Casino games are not all about blind luck. Many allow players to adjust their risk and reward through various gameplay options. Players tweaking certain elements influence the game’s volatility and payout potential. In gambling, volatility refers to the level of risk in a game: high-volatility games offer larger but less frequent payouts. In contrast, low-volatility games pay out smaller prizes more regularly. Find out how players can control aspects of each game to dial the risk up or down in exchange for higher or lower potential rewards.
Slots
Slot machines provide multiple ways for players to manage risk and reward actively. Modern video slots often let players set their bet size, enable special modes, or use features like win multipliers, volatility, and payout size. Key adjustable features in slots include:
- Bet Amount: Adjusting the bet per spin is the simplest way to control risk. Higher bets put more money at stake and unlock the chance of proportionally bigger wins. Conversely, lowering the bet reduces potential payouts but makes each spin less risky to your bankroll.
- Win Multipliers/Gamble Feature: Many slots include an optional gamble or win multiplier feature to unlock a bonus round or risk a recent win for a chance to multiply it. For example, you can play a double-or-nothing game after a winning spin. If you guessed correctly, you double your prize; if you are wrong, you forfeit that win altogether.
- Jackpot Mode or Volatility Setting: Some slot games let players choose special modes that raise the stakes. For instance, certain slots have a jackpot mode which, when triggered or entered, shifts the game into a higher volatility state with the potential for huge prizes.
Roulette
Roulette is a classic casino game where the type of bet a player chooses directly controls the risk and reward. The roulette wheel offers bets with a broad spectrum of odds and payouts, allowing players to decide how bold or cautious to be each spin:
- Inside vs. Outside Bets: Inside bets are wagers on specific numbers or small groups of numbers (e.g. a straight-up bet on a single number, a split between two numbers, etc.), whereas outside bets cover larger set of outcomes (e.g. red/black, odd/even, or entire dozens/columns). Inside bets have a much lower probability of winning but pay out much higher multiples when they do hit. For example, a bet on a single number wins only about 1 in 37 spins, but the payout is 35:1. In contrast, outside bets like red/black or odd/even win almost 48% of the time (in European roulette) but only pay 1:1. In other words, the lower the probability of winning, the higher the reward when you do win.
- Bet Spread and Coverage: Players can also spread their bets across many numbers or outcomes in a single spin to adjust volatility. For instance, instead of putting all your wager on one number, you might split chips among several numbers or place multiple bets to cover a broader portion of the wheel. Covering more of the wheel increases the chance that something will win, but each payout will be smaller since you’ve invested in multiple spots. For example, betting on a dozen (covering 12 numbers) gives a 32% chance to win and pays 2:1, while putting the same total stake on one number gives only ~2.7% chance but a 35:1 payoff.
Blackjack
Blackjack is known for its mix of strategy and chance, and players can further control their risk and reward through optional betting decisions. Beyond the basic gameplay, blackjack offers ways to take on more risk for a shot at higher returns:
- Side Bets: Many blackjack tables feature side bets that players may optionally place alongside their main hand. These side wagers typically pay out based on specific card combinations. The appeal is the potential for a much larger payout than a standard blackjack hand, but the odds of winning a side bet are low. Side bets often carry a higher house edge than the main game, reflecting their risk. The more you invest in side bets, the more swingy your results can be, since these bets might yield a big bonus win or, more often, nothing at all.
- Doubling Down: Blackjack gives an option to “double down”. This simply means to double your original bet in the middle of a hand in exchange for taking exactly one more card. This is a strategic, high-risk move that significantly increases your reward if it works out. By doing so, you’re risking twice the money on that hand for the chance to double your profit when you win. It’s inherently riskier because you only get one card and can’t hit again if you get a poor draw. When timed well, doubling down lets you capitalize on strong situations to win more, but if the cards don’t go your way, you’ve lost twice as much.
- Bet Size and Bankroll Management: Like with other games, the amount you bet each hand in blackjack is a direct lever of risk and reward. Beyond the fixed rules, players often manage their betting patterns. For instance, increasing bet size when confident or after wins, and decreasing after losses or during cold streaks. Unlike slots or roulette, where each spin is independent, blackjack offers the potential for strategic bet variation. In simple terms, betting higher raises the stakes, while betting low keeps swings small. A disciplined player might flat-bet the same amount every time for steady low-volatility play.
Baccarat
Baccarat is often seen as a straightforward game with three main betting options, yet those choices carry different risk-reward profiles. Players can choose between the Banker, Player, or Tie bets, and this decision lets them lean toward safer or riskier outcomes:
- Banker vs. Player Bets: In baccarat, betting on the Banker or the Player is the equivalent of an even-money wager (minus a small commission on the Banker). These two bets are relatively safe because they win almost half the time each in the long run. The Banker hand has a slight statistical edge: it wins about 51% of non-tie outcomes vs 49% for the Player hand, so casinos typically take a 5% commission on Banker wins. From a risk perspective, both Banker and Player bets have volatility as they pay 1:1 and have a high probability of winning. Many baccarat players stick exclusively to Banker or Player because these bets have the lowest house edge and provide consistent, if modest, returns. Choosing Banker slightly boosts your win rate (at the cost of the commission), making it the most statistically “safe” bet. In short, if a player wants to minimize risk and have a steady game, they will focus on Banker or Player bets, which are roughly coin-flip odds and low variance.
