Since online casinos first started to appear on the scene around 30 years ago it’s introduced many more people than ever before to their games.
Before then only a fraction of the numbers playing roulette today would have experienced the game for real. Slots, on the other hand, have been part of gaming culture for over a century now. So most people will have played them before they ever started to pop up online.
Slots and table games have as many differences as they have similarities. So first, here’s a quick overall description of the two types of games.
A lowdown on slots
Look on any online casino site and you’ll be overwhelmed by the sheer number of different slots games you can choose from. Covering a whole different range of themes, some transport you to the world of Ancient Egypt.
Others set you off on a chase to find the gold at the end of the rainbow. What all have in common is that they’re exciting to play, colourful to look at and usually have a great soundtrack too.
Online technology has made slots ever more sophisticated so today’s games can include video inserts and many bonus features to also add to the fun. Another feature of slots is that free spins on certain games generally form a part of the casino bonus offered to new players on a site.
All about table games
Table games is a generic description that basically means all the games in an online casino that aren’t slots. So this covers roulette, blackjack, baccarat, poker, craps and many more. Most table games have their origins in Europe.
For example, roulette was invented in the 18th century, allegedly by a mathematician called Blaize Pascal and poker originated in Italy at around the same time.
By the early 20th century the games had started to travel around the world, most notably to the UK and the US and now they are played on every continent.
Odds and win potential
Something most casino players are interested in is the likelihood of winning. After all, that’s one of the main reasons to play. While slots offer many smaller wins, it’s the life-changing progressive jackpot that most are chasing.
With table games, it’s more a question of slowly accumulating winnings. This is naturally reflected in the odds. For a big slots win these are very long but for table games they can be as low as 50/50, something that makes a game like roulette appealing to people who like the possibility of slowly building up winnings as they play.
Entertainment value
When it comes to entertainment value, it’s slots that have a distinct edge. As we’ve already described, they are bright, colourful and exciting to play. Slots are often based around a range of themes too including movie franchises like Marvel and DC Comics as well as sports themes like golf and football and even adventure-based themed slots.
The action is fast-moving, some even have an autoplay function so you can set it for a number of spins and just sit back and watch the reels go around.
Table games are entertaining, but it’s a slower, more considered kind of entertainment which focuses on the ebbs and flows of the action. But both do share the exhilaration of the win whenever it occurs.
Sociability
Table games are the ones for the social butterflies out there. That’s why poker is often played as much as a social activity as a gambling game and many online casinos have virtual tables where you can compete with others. In an online casino’s “live” roulette and blackjack you can actually communicate with the dealer of the game, recreating the bricks and mortar casino experience.
Slots, on the other hand, are a distinctly one-person activity, although from time to time casinos do run leaderboard competitions to see which players have won the most over a set period of time. But, although slots are increasingly becoming like video games, as yet none have been invented with a multi-player option.
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Strategy
With slots, the only strategy that you can use is choosing a game with the highest Return To Player figure. This is the percentage of stake money paid out as winnings and tends to range from the low to mid-90s. Most online casinos include this as part of the game information.
Table games, however, are all about strategy, whether you’re testing out the Martingale, also used in investing or trying out Blackjack’s Basic Strategy. Poker is also a notoriously strategic game that is as much about psychology as it is about playing the cards.
So, as you can see, slots and table games are very different from each other. One isn’t necessarily any better than the other, but they do suit different tastes and personality types.
Which one is for you is up to you. But for maximum enjoyment, we’d suggest sampling both.