If you gamble in the United Kingdom, and you’re gambling at a UKGC-licensed online casino, then you’ll know that online casinos need to be fair. They need to state the Return to Player (RTP) on their slot machines and indicate the odds. However, this still leaves people wondering whether slots software varies slightly between casinos. Can you stick to one online casino and play everything, or do you need to shake up your online casino choice to enjoy as many games as possible?
We discuss this issue below.
Sites work with different online casino game developers
There are dozens and dozens of slot machine developers, including some we’ve never even heard of. No online casino will offer slots from every slot machine developer. They would end up with tens of thousands of games. Many online casinos offer a thousand games or more, but if you want even greater selection, you’ll need to visit various platforms.
Things today are better than they were in the past. In the past, it was much harder to develop an online casino website, and a lot of companies signed contracts with specific game developers. The game developers would provide an online casino site for the casino with the stipulation that the only games available there were limited to either their games or a small selection of games from other developers.
This rarely happens today, so all the big online casinos typically offer the most popular slot machines. As a result, you need to hunt around for certain games far less.
However, some smaller casino game developers can be tougher to track down, but since their games are rarely spoken about, this won’t likely be an issue for most people. We doubt many people crave playing those games on iPhone or Android devices.
Some sites have unique casino games
If an online casino is particularly popular, they might work directly with some of the top casino game developers to create custom games developed for their platform which you can’t play anywhere else.
This means that you can sometimes find online casino games on one platform and be unable to find that slot machine anywhere else.
However, this isn’t something that you need to worry too much about. We have yet to see a custom slot machine worth going out of your way to play as most of these games are not developed from scratch. They are reskins of slot machines that already exist. As a result, you can probably play that game elsewhere anyway, it will just look slightly different when you do.
Some sites have different payout rates for their games
You might see some variation in payout rates, also known as the Return to Player (RTP). Some casino developers allow the RTP to be changed within a set range. While there may be slight differences between online casinos on certain games, the differences seldom exceed 1-2%. However, this can be quite a lot in the grand scheme of things, so if you’re evaluating online casinos and certain games to play, it might be worth checking the RTP at various online casinos to see which ones offer the best odds of getting some of your cash back.
Some online casino game developers place restrictions on whether an online casino can change a game’s RTP. For instance, if you looked at Real Time Gaming (RTG) games on CasinoMeister, you would see that the odds should be the same no matter where you play the game. Due to where RTG games are licensed, many unlicensed online casinos offer them, so it’s important to check websites like CasinoMeister to confirm the quality of a casino before gambling there.
Little Variation for Progressive Jackpots
With progressive jackpot slot machines, the odds shouldn’t change no matter where you play it. This assumes that the progressive jackpot is ‘global’, which means that it offers the same jackpot everywhere that slot machine is featured. If the progressive jackpot is a local jackpot — either for that online casino or all online casinos owned by the same company, then the odds can vary slightly. Always look at the game’s RTP so you know what to expect.
Remember that this lack of variation will only apply to the progressive jackpot part. If there are non-progressive parts to the slot machine, then the RTP could vary slightly from one casino to another. So, this is something that you’ll need to pay attention to.
Unlicensed Online Casinos
We do want to wrap up by mentioning unlicensed online casinos. We cannot stress enough that you should only be gambling on licensed platforms. If you gamble anywhere else, no regulations stop the online casino from manipulating the software. This happens more often than you may think.
There can be a lot of variation between online slot machines when licensed platforms do not operate them. You are likely to have a reduced chance of winning at some of the more fraudulent platforms, and if you score a decent win, you may be unable to withdraw your winnings. The best choice is to gamble only at the top online casinos that are licensed in the UK.
Final Thoughts
There are some variations between slots provided by online casinos. There can be differences in the games offered as well as in the amount the online slot machine pays out. Always do your research so you know what each online casino provides.
