Video slots are constantly breaking new barriers. In 2020, you can expect a huge rollout of feature-rich 3D animated and cinematic slot games to hit the online casinos in Canada.

You can expect these slots to come with new features, and the same animation and graphics quality you used to seeing on PlayStation as well as Xbox.

What’s more is that online slots can be played on your desktop, tablet or mobile from the same account. This is because the latest online slots have been built with cross-platform technology so you can log and play your favorite slot title no matter which device you feel like using.  Best Slots Sites

Where Can I Play Online Video slots?

Today nearly every online casino in Canada has an online slot section with a variety of themes to choose from.

You will be able to find slot games with progressive jackpots that can pay millions of dollars in prize money or find non-progressive jackpot slots with high paying jackpots and bonus video slot games with high paying bonus rounds and free spins games.

Can I Play Online Slots For Free?

As a Canadian online casino player, you are one of the lucky ones to be able to test out free play slots. Just visit one of the online casinos on our top slot machine casinos page. You can either join up without making a deposit and play for free under your account, or find an online casino that will let you play slot games without the need to log on.

The Average Online slot Pays 97%

On average an online slot will pay-out 97% of the time – therefore the average RTP (Return to Player) you should be looking for is slots with around 95% to 99%. If we exclude variation and simplify the maths behind this, that means every $100 you bet, you should see a return of $95 to $99.

However, this is just a simplified example and RTP actually represents your long-run expected return playing a particular slot game. For example is similar to flipping a coin and assuming that after 100 flips, heads will have landed 50 times and tails 50 times – it doesn’t happen this way because variation plays its role.

However, if heads happen to go ahead 75 to 25 over tails, over time tails should catch up with heads. Maybe this happens on the 550th flip of the coin, so heads is at 275 and tails is at 275. In the long run, probability dictates that the math will even out, and RTP on slot games is much the same.

If you read about video slots often, then you will often hear online slot players use the terms running good or running bad. They are just running through a positive or negative swing in their variation.

Slot Features

There are so many features designed by an array of online slot designers that it would take us all day to list them all. Nonetheless, most video slots come with some common features that all online slot players know exactly what they are at a glance.

Wild Symbols

Wild symbols have been the base of many a feature on video slots. The bog-standard wild symbol is a wildcard. It can act as any other symbol in the game. It does this so any other symbol combinations can use the wild to qualify its combination as a cash win. However, you will also come across numerous modified versions of the wild symbol that will help you roll in more symbol combination wins.

Stacked Wilds

Sticky Wilds

Wild Reels

Jumpin wilds

Multipliers

Multipliers will take the original value of a win and apply itself to the win. For instance, if you are in a free spins game that multiplies all wins by x3, and you land a combination worth 500 coins, then you would win 500 x 3 = 1,500 coins.

Scatter Symbols

Scatter symbols are common in most slot games. Scatters do not need to land on a pay line or on adjacent reels, nor do they need to start on reel 1. They can literally land anywhere on the reels to count as a combination. Scatters are therefore the easiest combination to land. Generally, these combinations will give you a multiplier of your spin bet and trigger a bonus or free spins round.

Free Spins

Free spins are usually triggered by scatter symbols, but some slots use other inventive ways to trigger free spins games. Free spins are basically exactly what the name implies. You win a set amount of free goes on the reels. While the free spins round is in action, you accumulate a number of wins and this will be paid out to you at the end of the free spins session.

Welcome Bonus Codes to Play Video slots at Discount Rates

You could also test online slot games at an online casino by playing for real money. Using a Welcome Bonus code or taking advantage of no deposit casino bonus codes gets you straight into the real money action.

Most online casinos will double the amount of cash used to make your first deposit as Welcome Bonus. A $50 investment will give you twice as many spins on the reels with a $50 Welcome Bonus that kicks off your bankroll with $100 cash.

Online slot Brand Names

Most online casinos are run by a management company known as the operator. That operator will usually have signed an agreement with one of the online slot software developers to provide their casino with video slots.

Next Generation Gaming (NextGen)

NYX Gaming

RabCat

Microgaming & Quickfire

Wagerlogic & Cryptologic

Quick spin

Sheriff Gaming

Net Entertainment (NetEnt)

Real Time Gaming (RTG)

Barcrest

1×2 Gaming

Currently, small, medium and large slot developers are all fighting for their piece of the market share, and it is the Online slot players that benefit the most. As the Online slot developers try to outsmart each other, the video slots just keep on getting better.

Choosing the right Online slot Software Developer

Each slot designer has its own strategy to conquer the slots market by giving its followers the ultimate gaming experiences.

Everyone is different in their preferences, so we would recommend searching for places where you can play these titles for free.

Most online casinos will allow players to visit their casino and play for free without signing up to become a member. However, some will require that you become a member and award ‘Play Money’. You can use the play money to try out the casino’s selection of video slots.

