How do online casinos work?

Signing-up

1. What is the normal rate of registration of users for a casino?
2. What happens if you have registered but not made a deposit?
3. How users who don’t make deposits are treated by a casino?
4. What ‘s included in the activation process? How are follow-up emails built? 
5. What types of bonuses are included? What happens in the regulated markets (where bonuses are not allowed) as compared to unregulated ones, etc?
6. Why most of the time you will be given Free Spins bonuses?
7. What is the average amount of a deposit in an online casino?
8. What is a Lifetime Value of a Player from a casino’s point of view?

Depositing

1. What are the most popular deposit methods and how are they regarded by an online casino?
2. What is better for an online casino: if you made a one big deposit or a number of smaller ones?
3. How Know Your Customer (KYC) clauses work and when are they activated?
4. How are bonuses attached to your deposit (automatically or otherwise)? What happens if bonuses are given automatically and why online casinos use this?
5. How does an online casino make money on a player? How does a casino's GGR work?
6. Why do casinos use wagering requirements for bonuses?
7. How actually funds are credited to your balance? What are the different types of wallets online casinos use: real money vs. Bonus money wallets?
8. How does a casino regard your deposit internally? How do they keep this money? What are the fair and unfair terms of a deposit roll-over? What is an internal casinos bookkeeping and KPIs: how much money a casino is stationed to take away as their revenue? 

Playing games and a casino games lobby

1. How exactly a casino lobby may look different once you have made a deposit? How the look and feel of the lobby may change depending on the amount of deposit that you use?
2. How do game suggestions work? Why might you be given High Volatility games in the first place?
3. What is the function of restriction of a bet amount when you wager your bonuses?
4. What is the most popular bet amount statistically and why? 
5. Why are casinos interested in raising your bet amount when you play for your own money?
6. What Progressive Jackpot games mean to online casinos?

So, these are 3 big things and 18 questions that I am discussing further on in this article. So, let’s start with a sign-up process.

Signing up with an online casino

Signing up is the beginning of your whole journey with an online gambling operator. Once you have decided to sign-up with a certain site, you are expected to have evaluated the look and feel of an online casino, looked at the licence(s) as well as a lobby structure and so on. Obviously, you must have looked into its bonuses and already know what to expect from an operator. 

Key takeaways of the section:

• There are 3 types of client roles for an online casino: simple users, registered users and depositing users. 
• Only 2-3% of total online casino’s traffic become registered users, which are considered casino leads. 
• Efforts to activate you as a lead depend on PAM scoring results that, in turn, depend on your geography.
• According to internal casinos KPIs, the good ratio of Registrations to Depositing customers is 25%, so it means that only 0.5%-0.75% of total users make deposits with an online casino.
• Users from Tier 1 (or simply “rich” geographies) might be activated both automatically and manually, which involves 2-3 emails with different kinds of bonuses
• Where casinos are not allowed to give away bonuses, they are more likely to send over multiple emails and even call you.
• A first bonus that you most likely get is Free Spins that comes from a game vendor himself/herself.
• A first bonus is intended for you to try the water and make you subsequently deposit.
• The size of your first deposit does not actually matter to a casino, it matters to make you a paying (or depositing customer).
• The average size of a deposit within the first months is €50.
• Depositing above the average will bring you right away into another segment and make you a focus of casino’s Business Intelligence (BI) systems.
• The value of a player depends on the amount of deposits he/she makes (not how much he/she wins or loses). 

Questions discussed:

1. What is the normal rate of registration of users for a casino?
2. What happens if you have registered but not made a deposit?
3. How users who don’t make deposits are treated by a casino?
4. What ‘s included in the activation process? How are follow-up emails built? 
5. What types of bonuses are included? What happens in the regulated markets (where bonuses are not allowed) as compared to unregulated ones, etc?
6. Why most of the time you will be given Free Spins bonuses?
7. What is the average amount of a deposit in an online casino?
8. What is a Lifetime Value of a Player from a casino’s point of view?

How many total users get actually registered in an online casino?

