Canada—the birthplace of hockey, home to some of the politest people in the world, a natural source of maple syrup and endless attraction sites—is an emerging market for online gambling.
Last year, the federal government legalized single sports betting. Following the move, several provinces plan to launch commercial gambling sites and apps. The reason is simple: Canadians love casino games. But what are the most popular games in the great white north?
According to https://www.maplecasino.ca/casino-games/, these are the casino games you should be playing in Canada.
Contents
Slot Machines
Every once in a while, a story comes up about a Canadian who won plenty of money from a casino. Usually, the winner was playing a popular slot machine and rarely is it about poker, blackjack or roulette.
Now, the biggest casino winnings come from progressive slots like Mega Moolah, Mega Fortune and Age of Gods. You can win in excess of $10M from these games.
But they’ve been designed to be highly volatile. As a result, progressive jackpots only make a handful of people millionaires. Don’t lose hope, though. Slots come in several types:
- Classic Slots
- Progressive Slots
- Video Slots
- Megaways Slots
Although you can try your luck from progressive jackpots, you have better chances to win money from video slots. These games lack the jackpots that make progressive slots volatile. However, they have higher payout rates.
On average, video slots payout 95% to 99% of wagered money. By comparison, jackpot games payout between 85% and 95%. What are most popular video slots in Canada?
- Starburst
- Gonzo’s Quest
- Twin Spin
- Guns N’ Roses
- Book of Dead
- Michael Jackson: King of Pop!
Poker
Daniel Negreanu, Gavin Smith, Timothy Adams—is there more evidence needed that Canada is the home of poker champions? Negreanu has won over $50M in poker tournaments. Adams boasts of over $20M in winnings while both Scott and Smith are poker legends in their own rights.
So, why is poker so popular in Canada? Unlike most casino games, you don’t need luck to win. You need skills and strategies. Think of Negreanu. He didn’t make all his money in one night.
He’s been playing poker since the 1990s. That’s more than two decades’ of perfecting his craft. Unsurprisingly, the Toronto-born professional has won the World Series of Poker Tour championships twice.
Negreanu aside, poker is a game with multiple variants. And this is yet another reason it’s so popular. While you might enjoy Texas Hold’em, someone else prefers Omaha or 5-Card Draw.
That said, consider improving your skills before you play poker for real money. If you don’t, you’ll be the player everyone wants to go against. And you could lose consistently.
Blackjack
As history goes, blackjack arrived in Canada after the first World War. Then it spread to the US, and within a few decades, it was the most popular online games in the world.
Today, statisticians can’t agree over whether blackjack is still the king of card games. But here’s what’s clear—blackjack is a massively popular game in Canada. Check in with any casino in the country and you’ll find the game.
Blackjack is even more famous online, whether you can find multiple variations of it:
- Classic 21
- Perfect Pairs
- Blackjack Switch
- Spanish 21
- Single Deck Blackjack
Truth be told, most people prefer Classic Blackjack to the newer versions. It’s simple to play. You get 3:2 for winning and you can use a range of strategies to boost your chances of winning.
With that in mind, there’s no harm in trying out the other versions of the game. Some of them—Perfect Pairs—can pay you up to $30 for every $1 wagered. Others—Blackjack switch—give you four cards and allow you to switch them around to increase your chances of winning.
Roulette
Ever seen a casino without roulette? Gambling companies might lack poker games. They could be limited on progressive jackpots. But somehow, they manage to avail roulette.
As a result, roulette is one of the most popular casino games in blackjack. It’s also easy to play. The hardest part is deciding how much to risk: Everything else is self-explanatory.
To expound more, European roulette has numbers 1-36 colored blackjack or red and one slot for the number zero colored green. American roulette has the same format, but comes with an extra slot for double zeroes.
This difference in the number of zeroes creates a significant difference in the odds of winning either game. Obviously, European roulette offers better odds than its American counterpart.
That said, there are several other versions of the game: Lightning roulette, mini roulette and French roulette, just to name a few. All these variants have a large list of bet types:
- Straight Number
- Black/Red
- Odd/Even
- High/Low
- Column Bets
- Dozen Bets
- Double Bets
- Line Bets
As we mentioned earlier, most roulette bet types are easy to understand. However, learn about the odds of winning each bet and the payout to expect before you gamble.
Baccarat
You’ve probably seen James Bond playing baccarat in his movies. Or perhaps you’ve seen the game as an option at your favorite Canadian casino. The bottom line—baccarat is popular in Canada.
It’s even more popular among Canadians who travel to China and Macau regularly—Baccarat is the most popular card game in Asia. For the uninitiated, Baccarat plays out like blackjack, albeit with some differences.
With baccarat, you can bet on three options: player, banker or tie. The winning hand needs to produce a hand of nine. The obstacles—face-cards don’t count and aces hold the value of one.
As such, you can only rely on 2-9 value cards to win. If you draw a hand greater than nine, you don’t lose. But your new hand becomes the digit on the right. If you produce 15, five becomes your new hand.
Video Poker and Bingo
Video poker is an interesting game. It’s like poker in that you need to produce a strong hand to win. But whether you win or not depends on the same RNG software used by slots.
Bingo, on the other hand, is all about luck. The goal is to strike numbers on a line. The game comes in several versions, some with progressive jackpots.
