There’s some big differences between the slot machines you may have grown up with and those now available to you online.
During the past 30 years slot machines have been commonplace in British pubs, clubs, arcades and cafés. Invariably these have contained three or four reels with basic symbols (such as fruits and bells) and had a host of ‘features’ such as ‘nudges’, ‘holds’, ‘cash ladders’, bonus trails’ and the like.
While these interactive features remain, more and more UK slot machines are losing their traditional reels, replacing them with a video simulation of them.
Naturally online slots cannot have traditional reels, so these need to be simulated. Meanwhile winnings are calculated by a ‘pay table’ and cannot be gambled up or down. One thing does remain constant with online slots and those plugged into a power-point: The house always has a small mathematical edge over the player.
Here’s Cash Drop Casino’s list of Common Slot Terms and Phrases and what they mean…
Reel Slots
Only found in land-based venues original slots all used wheels powered by pulling an arm (hence the phrase ‘one-armed bandit’). In time these would be powered by electricity and buttons would replace arms.
Video Slots
Nowadays computer technology produces video imagery to replicate what you would see when playing an original reeled slot machine.
Single-Line Slots
The most basic type of slot is ‘single line’ paying out on the symbols which appear across the central pay-line.
Multi-Line Slots
Modern machines can feature multiple pay-lines utilising all symbols on display. For a three reeled machine this can mean 27 play-lines (3x3x3) or, 81 lines for a four reeled slot (3x3x3x3), even 243 for five-reels. Multi-line slots have become industry standard amongst online casinos.
Jackpot Slots
On all slots certain symbols offer different prizes but lining up one set of symbols will see the ‘jackpot’ paid out. This will be a set sum as laid out in the slots ‘pay table’.
Progressive Jackpot Slots
Every time someone plays a ‘progressive slot’ a small percentage of their wager is allocated to a progressive jackpot pool. Resultantly the jackpot prize will grow and grow. In fact it will not stop amassing until it is won. On the most popular progressive slots considerable seven figure payouts are commonplace and the jackpot pool is reset to a cool £1,000,000 every time it is won.
Multi-Denomination Slots
Instead of just accepting a single denomination, this type of slot machine allows players to select how much they want to wager on every spin. This amount could be as low as a penny, or it might climb as high as several hundred pounds/euros. Suffice to say the more you invest the greater your potential winnings.
Bonus Rounds
Something you will not find on traditional fruits machine is ‘bonus rounds’. This online slot exclusive delivers free spins within a bonus round when certain symbols appear on the reels. These free spins may not necessarily be normal spins, they could feature just two reels or be in the form of one animated reel guaranteeing bonus winnings.
Poker Slots
Poker slots are a hybrid of traditional slots and poker. Cards replace symbols and the payouts are based on the best poker hand you can make. Normally poker slots work in a two round format using five-card stud-poker rules, meaning you are dealt five cards; you can keep as many as you wish and replace those you do not want in an attempt to make the best poker hand.
Loose and Tight Slots
Not a term officially used describe any kind of slot but one players use to refer to certain types of machines. ‘Loose slots’ refers to slots which payout smallish sums regularly. On the other hand ‘tight slots’ is how machines which pay out less frequently but give bigger rewards when they do.
Other terms associated with online slots
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Balance: The amount of money in your account for use on that slot machine
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Display Box: A box which lets you when and how much you win
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Pay-Table: A table that will show what a payline can win you
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Reels: The part of the slot that shows the symbols and them spinning
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Bet Per-Line: The amount of money that you want to wager per line for your next spin
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Maximum Bet: The most you can wager on a single spin
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Play/Spin: A button that instigates the spinning of the reels
- Auto-Play: A feature that will play the slot for you without the need to click ‘play’
