At first glance, slots seem like the easiest game when you are new to the casino world but in fact, they can be deceptive unless you are well acquainted with the basics. Understanding the main components of the slot machine as well as its features guarantees you will avoid the disappointment of putting money into a machine without winning a prize.

• Slot Machine Symbol Crossword Clue
• What Are The Symbols On A Slot Machine Play

Let us start with a brief overview of the two main elements of every slot game, the paylines you can win on, and the wild symbol that helps you create more winning combinations, thus boosting your profits.

In a nutshell, the payline is a sequence of reel positions that are usually read from left to right. When you bet on a specific payline, this means it is activated. Before you spin the reels, you have to adjust the desired number of paylines you want to bet on during your gaming session. Do not forget that the more paylines you activate, the higher your chances of winning are. When the reels stop spinning, the player can check the paytable to see what prize the matching symbols return. If the winning combination has aligned on an active payline, the player will be paid in accordance with the paytable.

Therefore it was no surprise the very first, primitive slots used card symbols and colors – spades, clubs, hearts, and diamonds. The poker symbols remained dominant until the. Multiplier: This machine has a payout for a certain symbol and the number of coins played multiplies it.If the machine pays 5 coins for three lemons when you play one coin, it would pay 10 for the second coin and 15 for three coins played. Each type of slot machine and the symbols they used The poker machine – 1891. The poker machine was invented in 1891 by Sittman and Pitt. This game had five drums, each with 10 different playing card symbols on each row. A game began when the player inserted a nickel and pulled the lever on the side of the machine.

In the past, slot machines featured one payline only and when the player landed three identical symbols on it, they qualified for a prize. Now, things are a bit different as contemporary slot machines can have up to 100 paylines in some cases. Yet, these slots are rare and standard machines nowadays would usually feature between 15 and 25 paylines.

Although traditional slot machines feature paylines that are straight, there are games where they can be vertical, horizontal, or zig-zagging across the reels. Paylines always cross the same number of icons. For instance, if the slot you have chosen has five reels, there will be five symbols landing on an active payline.

In order to activate a given payline, you need to bet on it at least one coin. Both classic and advanced slots normally allow players to bet several coins per active payline, usually up to then but this also depends on the software supplier.

With classic 3-reel slots, only the middle payline is activated when you play a single coin. Therefore, if you activate all paylines by betting the maximum number of coins, your chances of hitting a winning combination get higher.

If you create a winning combination on an inactive payline, you are not getting paid.

Useful Tips

Here are a few more tips revealed by players who have spent a lot of time learning how to win a massive payout on a slot machine.

First of all, always check the paytable and get familiar with the highest and the lowest paying symbols. It is also important to see if the slot machine returns a prize when the symbols align on a payline from left to right or vice versa so you do not get disappointed when you hit a winning combination but are not given a prize.

Although slot machines look entirely different from one another because of the themes they feature, they are actually quite similar when it comes to operation. Nevertheless, get to know the configuration and the symbols you will come across during your gaming session as well as the number of paylines you are allowed to wager on.

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Wild Symbols

Classic slot games that feature a wild symbol are few but all modern machines and multi-line slots, in particular, have both wild and scatter symbols. Both of them help you enhance your gaming experience and increase your winnings.

Wilds help you create winning combinations by substituting regular symbols on the reels. The more wilds appear on the reels, the more generous your payout will be.

Depending on the particular slot game you play, sometimes the wild symbol has no value unless it is included in a winning combination.

Wilds can appear anywhere on the reels but in some games, they can be seen on particular reels only. That is why it is important to spend a few minutes getting familiar with the specifications of the game before you start playing.

Types of Wild Symbols

Apart from the standard wild symbols, game developers created new, unusual, and more attractive ones. Today, you can come across expanding wilds, sticky wilds, shifting, trailing, wandering, or stacked wilds. Here is some more information about each one of these:

When a stacked wild symbol appears on the reels, it covers it entirely. If more than one of them appears, you have to prepare for a huge payout.

As their name implies, shifting wilds keep moving across the reels on subsequent spins. As for the expanding wilds, they also cover the entire reel when appearing and can turn every regular symbol that surrounds them into a wild.

Sticky wilds stay in one position for a specific number of spins and give you the chance to increase your winnings.

Slot Machine Symbol Crossword Clue

Trailing wilds basically create a “clone” wild and while the original symbol stays in the same position, the clone moves one position down.

As we have already mentioned, slot machines are computerized and you are not able to predict when and where wilds will appear. No matter what kind of wild your game features, it will randomly appear on the reels. Another thing you have to take into account is that each game can feature a different number of wilds.

Along with helping you create winning combinations, wilds can act as multipliers as well, which is yet another opportunity to leave the game with a considerable amount of money in your bank account.

