Guide to Online Slots for UK Players: How to Play Slots Online and Find the Best Game for You

What are Online Slots?

Online slots are almost exactly what you expect them to be: online versions of classic slot machines that you can find in casinos and down the pub. However, online slots can have a lot more bells and whistles than physical machines and offer a much larger variety of playstyles.

Not all online slots are the classic fruit wheels you know and love. They can feature interactive gameplay details, huge multipliers and bonus rounds, and even things like grid slot layouts to completely change the way the game functions. We even see slots with progress and even stories nowadays.

The first slot machines were produced in the US in the late 19th century, called Liberty Bells at the time. However, these machines weren't particularly familiar, and it wasn't until video slots were later invented in 1976 that we could see the machines we know and love. 

But everything changed when Microgaming entered the scene in 1994, and we saw the rise of online slot games. Developing slot games online allowed developers even more freedom with how they made the games, offering wholly unique experiences that weren't only exciting but convenient and accessible from your personal computer.

While online slots have near-infinite variety, most of them follow the same basic structure. You click a button to spin reels or drop symbols, and you score depending on where the symbols land. Modern slots also tend to come with flashy jackpots and multipliers to keep gameplay exciting and unpredictable, randomly increasing your scores.

How to Play Online Slots

Online slots are possibly the easiest online casino game to get involved with. There are thousands of options, and the gameplay is so simple it mostly boils down to letting the game handle everything. However, that doesn't mean there isn't a process to follow and ways to make the experience better. So here's a guide to how you'll start playing online slots:

1. Pick a casino — if you're playing online slots for the first time, you'll need a good quality online casino to play them on! You can find plenty of options right here on LiveScore. 

2. Choose a slot game — there are so many slot games to choose from, so this can be difficult for newbies. We recommend starting with popular games on your chosen site or picking from our recommendations in this article. 

3. Set a budget, wager and paylines — before you hit spin, you'll need to determine how much you'll bet every time, which paylines you want to cover and how much you're prepared to spend overall. You can adjust the first two within the game. 

4. Play! — now you're ready to start the game. We recommend reading through the game's instructions before hitting the 'go' button so you understand what's happening at any given time. 

5. Bonus rounds, free spins multipliers and jackpots — as you play, you may trigger a wide variety of features. Most of the time, you won't need to worry about adjusting gameplay, but you'll find explanations of each feature in the game's instructions.

There are also a few popular features on slots that recur between games:

• Cascading Reels — a mechanic where winning symbols explode or otherwise disappear to make way for new symbols, with the chance of additional winnings and multipliers.

• Gridslots — a type of modern slot game that works more like Candy Crush or Bejewelled than traditional fruit machines. Hitting spin generates a new grid of symbols, and chains of matching ones add to the payout counter before making way for new ones. 

• Megaways — a type of online tumbler slot with six reels and symbols of varying sizes. This allows for a larger variety of unpredictable paylines.

• Progressive Jackpots — these slots typically feature lower RTPs, but every stake from all players contributes to four jackpots. You can randomly trigger these as you play for the chance to win huge amounts of money. The MegaMoolah series of games is the most famous example.

Understanding RTP and Volatility

RTP and volatility are simultaneously some of the hardest things to understand about online slots, and the most important. These concepts have to do with the rate an online slot pays out to players, so having a solid grasp of what they mean can help you pick out a good game and marginally increase your probabilities. 

RTP is short for 'return to player' and is the average amount of money returned to players compared to how much is wagered on the game in total. You may be more familiar with its direct inverse, the house edge.

For example, a game with a 96% RTP (which is the average for online slots) will return £96 for every £100 wagered on this. However, this isn't a guarantee; it's an average. Your win rate in reality could fall far below or vastly above this rate. The RTP is just the aggregate returns across millions of plays. 

At its core, the RTP tells you how much the casino is guaranteed to keep in the long run, which is why traditional casino games use the house edge, such as the 2.70% house edge on roulette. As such, the RTP is informative but not a stat you should be relying on for a win rate. 

More helpful in this department is a game's volatility. Slot volatility is the frequency with which a slot pays out compared to the average size of the winnings. So, a high volatility sees infrequent but big winnings, while a low volatility slot has smaller winnings but at much more regular intervals. High volatility slots are for players interested in exciting experiences, and low volatility slots are for those who want the experience (and their bankroll) to last a bit longer. 

