Your Guide To Penny Pokies
What can you buy for $0.01? Not much is the correct answer, so imagine being able to gamble with one cent. You can with penny pokies, or can you?
Penny pokies, known as penny slots in Las Vegas, are popular with recreational gamblers. Tourists flock to penny pokies like they are going out of fashion, hoping for a big win from a tiny outlay. Do any of them ever get rich? Almost certainly not.
These machines are a clever marketing ploy on the casino’s behalf. They market penny pokies as your chance to turn $0.01 into a meaningful amount. However, almost without fail there are rules in place to make you part with more than a penny.
First, it makes no business sense at all to allow punters to gamble with such small amounts. The casino wants to make money, and it will not make much from $0.01 spins on a poker machine, even if it had thousands of such budget pokies.
This is why most penny pokies stipulate players have to bet on a specific number of lines. Each machine is different, but expect to be forced to bet on 20 or more lines. Your $0.01 per spins has suddenly increased to $0.20. Furthermore, some Vegas penny pokies accept pennies, but they require 100 or 200 coins wagering.
The House Edge Is Terrible On Penny Pokies
The Return To Player (RTP) or house edge of penny pokies is, quite frankly, ridiculous. Those on The Las Vegas Strip average 88.5%, or a house edge of 11.5%. It is robbery in broad daylight! The fact you are betting such small amounts means the casino needs to raise its edge in order to make any sort of profit.
Online casinos are different because they do not have the overheads of a bricks-and-mortar venue. Virtual casinos run on servers and hundreds of people can play the same game simultaneously. Penny pokies at a live casino take up valuable floor space that casinos could put more expensive games on.
Do Not Underestimate Their Drain On Your Bankroll
Penny pokies can be a significant drain on your bankroll, despite their seemingly low cost. Playing a $0.01 machine that requires 50-lines requires, on average, a $125 bankroll to play for only three hours. Increase your wager to $0.05 per line and your bankroll needs to be around $625. These games suddenly do not seem aimed at the recreational gamblers among us.
Play These Games Online
As mentioned previously, the best place to play penny pokies is from the comfort of your own home, or at least on your phone or tablet at a mobile casino.
An online casino has many more customers than a live casino. Furthermore, they have unlimited space so offering $0.01 spins does not harm their potential bottom line all that much.
In addition, online casinos offer welcome bonuses and loyalty payments. These ensure you have a constant trickle of free money landing in your playable account balance. Playing low-stakes pokies becomes more exciting when you are clearing bonuses.
Many of the casinos listed on these pages allow you to play their pokies for free. Not having any financial risk is the ultimate in budget gambling! You still have the fun and excitement, even if there is no actual money on the line.
There is a lesson to be learned from these $0.01, a lesson that carries across all forms of gambling. It does not matter if you bet on sports, play blackjack, or love baccarat, the lesson still applies. What is it? To always do your research, learn the rules, and read the small print.
Casinos are in the business of making money. Everything they do, legally of course, is designed to empty your wallet and relieve you of your cash. Not knowing the rules of each machine or game puts the ball firmly in the house’s court.
