Where can I play online slots for money?
Hundreds of online slots sites for real money exist out there, each offering special perks for you when you join them, and a massive collection of titles for you to choose from and play.
To get started with your online slots experience, you would have to choose a respected online casino and register an account with it.
After providing the casino with some basic info about yourself, you would have to specify a casino payment method you will use and the amount of your first deposit. And, after you’ve made your deposit, you can go on and start choosing the slot games to play.
You should know, however, that our team of experts with years of experience in reviewing online casino sites, have created a list of South African slots sites that you can explore.
There are over 200 online casinos that accept South African players, and our team has gone through each and every one of them to provide you with the most trusted choices.
Therefore, we at CaZAino have saved you some time and done the hard work for you, so that you can only skim through the list, choose the right site for you and start spinning the reels right away!
The basics of slots
The first-ever slot machine was designed way back in 1899 by Charles Fey, the “father of slots” in San Francisco, and was called the “Liberty Bell” machine.
It had 3 reels and players needed to land three matching symbols in order to get an automatic payout. The liberty bell symbol was the highest-paying one, hence its name.
The next milestone in slots history came in 1996 when the world-leading software developer WMS Industries Inc created the first-ever video slot called “Reel’ Em In”.
This was the first-ever game to feature a bonus round, too, with a different screen appearing after you trigger it.
And it was around the same time when the first slots were taken online, the late 90’s. Ever since, both video and classic slots have been evolving, becoming more innovative, unique and appealing to both new and existing players.
When Microgaming released the first online jackpot slot Cash Splash, slots reached brand new heights. To this day, online slots are still the most popular games across online casinos.
Is it legal to play slots in South Africa?
In South Africa, it is a bit of a grey zone whether you can actually play games of chance, while games of skill are completely forbidden.
Considering online slots are games of chance, you should know that you could play them because there are no records whatsoever of citizens being prosecuted in South Africa for playing slots.
The chance of actually getting caught playing online slots are close to zero, too, since you can play them from the commodity of your home and no one could ever see or know that you did it.
But, if you’re interested in finding out more about the legality of online gambling in South Africa, you should do a thorough search on the internet to investigate these things.
You will learn, though, that the grey area does exist, and that you can enjoy online slots whenever you want, since no one would bother trying to catch you doing so.
Winning potential
As mentioned, there are different types of online slots. Some are intended for the low-roller or the player that wants to place small bets, others for medium-rollers, and some for the high-rollers, the players who are willing to invest more in order to win more.
The thing is, your payout will depend on the amount of the bet you make. Say, the lowest paying symbol gives you a 10x the stake payout for a 5-of-a-kind combo and you’ve placed a small bet of ZAR1.75 per spin.
This means that by getting that winning combo, you will win ZAR17.5. If you’ve placed the max bet, for instance, of ZAR1,735, you would win ZAR17,351. As simple as that.
Naturally, different symbols give different payouts, and when special features get involved, as well, the max payout potential can get bigger and bigger.
Some bonus features give out random prizes, jackpot prizes or other perks to boost your winnings, so before you start playing a slot, make sure you go through its paytable page to find out more about the winning potential.
Wild and Scatter symbols
The majority, if not all, slots have a Wild symbol. This is like a joker, a bonus symbol that helps you combine symbols and create winning combos.
Its role is a substitute, as it fills the gap in the winning combo whenever you’re lacking a symbol to create one.
And, all slots that have bonus features in them also feature a Scatter. This is also a bonus symbol but has a different role. Its role is triggering bonus features, in most cases, triggering Free Spins.
You would need three to five Scatters in order to trigger a number of Free Spins in a slot, or another type of a bonus feature, or even the jackpot if the slot offers any.
Variations of the game
We’ve mentioned several variations of the game throughout the overview, but let’s recapitulate the main ones:
- Classic slots
- Video slots
- 3D slots
- Mobile slots
- Progressive jackpot slots
- Megaways slots
These are the five variations or categories of the game you will probably find across South African casinos. Sure, operators may name them differently, but you should expect to find these slots variations on any site you join.
While we already discussed most of them, Megaways is the variation we haven’t, which needs special attention. Megaways slots are those that feature Big Time Gaming’s trademark Megaways mechanics.
They have become super popular among slots players, as they allow for up to 117,649 ways to win. Plus, they usually come with huge Multipliers and are playable with small bets, but their payout potential is massive.
The best part is, even though BTG invented Megaways, many other developers have acquired their license to use the mechanics in their slots, therefore, you’ll find hundreds of Megaways slots to try out and see what the buzz is all about.
Jackpot slots
As mentioned, Microgaming has created the very first jackpot slot in the online gambling industry, but many developers followed suit.
Today, you have plenty of progressive jackpot slots you can play for real money, which can deliver life-changing prizes.
Microgaming has created several of them, with Mega Moolah delivering a record win of €18,915,872 in 2018, but so have NetEnt, Playtech, and Yggdrasil, among others.
The following are some of the progressive jackpot slots that have delivered the most exciting prizes to players:
- Mega Moolah
- Mega Fortune
- Joker Millions
- Age of the Gods series
- Empire Fortune
- Divine Fortune
- Major Millions
How do these slots manage to give such massive prizes? Well, most of them are part of a progressive jackpot network, whose jackpot prize pools increase with each bet players all across the world make on the slots added to that network.
The more the players bet, the higher the jackpot prize goes. Then, all of a sudden, when least expected, a lucky player randomly hits the jackpot and grabs a seven or eight-figure payout. These slots are really something as they have created millionaires and multimillionaires overnight!
Play slots for real money vs. free
Now that you are equipped with the basic information on slots, it is time to put the knowledge into practice. That’s actually exactly what you need to do in order to become better at playing slots: practice.
You can practice playing slots by joining any online casino and loading the demo version of any slot. Slots have demo versions where you can play them for free, with fake money, credits.
Once you get ahold of the gameplay, and you understand how the slot works and gives out payouts, you can continue playing for real money.
Playing for real money is actually the only way to get to these massive payouts we’re mentioning all the time. If you make real money bets, meaning play at any slots casino with ZAR, you would get real money payouts that you can enjoy.
As you can see, with a bit of luck, you can even become a millionaire or multimillionaire if you decide to play Megaways or progressive jackpot slots.
Many new online casinos have opened in South Africa which accept South African rand and have dedicated Customer Support for South African players, so the choice is all yours.
Make sure you join the right one from the ones listed at CaZAino, practice playing for free first and then continue playing with real money bets to get to the most life-changing rewards! Enjoy!
