The volatility or variance of slot machines is the level of risk. It represents the statistical probability of video slots without reflecting the frequency and scale of the winnings. Focusing on their capabilities, players can choose a slot with the desired volatility.

When you play Volatile Slot you will instantly be made aware that Volcanic Wilds can trigger at random, activating rewards as they pop to create an unsurprisingly high volatility level that can bring wins of up to 25,600x your stake. That’s seriously hot! Find more fiery games and view our whole selection of online slots. The highly volatile nature of Cleopatra slots may deter some players, but slot gamblers are likely to embrace them. Recognizing that fact, many US casinos offer Cleopatra and Cleopatra II in their high limit slot machine rooms.

High volatility slots are certainly the most exciting of slots and are sure to get your adrenaline flowing for they are those which offer the biggest winnings! When entering the Free Spins Feature, the Bonus Game Feature or simply when a winning combination is obtained on a high variance slot the player knows he can potentially make a massive win. The excitement level is naturally very high!

The volatility, or variance, measure how much and at what frequency a slot machine pays. It may be low, medium (but also medium-low or medium-high) or high. The more important the variance is, the bigger the winnings will be, yet they are harder to obtain.

In the casino world, there is no good or bad game. Every player must simply find the slot or video slot which is most suited to their needs and wants (in terms of volatility and of user experience) and to their budget.

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Online casinos and specialised blogs often emphasize the RTP of slot machines, thus indicating which part of the bets is redistributed to players or on the slot providers. According to us however, the variance is the most important criteria in order to understand the value of a game since it defines the amount and the frequency of the winnings players may hope to make. This is why we have decided to classify the machines by volatility.

Our TOP 10 best high volatility slots is based off 3 essential technical criteria which define the slot engine of a slot machine. The games that appear on it have not only the best high variance but also display a very good Payout (an RTP higher than 96%) and an interesting Hit Frequency.

The combination of a High Volatility + Good RTP + Good Hit Frequency is in our opinion the key to defining which are the best high variance slot machines intended for high roller players and VIP gamblers.

WHAT IS A HIGH VOLATILITY SLOT ?

High is the highest level of variance for a slot. These slots have two characteristics:

• They are the machines on which the winnings be the most important,
• Winnings are made less frequently than on low or medium variance slots. High volatility therefore also means there is a high risk of not making any winnings and of losing one’s wager.

For the sake of clarity, with high volatility online slots it may be that a player will not obtain any winning rounds over a shorter or longer period which may cause dry spells. This is why we say these machines present a high risk.

Unlike low and medium variance slots, high volatility slots will not award frequent small or medium winnings which increase the player’s balance. This explains why one must benefit of a significant bankroll in order to play them.
For example, if a player were to play £50 on one of the new UK gambling sites he could lose his bet in only a couple of minutes without having made any winnings combinations and therefore no winnings. On the other hand, when the machine produces winnings, the player has more chances of obtaining a big win if not a huge win than with any other game which displays a lower variance.

You now understand why these slots have met with so much success, they are however targeted at a specific category of players: the high rollers or VIP players who have a budget hefty enough to afford playing long sessions without making any winnings.

Ideally, one must combine a high volatility slot with a strong RTP and an important Hit Frequency percentage and you will soon understand the reasons behind this.

RTP (PAYOUT) AND HIGH VARIANCE

The RTP, which means Return To Player and is also knows as the Payout is a piece of data supplied by the slot provider in order to indicate the sum of the payouts of a slot machine. To be more precise, this number indicates what percentage of the sums wagered into a machine and are then paid back to players. For example, an RTP of 96% means that out £100 wagered into a machine, £96 will be paid back to players under the form of winnings.

Whatever the volatility of a machine is, players are obviously after those casino slot machines which have the highest RTP. For our TOP 10, we have exclusively selected online slots which display an RTP of 96% or more.

HIGH VOLATILITY ONLINE SLOT AND HIT FREQUENCY

High variance online slots are the slot machines which have the lowest frequency of winnings, this criterion being defined by the Hit Frequency. A hit frequency of 25% means that on average 25 rounds out of 100 will grant winnings.

Machines which display the most interesting Hit Frequency are to be sought. Dead or Alive by NetEnt is a gem in this matter and displays an incredible Hit Frequency of 30.42% (paired with an RTP of 96.8%) against 22.64% for Reel Steal and 17.09 for Jungle Spirit: Dead or Alive is one of the best high volatility online slots.

FOR WHICH PLAYERS ARE HIGH VOLATILITY GAMES MADE?

Those slots or mobile slots are not targeted at all gamblers – they are reserved for high rollers and VIP players.

The typical profile of high roller gamblers is the following:

• They play with a significant budget. They carry out deposits of hundreds if not thousands of euros. They can actually even choose an online casino depending on its VIP program since the sums they deposit usually enable them to move up into the VIP players category.
• They do not play to simply pass time or to make small winnings. Doubling or tripling their deposits is not what interests them, they play to hit a massive win and multiply their deposit by 10, 15 or more. They continue betting as long as they haven’t reached their goal. For VIP players there are to possible options: either making a massive win and withdrawing their winnings or losing their bet.
• Time is an important factor whilst playing on a high variance online slot. High roller players demonstrate a lot of patience for they can play for a certain amount of time without making any winnings whatsoever.
• They are ready to take risks to win big. The high risk associated with high volatility slot machines is not an issue for them.
• Most high rollers alternate between high and medium volatility slots, however they never play on low volatility slots for these machines are too far off from their expectations.

