If you like to play pokies, chances are you aren’t against gambling—why else would you be playing? Every single spin on a poker machine is a gamble, one that could potentially pay off big if you hit the right symbols.
But sometimes, it can be fun to risk even more after a winning spin. That’s where special gamble features come into play. By using a gamble feature, you can risk everything you’ve won on an all-or-nothing proposition, one that offers fair odds to the player but carries a lot of risk.
Gamble features are a special type of bonus game that takes place after a winning spin on many pokies. These features are entirely optional: players are never required to play a true gamble feature, and can choose to simply take their winnings if they prefer to.
Most gamble features work rather simply. After a winning spin, players are given the chance to make a fair wager on the flip of a coin, the colour of a card randomly pulled from a standard deck, or some other truly random outcome. If the player guesses correctly, they’ll see their winnings increase; if they lose, their winnings are taken away instead.
Almost all gamble features have one thing in common: the odds you get on them are perfectly fair, providing no advantage to either the player or the casino. For instance, if you’re betting on the flip of a coin, you’ll have a 50/50 chance to double your money. You’ll be increasing your risk, but in the long run, you should come out about even by playing these games.
There are a few different ways in which gamble games can be tailored in order to provide some variety. The first is in the kinds of gambles available to players. While virtually every pokie with a gamble game will offer players the chance to double their money, some also allow for the chance to quadruple your winnings, usually by guessing the suit of a given card.
Some pokies also give you the chance to limit how much you can win or lose through gambling. While the default option is usually to wager all of your winnings, some machines will give you the option to bet only half of your prize instead, and sometimes the customization options go even further.
Finally, most gamble games set a limit on how much you can win on any given spin. This could mean that you’re only allowed to gamble a certain number of times before you are forced to stop, or that there is a maximum number of coins that you can win through this feature on a given spin. Some machines may only allow you to risk your money once, while others may let you attempt to double it several times in a row if you’re feeling lucky.
Because the gamble feature doesn’t give you or the online casino any advantage, playing the gamble feature mainly comes down to personal preference. However, there are some compelling reasons why you might want to try gamble features at least once in a while.
Similar to playing the odds in craps, the fact that gamble games offer no house advantage can actually reduce the casino’s overall edge (in terms of percentage) if you consider your gamble bets as part of your play. In other words, it is nearly always to your advantage to bet $1 on a pokie and then another dollar on a coin flip then it is to just bet $2 on the poker machine itself.
Because of the lack of a house edge, the gamble bets can also be the best way to chase a big win. For instance, if you have a goal of winning $1,000, you’re more likely to get there through a few lucky coin flips than by getting extremely lucky on one or more spins of the pokie itself.
That said, this sort of approach comes with a lot of added risk. Once you win by playing pokies, that money is yours, and you should look at it as though it is already in your account balance. Betting it all on a single coin flip could mean you are playing for much higher stakes than you intended to, especially if you try to gamble multiple times in a row.
If you are interested in gamble games, there are tons of different online pokies that offer this feature. You can find examples of gamble features at virtually any online casino site—just stop by one of our recommended sites, and you can start trying to gamble it up as much as you like!