Sometimes old school is not cool. We remember going to land-based casinos with our folks as a mere crotch goblin. We’d stare wide-eyed at the lights, half choking on cigarette fumes, and wonder what all the fuss was about. People would elbow each other out of the way to place coins in a machine with one arm. It was a glorious time to be alive.

While we do miss the liveliness and being swept up in the excitement, there’s something to be said for playing your favorite casino game in the comfort of your own home. Or in the garden. Or somewhere exotic.

Modern technology has forever changed the face of gambling but besides the obvious, what are the benefits if we were to play slots online versus offline? We’re glad you asked! Luckily at BitStarz, we know a thing or two about the topic, so read on to learn exactly why online is always the smart player’s choice.

The grass isn’t always greener – or is it?

The first difference between online and offline casinos (also known as land-based casinos) has to do with overheads. In a brick-and-mortar place, you have quite horrendous costs such as renting floor space or buildings, water, electricity, staff, and so on. Now those costs don’t get covered by the casino so it’s no surprise then that the payback percentage for offline slots is lower than at an online casino.

The next glaring difference between the two centers around free credits, spins, and money. In an offline scenario, you don’t get any of these perks. You simply choose your machine, load it with money, and hope for the best.

When you play slots online though, you’ll be flooded with offers of Welcome Deposit Bonuses, Free Spins, and so on. Let’s explore each one individually.

Welcome Bonus

Without fail, you’ll see a Welcome Bonus on the home page (or promotions page) of each and every online casino. It’s the casino’s way of saying, “Thanks for choosing us out of all our competitors. Here’s a little something to show our appreciation.”

A Welcome Bonus can take the form of Free Spins, money, or credit. It means that, at least for a little while, you can play for free but stand a chance to win actual money. Any wins that you rack up using this Welcome Bonus get credited to your bankroll. Now, this is not the case with offline casinos; they don’t offer any enticements other than maybe free drinks or other comps for high rollers. Check out this link to see how you can make the most of your BitStarz Welcome Bonus.

Deposit Bonus

After you’ve used up your Welcome Bonus, it’ll be time to make your first deposit. Chances are, your online casino will offer you some form of bonus which will usually take the form of a percentage of your deposit amount.

So as an example: if you deposit €100, and the offer is a 100% match, then you’ll be credited with €100. You put in one hundred, you get one hundred back – how cool is that? Now you have €200 to play with but it only costs you half the amount!

Your land-based casino, on the other hand, won’t offer you anything of the sort.

Free Spins

Online casinos dish these things out like candy. Of course it makes sense to do so, as it doesn’t cost them money. However, the more spins you can make, the greater your chances of scoring a win so from a gambler’s perspective, Free Spins are like gold.

You’ll find Free Spins as part of your Welcome Bonus, Deposit Bonus, No Deposit Bonus, Weekly Bonus, Loyalty Bonus, Reward Bonus, and more! The more you play, the greater your chances of being rewarded with Free Spins by your online casino. This is not the case offline.

Play for Free

While this element isn’t the same as the above, in as much as it doesn’t put money in your pocket or increase your chances of spinning, Play for Free comes with its own advantages. This feature means that when you play slots online, you won’t need to register or lay out a single dime – you can practice playing any of their games for as long as you want. Read this article to see how to swap between free play and real play.

The upshot is that you can get familiar with the games, how the systems work, and when you’re ready, it will make the transition less daunting when you do play for real. This is definitely not something you can expect to experience at an offline casino, which of course, makes sense. With all of their overheads, it wouldn’t be wise to clog up machines that could otherwise be generating money, with people playing for the fun of it. With online casinos, it doesn’t affect their bottom line.

Game Selection

When it comes to the sheer number of games you can choose from, nothing can rival online casinos. Just imagine the floor space a brick-and-mortar place would need to stock the thousands of games their digital counterparts offer!

And the other great thing about it is there’s no waiting. Just jump onto your browser, pick your game, and away you go.

When you play slots online, it’s the same table games you’d experience in a physical casino, so whether you prefer Blackjack, Baccarat, or Poker, or if you want to play in a live environment, you’ll have all of these options at your fingertips. Live Games are played by real croupiers and filmed using HD cameras that stream the content straight to your computer or mobile phone – it’s almost like being right there!