If you are a high volatility slot seeker, consult right now the last Netent branded game Vikings and Halloween Jack video slot review.

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Free to Play IGT Slots Online

It would be unusual for anybody to hear the name Cleopatra and not have some image of her rule in Egypt. Cleopatra is one the best-known historical figures around the world. She’s even been the subject of many modern works of fiction and nonfiction, further adding to her renown.

With a namesake inspired the Egyptian ruler, the slot machine franchise by IGT is fittingly one of the most recognized and popular around the world as well.

Cleopatra slot machines have a distinct Egyptian theme, complete with classic Egyptian symbols and easily recognizable sounds and music. The original slot machine game, known simply as Cleopatra, became so widely played that a direct sequel to it was also created.

Cleopatra II and its predecessor are very similar in most ways. Both games are played with five reels and three spots per reel. Both games also offer a similar bonus game where a player can earn free spins with a multiplier.

The reel symbols, while all clearly Egyptian, are how players might be able to tell the two games apart.

Cleopatra: the symbols

Cleopatra uses a variety of classic icons most people would instantly recognize as Egyptian, but would otherwise know very little about.

• The Eye of Ra is the least lucrative of the Egyptian symbols that can be hit. Shown on a red background, it looks like an open eye facing forward with eyelashes extending from the bottom.
• The Crook and Flail has a yellow background. This symbol is the two tools, which both look like extravagant sticks, crossing each other.
• The Cartouche symbol has a blue background. A cartouche is an oval-shaped space that Egyptians used to contain their hieroglyphs; the reel symbol represents that.
• The Lotus and the Scarab are the two remaining and highest paying unique symbols in this game. The Lotus flower appears on a purple background and is shown as a group of three flowers. The Scarab is displayed on a green background. This symbol, predictably, looks like a beetle.

Cleopatra II does away with all of these symbols and opts for a slightly more uniform set. Instead of picking a seemingly random group of important Egyptian icons, Cleopatra II’s unique reel symbols are each the heads classic Egyptian depictions of their own gods.

• Anubis resembles a jackal.
• Bastet is the symbol that looks most like a cat.
• Horus is a bird, perhaps a falcon.

In addition to these, each game also has a Cleopatra symbol. This symbol not only represents the top of the paytable, but also serves as a wild for all of the other symbols. As a wild, it can support the winning combinations of which it’s a part with a 2x multiplier.

Needless to say, having many Cleopatra symbols appear across the reels is the easiest way to win a lot of money.

The Sphinx symbol is the key to winning lots of money in the Cleopatra slot machines. Depicted as a lion’s body with the head of a human, having at least three of this symbol appear anywhere across the five reels will initiate the bonus game.

Big bonus wins

Volatile Slot

In Cleopatra, the bonus game is triggered when at least three of the five reels feature a Sphinx symbol. There is also an initial payout that depends on how many of the Sphinx symbols appeared on the spin that triggered the bonus game, up to 100x the bet for having all five reels show a Sphinx.

The bonus game starts with 15 free spins; each spin is given a 3x multiplier. It’s possible for a player to continue earning more free spins during the bonus game by landing three or more Sphinx symbols on a spin — the same requirement for having initially triggered the game.

Cleopatra II ramps up the potential for big wins in its bonus game. Just like in its predecessor, Cleopatra II’s bonus game is triggered with at least three Sphinx symbols scattered across the five reels. Having more than three such symbols still results in a larger win on the triggering spin as well.

Cleopatra II bonus game

Unlike Cleopatra, Cleopatra II awards a variable amount of free spins during its bonus game: between five and 20. When the bonus game starts, the player will select from three thematically shaped sarcophagi each containing a different number of spins. The selected sarcophagus — shaped like a Scarab, an Eye of Ra, or an Ankh (an excitingly flavorful way for the game to begin) — opens to reveal the number of spins the player is awarded at the start of the bonus game.

The more Sphinx symbols on the spin that triggered the bonus game, the higher the amount of free spins that can be initially awarded in this way.

The unique aspect of the game happens at this point. Each spin in the bonus game has its own multiplier, determined by how many spins have already occurred during that iteration of the bonus game. The first spin has a 1x multiplier (like a normal spin in the game), and each subsequent spin will increase the multiplier by 1x.

So the second spin will have a 2x multiplier, the third spin will have a 3x multiplier, and so on. If a player lands three or more Sphinx symbols during the bonus game, the game will award additional free spins in the amount that was initially chosen from the sarcophagus. In this way, a player can have spins with a 30x, 40x, or even 50x multiplier attached to it.

Understandably, the bonus games in Cleopatra slots are not easy to trigger. With the infrequent potential for impressive wins, Cleopatra slots tend to have relativelyhigh variance.

Gamble, gamble

The highly volatile nature of Cleopatra slots may deter some players, but slot gamblers are likely to embrace them. Recognizing that fact, many US casinos offer Cleopatra and Cleopatra II in their high limit slot machine rooms.

At a $1 machine with 20 lines, players can risk up to $20 per spin. While this can lead to considerable losses fairly quickly, just one trigger of the bonus game can lead to wins even more substantial. Either way, this fast action and drama certainly attract slot gamblers.

Cleopatra machines combine an attractive theme, solid gameplay and mechanics, and some unique aspects to create an immersive gambling experience. There are few slot machine options that can meet or exceed what Cleopatra machines offer.

So long as willing customers are still looking to gamble, Cleopatra slot machines will have a place in casinos for those customers to try their luck.

Image credit: Emily Marie Wilson / Shutterstock.com