One aspect of playing some online slot games that you may find confusing is that they may come with something known as a maximum payout cap, this means that when you are playing any slot which has one of these caps in place on them you are limited to the amount of cash you could potentially win, often more so when a bonus game has been triggered and awarded to you.
In this article we shall take a look at what effect these maximum payout caps have on your actual winning chances when playing these types of slots and will enlighten you whether they are fair or just another way for an online casino to limit their potential liabilities.
There are a number of Real Time Gaming slot games which have rules attached to them on the pay tables which clearly state that the maximum amount you can win on any paid spin is limited to a certain amount of coins.
Examples of How Maximum Payout Works
Take for example the Count Spectacular slot, this is a multi line bonus video slot and when you take a glance at the pay table you will clearly see that it says you can win a maximum payout of 50,000 coins per paid for spin, the key to this rule is the “paid for” spin section of that rule, for when you trigger let’s say a bonus game feature, that is a non paid for spin, and it was the original base game spin which triggered the bonus round it is all of the free spins awarded that will finally count as the paid for spin.
This does of course mean that when you are playing this slot game online for let us say 0.01 per payline per spin, then the maximum amount you could win per paid for spin is 500.00, which may seem quite a small amount of cash, however this rule is always in place for a reason and below we shall take a look at why many casinos have opted to limit the maximum amount a player can win per spin.
Payout Liabilities
Whilst you may initially think that by playing a slot with a maximum payout cap is a bad thing, the opposite is actually true, the reason why many slots and casino sites offering these types of slot games have rules in place is that due to the design of some slots you could, in theory, win an unlimited amount of cash on them.
By having this payout cap you are therefore playing a completely random slot unlike many others available online when you trigger a free spins bonus game for example, the amount you are going to win on that bonus game has been predetermined before you even set the free spins into motion.
Take for example bonus games on which a large number of free spins can be awarded to you when a set of scatter symbols spins in, many slots will award additional sets of free spins when another set of scatter symbols spin in during the free spins bonus game.
A completely random slot would, from time to time, award a huge number of free spins whenever additional sets of scatter symbols spin in, which means the operator of that game could face an unlimited payout should that occur!
So by having a payment cap in place on these 100% fair and random slots you are never going to bankrupt the casino at which you are playing at whilst at the same time get a fairly decent return from a relatively low stakes.
Payment Caps on Progressive Slot Games
One type of slot game that you will never want to see any type of payment cap on is progressive slots, for such a cap will defeat the object of offering a progressive jackpot, and would make such slot games un-playable for what is the point of winning a $1million jackpot and then only to find out you can only cash out a tiny proportion of that jackpot win!
There is however some maximum payout caps that you will find attached to some slot games offering a progressive jackpot, however gladly these do not affect you when you are playing a slot game with your own money, they will only affect you should you be playing a progressive jackpot slot with a bonus in your account.
The rules attached to all casino bonuses will differ, some online casinos will not let you play any type of progressive slot with a bonus in your account, and those that do will often limit your potential winnings when playing such a slot.
It is therefore very important to read through the bonus rules, and if they state you can only win a certain amount from using such a bonus then always avoid playing progressive slots with a bonus!
You will find that the better run and operated online casinos that impose a maximum payout cap on their progressive slots when a player is playing with a bonus will always put the surplus cash that a player cannot cash out when they have been lucky enough to win progressive jackpot back in the progressive jackpot pool, however, some site will not add this surplus back into the pot and instead will simply keep it for themselves!
The reason these sites do this is that when they are giving away a lot of bonuses and allow progressive slots to be played with those bonuses, as a certain amount of each stake is directly feeding the progressive jackpot pools then they can actually lose money on those bonuses should a player win the progressive jackpot at another casino networked into the progressive games.
So the best advice we can give you is to only stick to playing progressive slots with your own money and never play them with any bonus in your account, the risk of you losing out on a massive jackpot win and then having your cash outs limited is too big a risk to take!
Conclusion
If you do wish to play online slot games and never want to run the risk of having your winnings capped then always check the help files attached to any slot game along with checking the pay tables, and if you see maximum winning caps on that slot try another one which hasn’t got them in place!