Female Slot Players: The Reel Story

Slot games, "fruities", or "pokies" as they were called once, carry with them all sorts of connotations from back in the day of arcade games. Nowadays, video slot games form part of people's day-to-day entertainment, and nothing illustrates this best than a recent study by the Oregon State University profiling the average player as a middle-class woman in her late fifties. This is quite a dramatic shift from the anachronistic stereotype of a lower-income, young, male slots player.

Globally, female online slot players greatly outnumber male players. How do we explain that change? A well-grounded theory lies in the surge in popularity of social online games - free, community-based games like Farmville and Magicland. These light, social games have attracted a majority female audience looking for brief bursts of entertainment to break up their day. It is interesting to note that these games operate using a very similar mechanic to video slot games:

1) Paying for games

Players willingly invest in virtual items on Farmville, safe in the knowledge that they will never see that money again. So, bit by bit, spending money on screen games has been embraced by social groups who wouldn't have done otherwise. And it's easy to see which games are now actively targeting that demographic: The 'Deal or No Deal' slot game, as offered by William Hill and Betfair; Monopoly and 'Wheel of Fortune' on 888 slots.

2) Random Rewards

Both social gaming and slot gaming offer prizes at random and in unpredictable amounts, with no pattern to be discerned. This system has been proven, time after time, to produce the highest level of player engagement. Random rewards seem to provide players with the highest thrill, the highest sense of adrenaline and enjoyment.

Social gaming aside, there are some hard and fast reasons why online slot games would more attract older, female players, than say roulette or blackjack.

3) Instant gratification

There is simply something irresistible about short, sharp games with instant results - sorry that's just how humans have been wired by Mother Nature. Different studies have shown that people will spend more time overall, playing 2-second slot games than 10-second slot games. Quick games are just more-ish.

3) Return on Investment

Simply put - slots are cheap and bring colossal rewards. There are few other online games where a dollar can make you a million, but online slot games are one of them offering staggering jackpots. So you've gambled minimum money, time and effort. Ker-ching.

With that in mind, games designers have broadened out the already huge variety of slot games on the market, with offerings such as Lucky Ladies, Zodiac Supernova and Pet Luck, all available on Bet365 games.