Casinos with Games from Multiple Software Developers

Some online casinos are now able to offer video slots from a mixture of online slot developers. For example, any casino operator using Microgaming’s platform to run their gaming suites will have access to games from multiple developers.

Microgaming has a Third Party Extended Interface that streams games from NYX, Quickspin, NextGen, Wgaerlogic, Cryptologic, NetEnt, and other designers. These Microgaming casinos offer some of the most diverse online slot gaming online as members have access to a flurry of unique and inventive features from multiple software designers.

Australian company also runs a similar third party interface via its NYX MOVE platform that connects with Microgaming and many of the designers mentioned above.

Progressive Jackpots

Progressive jackpot video slots have become incredibly popular because they hold a jackpot that progressively increases. Slots such as The Dark Knight Rises and Mega Moolah from the Microgaming progressive jackpot network have paid out jackpots of over $4 million in prize money to both desktop and mobile online slot players.

Net Entertainment, NYX, RTG, and Microgaming are the four largest progressive jackpot networks. Online casino players connect via their casino to progressive slots on these jackpot networks. This gives each online slot exposure to multiple online casinos, each of these casinos entertaining tens of thousands of members globally. Therefore, the progressive jackpot video slots build up their jackpot kitties at lightning speeds and are able to pay out 5, 6 and 7 figure numbers.

Non-Progressive Jackpots

Non-progressive video slots are stand-alone. They do not connect to a huge progressive jackpot network and they have fixed jackpots. The jackpot could be a combination of symbols, or it can be won via one of the video slot’s special features. This is entirely down to the developer’s style.

Video slots Pay-line Combinations

Combination symbols on video slots need to land side by side on the reels to pay-out. Some symbols will pay-out for landing just 1 on an activate pay-line; while 2, 3, 4 and 5 symbols are the most common numbers needed to qualify as paying combination.

Most video slots come with a pre-set number of pay-lines. Some you are able to bet as low as just 1 line, and other will force you wager all the lines as a minimum bet requirement.

9 pay-lines

15 pay-lines

20 pay-lines

25 pay-lines

30 pay-lines

40 pay-lines

50 pay-lines

100 pay-lines

Video slots with No Pay-lines

Microgaming is one of the most innovative online slot developers out there. This is currently the only slot developer to do away with pay-lines so to speak. Instead of pay-lines, as long as the same types of symbols are on reels adjacent to each other, regardless of the position of the symbols on the reels, the link-up will count as a combination win.

Microgaming’s current no pay-line video slots machines:

243-Ways-to-Win

1024-Ways to Win

Win Both Ways

Some slot games will allow you to form combinations from left to right and right to left. When slots allow this, it is known referred to as ‘win both ways’.

Video slots that use Coins for Combination bets

Many of the online slot machines use a multiple coins concept for placing bets on the reels. This means you can have an online slot with 20 pay-lines and you can place a bet on each of those lines. This increases the risk but also increases the returns for winning spins.

Coins have a minimum and maximum cash value. For instance, $0.01 to $1.00. On a 20 pay-line online slot that allows 5 coins per line, you can place 5 coins on 20 lines equalling 100 coins as the maximum coin bet per spin. If each coin is set at $0.50, this is 100 coins multiplied by $0.50. A single spin now costs $50.00 in this example.

Combinations pay-out multipliers of these coins. For example, 4 cherries may pay 200 coins per coin. If you have 1 coin on the line the Cherry combination lands on, then you win 200 coins. However, if you had 5 coins on that line, you would win 1,000 coins.

Video slots that Use Multipliers for Combination bets

 Some video slots don’t use coins at all. Your bet per line will be displayed on the video slots betting panel. Choose $2.00 per line on 20 pay-line machines and your bet would be 20 multiplied $2.00, therefore your spin bet using these criteria is $40.00.

Symbol combinations will payout multipliers of your line bet. Using the above criteria, if you land 5 Batman symbols and the pay-out multiplier is x1,000, then your $2.00 line bet is multiplied by 1,000, which awards a $2000.00 cash prize.

RnGs Random Number Generators for Fair Results

Many people are worried about how online slot machines deliver their results to players. Live video slots have always used a computerized chip to ensure that the game’s results are fair. The odds are always in favour of the online slot making a profit, but the results on the reels are also random giving players the correct probability.

With online video slots, all that has happened is the technology behind these chips has gotten better and gone virtual using code. Now computerized encrypted Random Number Generators are highly sophisticated, unbreakable and fully tested for integrity and security. Crypto Currency Casinos

RNGs have every possible combination of symbols that could land on the reels programmed into them. They then flick through these combinations thousands of times per millisecond. When you press the spin button on the slot, the RNG will stop on a certain combination. Then the reels will spin, and the combination you stopped the RNG will appear.

Now this means there is no need for the reels to spin because the RNG stops when you press spin! However, that would ruin all the run, and so this is why the reels spin, so you are kept in suspense. Let’s face it, slots without reel spins would be pretty boring!