Online Casino Guide for the smart and curious

The term "casino guide" has become synonymous with "yet another casino promotion", but it doesn't necessarily need to be that. Casino guides can actually be a helpful resource for you as a player. Casinos guides can cover a lot of different topics to help you understand how casinos function and how to make the most of them (and how not to let them take the most of you).

We'll be discussing a lot of topics here, including but by any means not limited to the following:

Not all casino bonuses are created equal and some of them are bad from the beginning. In case of simpler bonuses (well, so most of them) you can calculate casino bonus estimated value to see if it might make sense to accept it. How to calculate casino bonus estimated value?

The simple EV calculation formula is this: Bonus amount – (house edge*) x (wagering requirement in euros)
You can use the same formula for both free spins as well as bonus money. In case of free spins you just need to first calculate the initial value of free spins (amount of free spins times value of each spin).

Let's say the casino is offering you 100 euros of bonus money and you can wager it in games with average RTP of 96% (so house edge is 4%). Wagering requirement is 40x (so 100x40=4000 euros).

EV = 100 - (0.04x4000)
EV = 100 - 160
EV = -60

As you can see, in this case the estimated value of the bonus is negative and as such it would be wise to stay away from this offer.


Casinos are offering you different kinds of free spins - from no deposit free spins with also zero wagering requirement to free spins with deposit and high wagering requirements. While the first kind of free spins is great, the second one depends a lot on the wagering requirement.

So no, not all free spins are equal.

Are RTP and volatility the same? No, they are not. Slot RTP shows Return To Player percentage which pretty much tells you how much on average the slot machine pays back to the player. So if slot RTP is 97%, it means that on average (which has been calculated based on maybe millions of spins) from each 100 euro put into the machine it pays the players back 97 euros.

Slot volatility or variance shows how stable a slot is. Does it pay out often or can you go on playing for dozens or even hundreds of spins without pretty much any win at all.

The RTP of the same game can be different in different casinos. A year ago or two ago there were a few known slot game providers that offered casinos the chance to choose between multiple RTP configurations, but now even the world's best known slot provider NetEnt has started to offer that. So these days it makes sense to check the slot RTP in every casino individually.


Casinos earn money from each and every spin you make. Even if your spin brings you a huge win. How? Because your win has already been calculated into the slot machine RTP and in slightly longer term the casino will always earn the amount of the house edge of any slot machine.

So if the slot RTP is 95%, by the end of the day the casino will always pocket 5% of the money anyone has put into the slot.

Online casinos are very similar, but we could mention a few differences. Firstly, there can be casinos that only offer slot games. Then there can be casinos that offer only live casino games. Thirdly, there are casinos that offer all of them plus also poker room and sport betting option.

Additionally it's worth mentioning Pay & Play casinos which can be the same based on game selection, but they are different when it comes to account creation and payments.

Pay & play casinos offer people the chance to open an account automatically by just logging in using their bank account. Although the account is actually created for them automatically upon first deposit or log-in, they are called no account casinos. That's because the player never needs to submit any details.


No deposit bonuses are the best kind of bonus that everyone are looking for. In best case scenario there's no catch. But more often no deposit bonuses have either very high wagering requirement, or you still need to make a deposit before you are able to withdraw your winnings from your no deposit free spins.

Now ain't that a good question. All slot machines have a built in random number generator that calculates the results of each next spin. The RNG works in the background and can go through thousands of possibilities every second. So slots are definitely random. Whether slots have cycles or not when it comes to payouts, that's a better question. In theory, due to the fact that house edge has already been built into the random number generator, there don't need to be any cycles. So in theory the same slot could give out multiple huge wins one after another without the need to "collect" money until it's able to pay out again. But on the other hand it depends on what's the amount of spins the house edge has been built on? It's not good enough for casinos to know that yes, by year 2050 our house edge should have finally realized. So it's more likely that there are certain cycles during which the house edge should realize. What it is probably depends on the slot provider.

Do you need to pay taxes from your casino winnings? And if, how much? That depends a lot on the country you live in. In some countries you need to pay taxes from your winnings no matter what. In some countries you don't need to pay anything. And in some countries in depends on whether you're playing in a casino that has a license in your country or you play in a casino that doesn't have a license in your country. Normally local licensed casinos pay gambling tax themselves then.

All slots can be played for free in almost any casino. Normally you don't even have to create an account for that. Additionally many game providers offer you the option to play their slots for free already on their own websites. As an example you can check NetEnt games section and Elk Studios games section.

Nobody can guarantee wins for you. In fact, casino is ahead of you the moment you make your first deposit. But it's good to know how they function, it's good to understand how you can win and how to lower casino's house edge during your next playing session.

FAQ - things to remember