Hello everyone!
For years i've been puttning a penny or two on slots, it's been up and downs mostly downs if you look at it in the long run (which is the point if you look at the statistic, duh).
It has always been a fun to kill an hour or three whenever you have nothing to do and I tend to keep myself to low stakes, like minimum to maybe 1 dollar max for most of the time.
So for me gambling has always been interesting to see what happens on this slot and what mechanics does this one have etc.
I rarely read any info about new slots before I tried them because for me it was fun to jump right into it and learn by spinning. Feel the potential, understand what has to happen for a big win, see new ways adding to a bigger win and so forth.
Why I tell this is because from the year 2020-ish I would say the online slot community and providers have changed alot compared from 2015-2019-ish. Sure, Megaways were a huge thing that changed the landscape forever and it added to the thrill and is still to this day a great mechanic in my opinion.
But something else changed that might not be the typical first thought when thinking of what has changed.
I'm talking about the feeling and the lasting of a sessions from a deposit now days with the new slots.
It drains the balance faster and I have no statistical paper for this but I strongly believe that alot of players will tell the same if asked how long a 300x deposit lasted 2015 compared to 2025.
This is ofcourse the evolution of slots in general but as the small player this realy sucks because if you don't know everything about the "new" slot you can be basicly robbed from the get go of a deposit.
I believe it is because the math model has changed to not pay these "x20-x200" (numbers have no substance so its just for referens) as often as the earlier games did.
We had some good maxwin dreams of a 25 000x 10 years ago but they were realy rare but in exchange you didn't pool all the money to pay these maxwin so often. So you were freaking happy when a thousand times the bet landed! I ment that was insane at the time! If you got a higher one, you'd be sure to laugh and clap your hands.
I think that the amount of wins I have from 2020-2025 where wins are around 1000x is counted on one hand. If i recall I got 8 during this time for 5 years playing maybe 12-13 hours of slots a month in average on low stakes.
Compared to 10 years ago when I would say I average about the same time a month but I am certain that I had over 30-40 of those during those years if not more. I'm not even mentioning the "lesser" wins around 100-300x here but they occured more often too.
I'd like to see myself as an honest guy when it comes to gambling. By that I mean I will never get one of those NLC maxwins because the chance is just so low for a guy who only plays regular spins (Yeah i do x-bet sometimes but there are still so many zeroes after that comma that it's not possible in my eyes). And I am fine with that. But it comes on my expense where there is just so much money pooling into these mega maxwins that I feel that my chance of getting entertainment value for my buck is not worth it anymore. And that sucks in my opinion. This is by no way a jab at NLC because they make some of the best games I've ever seen. They have insane sound and design and mechanics but the way the math works on thier slots might just not be my cup of tea.
I'm starting this thread because first, I would like to see if more players feel the same or might have another feeling related to this topic or if a provider might want to add how the landscape have changed and they seen how customer needs have changed etc.
Because in reality I am not the player the slots are made for because I don't spend alot of money on it (unless we talk over 10 years then yeah, it adds up ofcourse). But the players that it's targeted at might be wanting more and bigger maxwins?
(I could type alot more but yes I have thought about what slot to play/ I can play the old games that I like and yes I still do, I know some of the answers but I'm not looking for a solution to what I see as an issue, I just want to know if more feel like I do after all these years because I am honestly dropping interest in the slots. Just the other day I realized I played a new slot that I didn't even find fun after I understood the mechanics and how it worked.)
The basic answer is, yes obviously the majority of consumer wants this since profits are higher today compared to 10 years ago I assume. But the core questions here is still:
Do you like where the online gambling industry is going? Is it more fun now or was it more fun before? Is profits higher for providers or is the battle just who gets the customers and we ended up in chock value over maxwin insted of all rounded good games? Is it harder to develop new slots with new ideas? Am I just fatigued over the same old scripts?
The questions are many and everybody probably have thier own thought and I for one, would like to hear them!
Good luck out there and may lady fortune smile on you!!
(last note: Lost my old account so this is fairly new made one but make no mistake, I've been around for a while 😀 )
@make_slots_great_again Thanks to the poster for such an honest post — it really resonates with many players, especially those who play with small stakes and care more about the experience than chasing maxwins.
I'm from Kazakhstan and have been playing online slots since around 2010. Over the years, I've seen how much the industry has changed — and honestly, not in a good way for regular players.
Back in the day, when I deposited $50 or $100, I could play all evening, sometimes even longer. The balance would go up and down, some wins here and there, and it felt like the game actually gave you something back. Sessions were longer, more entertaining, and there was a rhythm to it.