Progressive Jackpots

Now of course major jackpots are on offer at offline casinos, and nothing is more exciting than hearing the sirens wail and watching the lights flash while people gasp and applaud.

But… while online casinos can’t emulate this feat, they can offer you something quite spectacular: Progressive Jackpots. But what is a Progressive Jackpot?

A jackpot is a fixed amount that you can win if you bet the maximum. A Progressive Jackpot happens when the prize money increases each time a player places a bet and spins the reels.

The more people play, the more money they pump into the game and the bigger the jackpot. Eventually, one lucky person will hit it and the jackpot resets and the process starts again. Now, in a physical casino, you’ll have people dumping money into machines but when you play slots online, where there’s no queue or waiting, you can imagine how much quicker the Progressive Jackpots escalate. You can even play some slots games without linking up to the internet and still win a Progressive!

New to online slots? Click here to read our beginner’s guide.

All’s fair in love and gambling (but are online slots fair?)

It’s natural for people to feel disgruntled and skeptical when they’re not winning. So much so, that accusations of crooked reels and cheating often get bandied around. But what is the reality; can online casino games be trusted?

Whether you play on a physical slot machine or a digital game, both of these make use of an algorithm to ensure fair play. So what are these “algorithms” of which we speak and how do they work?

Random Number Generator (RNG)

Let’s jump into the thing that most people are concerned with – how the numbers or reel values get chosen. A Random Number Generator does what it says on the tin, and it ensures that all players have the same chance of winning. It’s written into the architecture of the game, meaning that no one can fiddle or alter the results that come from the RNG and this makes it 100% fair.

You’ll probably have seen websites or gamblers referring to hot (paying out) or cold (not paying out) machines and tables. In actual fact, there is no such thing. The RNG has no memory of past payouts so it only does what it’s programmed to do. You’re just as likely to hit a massive win straight after a jackpot as the odds are exactly the same.

Return to Player (RTP)

You might have seen this figure at some point; it will be a percentage like 96.1% for example. The RTP represents the percentage that a player can expect to win back from the total they’ve spent on the slot game.

The average is usually 95% but before you say: “Wow, I’ll get 95% of my money back” that’s not quite accurate. This figure is worked out over thousands of spins so it’s still up to fate to decide how much you win or lose when you play slots. It’s good to know, though, that although you might not win every time, this percentage has to be paid out.

Fair Games and Licensing

There’s this mistaken belief that the independent regulatory authorities are far stricter with land-based casino games. The truth of the matter is that this fabled difference does not exist. Irrespective of where a casino is based, and whether it’s a physical establishment or not, all casinos are vetted for fairness and all games need to match the RTP that’s been stated.

Online casinos also offer something a land-based one cannot: provably fair games. In this scenario, players can always check that their games haven’t been tampered with. Thanks to an algorithm that verifies the casino’s fairness, and the ability for players to have input into the game (hitting “Spin” for example), you can be sure that no one has meddled with the results, and no one will be able to work out what’s coming next.

Not all casinos and game providers offer this functionality, but most of the BGaming games and all of the SoftSwiss ones at BitStarz do. And it’s easy to use; when you’re playing a game, just click the “Provability” button on the right-hand side of the screen.

So if fairness is a major concern for you, then (certain) online casinos are the way to go. For more on our provably fair games at BitStarz, click here.

To online gamble or offline gamble? That is the question!

The final point we need to raise, in terms of why it might be more beneficial to play online versus offline slots, is betting with cryptocurrency. That’s not an option available in a physical environment – at least not yet – but it’s fairly commonplace online.

In case you didn’t know, BitStarz is one of the leading crypto-accepting online casinos in the world and we have an extensive range of games that accept crypto. As far as the benefits of betting with the digital stuff, and why you should seriously consider it, check out our definitive Bitcoin article here.

While bricks-and-mortar places offer the vibe and social aspect that you can’t always get while sitting at your computer, there are numerous reasons – and benefits – for playing slots online.

We hope this article has been helpful and that we’ll see you playing at BitStarz very soon!