We don’t know exactly who’s to blame for the convoluted names given to ordinary online casino processes, but if you lift the hood and take a look at the engine you’ll find that it’s all pretty simple beneath the haughty titles. On behalf of the online casino world, we’d like to apologise for any confusion and explain each of these clearly.
Wagering Requirements
You’d be forgiven for feeling sure that wagering requirements are based on some elusive mathematical equation, the solution to which is buried beneath layers of complex code. It’s a term that’s been passed through the online casino industry for decades, and while we don’t have the power to stop using it, we can explain how it works and how it’s calculated in a super simple way.
What are wagering requirements?
A wagering requirement is a stipulation placed on a bonus that asks the player to meet certain conditions before withdrawing winnings derived from the said bonus. This means that players must wager (or play through) any winnings a pre-stated number of times before the profit can be withdrawn.
We already discuss wagering requirements in our FAQs here, but we’ve got more room to get into more detail in this article. It all begins with bonuses. Wagering requirements are only ever a factor when you’re dealing with bonus money or Free Spins. However, at SkyCity Online Casino, all our Free Spins and Super Spins are always wager-free.
What are SkyCity Online Casino’s wagering requirements?
Our bonus money promotions come with a 35 x wagering requirement attached. You can choose to accept the bonus (together with its terms) or choose to play with only your funds. It’s entirely up to you. But if you do choose to accept a bonus offer (e.g. a 50% bonus up to $100) then wagering requirements will automatically apply. Let’s say you deposit the maximum of $100 (using the above bonus as a working example), you’ll get to play not only with your deposit but also with a $50 bonus on top (50% of 100 is 50).
Great, you’ve got your hands on the bonus money (which can be used instantly). Now is when the fun starts because you get to put your bonus into play. Any amount won using bonus funds will need to be wagered before it can be converted into real cash and withdrawn. Since SkyCity Online Casino usually applies a 35 x wagering requirement (if it’s different to this we’ll always state this clearly), you’ll need to play through your bonus winnings 35 times.
Note: SkyCity Online Casino is committed to complying with all Anti Money Laundering regulations. That means players cannot deposit money and withdraw it again without playing. Every deposit must be wagered at least once before a withdrawal is processed (i.e. there’s a 1 x wagering requirement placed on every deposit with SkyCity Online Casino).
How are wagering requirements met?
It’s all about churn. Let’s say you accept a 50% bonus with a 35 x requirement. You make a deposit of $100, get a $50 bonus (50% of $100 is $50), and start playing with a balance of $150 ($100 + $50 = $150). As you start to play, your real cash balance will be used first before you move onto the bonus money. At this point, you’ll need to start working toward meeting the wagering requirement.
Unlike many other sites, SkyCity Online Casino only applies wagering requirements to the bonus cash, and not your real cash deposit. That means that using this example, the amount you need to wager is based on the straightforward calculation of $50 (the bonus amount) x 35 (the wagering requirement) = 1,750.
So before you can withdraw any profit generated by the bonus money you’ll need to make bets that total $1,750. Until you hit that value, all your winnings will be held as bonus funds until you meet the wagering requirements.
It might sound like a tricky task, but it’s definitely achievable. Of course, we can’t guarantee you’ll win all bets placed with bonus cash, but the profit generated from won bets will be used to make additional bets, boosting your playthrough number. Any funds left in your account once the requirement is met are transferred to your cash balance and you’re free to withdraw the money as real cash.
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Return to Play (RTP)
Of all the confusing jargon, this one is probably the easiest to explain. Return to Player, or RTP as it’s more commonly known, is a casino game feature that’s mostly applicable to slot games. It’s a mathematical calculation, based on probability, that works out the ultimate outcome of playing tens of millions of spins. It’s actually been tested on that many spins before the game was released.