Most of the time, players would register and then take a pause before making a deposit. A normal rate of registration in the eyes of online casinos is 2-3% of the total amount of incoming traffic, which includes numerous bot (artificial) traffic. When we’d come to high quality traffic, it would mean up to 10% of the whole users would register without making a deposit as yet, just to sign up. 

NB: only 2-3% of users actually register in an online casino by statistics.

What happens if you have registered but not made a deposit?

If you are not one of those guys who signed up, you don’t actually exist in the eyes of a casino, a regular traffic. If you have signed up and actually are a part of those 2-3% so then you set-up on the casino’ hierarchy and from this moment are being regarded as a prospective client or a lead. So, what happens then?

What ‘s included in the activation process?

In most cases, it depends on:

1. geography, i.e. the country you came from, 
2. time of day and, overall, 
3. how you have been segmented by the Player Account Management (PAM) system. 

Players from so called Tier 1 geographies or those countries where the amount of deposits is generally higher than average (like the EU countries, including Nordic ones, Canada and so on), so these Tier 1 players are most likely activated by a support team, so you might receive emails wherein you’ll be invited to make a deposit. Statistically, you might expect 2-3 emails before they decide to let go. Likewise, if you don’t make a deposit right away, you will qualify for some kind of bonus, mostly, Free Spins (FS) bonus. 

What is Free Spins and why casinos use them to make you deposit money?

FS bonuses are something that comes from the casino game provider himself, so, effectively, they are not what a casino operator gives you. So, they come as a promotion activity of games vendors and are a part of their own marketing made for you to try their games. Likewise, plainly speaking, this type of Free Spins bonuses are kept on the balance of game vendors, they cost nothing to a casino itself. This is exactly why casino operators will give you FS bonuses in the first place. 

Historically, these FS bonuses may come up with a requirement to make a first deposit or without. Nevertheless, there will be relatively high wagering requirements attached thereto and you must not expect to get aways with real money winnings from these FS bonuses. This is not what an online casino operator intends them to do. Actually, these types of bonuses are made with the view for you to try the water and make yourself comfortable with a casino and make you deposit subsequently.

Plainly speaking, those things are made to turn you into a casino’s client. Therefore, it doesn't even matter what your deposit size is, what matters is not to lose you as a client after the registration. So, the internal KPI for a casino is to make as many users that register come down with making a deposit. To give you a clue, the good maths or ratio of Registration to First Time Depositors (FTD) is 25%, this is one of the global KPIs of a casino activation team. 

Once again: Before you start your interaction with any online casino, you must understand that once you have signed up, you are on an online casino’s radar. If you come from a “rich” geography, they will try to contact you by email several times, maybe even call you or send an sms, if you have been qualified as a prospective or promising client. Otherwise, if you come from a “poor” or Tier 2 geography, you might not be activated ever.. Likewise, most of the time they will send you 2-3 emails with different kinds of bonus offers to onboard you. The first one may be FS bonuses that come from a game vendor himself and may not even come with a requirement to make a deposit (clear free spins bonus).

What happens in the regulated markets (where bonuses are not allowed) as compared to unregulated ones, etc?

If you come from a regulated geography of the likes of Germany or Sweden, there will be a whole different story of activating you as a depositing client. Casinos from these geos would not be able to give you bonuses. The activation process will involve a simple prompt to remind you to make a deposit or immerse you in their storytelling by way of describing how they treat clients, etc. 

Effectively, where no welcome bonus is involved, online casino operators will try to spend even more effort to "activate" you: you may expect 5-6 interactions, including sms and calls simply because they do not have so much to give you and they still want to have you onboard. This is a practical difference between some of the regulated geos and other geos. 

What is the average amount of a deposit in an online casino?

This is to give you the whole idea of what happens on the first stage when you sign-up.. And now I will probably wrap it up by discussing how actually a client is regarded by an online casino. As I was saying there are 3 roles of a casino users: 

1. A simple user (unregistered user), 
2. A Lead or registered user 
3. First time depositor (FTD) or a real money depositing customer

Obviously, the number of registration is really important, that is the database for a casino’s activation team to work with. But what's more important is the number of First Time Depositors. So, you really have to be a new client without a prior history with a particular online casino. Ideally, you have to be rich or be a person who makes a higher than average amount of deposit. 

