You often visit online casinos and like spending a bit of cash hedging your bets here and there. As long as you do this responsibly and only bet what you can afford to lose, then there’s nothing bad or unhealthy about this activity. It’s all about knowing your limits and treating this like a game – is there much of a difference between spending a bit of money on some online slots and splashing the cash on loot boxes or skins in video games? 

Regardless, it’s worth knowing that some casino games are much less likely to pay out than others. What this means is that certain game genres will give you a greater opportunity to win real money. Winning is never guaranteed, though you can make your deposits more worthwhile if you spend money on the right types of games. 

Which games are we talking about? Here’s a selection of the best casino games to play if you want to increase the odds of winning, and a couple of the worst. 

Good Game: Poker

To boost your chances of winning money, you should look for the best online pokies in your area. Live poker tables and video poker are both excellent from a player’s perspective because you gain control of the game. There will always be an element of luck involved – you don’t control the cards you’re dealt – but you can influence the game more than any other. 

With live poker, you’re normally playing against other players instead of the house. This means it’s really all a case of whether or not you can outwit your opponents. It becomes a game full of strategic decisions, bluffs and everything else. In theory, you can win a hand of live poker with a terrible set of cards because you’re a great bluffer. 

You won’t find another casino game that lets you win when you’ve been dealt a terrible hand. 

Video poker doesn’t carry the same level of control, as you’re normally playing against a computer, though it still requires skill. Someone can be “bad” at video poker and lose all the time – but someone else can be “good” and develop a strategy that helps them win more often. 

Good Game: Blackjack

There’s a theme that carries over between the two best casino games: they’re both card-based. Traditional card games like poker and blackjack will always carry the highest chance of winning because they were designed before technology came about and randomised everything. The entire idea of blackjack is simple: 

Get closer to 21 than the dealer without going over. 

There are, obviously, more nuances to playing blackjack, but that’s the general idea here. As a result, you have more control over what happens in this game than you do in many other games. You decide whether to hit, stand or split. It’s a game that requires knowledge and practice; if you study and train, you learn certain probabilities, and this helps you make smarter decisions most of the time. 

Someone with absolutely zero knowledge of how blackjack works could boot up an online table, get to 17 and still say “hit me” to the online dealer. They bust as the dealer draws a 5, but a seasoned player knows the right tactic and will either split or stand. That’s the key here: if you come across a casino game where the player’s decision can influence the outcome, and someone can be “better” at that game than others, then it gives you a high chance of winning. 

Good Game: Roulette

To be honest with you, poker and blackjack are way out ahead of any other game in terms of the influence you have over the outcomes. They both offer more control than anything else, but roulette probably comes in next. 

Online roulette involves way more chance and luck than the previous two options, though it also contains one key element: you decide how risky your bets are. If you wanted, you could boil down a game of roulette into 50/50 bets each time – or, you could bet on one number and hope for the best. 

People have developed genuine roulette betting strategies that can help you play this game better than ever before. The right strategy helps you control risks and boost your chances of winning money and walking away with a profit overall. You are, of course, still at the mercy of the ball and where it lands, but you can choose smarter bets than just slapping all of your money on “lucky number 7” each time. 

Bad Game: Slots

So, those three games are the ones to flock to if you want to increase your chances of winning more frequently. When it comes to the worst games for this, then we have to talk about online slots. 

It’s crazy because slots are the most popular online casino game out there, and most sites will have thousands for you to play. Some will have high RTP rates that suggest they pay out all the time, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. 

At the end of the day, you have zero control over a slot game. Sure, you can choose how many paylines are active and set your stake, but you’re effectively clicking a button, watching the reels spin, and crossing your fingers. If you get lucky, you can win way more than poker, blackjack and roulette offer combined – but you have no influence whatsoever. 

Bad Game: Instant Games

At least with slots, there’s the “chance” to maybe strike gold and win big. Instant games don’t even have this – these are the games that take seconds to play and might look like digital scratch cards, keno, etc. 

Games like this are designed to be fast and will almost always look promising, yet generate no winnings. They’re worse than slots because you can’t control anything; it’s literally just a case of clicking “go” and seeing if you win. With slots, at least you have bet limit controls, and you can turn on or off paylines. 

So, in conclusion, if you want to up your chances of winning money at online casinos, play poker, baccarat or roulette. All three games involve slightly more strategy and control than any others – especially poker – so you have a wee bit more influence on the outcomes.