Responsible Gambling When Doing Casino Offers
Casino offers aren’t risk free, but with the right approach they can be very profitable.
There will be times where you have money in your accounts, or have lost money on an offer, and there could be a temptation to gamble.
This guide will help curb those temptations, and offer advice on how to avoid getting into a bad situation.
Slots Designs
Slots are designed to suck you in and keep you playing as that’s how the casinos will make their money.
The only time we should play slots is when there’s a promotion that we can take advantage of. At no point should you ever play slots with your own money unless doing an offer.
They use sounds, flashing animations and “exciting” bonus rounds to grab your attention. But the odds are massively in their favour.
A slot is a glorified random number generator. It’s simply a computer program that will tell you if you win or not, but they mask it with all of these gimmicks and sounds to make it seem like you have a better chance of winning and to “enhance” your gameplay.
You are guaranteed to lose money over the long run if you play slots beyond doing offers.
Turn Off Sounds & Minimize Screen
Despite the flashy images and mesmerizing sounds, slots are simply a random number generator that decide whether you win or lose.
So what’s our advice?
Turn the sound off. The sound is one of the factors that cause people to keep playing slots. The music is made to attract you to the game and keep playing it.
“Just one more spin”
As soon as you’ve finished the promotion, STOP! It’s far too easy to keep clicking spin and do 1 or 2 more. Don’t let this happen as you can start losing and will almost always end up chasing the losses.
Don’t Chase Losses
Most casino offers are fairly low risk, but it is normal to lose money on some offers.
Whenever you lose money, the natural reaction is to want it back.
There’s been horror stories posted over the years on various forums about people chasing losses. £5 can turn into £20 which can turn into £100, and it does happen. If you ever feel like you’re chasing losses then simply stop – and read the next part, below:
Walk Away, Think, and Record
You shouldn’t be gambling without offers, you are mathematically guaranteed to lose over the long-term and you shouldn’t chase your losses.
If for whatever reason you’ve gambled and you’ve lost money, you simply need to stop, get up, close the laptop, and take a walk.
It’s easy to say, but do it. You will be angry and you’ll want the money back, but chasing the loss will make things worse.
Casino offers are still there and with a little discipline you will be able to pick yourself up and carry on – make back what you lost plus more.
Record your loss. If you write down how much you’ve lost, you’re very unlikely to do it again.
It will be a thing to reference when you next get the urge, and will tell you not to do it again.
People will sometimes gamble once and lose, say they’ll never do it again and then a few months later do it all over again. Whatever situation you’re in – record it. And NEVER do it again.
Stop Doing Casino Offers
For many of you, you will never have used an online casino before signing up to Gamelyn.
That means we’ve introduced you to the world of casinos and so have a duty of care to make sure you’re not vulnerable to gambling. What we do is low risk, but seeing money in casino accounts can make some people want to gamble.
So if you do have a problem and it keeps happening over and over again, then the best decision is to remove yourself from the situation all together.
And we mean it. Contact Us and we will remove access to the casino offers section of your account and stop using casino websites. It’s not worth your time if you’re losing money and your mental health is far more important. Stop using casinos all together and the problem will not be there.
And if you do feel like it’s becoming a big problem, then there are places you can get help.
Choosing The Right Slot
If you are new to slots, make sure you read our Slots guide first.
There are over 10,000 different online slot games and these all vary significantly in terms of functionality, Return to Player (RTP), minimum and maximum stakes, and variance. Gamelyn will always try to recommend certain slots for every offer that is posted, but if you ever find yourself needing to choose a slot yourself, this guide aims to assist you in doing so.
Return To Player
Our primary consideration should always be choosing a slot with a high RTP, as this is how we are going to maximise our long term profits. There are two ways that we can typically find this information. It is recommended that you use the Slots Database where possible as the RTPs have all been manually checked.
Slot Catalog – Websites such as this allow you to look up any slot, and will tell you the RTP, and other information, such as variance, number of paylines, and will also often rank the quality of slots based upon their user’s experiences. Sites like Slot Catalog occasionally get the RTP incorrect or include the jackpot contributions which Gamelyn tends to avoid.
Min Spin Size
The minimum spin size varies significantly. Some allow you to spin from as little as 5p or 10p, whereas others have minimum spin sizes of 40p or 50p. Depending on our bankroll, we may wish to stick to slots that have a lower minimum spin size. This way we can complete offers by doing a lower spin value and a higher number of spins, which will reduce our variance and chance of finishing a promotion at a loss.
Variance
It is difficult to know what the variance is like on a slot until you have played a large number of spins on it, however there are a few things we can consider. As previously mentioned, the lower the spin size that we choose, the lower the variance will be. We can also look at slot listings, such as slotcatalog.com, which often rank slots as being low, medium or high variance. And finally, any slot that is promoting a large jackpot will have higher variance, and therefore carry a higher chance of finishing with a loss.
Speed
Slots vary massively in terms of how smoothly they run, and how quickly they spin. We do not want to be stuck using slow, out of date slots, and should always look to find slots that run smoothly and allow us to get through a high number of spins quickly.
Commonly Used Slots
Here are a few slots that we use regularly at Gamelyn, which have a good RTP, are easy to use, and normally run smoothly:
- Bloodsuckers (98% RTP)
- Golden Tour (97.71% RTP)
- Big Bad Wolf (97.34% RTP)
- Halloween Fortune (97.06% RTP)
- A Night Out (97.06% RTP)
- Jackhammer 2 (97% RTP) – 50p minimum spin size
- Twin Spin (96.6%)
- Starburst (96.1% RTP)
- Gonzo’s Quest (96% RTP)
Penny Slots
Quite often when you bust out of a bonus you can be left with a few pence of bonus money in your account. This can cause issues for future offers. Our Penny Slots Guide explains how you can overcome this problem.