NB: The average amount in the first several months of players life is €50     

So, if you make a deposit more than €50, ideally closer to €100, it will put you in the spotlight of the casino’s Business Intelligence (BI) systems and set you into a whole different category vs the other players.  

What is a Lifetime Value of a Player from a casino’s point of view?

The whole idea of client worth and the amount of effort casinos will put to you revolves around the notion of Client Value, sometimes called the LifeTime Value (LTV). Likewise, the LTV operates two things:

1. The amount of deposits and 
2. The number of deposit you make (per year)

NB: A casino does not actually care how much money you win or lose from them on a daily basis, what is important is the amount of your deposits.   

This is how a client value is regarded by a casino. Why exactly, I will explain later in further details. 

Depositing real money with an online casino

It’s only after you make a deposit you truly become a part of a casino’s client base. What are the most popular ways to deposit? How casinos treat your deposits internally and how bonuses work? Why Wagering requirements set as they are? And how long does it takes on average for a player to lose all his money deposited?

Key takeaways of the section:

• The most popular deposit method among players are e-wallets since they allow disguise credit cards info and other personal info.
• Casinos detest anonymous payment methods because of a risk of claiming multiple bonuses by a single person.
• Crypto payment, despite allowing for bonus abuse, are still tolerated by casinos especially in jurisdictions where there are no other viable means to accept deposits (restricted geos).
• Most online casinos' internal CRM algorithms are triggered by the deposit amount a player makes. 
• A casino site prefers that a player makes a single lump sum deposit rather than the same amount but in several instalments. 
• Know your customer (KYC) procedures normally required after a player makes deposit or withdrawal in excess of €2’000 and include presenting a utility bill in your name, ID, a photo of your ID next to your face as well as a photo of yourself with credit card (if you use it to deposit or withdraw). 
• Some casinos may use KYC procedures to stall your withdrawal too.
• In majority of casinos bonuses to your deposit are attached automatically, yet, a player may opt-out contacting support
• An online casino earns money by having a statistical edge over a player of 4%-6% on average per bet for slot machines, so a casino’s revenue depends on how many bets you make, i.e. how many times you rollover your deposits in a casino.
• Statistically, it may take from 16 to 25 play sessions of 15 mins on average for a player to lose his/her €100 worth of deposit completely, if playing on a €1 bet per spin. 
• Wagering requirements for bonus money are made for you to rollover your deposit amount faster; that's why your real money and bonus money are pooled together until the turnover requirements are met, notably, you will use your real money deposit first.
• Wagering requirements of x30 your bonus (and more) have close to zero statistical chance of winning any money out of the bonus.
• Four most common casino tools to make you play more are: 1) Casino Bonuses, 2) Game vendors bonuses., 3) Customer Relationship and 4) Tournaments.
• Over the year-long period a player will tend to lose 40-55% of her yearly amount of deposit(s) on average.

Questions discussed:

1. What are the most popular deposit methods and how are they regarded by an online casino?
2. What is better for an online casino: if you made a one big deposit or a number of smaller ones?
3. How Know Your Customer (KYC) clauses work and when are they activated?
4. How are bonuses attached to your deposit (automatically or otherwise)? What happens if bonuses are given automatically and why online casinos use this?
5. How does an online casino make money on a player? How does a casino's GGR work?
6. Why do casinos use wagering requirements for bonuses?
7. How actually funds are credited to your balance? What are the different types of wallets online casinos use: real money vs. Bonus money wallets?
8. How does a casino regard your deposit internally? How do they keep this money? What are the fair and unfair terms of a deposit roll-over? What is an internal casinos bookkeeping and KPIs: how much money a casino is stationed to take away as their revenue? 

What are the most popular deposit methods and how are they regarded by a casino?

Top-4 casino payment methods are:

1. E-wallets
2. Prepaid cards
3. Debit cards
4. Crypto wallets  

By far the most popular deposit methods are e-wallets like Neteller, Skrill, iDeal, Paypal to name a few. Another popular deposit means prepaid cards like Paysafecard which are followed by the classic credit card of the likes of Visa, Mastercard or AmEx, which are clear and transparent. Finally, it’s crypto deposits including Bitcoin, Tether, etc. How are these deposit methods regarded by online casinos?

