Playing Slot Machines
Playing Slot Machines at Online Casinos
Slot machines are arguably the most popular form of casino games that there is. They come in many shapes and forms. The most recent formats include online slots and mobile slots. Slot machines can be found in practically every casino in the world, whether they are located in the real world, or the digital one.
How to play them
Online slots are built on reels. There are generally 3 or 5 of these reels, which contain different symbols on them. The basic goal of the player is match up as many identical symbols as possible across the reels, on routes which are known as paylines. The more identical icons they can line-up across one of these paylines, the more they will win.
In order to play, the gamer must first place a bet. Their stake is determined by the value of the coin that the player chooses, the number of coins they put into a bet, and the number of paylines the player wishes to have included in the spin. Sometimes, slots have fixed paylines so they therefore have a fixed minimum and bet, and other timesyou can only place one coin per line, per spin.
Once the player’s bet has been staked, they hit the spin button, and all of the reels will spin and then come to a stop in turn. As mentioned; if the player has matched up enough symbols across the reels, they will win.
Some slots have special features included into their design, and we’ll take a little look at some of those now.
What types are available?
There are two main types of slots. These are the three-reeled classic slots, and the five-reeled video slots. Three-reeled slots have just three reels as the name suggests, and they seldom contain any special icons. They often have just a single payline, and certainly no more than five. They are in effect, the earliest form of slots.
Video slots have five reels and often include bonus rounds and special features. Special features can include wild symbols (icons which substitute themselves for any other symbol the player needs to complete a winning payline), scatter icons (which count as winning symbols no matter where they land), and bonus icons (which can trigger a bonus round, should they appear in specific places, or if a specific number of them are acquired on the reels at any one time). It is not unusual for video slots to not have any bonus icons, and instead use the scatter icons to trigger bonus rounds. Bonus rounds can include anything from pick and win games, to free spins.
A free spins round consists of a pre-determined number of free games, where the player can win real money. They may also be able to acquire multipliers, or win additional free games.
Both three-reeled and five-reeled slots can be divided up into two further categories. Namely, these are the non-progressive and progressive jackpot slots. A non-progressive jackpot has a fixed jackpot, which is always available to be won. A progressive jackpot increases every time a player makes a wager. It always has a default minimum level, though it has no cap on how high it can rise. The player would potentially win millions of dollars’ worth of cash.
Jackpots can be won in several different ways. Some slots contain jackpot icons. If the player lines up all of the jackpot icons on a reel, and they have the maximum wager staked, they will win the jackpot. Other slots prefer to use the wild icons as the jackpot paying symbols, and a player will win a jackpot if they line up all the wilds on a payline. Some slots prefer to offer you the jackpot via bonus round, and some insist that you can win it randomly, at any time in the game. In the case of the latter, the higher the stake the bigger the jackpot win. A handful of slots insist that you have to have the correct symbols on a specific payline, let’s say the central one (that runs right through the middle of the reels), for example, in order to win. And, some slots even have multiple jackpots, with alternativeprizes for different sized stakes. More often than not, these are found in progressive jackpot slots.
Lastly, there are several other factors which can differentiate one slot from another. Such features include how the icons falls on the reels (whether the reels spin, or the icons drop down from above), whether they have an unusual number of reels (7 reels, perhaps), or whether there is just one set of reels, two sets or more. 3D slots, fruit machines and avalanche slots are just some of the many variants and types of slots that are out there, waiting for you to play.