The line bet in online slots is the amount wagered per payline. Since most players would be activating all paylines the line bet is usually arrived at by dividing the total bet per spin by the number of paylines.
Players who wager in a responsible manner go about determining this in a systematic way. They decide their bankroll for the session and the session time. They know approximately how many spins they can get in during that time. From this they can work out the average total bet per spin and based on the number of paylines they can get a value for the line bet. The question that is often asked is whether they should wager this line bet consistently throughout the session or they can keep varying the line bet every spin in a manner that the average is maintained?
In order to answer that question one needs to examine the possible reasons for varying the line bet. Playing online slots is an extremely repetitive activity and boredom can easily set in. Varying the line bet can to some extent alleviate that boredom. Instead of a line bet of $2 every time the player can wager in a continuous sequence of $1, $2 and $3. But this will entail making changes to the betting options after every spin and that can be more irksome than the boredom. It also prevents the player from setting up the slot game in the Auto Play mode. There are no advantages, real or jdb perceived, in the expected winning by following such a sequence. On the whole varying the line bet in this manner does not seem to be a very good idea but it is a personal choice and every player has to make his call.
There is another situation in which players consider varying the line bet. Many players believe that lucky and unlucky spins come in streaks. That is to say that there will be a set of spins with good payouts followed by a set of losing spins. There is no logic in this reasoning. In fact the mathematically correct position is that each spin is independent of whatever has happened previously. But so strong is this belief in many players that they base their strategy on it.
What players generally do is increase the line bet after every spin that pays out and reduce the wager after every spin that does not pay out. There is a problem with this strategy. If the player wins five or six spins in a row the next spin can have a large line bet and when the player eventually loses he loses a large amount in a single bet. Therefore this strategy needs to be adapted with a modification. There needs to be a limit on the highest wager.
An example of a simple modified strategy is described below. If the player’s average line bet is $2 he starts with that. If he wins, he increases the line bet by $1 and wagers $3. However if he wins again he sticks to $3. That way he can believe he is taking advantage of the winning streak without going overboard in the line bet amount. Every time the spin does not pay, the player reduces the bet by $1. When he is at a level of $1 he continues at that level even if he loses. In most cases he will end up with an average wager of $2. However if his average wager is more than $2 it should not bother the player because it implies that he is winning on the whole.