It's best for a casino operator that you make your deposit using your credit (debit) card or use an e-wallet that’s connected to your bank account so that your identity can be traced down. The worst solution for them is if you use a payment method that disguises your identity or allows for effectively anonymous transactions, in such cases it poses a problem for a casino on how to avoid bonus abuses. This is why for example, most casinos would not give you bonuses on deposits made with Skrill or Neteller. 

Crypto deposits are obviously also anonymous, but still they are welcome in the online casinos. In this case, casinos would offer smaller bonuses to your deposit, yet, they are available despite the fact that these transactions are anonymous, so you a player can actually use a whole lot of crypto wallets with a view to avail of welcome promos many times (not just once).   
 
It’s also true that online casinos would use other means to solve this problem, for example, tracking your browser data, but still, on the part of payment methods they would try to categories players into:

1. Low risk: players can be traced by their payment methods, so it’s clear who actually makes a deposit. 
2. High risk: players who can potentially claim several bonuses.
3. Crypto wallets users: players who can easily claim bonuses several times, but they are still welcome due to, for example, coming from geos where other payment methods are not available (have them as is or don’t have at all).   

What is better for an online casino: if you made a bigger deposit or a number of smaller ones?

This question boils down to what we have discussed previously, i.e. what is the value of a client in a casino and how it’s calculated. Simply saying, it’s more preferable (and profitable) for a casino if you make one lump sum deposit than if you deposit the same amount of money in several transactions (like using 5 or 10 smaller deposits).   

Likewise, casino sites’ player management systems are triggered by the amount of deposit a player makes; most of the other services inside the casino are also anchored to the amount of deposit. This is how you get: 

• games recommended to you, 
• games’ lobby restructured, 
• your VIP or pre-VIP support turned on as well as
• chain of emails built.

This is all based upon the amount of a deposit you make. So, if you are a promising client (in terms of a deposit you make), they will work with you more, otherwise, you are left to your own devices. What is the practical sense of this?

Actually, most of the time, once you have made a deposit a casino - though unofficially - would treat a portion of your money as their own. It’s obviously unspoken, you can’t find it on their websites either. A casino business is in a way like a banking business. If you make a deposit to a casino they will use your money to make their profit as a result of it. Our deposit is locked in and the larger is the amount of your deposit the more incentives they will give you in order for you to turn it over, i.e. to make bets using your deposit. 

NB: it’s crucial that you have a big deposit and a casino tries to make you wager it, as opposed to being able to wager smaller deposits.     

How Know Your Customer (KYC) clauses work and when are they activated?

Now that we talk of larger deposits we must inevitably touch the topic of Know your Customer (KYC) procedures. The KYC requirements are commonly triggered when you make deposits in excess of €2’000, so if you deposit less you must not think of the KYC in the first place. Yet, the KYC can be used otherwise, for example, to manage their liquidity, simply saying, not to pay you money promptly. So, this can be used as a trick. But in most cases, Know your Customer procedures are enacted once you try to withdraw, not to deposit money. 

Overall, KYC procedures are not as terrifying as many think… In the same fashion as  when you open a bank account, here you will be asked to present your utility bill (water, electricity, gas, telephone), your ID as well as a photo of your ID near to your face. Additionally, online casinos may ask to take a photo of yourself with a credit card (if you deposit by a credit / debit card). This is probably all for KYC, so it’s not that hard to do. 

Still, there is an idea that if you go to a casino that you don’t trust it may weigh on your mind too to give away so much personal information. This is why, actually, many players try to use crypto or e-wallets in order not to give away their info to an online casino in the first place or even at all (if they don’t plan to surpace a transaction threshold and thereby fall under KYC requirements). 

Dapp, no KYC and no sign-up casinos skip KYC formalities whatsoever (read our report on dapp casinos here). Also, such casinos as Empire.io also claim to be no KYC gambling venues. 

How do casino bonuses work? How are they attached to your deposit?

