Penny Slots Online

As the name might suggest, penny slots are the cheapest of all slot machines. While high limit slots might be geared towards VIP players, penny slots are games for the people — affordable options that allow players to get a real slot machine experience without spending an exorbitant amount of money in the process. If you’ve ever wanted to try slots but worried about how much it would cost to get started, penny slots are a great (and inexpensive) place to start.

What is a Penny Slot?

Strictly speaking, a penny slot is just what it sounds like: a slot machine that costs one penny to play. Even in the strictest sense, however, this isn’t always accurate; any game that allows you to play using pennies as a coin denomination counts as a penny slot, which means that if you can bet more than a single coin or payline per spin, a “penny slot” can actually cost a lot more than $0.01 to play.

In a more general sense, the term penny slot is often used to refer to any slot machine that can be played fairly cheaply. Many casinos set their minimum coin denomination at two cents; however, most players would still consider those games penny slots. Other than the cost of the games, there’s little to differentiate a penny slot from any other kind of slot, so you can use the term as loosely or literally as you like.

Why Play Penny Slots?

Penny slots are a great way to start playing slot machines without worrying about losing a large sum of money. With penny slots, your risk is very minimal; in most games, you’ll at least have the option of playing for as little as a single cent if you so desire. At the same time, you’ll usually have the option of making slightly larger bets as well, usually by playing multiple paylines and/or wagering multiple coins per line.

Just because you’re not betting big doesn’t mean you can’t win big, either. Many penny slots have progressive jackpots that are quite large, at least compared to the stakes you’re playing for. Sure, it’s unlikely that you’ll find a penny slot offering a jackpot worth millions, but many players have won thousands of dollars by playing penny machines.

Even if you enjoy playing for higher stakes, chances are that you can find a use for penny slots. You may often want to try a new machine, but be wary of playing at your normal stakes until you’re sure that you like the game. Since most online casinos allow you to change the denomination of the machines you play on, you can simply set the machine to its lowest coin setting (usually just a penny or two), and spend a few dollars trying the game before you commit to any pricier spins.

Calculating How Much a Penny Slot Costs to Play

As we’ve already mentioned a couple times above, just because a slot machine is advertised as a penny slot, it doesn’t mean that it costs just one cent to play. Certainly, most penny slots will allow you to play this way, but even most cautious players would rather play for more than a single cent each time they spin the reels.

When calculating the cost of any slot machine, you must consider not only the denomination of the slot, but also the number of lines you’ll be playing, as well as the number of coins per line. This means that at their maximum bets, many “penny slots” can actually cost you a dollar or more to play!

Here’s a quick example to show you just how this works. Let’s say you’re playing a penny slot that comes with 30 different paylines. In addition, you have the option of playing between one and five coins on each line. Because this game has some fun bonus rounds as well as a progressive jackpot, you’ve decided to play for the maximum bet on each spin. How much does each spin cost you?

We know that each “coin” in the machine is $0.01. We also know that we’re playing 30 lines, as well as five coins per line. We must multiply our bet as follows:

$0.01 * 30 * 5 = $1.50

That’s right: this penny slot actually costs you $1.50 each time you hit that max bet button.

We point this out not to scare you away; obviously, $1.50 is still hardly a high stakes wager. Still, many players are unpleasantly surprised when they put $10 or so into a penny machine and then realize that only covers a few spins. If you truly want to play a slot machine for just a few cents a spin, you’ll need to make sure you set the number of lines and coins you want, and then hit the regular spin button rather than max spin. This will allow you to truly play these machines for pennies at a time.