Why We Don’t Recommend Playing Social Slots

For decades, slot machines only existed in one form. You had to visit a land-based casino and play mechanical slots or video slots.

Many gamblers still enjoy playing these games in brick and mortar casinos today. However, the types of slots have expanded in recent years.

You can now play real money online slots and social slots. The latter are becoming extremely popular through social media sites.

However, I think that the entire concept of social slots is useless. I’ll explain why below along with why you should strongly consider boycotting them.

What Are Social Slots?

As the name implies, social slots are available through social media sites. They first spawned on Facebook through Zynga Casino.

These Facebook-based slots are still highly popular today. However, social gaming has expanded to include other types of websites too.

Unlike slots in land-based or online casinos, these games don’t give you an opportunity to win real money. Instead, they see you win coins (also referred to as “tokens”) that have no monetary value.

You might be wondering why in the world somebody would want to play free slots beyond a few minutes. After all, they have no chance to win serious money.

The answer is that social slots players can complete missions, achieve accolades, and share their accomplishments with friends. For example, a Facebook slots player could boast about a 1 million coin jackpot to their buddies.

Of course, social casinos don’t offer these services out of the goodness of their hearts. Instead, they make money by encouraging players to buy more coins.

Social slots, like any type of slot machine, features a house edge. The chances are high that you’ll eventually run out of tokens.

At this point, you can either go through the process of creating a new email account and signing up for the site again under a different name. Or you can simply buy more coins and keep playing.

Social Slots vs. Real Money Slots

Social slots look and play much like standard online slots. However, they also have distinct differences from regular slots.

Social casino games don’t offer real money payouts. Instead, they deliver coins that can help you earn cool avatars, badges, and completed missions.

Social slot machines also encourage you to share accomplishments with friends. For instance, you may want to show off your latest avatar with everybody on your friends list.

These games feature more colorful and cartoonish graphics than the average slot, too. They’re meant purely for entertainment purposes rather than realism.

Social games are only found at websites and on social casino apps. You’re not going to walk into a brick-and-mortar casino and see social slot machines.

Why Do Social Slots Suck?

Although social slots have become very popular among social media users, they have some serious downsides. Here are the main drawbacks to these games.

No Chance to Win Real Money

Slots became popular in the first place because they give gamblers an opportunity to win big prizes. For example, you may have a chance to win a payout worth of 50,000x your stake on a certain game.

Not every slot offers a jackpot this big. However, every game features at least one prize that’s large relative to your bet size.

You don’t have any opportunity to win big with a social slot. In fact, you don’t have a chance to win small with these games either. Instead, you’re just trying to rack up credits that can be used to purchase items of non-monetary value.

You’ll Probably Spend Money at Some Point

Some social casinos mainly rely on advertising revenue. They offer free games and rewards in exchange for you viewing the advertisements shown onscreen.

However, the majority of social gaming sites do expect customers to spend money at some point. They may offer 100,000 coins, or so, upfront, but they hope that you’ll purchase tokens too.

Nothing forces you to buy extra coins. However, you may be encouraged to do so upon running out the first time and wanting to keep up with your friends in terms of badges.

Reload Bonuses Don’t Reload Your Money

Online casinos typically offer reload bonuses. The latter refers to deposit bonuses that become available when you reload your account with more funds. You can use such offers to earn free money.

Social gaming sites have taken a cue from internet casinos in this regard. They feature reload bonuses that are worth thousand or even millions of coins.

The key difference, though, is that these bonuses aren’t actually giving you any money. They’re just providing you with more play at the given casino.

Jackpots Aren’t Really That Exciting

You can win jackpots through social slot machines. Unfortunately, you may not feel like these prizes are truly jackpots.

Again, you’re only winning tokens that can be used to continue playing games. You’re not collecting any prizes that are of significant value

Maybe you’ll still appreciate these jackpots if you really want to complete more missions and grab badges. But you also might grow tired of winning big prizes that don’t have any real-world value.

Do These Slots Offer Any Benefits?

As you can tell, I’m not the biggest fan of social slots. However, I’d only giving one side of the story by not also discussing their benefits.

Share Accomplishments With Friends

Free slot machines aren’t the most entertaining prospect to players. Most people only play these games for free while trying out a casino before potentially depositing.

Social slots shouldn’t be popular in theory. However, they’ve gained widespread popularity by incorporating social elements into the gameplay.

You can invite friends to come play at a certain casino with you. Assuming they join at some point, you can also look forward to showing off your big wins to them.

Earn Social Slots Bonuses

Most social gaming sites offer bonuses when you purchase more points. You’ll typically receive a large welcome bonus upon registering for an account and playing for free the first time.

These bonuses continue as you run out of tokens and buy more. For instance, you might receive 1 million coins when you make a purchase worth at least $50.

Enjoy Entertaining Games

Sharing completed missions and new avatars only goes so far. Social game designers also must ensure that they offer quality slots.

These games feature extremely colorful graphics and fun themes. They can also be just as fun, if not more fun, thanaverage real money slots.

Should You Ever Try Social Slots?

I’m not totally against giving social slots a chance. In fact, I’ve actually played them myself a time or two.

However, I highly advise that you avoid getting too wrapped up in these games. You can’t win any real money back after purchasing coins.

You won’t go broke by spending $20 here or there on more tokens. However, some gamblers have gotten too obsessed with social gambling sites.

The biggest problem for me isn’t just the simple addiction element. After all, slot machines can cause the same problems when unchecked by gaming regulatory bodies.

Instead, I simply hate the fact that you’re spending money without any chance to win a real money jackpot. When you do win big with these games, your prizes aren’t worth anything outside of the casino.

You’re essentially playing Dave and Buster’s or Chuck E. Cheese-style games with worthless prizes as the end reward. You might as well visit Dave and Buster’s if you’re going to engage in this type of gaming.

Of course, you might see more merit to these slots if you’re an active social media user who often shares status updates with friends. Again, though, I strongly suggest that you don’t put too much money towards these games.

Conclusion

Social slots offer a unique proposition compared to real money gambling. They give you the ability to earn achievements that can later be shared with friends.

Assuming you get one or more buddies onboard, you could even have a competition to see who can win the most coins. At the least, you can boast about your big wins to those in your friends circle.

However, these social elements aren’t worth spending hundreds or thousands of dollars on coins. After all, you can’t win real money with these tokens and sustain your bankroll.

Maybe you like the idea of playing slots in a social setting. But I encourage you to avoid risking much, if any, money on these games.