Let’s discuss how bonuses actually work. Suppose you came to an online casino and you understand what kind of payment methods work for them: you may easily use a credit card, open an e-wallet and transfer money from a credit card to ewallet and so on. You may also use Bitcoin, you may even buy it on the casino’s website. More precisely, on a casino site you will be advertised on the crypto exchange and wallet where you may buy Bitcoin in order to subsequently use it for gambling (there will be a hyperlink too). And this is how you have made a deposit, which - as previously discussed - amounts to €50 on average. So, what happens next?

Historically, there are two types of casinos:

1. Ones where you must claim your bonus.
2. Ones that will give you a bonus automatically.

Despite the common belief, not every player wants bonuses. There’s a whole group of players who never actually claim and use bonuses because playing with bonus money lays lots of restrictions on play, so many of them neglect this option whatsoever. This is why casinos used to make you claim bonuses if you really need them. But this was a kind of old practice… Now that online casinos would use advanced casino management platforms and analytics, most of them would prompt players to get bonuses: that’s why now it’s a common thing that bonuses are attached automatically, but you may refuse to have them by contacting support too. 

How does an online casino make money on a player? How does a casino's GGR work?

The whole idea of attaching bonuses to the money you have deposited boils down to the very essence of bonuses: they are made to make you turn over your deposits more. Note that turn over, roll over or wager -- all three terms -- are used interchangeably here. Because by turning over your deposit is how an online casino makes money. I will now give a simple explanation to this thought.

The central paradigm here is GGR or Gross Gaming Revenue, which is essentially Sales. The casino’s GGR is calculated as an opposite to Return to Player (RTP). If you’d go to every online slot page or product sheet you will find a game’s RTP, most of the time, is of the range of 94%-96%. So, it means that a Casino Edge, the opposite of RTP, is 4% to 6% on average on the vast majority of modern online slot machines. This is a casino’s statistical advantage on you as a player on every bet that you make. 

NB: casino’s advantage on you is 4% to 6% on every bet that you make if you play online slots.

So, it’s a central point that a casino advantage is around 5% on every bet. Likewise, to make you lose more a casino would want to make more bets, like play daily, because as was said on every bet they have a statistical advantage on you close to 5%.

Let’s make an example. If you deposit €100 and the goal of a casino is to take away all your money (deposited), it will statistically take 25 times to turn over your deposit before you have lost it completely. It’s so under the conditions of a 4% casino edge on your or 96% RTP of online slots that you’d play. 

To give you the idea, this is the most common case. If you play high RTP slot games (and 96% RTP is indeed so) and your bet per spin is €1, it will take on average 25 play sessions to lose your deposit. Likewise, if you play 100 spins, it is 15-20 minutes of play time, depending how you play (in a manual of auto-spin mode). So, 25 sessions of 15 mins on average and you have lost €100 by a statistical expectation. 

If your preferred slot’s RTP is less, say 94%, it will then take 16 sessions for you to lose your deposit of €100 according to statistics. If you make bets of €2 per spin, it will take 8 play sessions for you to lose your deposit above. This is why the crucial idea of online gambling business is to make you turnover your deposit as many times as possible because the more you turn it over the more a casino’s edge on your is realised. 

It means that the good way for a casino is to make you wager (or turnover) the amount you deposited from 10 to 15 times on the whole [over the duration of the year], which means that you will lose 40-55% of your deposit anyway. You may look at the start and then after a year (or a smaller period of time) and you’ll witness that you will lose closer to a half of your deposits in exchange for the entertainment of playing casino games. 

NB: You will get high sometimes and will get low sometimes, but if you roll over the amount of your deposit at least 10 times you will lose from 40 to 50% of your deposit (which the casino actually intends you to do). 

These are cruel facts, just mathematics. This is also why the bonuses are attached automatically, because bonuses are merged with your own funds in order to fulfil the requirements known as wagering requirements. So much for wagering requirements, in plain words, they mean: we give you money for nothing, but you have to turn over your deposit and this free bonus money the number of times specified. The trick here (you must look attentively in the T&C) is that you first have to turnover your own deposit and only after that a bonus that has been given to you. It’s a small difference but it decides every aspect. Because to make you lose your money or at least 40-55% thereof, which is desirable for a casino after a year of a client’s life, they will need to make you wager your own deposit from 10 to 15 times. So, this is how your bonus wagering requirements are structured because you turn your own money in the first place. What range of wagering requirements do casinos use? What are the numbers? 

