Chloe Marsh

Slots Reviewer & Game Mechanics Writer

Intro

Chloe Marsh is a writer with 8 years of experience, specialising in writing about slot games and casino software. From her home office in Brisbane, she writes about the math behind the reels just as much as she does about the look and themes of the games. Her coverage includes new game releases, detailed breakdowns of the bonus mechanics, RTP and volatility, provider comparisons and overviews, as well as texts about specifics of different types of online slot machines. She has reviewed over 1,400 slots across a range of providers, bringing her background in IT as a base for her approach to testing the games’ performance.

About

Chloe came to iGaming through an unconventional route. After completing her information technology degree at RMIT, she worked in software quality assurance for a few years, where she developed an interest in online pokies, not just the games themselves, but the inner workings, the processes that made the games what they are. This obsession became a hobby, then a personal blog, tracking new releases, comparing RTP figures across providers and game types, and a thorough read-through of the bonus mechanics that most players usually simply skim through. In 2017, what started out as a hobby became a second job, then, a year later, became full-time employment.

Nowadays, her work focuses on analysis of casino games by major providers, including, but not limited to: Megaways slots, Cluster Pays, Hold and Win, multi-level bonus rounds and the increasingly popular bonus buy feature. Chloe focuses on how frequency interacts with volatility, how it affects actual session outcomes, and how closely the numbers match in both theoretical return figures and real-life outcomes. In one of her research studies, she noticed that in games with Hold and win mechanics across multiple titles, a consistent gap existed between what the games stated as their max win figures and what the math model actually made available for players in the realistic session length. From then on, she started flagging every relevant game review where she found the same issue.

Working for over 8 years in iGaming, she has covered over 1,400 slot releases, writing mostly about big company releases, including NetEnt, Play'n GO, Big Time Gaming, Microgaming, and IGT, but also covering an impressive number of smaller independent developers, as their popularity grows every day. Background in IT gives Chloe an upper hand when it comes to HTML5 transitions and modern rendering frameworks in relation to mobile performance of the games, so most of her testing is actually done on mobile.

Areas Of Expertise

• Slot reviews, covering all the technical aspects of games: RTP, volatility, hit frequency, max win potential and bonus trigger mechanics. Her main focus is on determining what the numbers, given by the providers, mean for real sessions, with time and monetary limits, rather than creating theoretical averages.
• In-depth game engine analysis, looking into different slot types like Megaways, Cluster Pays, Hold and Win, cascading reels, and bonus buy, as well as their functionality and performance in relation to realistic play session parameters.
• Provider comparison. Having reviewed a large number of online slots from a massive provider pool, highlighting what each studio specialises in, including big names like NetEnt with thri flagship classics, Play'n GO and their feature-rich slots, Big Time Gaming, responsible for creating Megaways format, Microgaming, a pioneer in the field, currently focusing on progressive jackpots, and IGT with their particularly strong hold on the lottery and table games. Chloe tracks each studio’s trajectory across multiple releases.
• Live casino coverage: live blackjack, live roulette, baccarat, and game show formats, including formats like Wheel of Fortune, Crazy Time and Monopoly Live.
• Mobile performance testing on iOS and Android, load time tracking, touch optimisation assessment, and feature stability reports.
• Tracking emerging trends in slot design. Focus on cinematic releases, multi-mechanic titles and the cross interaction between the mechanics, as well as close monitoring of the evolution of progressive jackpot structures.

Methodology

Every slot reviewed by Chloe gets tested in real-play session conditions before she finishes and publishes a review. This means that every game on the review must have 500 logged spins before coming to conclusions about the functions of volatility, RTP and feature frequency. From Chloe’s research, this number is the lowest cut-off for producing a review that won’t have a misleading impression in either direction. RTP figures published by providers and other review websites get cross-referenced against her own findings, noting all the discrepancies, where they exist. For provider reviews, game catalogues across releases get compared over time, rather than in isolation, which gives the reader a broader look at studio growth and development trends and tendencies: which developers are raising volatility across their titles, which are investing into growing a mobile portfolio of real and not just sending any HTML5 game out as mobile friendly, without care for a real performance of their titles. Special attention is given to any mechanics getting reused, where the same game gets re-released with different themes and nothing of real substance being added.

Personal Note

Chloe is a bit of an Aussie stereotype, she notes; she loves surfing and takes any opportunity to drive to the Sunshine Coast if the forecast is looking good. She is also a big fan of strategy games, investing quite a good chunk of her life to it, which may or may not be an extension of her professional interest in math models. She prefers spending weekends playing board games, as long as they have enough moving parts to keep her interested.

Responsible Gambling Note

Pokies are designed to be engaging and attention-grabbing, which is a design that can oftentimes work against the interests of players, who aren’t paying close attention to their sessions and interaction patterns. Chloe is aware of all the risks and includes volatility context and session risk notes in all of her reviews, in hopes of helping players match their game choice to their budget. Chloe supports the use of responsible gambling tools, like deposit limits, time limits and self-exclusion periods, available at licensed platforms. If gambling stops feeling like a fun pastime, it’s worth speaking to a specialist at the National Gambling Helpline: 1800 858 858.