The Auto Play feature first made its appearance in online slot games. It enabled players to spin the reels a preset number of times without clicking the Spin button after each spin. Therefore players no longer needed to be sitting at their computers and monitoring the game from spin to spin. They could carry on with their other work or leisure activities while the slot game played out by itself. The big draw back with the Auto Play feature was that all spins had to be made with the same betting parameters.

Though the function of the Auto Play feature remains the same in any online slot game, different software providers offer slightly differing mechanisms. Some software providers like Microgaming allow players to feed in the number of Auto Play spins required within a stipulated range. Other software providers require players to select the number of spins from a given list. Vegas Technology allows players to set a time between spins and thus control the speed of the game. In the slot games from some software providers the Auto Play feature terminates when any bonus feature is activated. In other cases the Auto Play spins continue after playing the bonus game.

Slots players usually have a win target in mind. They would like to discontinue the game once they win the targeted amount. Software providers have built this requirement into the Auto Play feature. Players can select from a number of conditions that will terminate the Auto Play spins prematurely. These include a specified limit being reached on the cumulative amount won.

Once the betting parameters are fixed there is no decision to be taken by the player in online slot games. But blackjack games require skilled decision making in each hand. Therefore for a long time there was no Auto Play feature in these games. This was overcome through the strategy card. A table displayed the optimum strategy to be followed under all conditions. This strategy was built into the software. The software then gave the player an option of putting the blackjack game on Auto Play with each decision being made according to the strategy card. Microgaming was one of the first software providers to introduce this feature. In case players want to employ a different strategy than the standard one provided, Microgaming allows them to modify the blackjack strategy card before linking it to the Auto Play feature.

The latest innovation in Auto Play in online casino games is varying the betting pattern. The software provider Cryptologic has introduced a feature called Auto Bet which is used in conjunction with the standard Auto Play feature. This allows the bet amount to be varied in a predetermined manner. The simplest option is to keep the bet amount the same throughout. In the next stage players can create a pattern of bet amounts and that pattern is repeated cyclically throughout the Auto Play. For example the pattern can be $1, $2 and $3. The Cryptologic Auto Bet feature also allows conditional changes to the bet amount. Players can select the bet amount to increase or decrease by a specified value should the last bet win. A similar option exists for the last bet losing.