Why do casinos use wagering requirements for bonuses?

You as a player must know that in most cases the wagering requirements start from x30 to x55 times of bonus money. But the trick here is that some casinos would require you to roll over only the bonus amount given (while your own deposit is still wagered first), others would require you to wager both bonus money and your own real money pooled to a single balance until requirements are met. The latter actually means that it doubles the requirements, so instead of specified x30, you’d have x60 roll over requirements if brought down to a bonus part alone. 

All wagering requirements are made to bring your statistical chances of winning any money out of the bonus part close to zero. So, effectively, even a wagering requirement of 30 times your bonus part leaves you very thin chance (if at all) to realise at least any gain. Because it will take a slot game of about 99% of RTP for you to be able to get away with at least any winning from a standpoint of a probability theory. 

So, the whole idea of bonus that’s given to you is aimed at:

1. Make you rollover your deposit faster.
2. In a behavioural sense, to make you get used to rolling over money and to the play itself.      

Likewise, this is why some bonuses are structured so as to be given in parts, a day after day for 7 or 10 days. It’s done with the thought of instilling a habit of playing with you. So, this is how bonuses are made, why they are given automatically, because a casino at every touch point with you will try to make you rollover your deposit as quickly as and frequently as possible. 
Now we will discuss in more detail how money is credited to your balance.

How actually funds are credited to your casino balance?

I have already started this in the previous section: there is a real money balance and a bonus balance, which are two different wallets as seen from within a casino management system. Also, the licensing requirement for a casino is to keep this money in different wallets, there’s a seamless integration between each of them, but on the legal side these are two different balances: your own money and money that has been given to you for free.

This is where many terms and notions come from. Look at the history of online casinos: real money casinos is a site where you can play for the money you own, unlike the casino bonus sites and also by contrast to social casinos. Actually, the bonus wallets are one of the bigger leverages that online casinos use on you to make you wager your own money faster and more frequently too. Except for a bonus wallet, they have support people that would tickle you and say: it’s time to play. Also, except for these, casinos have a kind of nice idea that’s called tournaments. This is the spirit of competition between players with prizes that are given to those who play more and turn over his/her deposit more frequently. 

So, these are basically three things that are used by an online casino to make you play:

1. Casino Bonuses.
2. Relationship (a function of support).
3. Tournaments.
4. Game vendors bonuses.

The fourth point or bonuses that come from game vendors are kept off the balance of a casino, so these are money (or play time) that are given to you directly by game studios / game publishers. 

How do casino sites regard your deposit internally?

As I was saying, there are three silos: players money, bonus money as a casino’s own money. Let’s think about what happens if you made a deposit but decided not to play for some reason, and try to pull your money back? In most cases, there’s no problem, maybe it shall come for a fee if a casino has a withdrawal fee. 

But, some casinos (remember to look in their T&C) would require you to roll over your deposit several times before you are able to withdraw. Often, it is x1 to x3 times roll over requirements before withdrawal. It’s unfair T&C and I urge you to beware, but still it shows that a casino actually regards a portion of your deposit as their own money. Because due to a casino edge you will inevitably lose some part of it, it will take time to discover which part actually. By the internal bookkeeping of an online casino (by the number that I have seen with my own eyes) over the year-long period an average player will tend to lose 40-55% of her yearly amount of deposit. A half of your money will go away in exchange for the time spent on games of chance, in exchange for the thrill you’d feel when you learn something and, the opposite, when you lost something. But at the end of a yearly period, as I usually take it, you will lose closer to a half of your deposits.

NB: over the year an average player will tend to lose 40-55% of her yearly amount of deposit

So, by the internal accounting of a casino, a player’s role or identity is defined by:
1) the amount of deposits you made and      
2) your roll over intensity (simply saying, how often you play)
2) your life span (how long you stick around).

