What types of slots can you find online?

There are two main types of slots:

• Video slots
• Reel slots

The difference is that video slots have more than three reels – with your typical 9-line slot falling into this category.

3-reel slots look like the old-style slots with the ‘bar and cherries’ for the purist player, whereas video slots have more imaginative themes, more animation and graphical entertainment.

As with a land-based video slot machine, an online slot machine has several spinning wheels marked with symbols. Each time you click the spin button, these wheels spin around and come to rest with a random selection of symbols. The time and place where the reels will stop is governed by a random number generator, which guarantees that the stopping of the reels is unpredictable and random. The object is to earn money by hitting a winning combination on a pay line. Depending on the machine type, there can be various numbers of pay lines. You will be paid out according to the Payout Schedule of the particular slot machine you are playing.

Progressive Slots

Progressive slots have a jackpot that grows by a percentage of each coin played. Often a number of progressive machines feed into one jackpot where any machine in the group can win, and the jackpot grows into an astronomical amount. Progressive machines can be identified by flashing electronic payoff signs displayed either on top of the machine or above a grouping. Look out for the Progressive Slots which pay out the biggest cumulative jackpots! They include: Major Millions, Cash Splash, Fruit Fiesta, Lotsaloot, Treasure Nile and Wowpot. Only Real players (those playing for real money) can play Progressives.

How do you win?

The Payout Schedule is a table showing what combinations of reel symbols are valid winning combinations and what they pay out. When you get a winning payout the number next to the winning combination will be highlighted on your screen. Winnings are paid out on the highest combination on each enabled payline only. If a winning combination appears on a payline that you have not chosen, you will not receive any payout for that combination. So it’s often advisable to choose the maximum amount of paylines for your favorite slot. The more coins you wager, the more paylines are enabled:

• Coin 1 enables the first (horizontal, center) payline
• Coin 2 enables the second (horizontal, upper) payline
• Coin 3 enables the third (horizontal, lower) payline

Some machines have ‘wild’ symbols that substitute for every other symbol, while others have ’scatter’ symbols that multiply the payout when combined with winning symbols.