When you think of coins, you probably imagine that we’re talking about the little round pieces of metal that you put in the vending machine to buy a soft drink. This isn’t entirely incorrect even when we talk about pokies, as those physical coins definitely have a lot to do with why the term is still used in online poker machines today. But we now use the term coins as a much more generic way of discussing how much we’re spending on each spin on a pokie.
In the discussion of pokies, coins can be thought of as units: a basic measure of how much you are spending on a given spin. Coins can come in any denomination, ranging from a penny to several dollars. On many online pokies, you can even adjust the coin value to your liking in order to account for your budgeting needs.
By doing this, it makes it much easier to talk about pokies without having to deal with the fact that different games use basic betting units of different sizes. If you say that you spent one dollar on a spin, that might mean you bet a lot of coins on a penny pokie, or played just one coin on a more expensive machine. On the other hand, saying that you can play a machine for a maximum of five coins means that you can bet between one and five units, regardless of the denomination you choose.
If you’re wondering why people use the term “coins” so widely when talking about poker machines, you’ll have to look back at the history of pokies. On older machines in clubs and casinos, players had to manually insert coins in order to get credits for their next spin. This is now antiquated even in live pokies (players might still insert bills into a machine, after which the pokie will tell them how many “coins” or credits they have), but the terminology has stuck with the games even into the world of online casinos.
Various pokies offer different ways in which coins are handled. Simple one-payline games may allow players to bet between one and three (or five) coins, with additional coins multiplying the potential wins on each spin but otherwise making little difference to gameplay. Other three-reel poker machines may have up to three, five, or nine paylines, with each coin after the first unlocking an additional payline.
On more complex pokies, there may be dozens of paylines, and players often have the option of playing multiple coins on each of those lines. Players can choose to play many different combinations of lines and coins per line, as long as they are willing to pay for them. For instance, a player could play 50 coins by playing one coin on each of 50 different lines, but they might also have the option of playing 10 lines and playing five coins on each at the same exact cost.
Finally, there are some machines that allow you to pay one flat number of coins in order to gain access to all paylines. These games, known as “all ways” pokies, can give you the excitement of having hundreds of possible winning combinations for a relatively low price.
In most cases, the number of coins you should play is entirely dependent on how much you are comfortable spending on each spin. Figure out a comfort level and play the number of coins that seems best for you.
However, there are a few exceptions in which there is probably a “correct” number of coins you should be playing. For instance, some machines (particularly three-line pokies) offer a bonus to the jackpot if you play the full number of coins. For instance, the top symbol might pay out 1,000 coins if you play one, and 2,000 coins if you play two, but 5,000 coins for wagering a full three coins on each spin. In these cases, you are giving up some of your return to player if you don’t play for the maximum number of coins. Similarly, many progressive jackpots are only available if you play for the maximum on each spin. If you are playing one of these games, then make sure to play for as much as needed to win the top prize; otherwise, you can play for whatever you want to each time you try a new pokie!