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What Are The Symbols On A Slot Machine Play

Related News

Slot machines are arguably the most popular form of gambling in the world. There is not a casino on Earth, land-based or online, that doesn’t have slot machines. In fact, in most gambling establishments, the slots are the very first thing you’ll see. The famed “one-armed bandits” have been a part of gambling culture since they were first invented more than 100 years ago.

Today, the clicking, mechanical reels and dinging bells are long gone. We watch the virtual reels spin on high-resolution video screens. We’re entertained by clever animations, 3D graphics, and bonus features that the original slot manufacturers could never have dreamed of.

Still though, for all the advances in technology and innovative changes that have made their way into modern slot machines, we still see symbols spinning by that were on those original slots. Have you ever wondered why so many slots share common symbols, or where those symbols came from in the first place? Have you ever wondered why these machines we gamblers love so much are called “slots”? To get to the bottom of it, we’ll have to look at the history of the slot machine itself.

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The Invention Of The Slot Machine

The first slot machine — or what would become the slot machines that we know today — was built by a man named Charles August Fey in 1894. At the time, he was working as a mechanic in San Francisco, California. During this era, there were many different kinds of games that were commonly referred to as “nickel-in-the-slot” machines (The U.S. $.05 coin is commonly called a nickel.) This term was eventually shortened to just “slot machines”.

The following year, Fey built the 4-11-44 machine, which took its name from a popular lottery game where the combination of 4, 11, and 44 was the highest paying combination. This machine was so successful that he quit his job, opened a factory, and set out to manufacture slot machines full time.

Playing Card Symbols On Slot Machines

In 1898, Fey put together the first three-reel slot machine with an automatic payout mechanism, the Card Bell. This machine had a handle that was pushed down to set the reels in motion. The symbols on the reels consisted of playing card suit marks which would line up to form poker hands. More than 100 years later, these symbols still appear on most of the slots being developed.

Fey’s biggest success came with his Liberty Bell slot machine in 1899. This machine had three reels, each with 10 symbols. In addition to the playing card symbols, there were also horseshoes, stars, and liberty bells. Landing three liberty bells on the single pay line would award the highest payout, ten nickels, or $.50. The odds of winning that payout were 1 in 10,000.

Slot Machines At Odds With The Law

As the popularity of slot machines spread, they came under fire from morality and religious groups, and eventually, the law. In 1909, San Francisco made it illegal to place slot machines that paid out cash awards.

To get around the law, Fey and other slot machine manufacturers began to design machines that had no coin slot. They started referring to the slots as vending machines.

Rewards became things like gum, candy or coupons that could be redeemed for cigars or a drink at the bar. This is where the term “Close, but no cigar” originated. In many cases, the awards were then “sold” back to the establishment for cash.

The Birth Of The Fruit Machines

The Industry Novelty Company, calling its machines gum dispensers, was the first to produce slot machines with fruit symbols on the reels, in 1909. The various fruits were meant to replace the gambling-associated playing card marks and suggest different flavours of gum. Some of their machines actually did dispense gum as a prize.

In 1910, the Mills Novelty Company released their own version of the gum dispensing machines, but with one change. In addition to the various fruit symbols, their machines included a stylized pack of gum, which would become the modern “BAR” symbol that we’re all so familiar with. The Mills Novelty Company is also credited with creating the “jackpot” concept in 1916 when they produced a slot that would pay out all the coins in the machine when a certain combination landed on the reels.

It’s no secret that there are still many slot machines that make use of the fruit symbols in various forms. Many parts of the world prefer the term fruit machine after all.

Modern Slots Add Wild And Scatter Symbols

As technology advanced, slot machines have evolved from their purely mechanical beginnings, through an electromechanical stage, into the fully digital machines and virtual machines that we see today. These improvements have allowed slot designers to add all kinds of extra features to their games, from the simple concept of a wild symbol to complex mini-games and prize multipliers.

Wild symbols, as most gamblers know, work exactly like the concept of wild cards in a poker game. A specific symbol is deemed wild and can represent any symbol on the reels — usually with one or two exceptions — to help the player make winning combinations.

The other common symbol that has become a staple of most modern video slot machines is the scatter symbol. These first appeared on some of the electromechanical fruit machines. In most cases, they were represented by cherries. The cherries would pay out, or multiply payouts, if they appeared anywhere on the reels. Unlike all the other symbols, winning with the cherry symbols wasn’t restricted to the pay line. A player could win if they appeared anywhere — scattered.

Conclusion

So there you have it. Now you know a bit about the history of these games we all love so much and the symbols that we see on so many of them. Every time you pull the lever or press the button to send those reels spinning, you’re taking part in a tradition and a history that goes back more than 100 years.

A lot has changed in the last century, and much more is sure to change in the next. Somehow, though, I have a feeling that those lucky enough to play these games in the 22nd century will still be watching many of the same slot machine symbols spin by on the reels.