But now it’s completely different. Even if I deposit $1000, I can lose it within an hour, even playing on minimum stakes. Some slots just give you absolutely nothing — and your balance vanishes almost instantly. And this has become the norm.
It feels like most games nowadays are built to either drain your money quickly or give some insanely rare maxwin to one lucky player out of millions. And regular players like me are just left to "sponsor" those rare events.
I’ve asked support teams and read forums about RTP, and what I usually hear is:
"RTP is calculated over millions of spins. Just because one player hit a 50,000x win doesn’t mean others will win too — most of the RTP has already gone into that one hit."
So basically, 99% of players end up losing without even experiencing any decent gameplay.
I just want to ask: do game providers still design slots for regular players? People who play low stakes for fun, to relax in the evening — not streamers or high rollers who drop $1000 a day.
Honestly, I’m losing interest. Slots used to be exciting and emotional. Now it just feels like you're sitting there waiting for a miracle while your money disappears.
Totally understand your point of view but the providers are making slots which attract the most amount of players and obviously the 20k-100kx max win slots are the most attractive for most of the players. Unfortunately I think the trend will continue and we will see even more "degenerate" slots in the future.
The way I'd summarise it is a vast amount of modern releases feel completely soul-less.
@djcent Yeah I hear you, it seems to be the new norm and probably because it's more profitable (well obviously). I don't think providers are making slots for what you call "regular players" because they have seen the gains from doing it with extreme volatility. The only one I seem to find around 5000x maxwin pretty often dicks you with like a 94% RTP on the slot or lower. Myself am not a fan of like Elk for this only reason, even if thier games looks great.
It's a shame that it went this way but all good things must come to an end I suppose. I think that I will still play time to time but I'm starting to withdraw from testing new slots tbh. Atleast I read abit before hand now to see if it is extreme volatility or if comments guide me to try something out but yeah.
On another point that is close to this, games says "RTP" and "Extreme volatility" I mean when you get to such silly numbers like 1 in 200 mil spins for a maxwin, the theoretical RTP might be accurate but what about the real RTP from what the slot payed over all players? The theoretical part I understand is based on simulations up to billions of spins. But does a slots spin in any way remotely close to this over all players to have some ground to the claim?
As an example, you make a slot that spins to no win in 999.999 million times, but pays all out on 1 spin except the 5% since the RTP is 95%.
The RTP is still 95% but looking at it from a point of view that the chance of all players around the world spinning on this wont total to 1 billion spins, there by not paying anything because only 50 million spins were made. Theoretical RTP still 95% but the real on is 0.
Extreme case and I know slots doesn't work like that but since transparancy is so poor we can't realy get a good understanding of it. I mean in the example above its 4.76% chance that the maxwin is payed out. Not accounting for the 5% loss in RTP since it only pays 95% of total input.
Is there lots of slots that states 95% RTP but in reality have only payed about 70% because not enough spins have been made? I'm not a math wizard here so I'm just putting basic numbers out but the odds of this happening is ofcoure increasing when volatility is so extreme as of today. Or am I just not smart enough to understand it? I'd love for someone that might know this better then me to explain out of curiousity.
@trossardo Yeah, it seems to be working and who hasn't thought about winning the likes of Powerball or Eurojackpot etc so I guess it will continue untill you reach such madness to win 500 million from a 0,2 dollar bet. Or is it just a trick that people spend the money so fast that they dont know what hit them and the next one comes along with a dream and does the same?
I understand its alot of unhealthy gambling going around and the problem is probably bigger today then 10 years ago. Would be interesting to see how many end up in this pit and by todays standards it not even slightly possible that you hit "that spin".
@jordqka Not sure I agree with soul-less but I think I understand what you mean. Not in a way where they don't give a damn about players but they just put the feeling of slots to the side and more focus on the profit side.
Alot of slots does have amazing graphic and sound but the part where you have like 8% chance of even hitting and not having a deadspin is increasing and when a slot is designed like that it should generate more "bigger wins" but insted you get less because you have to save that for the extreme big one.
Absolutely, the trend of higher max win capabilities is continues. I am personally against very expensive bonuses and God modes. Bonuses should not exceed 200-300x bet maximumTotally understand your point of view but the providers are making slots which attract the most amount of players and obviously the 20k-100kx max win slots are the most attractive for most of the players. Unfortunately I think the trend will continue and we will see even more "degenerate" slots in the future.