Slots Terminology

Be you a beginner or an avid gambling veteran, when it comes to slot machines and the many different terms and descriptions are being used nowadays, by now you might wish you had a dictionary at hand to read up all these definitions. Not to worry, as we have some more commonly used definitions and terms listed for you here so you can understand what they mean exactly. This way the next time you start playing one of our new online slots, special symbols on a reel triggering all kinds of bonus modes won't take you by surprise as much.

Classic Slot Machines

Classic slot machines, as well as Vegas-style online slot games, provide gameplay similar to the classic fruit machine-type of slot. The premise is simple; three rows for win symbols, a bunch of varying types of fruit whizzing past, sometimes a bonus feature such as free spins occuring and of course the coin values to be set for each spin. Every slot game requires players to first field a "bet", which will either be multiplied by the number of win lines active (which results in a "total bet"). This bet is not just the core element of every type of gambling, it also directly influences how much you can potentially win for the next spin.

However not all classic fruit machines feature things such as a "free spin" mechanic, which as the name implies grant you a certain number of spins without the risk of losing your coin on a lost spin. They are sometimes also referred to as "bonus spins".

Another standard mechanic in a reel-based game is the "jackpot". A jackpot exists for the sake of giving the player extra motivation before each spin, hoping they win big, and they exist in some way shape or form in most slots, be it a real one in a land-based casino or an online video slot. Some slot machines, such as Cash Connection: Chaming Lady, Diamond Link: Mighty Elephant or the ever popular Reel King Potty feature progressive Jackpots, where part of lost bets are tracked and collected into one big pot. Any player lucky enough to trigger the jackpot feature, will then be paid out of that shared pot scaling with their wager set for the round triggering the jackpot win. Classic, Vegas-style jackpot slots just want you to hit the lucky 7 three times in the same row for that big payout. In both cases the pay table part of the in-game help will clearly state what symbols need to appear on the reels in order to trigger such a prize. Truly, with the advent of video slots and online slots in particular, gambling has become considerably more transparent thanks to these included pay tables. Almost all of our online slots also update their pay tables in real time, scaling with your total bet value!

"Possible outfits rolled in her head like a slot machine in Atlantic City."

 - Terri Gillespie, random slot quote #322

Feature-rich slot games

Naturally, as time passed on and customers grew familiar with standard fruit machines, more and more features were introduced. This lead to an overall change in the look and "feel" of slots, which was finalized with the release of the first video slot machine in 1976. With no need for mechanical parts to trigger special gameplay features, the noun "feature" was free to mean whatever developers needed it to mean. More free spins? A literal flip of a digital bit. An entirely new game screen with special reel sets? Not a problem, the screen will show whatever creative game designers manage to conjure up in their heads. Provide a dictionary to the player that can help explain certain terms to them? Not a problem, just press a special button!

Any video slot, be it cabinets in a land-based casino or modern mobile slots playable on your smart phone, is not made up of actual physical reels but is played on the screen, with complex computations in the background being visualized by code. They typically feature more than a single "payline" - the lines which can grant a payout if a winning combination of symbols forms along them. Bonuses or jackpots are more interactive and entertaining for the player, while also providing more excitement and diverse gameplay. Contemporary slot games feature screen shaking, special sound effects and extravagant specials such as bulls charging across the screen, scrambling up win symbols on the reels and forming new winning combinations in the process.

"The only way I'll ever get hurt in the casino is if there's an earthquake and a slot machine falls on my foot."

- Jack Benny, random slot quote #449

It's all in the RNG

Digital gambling relies heavily on the RNG, or Random Number Generator. A Random Number Generator or RNG for short, is when a device or program is designed to generate a sequence of random numbers or symbols that cannot be reasonably predicted. Thus it is more or less up to chance whether a certain event occurs in a game you are playing. Some slots, however, use a "meter" or some other noun to describe them tracking your progress and somewhat guarantee certain bonus features to occur after enough rounds have been played. The phrase in this case would be "pseudo-random chance".

There are also what’s known as progressive slots, which build up a jackpot that increases incrementally as players play the game. Thus the longer and the more you play, the bigger the potential payout should you land the big win. Progressive slots also come in two different varieties, one is self contained and the other is a network of machines, meaning multiple people may play a single game and build up one global jackpot for that specific game - global meaning inside the same casino, or on the same online casino platform.

Another common bonus feature that online slots often provide are the "wild" symbols, or "wilds" for short. The wild symbols provide the player the benefit of filling in for any other symbol - with exceptions - when it comes to counting winning combinations. Another benefit of making bets on a slot machine with wild symbols is that they often come in conjunction with other bonus features.

Many slot machines use a different rule set for determining wins. Instead of pay lines or bet lines, they use a "bet way" system, where symbols part of a winning combination do not have to be adjacent to each other on the reels. These slots boast about their insanely high number of possible win ways, with popular examples being Spartacus Megaways or Rainbow Riches Megaways.

"I think that Vegas is one of the wildest places I've ever been to. You can look to your left and there's a drag queen getting married by Elvis, to the right there is some old bird sticking quarters into a slot machine for hours."

- Marsha Thomason, random slot quote #876

Important slot terms

All bet-ways slot machines offer winning combinations that can be formed from both left to right as well as right to left. Active paylines slots are a slot variant that allows players to switch on their desired number of lines. This usually results in the "total bet" being different from the initial wager, as the more lines are enabled, the more you can potentially win during each spin. Phrases like “1024 or 234 Ways to Win” slot machines typically consist of five reels with up to five rows to make for an outrageous amount of possible paylines and combinations for players to enjoy.

Coin slots

Also worth mentioning are "coin slots" and "coin size". Coin slots are easy enough to understand, namely old classic slot machines that still have a physical slot, through which to insert a coin in order to fund the game. Slots like these are becoming more and more rare given the growth of digital machines but that has earned these classic slots some prestige of their own, and many a casino still fields them in their arsenal. "Coin size" on the other hand remains relevant even on digital machines as it denotes the value assigned to each coin or credit when you are making bets on a slot machine. They can be as little as a few pence, or multiple hundreds of pounds, which will then be used to calculate potential payouts - in conjunction with the number of paylines and and the multiplier of the win symbols triggering the winning combination.

Expanding wilds and Scatters

Many online slots or video slots these days also feature a “expanding wild”, which is a wild symbol that can grow over multiple spaces on the same reel at once and provide easy ways for the player to form winning combinations. “Scatters” are also a very common term in online slots, they are special symbols that award players with a decent payout independent of their position on the reels, but often also enable special features or bonus rounds. Another term you may also come across is “variance”. This refers to the slot's consistency in payouts. A low variance slot game has frequent but small price payouts, whilst a high variance slot offers larger, yet less frequent prizes.

"It would be a service to mankind if the pill were available in slot machines and the cigarette were placed on prescription."

- Malcolm Potts, random slot quote #749

We hope this little writeup in regards to slot machines, the different types of slots a casino nowadays offers and their terminology has been informative and entertaining. The next time you read certain key terms or phrases in the description of a slot you hopefully have a better understanding of what the machine has to offer without wanting to reach for a dictionary.

Frequently Asked Questions:

• What are the parts of a slot machine?

Most important "parts" of a slot machine are the reels, the number of win lines and the part of the screen showing you your wager and your winnings.

• Do slot machines have a pattern?

No, slot machines work based on random number generators. This is strictly controlled by government bodies in each country.

• Can you tell when a slot machine will hit?

No. Some slots use special mechanics to help you track your progress towards special features, but they do not guarantee a win. Slot machines are games of chance!