Suchwise, they already predict what part of your deposits they will take at the end of the year, which comes as their GGR, and it will be distributed to casino game providers, software platforms, licencees, traffic providers, etc. Yet, significant money is still left to an online casino operator.   

Playing games and a casino lobby 

Now let’s discuss what happens once you decide to start playing? What’s all the magic inside a casino if seen as a stage? Do things actually different in terms of games presentations and title suggestions after you have made a deposit and why?

Key takeaways of the section:

• If you made a deposit more than €50, a casino will suggest you the newest news and highly volatile games.
• Games suggested as Best for wagering might have RTP lower than average.
• Highly volatile games require more than average size of wallet to start playing them. 
• Games with high volatility may go deep into red zone, so you may need roll over your deposit fewer times to make you lose it all than any other type of games. 
• If online casinos wouldn't restrict a best size during wagering, at least some players would win a significant amount of money out of the bonuses, which may cause problems for the financial soundness of operators. 
• The average bet size in the EU countries is €1.2 euro.
• For a casino to make you rise you bet size is money from the sky; that's why they even want to sacrifice an RTP (or their margin of sales) in exchange to doubling sales, etc.
• Winning from progressive slots are paid not by a casino operator, but by a slots provider himself.
• jackpot slots are not as popular with casino operators since the licence fee for these titles is more expensive because a vendor has to reserve funds to give away to the jackpot winners.

Questions discussed:

1. How exactly a casino lobby may look different once you have made a deposit? How the look and feel of the lobby may change depending on the amount of deposit that you use?
2. How do game suggestions work? Why might you be given High Volatility games in the first place?
3. What is the function of restriction of a bet amount when you wager your bonuses?
4. What is the most popular bet amount statistically and why? 
5. Why are casinos interested in raising your bet amount when you play for your own money?
6. What Progressive Jackpot games mean to online casinos?   

How does the online casino lobby (and games suggestion) work?

Working with casino software core modules it’s plain to see that there’s a group of modules focused on game representation. It means that a software is now geared towards identifying what type of client you are, depending on the amount of your deposit, geography and time of day, - what kind of games you’d want to have. It’s a zero stage. Later, as their Business Intelligence would accumulate enough data on you, the chain of signals and reactions will become more complex, but at the end of the day they will try to prompt you to play games that are more profitable to a casino itself. So, you have to be wary that everything you see in a casino lobby after you make a deposit is done for a reason. Even though it may not look so, it's done for a reason - a casino leads their own little game with you, so it’s good if you can have your own agenda too. 

So, what I am talking about is game suggestion works like this: a PAM software will put you in category and suggest the starting point of your journey like to suggest you the title for the sections “Best for you”, “Best for wagering” ( if you have opted in for bonuses) or “Best games based on your history” (if you already have started). 

Likewise, if you made a deposit more than €50 the “Best for you” section will feature the newest news and highly volatile games. As regards “Best for Wagering” selection of slots, some casino sites will make it easier for you to choose slot games to wager bonuses, but be wary that those best for wagering games might have RTP lower than average (lower than you have expected). It is also true that these suggested slots might have lower volatility, but lower RTP will diminish your chances to win some money. 

Why exactly are high volatility games suggested by online casinos?

High volatility games are every casino’s babe because they are quite thrilling: you come high and low.. Their payback cycle is quite long, so you can go down into a “red zone” for quite a long while and then you might be having huge winning streaks. What is important about the high volatility games is that their distribution of returns (win or lose, what a casino calls a “win or hit rate”, etc) takes a quite big range: win-lose-win-lose-lose-lose-lose-win… So, the high volatility games don’t keep your balance closer to zero, these games are very unpredictable: you can, for example, lose tens of twenties of spins in a row. What does it mean in practical terms?

On the mathematical part they are to a casino just the same as any other games: they all have a Random Number Generator (RNG) and RTP. At the end of the day, given a considerable number of spins and players, they are just the same in the eyes of a casino… But, when it comes to new players, especially with those who have a taste to risk and a smaller deposit amount, high volatility ones are casino babes because they require a little more than average size of wallet to start playing them. 

