Slot Dictionary
- Slot Machine - A gambling machine found in casinos that have reels the spin and stop automatically on symbols which are pictures on the reels. These symbols when getting certain combinations that land in a row will pay the player a certain amount of coins. There are different type of slot machines with many different types of game play and pay lines.
- Symbols - These are the pictures or items that are pasted or painted on the reels of a slot machine. These symbols are what you need to 'hit' a winning combination which you can view by looking at the 'paytable' of the slot machine you are playing. Some symbol combinations will pay out predetermined coin amounts while others will not pay anything if not hit on certain reels in certain ways.
- Video Slots - A slot machine with a video screen that generates a picture of spinning reels, as opposed to a slot machine with actual physical reels.
- Coin size - These means the amount of money need to play a certain slot machine. Example, if playing a slot machine that accepts quarters, then that is its coin size.
- Coins per spin - These means how many coins you would like to bet per line of your slot machine. If a slot machine has 3 pay lines, and you are playing for $1's, you will usually have a choice of how many dollars you wish to bet on all three reels, either 1 dollar per reel, 2 or 3.
- Paylines - These are the lines that are shown on the slot screen to show the player where your winning combinations need to land in order to win. Slot machines can have anywhere's from 1 payline up to 100.
- Reels - These are the mechanical wheels inside the slot machine that spin and show the symbols of the game you are playing. These reels are controlled by a Random Number Generator and will stop randomly on the paylines showing either winning combinations or not.
- Spin - This is the bottom or arm of the machine in which the player either pushes or pulls to make the reels start spinning in order to get a winning or losing spin.
- One Arm Bandit - A slang term used for slot machines. A cute slang name showing that slot machines are known to steal your money!
- Progressive Jackpot - These are slot machines that are connected all over the world and have a jackpot that grows and grows according to how many players are playing. The more money that gets played on these types of slot machines, the higher the progressive jackpot will reach until some wins by hitting a combination of symbols deemed as the jackpot winners. The machine is then reset to the minimum amount of money and starts all over again.
- Bet Max - This means to bet the most amount of coins allowed in the game. If the max bet on a $1 machine is $3, that means you can bet up to three 1 dollar coins per spin.
- Multiplier slots - These are slot machines that have symbols which when hit in a winning combination will multiply your winnings.
- Credits - Once you insert your money into a slot machine it is now referred to as being credits. So if you deposit $20 into a $1 slot machine, you will have 20 credits until such time that you cashout your winnings.
- Free spins - Some slot machines will award the player some free spins if they hit a certain number of a special symbol. These free spins do not cost you anything and your winnings from they are yours and you do not spin the reels, the free spins will spin automatically.
- Random Jackpot - Some casinos offer slot machines that have Random Jackpots which means any player can win this jackpot instantly without even hitting a winning combination. They are totally random and fantastic!
- Wild symbols - Some slot machines will have a special symbol that will substitute for all the other symbols in the game and will help to make some winning combinations.
- Paytable - This the chart shown on the slot machine explaining how much you will win for certain combination of symbols and for different coin amounts.
- Hold Percentage - This is the opposite of payout percentage. When a machine has a 98% payout that means for every $100 played, $98 of it is paid back to the players over a certain amount of time, so a hold percentage is the 2% of that same $100 that the slot machine keeps.
- Loose Slots - These are the slot machines that have a high payout percentage and players win on a lot.
- Random Number Generator - A computer that is always generating new numbers that are assigned to each reel in the slot machine. When you pull the handle or push the spin button, the random number generator tells the reels where to stop. These are completely random.
