Categories of Games in Online Casinos
Online casinos organise their libraries into a handful of distinct categories, each with its own mechanics, pace, and style of play. Understanding what separates one category from another helps players choose the type of experience that suits them best.
Reel Games (Pokies and Slots)
Reel games are the most numerous category in almost any online casino library. They are built around a grid of symbols that spin and then land in a random arrangement. A win is recorded when matching symbols appear across a defined line or cluster, depending on the game's structure.
How Reel Games Work
The outcome of every spin is determined by a random number generator running continuously in the background. Because the result is fixed at the moment the spin is initiated, no decision made during play affects the outcome. The player's only meaningful choices are selecting a stake size and deciding when to spin.
Features Within Reel Games
Many reel games include built-in feature rounds that sit on top of the base game. Common examples include:
- Wild symbols, which substitute for other symbols to complete a winning combination
- Scatter symbols, which typically trigger a feature round regardless of their position on the reels
- Extra rounds, in which additional spins are awarded and played out under modified rules
- Multipliers, which increase the value of a win by a stated factor
The theoretical return percentage, often called RTP, describes the proportion of all money wagered that a game is designed to pay back over an extremely large number of spins. This figure is a long-run statistical average and says nothing about what any individual session will produce.
Table Games
Table games are digital recreations of the card and wheel games traditionally found in land-based casinos. Unlike reel games, most table games involve at least some element of decision-making, giving players a degree of influence over the outcome.
Blackjack
Blackjack is a card game played between the player and the dealer. Each side is dealt two cards, and the objective is to build a hand whose total value is closer to twenty-one than the dealer's, without exceeding that number. Cards carry their face value, picture cards count as ten, and an ace counts as either one or eleven. Return to Candy Casino home page for the topic overview.
The player acts first and can choose to draw another card, stand on the current total, double the stake and receive exactly one more card, or split a pair into two separate hands. The dealer then follows a fixed set of rules, typically drawing until reaching a minimum total. Because every decision has a mathematically correct answer, blackjack has a well-documented optimal strategy that reduces the house edge to a very small margin.
Roulette
Roulette centres on a spinning wheel divided into numbered pockets and a small ball that comes to rest in one of them. Players place bets on where the ball will land before the wheel is set in motion. Bets can cover a single number, small groups of numbers, larger sections of the wheel, or broad categories such as red or black and odd or even.
The principal variants differ in the number of zero pockets on the wheel. European roulette has a single zero, giving the house a relatively modest edge. American roulette adds a double-zero pocket, which raises the house edge substantially. French roulette shares the single-zero wheel but introduces rules that return a portion of losing even-money bets when the ball lands on zero.
Baccarat
Baccarat is a comparing card game in which two hands, known as the Player hand and the Banker hand, are dealt according to a strict set of drawing rules. The hand whose total is closest to nine wins. Cards two through nine carry their face value, tens and picture cards count as zero, and aces count as one. When a hand's total exceeds nine, only the second digit of the sum is used.
The player's role in baccarat is limited to choosing which hand to back before the cards are dealt. Because neither hand draws at the player's discretion, baccarat is one of the most passive table games available. Despite this simplicity, the Banker bet carries one of the lowest house edges of any bet found in a casino.
Video Poker
Video poker occupies a space between reel games and table games. It is played on a machine-style interface but uses a standard deck of playing cards and requires genuine strategic decisions. live dealer covers this in more detail.
How Video Poker Works
The player is dealt five cards and must choose which to keep and which to discard. The discarded cards are replaced by new ones drawn from the same virtual deck. The final five-card hand is then evaluated against a paytable. Stronger poker hands, from a pair of jacks upward through two pair, three of a kind, straight, flush, full house, four of a kind, straight flush, and royal flush, return progressively larger payouts.
Live Dealer Tables
Live dealer games stream real-time footage of a human dealer conducting a game from a purpose-built studio or occasionally from a land-based casino floor. Players join the table through a video interface and submit their decisions by clicking on-screen controls, while the dealer physically handles the cards or spins the roulette wheel.
What Distinguishes Live Dealer Play
The core rules of live dealer blackjack, roulette, and baccarat are identical to their standard digital counterparts. The difference is experiential. The presence of a visible dealer, real physical equipment, and the social dimension of a shared table creates a playing environment that more closely resembles a visit to a physical casino.
Beyond the three classic games, live dealer studios have developed formats that blend elements of reel games and game-show mechanics with a hosted presentation. These include wheel-of-fortune style games and dice games, all conducted by a live presenter and broadcast in real time.
Choosing Between Categories
Each category serves a different kind of player. Reel games suit those who prefer a solitary, fast-moving experience with no decisions to make after staking. Table games and video poker appeal to players who want their choices to matter and who are willing to study optimal strategy. Live dealer tables cater to those who value the social and sensory qualities of a physical gaming environment but are playing from home.
- Reel games require no strategy; outcomes are entirely random
- Blackjack and video poker reward players who learn and apply correct strategy
- Roulette and baccarat involve minimal decision-making beyond selecting a bet
- Live dealer games replicate the atmosphere of a physical table through streaming technology