Slots are the most popular casino games. They offer huge winning potential and plenty of fun features like Scatters, Free Spins and Wilds. There are thousands of real money online slots available and new ones are added all the time. That makes choosing the right one a bit overwhelming for some players.
The most basic explanation of a slot machine is that it takes coins or paper tickets and pays out when symbols appear on the payline in a certain order. There are different types of symbols, and the more they match, the higher the payout. The earliest machines used classic icons such as cherries, bars, horseshoes and lucky sevens. More recently, video game designers have latched onto themes from movies, TV shows and popular culture to create branded slots.
Expert insight: While maximum win figures have dropped in recent years (10x your stake is still considered a good figure), developers have come up with some dazzlingly innovative games. Some use stacked wilds to add extra chances of a winning combination and others feature scatter symbols that don’t need to appear in a specific line to trigger a bonus game or other feature.
The name ‘slot’ comes from the way early electromechanical devices operated, with a small lever or button that could be pushed to open a reel and let the ball drop. Today’s electronic devices are much more sophisticated and operate using a complex mathematical model that calculates the expected return to the player. They’re also designed to be fair, with a high percentage of wins and low percentage of losses.