Plinko Casino Game - Rules, Strategy & Where to Play Plinko Online

Plinko is a classic board game and one that you might be familiar with from TV game shows. Nowadays, Plinko is available at online casino sites with different settings and payout structures. On this page, you can learn how the game works and where to play Plinko online.

Table of Contents

What is Plinko?

Plinko is a simple vertical board game where you drop a ball or a disc, and it bounces around the board and lands in a slot at the bottom. The slot you hit determines if you win or lose in the game.

Plinko comes from a long family of games, which has spawned many different variations over the centuries. Games like bagatelle, pinball, Peggle and even the highly popular Japanese pachinko are all based on the same core idea. You can try out Crazy Pachinko live game show for a fun mix of slots and pachinko.

Compared to the others, Plinko is a fairly young game. It was invented in the late 1970s and was introduced to the world in 1983 on The Price is Right television show. It was an instant hit with the viewers, which meant that home versions were on their way to the stores.

The game is mechanically very simple. The board is filled with evenly spaced pegs that bounce the ball around, and you just wait and see where the ball will end up. The Plinko board on The Price is Right was square-shaped, and the player could move from left to right. Online Plinko games often have a triangle-shaped board with only one place to drop the ball. But the way the ball starts moving is random, and it will not fall the same way every time.

Best Plinko Casino Sites UK

How to Play Plinko at Online Casinos

It is very easy to learn how to play Plinko casino game online. All you need to do is head to an online casino, open the game, adjust the table and bet to your liking, and hit the start button. It is just that simple.

Here's how to play the Plinko casino game online:

The first step is finding the right Plinko casino. You can check out the casino sites that we have reviewed or just hop onto one of the recommended sites on this page.

Then, you need to open the game up. Plinko is almost always used in the name of these games, so you just search for the word Plinko. Pick a game that looks interesting, and you are ready to start.

Most of the Plinko UK gambling game titles let you adjust the board. This is not mandatory and will not change the long-term odds. It is just personal preference.

When you have done all that, you can simply hit the start button and watch the balls fall down. You can drop multiple balls in quick succession, but they can't touch one another. So, you can't strategise with the timing and try to bump the balls to better slots.

At the bottom of the board, you can see how much each slot pays you. Your goal is to hit the slots that have the highest multipliers.

Online Plinko Features

Online Plinko games have different features which you can adjust. You can make the game feel the way you like, be that steady and small or explosive and swingy.

Here are the things you can control:

Plinko games let you control multiple aspects of the game, and they all affect the end result. Your odds of winning will not change significantly, but how the wins are distributed do.

The two most important adjustments are the number of rows and volatility. They determine how many slots there are on the board and what the payout is for each. The wider the base is, the more difficult it is to reach the ends where the biggest wins are.

Plinko Odds & Payout

Plinko odds and payout are based on a simple mathematical model of normal distribution. Here, you can see what that means in practice.

Most online Plinko games are triangle-shaped, with one spot at the top where the balls fall from. This means that with every row, the odds of a ball staying on the edge get smaller. In the end, only a few balls will fall to the outer edges, and most will fall in the three slots in the centre.

On an 8-row board, approximately 70% of all drops will result in a negative outcome, 23% will be neutral, and 7% of drops will be positive. The more volatile your game is, the bigger the difference is between the negative and positive outcomes.

Adding more rows will reduce the number of negative slots while increasing the number of neutral slots. This means that it looks like you will win more often, but the gap between the amount you lose or win has grown.

Here, you can see how the payouts change in Gaming Corps's Plinko game when you start adding more rows to the board.

The top end of the bell curve, where most balls will land, is always either negative or neutral. What is interesting is the 10-row version with 25x win at the end. It looks really enticing, but hitting a positive result has an 11% chance, and getting at least 8x win has about a 2% chance.

And here is the crux of the whole game. The payouts may look wildly different when tinkering with the options, but the long-term results are always basically the same.

What is the Best Strategy for Plinko?

The best Plinko strategy is bankroll management and responsible gambling. That may not be the answer you wanted to hear, but Plinko is not a game of strategy but pure chance.

When it comes to strategic choices, you just need to make sure you don't play with a bet size that is too big for you or spend too much money.

As for gameplay choices, you can adjust the game board and volatility in most Plinko games. This is more of a question of preference than actual strategy. These choices do not significantly affect the total return-to-player rate.