- Tie Bet: The Tie bet, on the other hand, is Baccarat’s high-risk, high-reward option. A tie occurs much less frequently, roughly 9.5% of the time. But, if you wager on Tie and both hands end up equal, the payout is typically 8:1. That large payout is enticing, but the probability of winning is very low, which makes this a volatile wager. In fact, with an 8:1 payoff, the house edge on the tie bet is about 14.4% and extremely high compared to the 1% edge on the other bets.
Dice Games
Dice-based casino games also offer adjustable risk and reward mechanisms. In physical casinos, the prime example is craps, where players face a myriad of betting options ranging from safe to very risky. Additionally, the burgeoning world of online crypto casinos has introduced simple “dice” games where players themselves set the odds and payouts. In these digital dice games, the concept is straightforward: you choose a number or probability, and the game determines a win if a random roll falls within your chosen range.
- Adjustable Win Probability vs. Payout: In many online dice games like those from DoubleUp and Spribe, the player uses a slider or input to adjust the win chance, directly determining the payout multiplier. For example, you might choose to have a 90% chance to win by guessing that a dice roll will be under a very high number, as this yields a very small payout (just above 1x, since you’ll win most of the time). Alternatively, you could set only a 5% chance of winning (guessing a very low target number), which, if it hits, might pay 20x or more.
- Bet Size: Like all wagering games, the amount bet per roll is another lever for risk. In both traditional dice games and online dice, players manage bet sizing to modulate how much they stand to gain or lose. In a crypto dice game, for instance, even if you choose a high-risk 5% win chance (with a 20x payout), you could bet a very small amount to limit risk. Conversely, even a safe 90% win chance bet could be risky if you wager an extremely large sum.
Crash
Crash games have become popular in online crypto casinos, offering a unique and visual way to gamble on multipliers. The premise of crash games is simple but adrenaline-inducing: a multiplier starts at 1.00x and begins rising steadily. It can crash at any random moment, ending the round. Players must choose when to cash out during the rise. Cashing out locks in the current multiplier times their bet, and failing to cash out before the crash means losing the bet.
Every player in a Crash round can decide how long to hold on as the multiplier climbs. Cashing out very early (say at 1.5x or 2x) yields a small, quick profit with minimal risk. Cashing out late by chasing a high multiplier offers a bigger potential payout, but runs a high risk of the crash occurring before you exit. In essence, each player is playing chicken with the crash point: the longer you wait, the higher your reward if successful, but the greater the chance of losing everything.
Plinko
Plinko, inspired by the famous game show pricing game, has been adapted into casino gameplay where players drop a ball or disc down a peg-filled board and win a prize based on where it lands at the bottom. Plinko games typically allow multiple settings that the player can tweak, such as the number of rows of pegs, the risk level, and even the drop position, which all influence volatility and payouts. These adjustable parameters let the player decide how risky or steady the game will be. In online settings, especially in crypto casinos, it has gained traction for giving players transparency through provably fair systems while maintaining the same thrill and customization found in traditional versions.
- Risk Level (Low/Med/High): Most Plinko games offer preset risk levels. A low-risk setting produces a payout table with mostly small multipliers. The ball will likely land in a middle slot that yields a return close to your bet, so the outcome variance is low. In a high-risk setting, the payout extremes are widened dramatically: the rare extreme outcomes can be huge, but most outcomes will be low. For example, under a high-risk Plinko mode, you might see multipliers ranging from 0x up to 1000x at the far edges. The probabilities are skewed such that landing in those big multiplier slots is extremely rare, whereas landing in the middle slots is common. Choosing a lower risk level gives more consistent, smaller payouts, while a higher risk level unlocks the chance of massive wins at the cost of much more volatile results.
- Peg Board Size (Number of Rows): Another adjustable setting is the size or number of rows of the Plinko board. Common options range from a small board of 8 rows up to a very deep board of 15 or 16 rows. A larger board means the ball bounces through more pegs, which generally increases the spread of possible outcomes. With more rows, the ball has more opportunities to veer towards the extreme left or right, where the highest-value slots usually lie, but it also introduces more randomness. More rows create a wider distribution of results, while a shallow board has fewer bounces, so the ball is more likely to land near the center. Betfury, Stake, and DoubleUp each feature a crypto plinko game that allows you to adjust the number of rows.
- Ball Drop Position: Uniquely, Plinko gives players a slight element of physical strategy: you often can choose where along the top of the board to drop the ball. While the outcome is still random due to all the pegs, the starting position can influence the probability of landing in certain slots. For example, dropping from an edge might make it more likely that the ball ends up on that same side at the bottom, though the pegs can always send it elsewhere. Some players experiment with different drop points to see if they can improve their chances of hitting a high-value slot. The idea is that a carefully chosen starting position directly influences the potential outcomes of the results.
Wrapping Up
Across these diverse games, a common theme emerges where players have tools to adjust the risk and reward to their liking. Casino games are no longer one-size-fits-all in terms of volatility; instead, through bet sizing, bet type selection, optional side wagers, game mode settings, or timing decisions, players can influence how often they win and how big those wins can be. Importantly, every increase in potential reward comes with a proportional increase in risk, and vice versa. By understanding these adjustable features, players can make informed choices to match their strategy or mood. Someone seeking a relaxed session might stick to even-money bets in roulette or low-risk Plinko settings for frequent small wins, while a high-roller or thrill-seeker can crank up the volatility with big bets, long-shot roulette wagers, blackjack side bets, or by holding out for that 1000x Plinko drop or crash multiplier. The balance of risk and reward is ultimately in the player’s hands, allowing for a more engaging and personalized gambling experience.