Interestingly, you'll often find that high RTP slots also have low volatility and vice versa, but this isn't a hard and fast rule. You should try a variety of games with a variety of RTP and volatilities to see what kinds of games appeal most to your preferred experience. 

Top Tips for Playing Online Slots

If you're just starting out with online slots, there's so much variety, so many different features and themes and developers, that it can be hard to know where to start or how to make the most of your time. 

While there aren't any ways to improve your chances of winning, we do have some tips on how to make the most of your time and ensure that you enjoy yourself. If you stick to these tips, you'll have a good time regardless of your luck:

• Find a game with the right RTP and volatility — while you might conclude that high RTP and low volatility are always the best combination, this won't always be the case. Think about what sort of experience you're looking for and play accordingly. If you want an exciting, unpredictable experience, high-volatility games may be preferable. And if you're opting for a progressive, you might sacrifice RTP for the chance at one of those huge jackpots. 

• Find your favourite game developers — early on, you'll want to take a look at the different developers and try games from a variety of them. Quickly, you'll notice which game providers you like the best, which gives you a solid list of games you can be confident you'll enjoy. Developers tend towards consistent design sense, gameplay and features, so finding a favourite can also add consistency to your experience. 

• Managing your bankroll — this one is pretty obvious, but do everything in your power to not exceed your budget. Set a specific bankroll at the start of your session and maintain it; you can also use your casino's responsible gambling tools to force you to stick to it. Spending too much on slots is not only easy but also the fastest way to ruin your experience. 

• Look for free spins — if you're not picky about which slots you play, try to sign up for a casino that offers regular free spins. Free spins give you the chance to play without spending your own money, which will help your bankroll stretch further. 

• Avoid common gambling fallacies — always remember to play slots for fun, not to make a profit. The advantage always goes towards the house, so you can't bank on winning. Also, don't chase losses; just because you've hit a losing streak doesn't mean you're due a win. Slots run on pure RNG, so outcomes are entirely random and don't follow patterns. 

Popular Online Slots Games in the UK

If you're looking for recommendations on which slots to check out, we've compiled a detailed list of some of the most popular online slots in the UK! All of these will offer a consistent, high-quality experience and have maintained enthusiastic fans for years:

• Starburst — this standout title from NetEnt has topped popularity polls for years. Its low volatility makes it a consistent experience from start to finish, which is friendly to all players. Also, for such an old slot game (2013), the design is attractive and holds up for more than a decade. 

• Big Bass Bonanza — This is the youngest slot game we're recommending, but its runaway success might have you fooled. This slot from Pragmatic Play has only been around since 2020, but it already has more than a dozen spin-offs and is featured front and centre on all top online casinos! Its simple gameplay that relies heavily on multipliers over gimmicks makes it an excellent choice for beginners. 

• Mega Moolah — Microgaming's crowning achievement will always be Mega Moolah, the birth of the progressive jackpot. While it only has an RTP of 88%, and the design reflects its release in 2008, this game maintains enduring popularity thanks to the giant jackpots up for grabs. 

• Gonzo's Quest — another from NetEnt, Gonzo's Quest is notable for introducing the world to cascading reels, allowing for more unpredictable gameplay that has a better sense of building progression. And despite its age, this game holds up shockingly well and still sees modern spin-offs. 

• Reactoonz — for a more quirky experience, consider this charming slot from Play'n GO. Unlike the other entries here, Reactoonz is a grid slot, offering an alternative way of engaging with the slot game genre. The game is also attractive, cute and is particularly well suited to mobile gaming. 

You May Also Be Interested In...

• What Does RTP Mean?

• What are the Rules of Craps?

• Guide to Online Scratchcards

Responsible Gambling

While slots can be endlessly entertaining, they're also one of the easiest casino games to get carried away with. So, when you're playing online slots, always remember to employ responsible gambling behaviours to keep yourself in check. 

With online slots, one of the best ways to control your habits is to give yourself a hard and fast budget. Online casinos have plenty of ways to help you control your bankroll, so just employ any available limit and be strict about where you set it. If you still find yourself engaging in negative behaviour, you can also use tools to temporarily close your account, cut off marketing, look through your activity and a variety of helplines and links if you need direct help. 

Here's a list of the common responsible gambling tools you can find at most online casinos in the UK:

• Bankroll limits: deposit, loss, wager etc.

• Time outs

• Self-exclusion

• Activity log

• Reality checks

• Helplines and links