While many payouts are made and enormous jackpots are doled out, surely the purpose of an online casino is to make money? If this is so, why do they offer free play options? Surely this goes against their main goal which is to turn over a profit? After all, isn’t making money the purpose of being in business?
When it comes to online casinos, amongst other things, they’re in the entertainment industry. They want their clients to be entertained, to enjoy their experience and keep coming back time and time again, not only because of the sizeable winnings but also because of the excellent entertainment value.
Most casinos offer these free play facilities. After registering with a casino, your own personal account containing a certain amount of credits with which you can play a variety of games, is created. Once these credits have been depleted the casino will usually replenish them. These credits have no monetary value, so if you do hit a jackpot, you simply win credits and not actually money. Needless to say there are restrictions and players cannot take part in games where other players are using real money and therefore cannot participate in online tournaments and games offering progressive jackpots.
Casinos do have expenses, but because these expenses are fixed, it doesn’t really cost the casino much to have a free play division. All free play customers are potential paying customers, so one can almost look at it these expenses as marketing and advertising expenses. Sometimes individuals have heard of online gambling, but they find the thought of diving in headfirst too intimidating and thus use the free play platform as a way to educate and familiarise themselves with the process and various games on offer. After spending a while learning the ropes, they then only progress to playing with real money and thus generally don’t make costly beginner mistakes due to the ground work which they have already put in.
Free play also allows players to learn the rules of a particular game without it costing them anything. Not all games have exactly the same rules, and it can take a little practice switching over from one game to another. Let’s say you have been playing Texas Hold’em poker for years and decide to make a change to Indio Casino because of their advanced security features, but now the games on offer are Caribbean Poker and Pai Gow Poker, and you have never played these variations before. Do you simply choose one and dive in head first and learn as you go along, or do you practice free of charge? I’m sure you’ll agree that a few trial rounds will give you time to get to know the game and learn from your mistakes.
Free play also affords you the opportunity to be able to judge which games pay out more generously and which games provide you with the best odds of winning. But maybe, as they say, you’re a ‘gambling man’ and would prefer to jump in with both feet first. Different strokes, for different folks.
