some differences.
The most obvious difference, the one that will forever separate
the two forms, is that you can’t physically put your hands on an
online slot. Similarly, land-based machines have much bigger and
more spectacular light and sound displays, although the graphics
on the online slots are sophisticated enough these days to
emulate reality pretty well.
There are numerous less evident advantages of playing online
slots. For a start, you choose the time, place and the most
comfortable seat in the house. You can play with your own
refrigerator, DVD music system and other personal comforts close
to hand. This is one of the great appeals of online casinos -
you can visit them and experience all of their excitement
without stepping outside your own home! And you can interrupt
play whenever you like without worrying that some other gambler
is going to annex your place at the machine. Possibly the most
telling difference between playing slots at an online compared
with a land-based casino is the nature of the comps you receive.
At a land-based establishment, the keen slots player may receive
a coupon or some similar small comp as a reward for slaving away
at a machine for several hours. It’s quite different online
because the competition among casinos is so intense.
With the Internet it doesn’t matter where in the world you live,
every online casino would love to lure your custom. As a result
you can get a comp simply for deciding to play at a given casino
regardless of how much you’ve gambled there. The sign-up bonus
is a common online attraction. It gives you a substantial value
in real credits at the casino and you can exploit this bonus to
swell your bankroll, spend more time playing the slots and
experience more opportunities to be a winner.
Many slots players find it genuinely gratifying to receive a
comp in advance rather than after having to earn it by achieving
a certain level of play. If you add the comps to the other
advantages of online slots, it should be easy to see which
version best meets the needs of the players.