If you are a player who likes big swings, then you should set the volatility to the maximum and find the game board size that has the highest wins on the ends. But, if you like to play slow and steady, then use the lowest volatility setting and a board that has the lowest number of negative spaces.

Popular Plinko Games

Here are some of the popular Plinko games you can play at UK online casinos.

What Makes a Good Plinko Casino?

What makes a good Plinko casino is the same as what makes a good online casino; the gambling experience must be good from start to finish.

Here are the key factors that make a good Plinko casino:

The number of games is an obvious thing. You are looking for Plinkos, but you may want to play other games as well. Casinos with the most games often have more unique games, like slingo and Plinko. Many crash gambling sites are also similarly large.

Bonus offers allow you to try out a casino and play with more money. With Plinko games, a good deposit bonus is what you are looking for. If possible, go with a low-wagering bonus. Just make sure you can use your bonus on Plinko games. Some casinos categorise every Plinko online game in the 'Other games' section, which in turn sets their wagering contribution to 0%.

Transferring money to and from the casino is a thing that must be done right. You must be presented with a decent number of different deposit methods, transfers must be free, and the casino mustn't dawdle when it comes to paying you.

Keeping these features in mind, finding a good Plinko casino is easy. If a casino can do all these right, it is a great choice.

Crypto Plinko

Playing Plinko with crypto funds has grown in popularity on online casinos. Crypto Plinko casino sites are offering more and more options to players, both in terms of games and cryptocurrencies.

Players love the anonymity that cryptocurrencies bring to the table, but this is also the problem with them. As the funds are, in a way, untraceable, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission does not approve them.

A Bitcoin casino would need to be able to prove the origins of the funds used in order to comply with the gambling legislation. And as this is basically impossible, no online casino is offering Plinko games, or any games, with cryptocurrencies.

The unfortunate fact right now is that you simply can't use crypto on UKGC-licensed online casinos.

Our Ratings for Plinko Gambling Sites

We rate Plinko gambling sites by evaluating the casino's game library and checking the bonuses, payment methods, customer support, and usability. Our reviews are transparent, and we always aim to give you a truthful look at what these casinos are all about.

• Bonuses – We assess how valuable they truly are and whether they are good for the player.
• Games – The more the merrier, just as long as all the bases are covered. Diversity is the key here.
• Payments – Deposits and withdrawals must be able to be made quickly, safely and without any fees.
• Support – Customer support is one of the key factors that is often overlooked. We make sure support is available and that it's good.
• Usability – How a casino site looks and feels is important for a good gambling experience. No one wants to play on a laggy or broken site.

Our experts test and review the casinos you find here on Bojoko. We go through the whole experience as players and see what it is like to use these sites. As a result, our UK casino reviews are accurate and transparent.

Bojoko is an award-winning gambling comparison site. This means that even industry experts agree that our reviews are informative and helpful.

Similar Casino Games to Try

There are other games that are similar to Plinko, but give you a bit different experience. Just like Plinko, these games are all online instant win games.

Online Scratch Cards

Online scratch cards are a fun and quick game that is very similar to the paper scratchers you can get at the store. But now, you don't make a mess, and you don't need to pop back to get your wins.

Online casinos have a long list of different scratcher types, and the games come in all shapes and sizes.

You can learn more about scratch card casinos UK market has available here.

Keno

This fast-paced lottery game originated in China. The game involves matching numbers with randomly drawn numbers to trigger a payout. The payout size depends on how many numbers were chosen and matched and how much was wagered.

While online casinos may not have an endless number of keno games, you can find it on numerous UK-licensed casinos.

Discover your new favourite keno gambling site by browsing our keno page.

Aviator

Aviator is a casual crash gambling game with a very simple design, but a highly enticing gameplay mechanic. This is why it appeals to many people who also love Plinko games.

Aviator has a push-your-luck mechanic, which means the longer you hold on, the more you win, and the chance of losing everything grows, as well. The game has a growing multiplier, and you can cash out at any moment. If you wait too long, the plane will crash, and the multiplier drops to zero.

Check out how the game works and see all the best UK Aviator casinos.

FAQ

Article by:

Ville Saari

Ville is an iGaming industry veteran who has written thousands of gambling-related reviews and articles since 2009. He is an IT engineer with a passion for game and strategy optimisation and for teaching the world to play better.

Read more »

Edited By:

Lauri Hannelin

Lauri began his career in the gambling industry in 2019. He has experience from technical and commercial roles to innovative positions in online casino and sports betting companies. This experience has made him into an all-around expert in online casinos.

Read more »