Due to a high volatility they may keep you low for a long time, and this is how they need you to roll over your deposit fewer times to make you lose it all than any other type of games (given the same RTP). So, in addition to being profitable to a casino, high volatility titles are exciting to play, likewise, in order to be actually profitable a casino might want to use some tricks to you too: if you have higher than average bet (€2-3) and lower than average deposit (less than than €50), so under this conditions you are most likely to lose the whole amount of deposit. Simply because these games require much more significant deposit to test their potential to the fullest. So, these games are thrilling but maybe not for you in the first place?

What is the use in restrictions in bets when you wager?

 As we learned by now, the more bets you make, the faster you rollover your deposit and the faster you come to a result that’s desirable to a casino, i.e. lose a portion of your deposited money. Effectively, it’s not hard to understand that high stakes put you in the position of high rollers, especially when you have a large deposit, but not when you play for bonus money. Why exactly?

From the stance of probability, it doesn't even matter what is the size of bet that you use, because the RTP and the overall casino edge on you will be realisable no matter what. But if you make a large bet, it conveys the idea that at least some players would win a significant amount of money out of the bonuses (and some will lose too). On the overall plan, the picture stays seemingly the same. But effectively, it means that some players will get away with casino money and online casinos will have to respond with heightened wagering requirements. This is highly unpopular. Increasing wagering requirements is one of the things that online casinos don’t like because players don’t like it too. So, they have to keep down the possible maximum amount or bet. This is how it actually works. 

Maybe, the larger casinos that have a good outstanding balance and larger budgets too stay away from the risk zone of being affected financially, but for a smaller one it can constitute a real problem since some players will take away money from a casino for nothing. There will be peaks in the account payable such that at some points a casino site will have to pay a lot. Therefore, it’s more probable that a small casino may be insolvent one day. This is one of the reasons a casino tries to reduce a minimum bet during wagering.

What’s the most popular bet size statistically?

If you take the statistics of bet in the EU countries, the average bet size is €1.2 euro. So, most players play at a default €1 bet per spin. I myself play at €2 per bet, but it all depends on your taste to risk and budget. So, statistically it’s 1.2 per bet. Why exactly? 

First of all, it’s handy and easy. If you player at €1 per bet and a certain budget, say of €100, it’s easy to calculate how many bets who many bets you want to make, what’s the winnings size per bet (because a winnings are denominated in coins as related to the coins size that you use to bet). So, it’s easy and plain. And you can obviously calculate a time you may play for a certain amount of deposit, because if you double your bet you will burn your deposit two times faster. 

Why are casinos interested in raising your bet amount? Why do they prompt you to do it?     

Not only casinos, but also game vendors are really interested if a player raises a bet per spins because as I was saying it makes a player deposit rollover faster and with each bet as casino edge is realisable. For a casino provider, it is money money from the sky, they only need to somehow make you raise your bet. 

If you have checked slot machines boards and product sheets, I might have seen that many vendors claim: play with €2 or €3 per bet and we will increase either your RTP or a chance of hitting a Free Spins feature. Likewise, they even want to sacrifice an RTP (or their margin of sales) in exchange to doubling sales (by making you double your bet). So, it’s a kind of trick but as you may see it makes good economic sense.  Finally, let’s discuss progressive jackpot slot games.

What Progressive Jackpot games mean to online casinos?   

Progressive jackpot slot games have been hugely popular ever seens the online gambling started but what is important for you to understand is that winning from progressive slots are paid not by a casino operator, but by a slots provider himself. How progressive jackpot slots work? These are slot games where all the stakes from multiple players are pooled together and then on a certain event the big portion of the money except for a casino provider edge is distributed to a single or several winners.Such games are thrilling but they are indeed not hugely popular on the casino side. It’s because on a business side the progressive titles require a higher percentage of GGR to be given away to the provider, so the licence fee for jackpot slots is more expensive because a vendor has to reserve funds to give away to the jackpot winners. That’s why they are quite popular with players but not so popular with casino operators, likewise, they often are showcased closer to the bottom of a casino lobby page. 

This is probably so far for this topic. In the next report I plan to discuss further tissues of how casino mathematics works, including what’s profitable to play with or without bonuses, delve a little deeper into how wagering works, present a portrait of a typical player in numbers, etc.