Last week, I wrote a piece about five things I found frustrating about Connecticut’s online casinos. Of course, I continue to play them, so the frustrations haven’t stopped me from continuing to play them, and there’s a number of things that make them compelling.
So today, let’s go over five things I really like about the online casinos available in Connecticut today.
1. Public Payback Percentages
Many of the games available on the sites outright state what their payback percentage is. Try finding that information in the regular casinos on any individual machine – you can’t.
Connecticut is at least in a market that reports aggregate payback information, but that’s just an average across all the wagers made in a window of time, not a breakdown by game. With the online sites, many games (although not all) tell you their payback percentage, including even games like Blackjack.
2. Higher Payback Percentages
Even better, not only do they state their payback percentages, but they’re better than physical casinos. The number of slot machine games that show it, for example, show a pretty consistent 94-96% payback range, which is above what you’d get on lower denomination games in the physical casinos.
For players who like to play penny slots, that’s definitely a big deal, as your money can last twice as long, on average, on a machine with a 95% payback percentage vs. a 90% payback percentage.
Both online casinos offer at least one full pay video poker option too. DraftKings it’s pretty much across the seven Video Poker types available, whereas with Fan Duel the only full pay options appear to be on single hand games.
3. Ability to Micro Bet
As bets in the casino continue to go up, online casinos offer a way to bet smaller. A nickel a hand on full pay video poker? 8 cents a spin on higher payback slots? You won’t find these options in a real casino.
This really allows those with a lower bankroll to play for awhile without losing out on better paying opportunities than you can find in a physical casino.
4. More Open-Ended Offers
Most casino offers in a land-based casino are you get what you get. Free play, room comp, dining credits – you accept the offer and you get what’s offered.
Online, the offers are many times structured as an open-ended opportunity, with more available as you play more. Many of these offers come in the form of escalating free play which only requires a single playthrough, just like in the physical casino, before it’s cash and you can redeem.
When you’re running well, you can take advantage of this to get more than you might normally, and you can put the offer down when it’s not going your way. I like this better than a fixed offer at times, which can be good for predictability but you have to know how much you’re playing historically to maintain it.
5. Unique Games
Although they are missing some of the essentials from main physical casino slot makers, they do have a variety of games by online game makers that break the mold in various ways. These games tend to offer something different than the traditional video or mechanical reel slots.
One of the most popular game types on online slots in recent years has been Megaways, with reels shifting the number of symbols they have each spin, offering an ultra-volatile but yet ultra-fun game format. Other formats offer all sorts of other fun options that you can’t get in a casino today. In that way, it freshens up the gaming experience.