In fact, despite many players making it a feature of their game selection decision process, it will only really affect players who spin at massively high volumes. The easiest way to explain it is that if a game carries an RTP of 96% (that’s just about the industry average), after tens of millions of spins, players can expect to see a return of 96% of their bet spend. It’s really important to understand that this isn’t any form of guarantee if you’re just putting in ten spins, or even if you hit the spin button 100 times.
On the flip side, the percentage RTP could get totally blown out of the water when a player hits a million-dollar jackpot on their fifth spin. RTP simply means that if that same player continued spinning and spinning a million times over they would receive 96% of their spend back.
The reality is that the RTP doesn’t matter so much. The only reason it keeps coming up is that sites like SkyCity Online Casino are licensed and operated in regulated markets. This means we’re required to inform our players about the RTP percentage on each and every game we offer. That way we can maintain a transparent relationship in every respect.
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Random Number Generator (RNG)
A Random Number Generator, or RNG for short, is a mechanism that sits behind all online pokies. Classic online casino slots, Video Slots and even Progressive Slots are subject to RNG. It’s a mathematical concept, but as long as you’re not creating RNGs, there’s no need to be Alan Turing to figure out how it all works.
The bottom line is that RNG is how the outcome of a single spin is determined. You’ll find many online posts claiming to understand how to crack an RNG system. The reality is that these are all nonsense. The ‘R’ in RNG stands for ‘random’, and that means random for both the player and the online casino. In other words, we both don’t know what’s going to happen.
Are Random Number Generators really completely random?
To understand the concept you have to forget everything you know about the original machines (or one-armed bandits as they were commonly known). While the original slot machines allowed you to actually watch the tangible reels spin, with online slots everything is constantly running behind the scenes, even when you’re not playing.
On an online slot, the RNG kicks in the second the game is ready to spin. It will only come to a halt when you press the spin button when you’ll be able to see the result the reels land on. In contrast, a coin-operated machine stands idle until someone comes along and pulls the handle or presses the button.
How are RNG outcomes decided?
If an online slot machine was a human, the RNG would be the brain. Players, providers and operators have absolutely no control over any of the processes or the numbers generated. The technology is programmed to continuously generate numbers, even when nobody plays the machine. These numbers are created at a rate of several billion hundreds of times per second – try to wrap your head around that!
For as long as the machine is turned on, the RNG will keep producing random numbers each and every millisecond – that’s pretty much its entire purpose. These generated numbers are assigned to different combinations of symbols that match up to the machine’s reels – which is what you get to see after each spin. The entire point of the process is to make it completely independent and impartial to any interference.
Each slot game is also programmed to generate numbers in varying sequences, which is what gives different slots their own brand of gameplay. This structure applies every time you play an RNG game, regardless of whether it’s part of a bonus round or not.
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Volatility
All slot games, and some other casino games, come with a volatility tag attached. This makes them sound like high-speed machines, but it’s actually a lot less exciting than that. This volatility rating is determined by the provider (i.e. the company that designs the game) and it usually sits on a scale of 1 to 5 or 1 to 10. This type of ranking will generally be translated into a Low, Medium, High, or Very High Volatility pokie.
But what does volatility mean?
Volatility determines the amount of risk that’s built into a specific game. It’s reflected by how frequently you can expect a game to payout during a given session. As a general rule, the higher the volatility the less frequent the payouts. ‘So why would anyone play high volatility games?’I hear you ask. That’s because when the payouts do come, they’re much higher than those of their lower volatility counterparts. Low volatility slots will see you score winning paylines frequently, but more often than not, the payouts will be on the smaller side.
High volatility vs Low volatility pokies
Deciding where to lay your hat is a very personal choice. It entirely depends on your style of gameplay. Players who enjoy the thrill of risk and potential glory of a huge win will be drawn to entirely different games to the occasional slot player who indulges in a handful of spins once a month. Games are designed to entertain you, regardless of where they fall on the volatility scale. Players with smaller budgets should generally opt for low volatility games, while those who can withstand the occasional bout of dry spins will probably get more of a kick out of medium to high volatility slots.
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