The game is identical. What changes is that stopping becomes a decision with a cost, and that is where sessions are actually won or lost.
What stays the same
Probabilities, payout table, RTP, volatility. Studios run one engine for demo and real
play. Nothing is tightened when money appears.
What changes
Stopping becomes expensive. Walking away while behind means accepting the loss,
which is precisely when people continue instead.
Losses feel different from gains of the same size. This is well documented and
affects decisions in one direction: toward continuing.
The session length is no longer free. In demo mode more drops cost nothing. Here
every drop has an expected cost equal to the house edge times the stake.
Before playing for money
Set a session budget you would be content to lose entirely, because that is a normal
outcome and not a rare one.
Decide the stake and the number of drops in advance.
Check the operator's licence and the published RTP for the specific game.
Know how withdrawals work before depositing, not after winning.
The arithmetic, once more. At 99% RTP, a thousand drops of one unit
each has an expected cost of about ten units. The variance around that is very wide, but the
direction is not in question.