Slot Terminology: Glossary of Some Common Phrases

Slots are the world’s most favorite games of luck and many casino visitors play them with a total lack of knowledge of how they work and what happens when they spin the reels. That is not bad in any way, of course. Long ago, when these games appeared, they were called “one-armed bandits” owing to the lever used to spin the reels. Today, they are the staple games and most important part of every casino. In this article we’ll try to explain in depth each of the essential terms that are used in a slot game, which the players need to understand in order to gain full knowledge of how slots actually work before they start playing.

Top Used Slot Terms

Reels

The first thing that catches attention in a slot, the reels are the vertical rows of symbols that you see in a slot game, and they simulate spinning disks that have symbols on them. This is because the earliest forms of slots were mechanical machines and had spinning disks in them with symbols drawn on the disks. When the disks stopped spinning and if the right symbols aligned, a payout was triggered. This is identical to modern day slots only that nowadays slots are computerized, and the computer screen simulates the same principle of disks spinning and stopping at random. A typical slot can have 3, 5 or even 9 reels.

Paylines

A great place for players to get an initial idea of how slots work is the paylines. Paylines are very easy to understand, and are crucial in the same time. This term is used to refer to the positions of the symbols that make up a winning combination, with which a payout is triggered. That is, how symbols align.

In video slots players have the option to bet on multiple paylines, as opposed to classic slots where only one payline exists. So, when the reels stop spinning and the symbols align in a certain way – that can go either straight or zig-zag, or any other combination, you win some money, hence the name of “payline”. Knowing the number of paylines and choosing the games with the most lucrative ones can help players a lot. That is often used as some slot strategy that can increase your winning chances.

Progressive Slot Machines

Progressive slots are the highest paying slots there are. In the history of games of fortune, it is namely progressives that made millionaires out of regular slot players. They are practically the same as regular slots only that their jackpot increases with each wager made, hence the title “progressive”.

In order to form the jackpot, numerous progressive slot games contribute to a single progressive pool. This is performed by taking a fraction of each wager made, and the jackpot can reach millions. More information about them, you can find on this page. However, in order to compete for the progressive jackpot, you need to wager the maximum bet with each spin. The progressive jackpot will grow until someone hits it. When it has been won, the jackpot is reset and starts to grow again. The payback percentage on the other winning lines in progressive slots is usually smaller compared to regular slots. This is because of the progressive jackpot.

Bonus Rounds / Features

Moving from classic 3-reel slots and fruit machines to video slots can be a very steep change for the casual slot player, because there is much more that needs to be learned and there are many new features that simpler slot games don’t have. For those of you who are curious to see what the first slots looked like and learn what features they had, we have an interesting article on History of Slot Games you can read.

Nowadays as video slots evolve, there are many new bonus add-ons and features that you cannot find in older and much simpler versions of video slots. The most standard bonuses and bonus rounds that appear in most of the video slots are free spins bonus games and pick-to-win bonus games, but they vary creatively, as well in their complexity.

Free spins bonus games are self-explanatory: you get free spins for triggering certain symbols. Pick-to-win bonus games are usually activated on a second screen. You are given the option to choose from many different symbols and the prize is revealed to you, usually as cash.

Scatter Symbols

As you know, to hit a winning combination, you need the right symbols to appear on the right reels in the right positions. Scatter symbols, or scatters, are symbols that can appear anywhere on the reels and they can help you form a winning line, so regardless of where they appear, you still get to win. The more scatters appear on the reels, the higher the payout will be.

In most video slots today hitting 3 or more scatters on certain reels (usually the first, the third and the last reel) will trigger an interactive bonus round, or some free spins will be given at least. The scatter symbol is an essential part of every modern day video slot. The amount of money that you can win with its help is often minimal, but it’s better to win than not, after all.

Wild Symbols

Wild symbols are substitutes for symbols that are missing in a winning payline, so essentially they help complete the payline in order for you to be paid accordingly. Here’s an example of this. Imagine you’re playing a slot where you get a payline with pineapple-pineapple-lemon-pineapple-pineapple. Immediately you realize how close you where to triggering a winning payline. Well, if in such a case the lemon was a wild symbol, the payline would be complete, and a payout would be triggered. Simply put, wild symbols turn losing paylines into winning paylines, which is why video slots are better than classic slots.

Multiplicator Symbols

These are also called multipliers, or multiplier symbols, and as the name suggests, they multiply your potential payout by a certain number. Multiplicator symbols complete winning combinations much like wild symbols. The big difference is that they multiply your win whileas wild symbols only substitute the missing symbol.

For example, you hit a line that pays 400 coins. If that line has a 3x multiplicator symbol, your payout will be multiplied 3 times, and you will get 1,200 coins instead. Some video slots have multipliers that multiply payouts up to 15x and even more in rare occasions.