One of the mainstays of both online casinos and land-based ones are slot machines. It is highly unlikely that you won’t find a few of these one-armed bandits on your favorite online gambling outlets or in any of the casinos that you happen to visit anywhere in the world. It is, in fact, considered one of the most played games in casinos everywhere alongside blackjack, craps, and roulette.
While slots don’t give you the same odds of winning as most of the table games you find in casinos, they are still a favorite among gamers. This is because of the simplicity of the gameplay. All you have to do is to deposit a coin or token, pull the lever, and that’s it. It’s basically a no brainer. To win, all you need to do is to complete specific patterns that can be seen on the machine’s paytable, which is found right above the reels.
For those who haven’t tried playing slots but are curious about it, the machine is pretty simple really. It has reels that range from three to five for standard slots and more than five for more modern ones. These reels carry the images that you need to align to complete the patterns required for a win. When you complete a pattern, you win a specific amount of money, depending on how much you bet on the spin.
Different Kinds of Machines You Find in Casinos
Whether you play slots in real land-based casinos or on virtual online ones, the rules remain the same. You put money into the machine, spin the reels, and hope you get a winning pattern when the spinning stops. What you may not know is that there are a few different kinds of machines for you to choose from and these machines have a few different features that can help you win more.
3- reel slots are called classic slots since these often follow the old-fashioned machines that were used way back when their popularity was just beginning. These old-fashioned machines usually have up to 5 paylines, with no bonuses and special features. 5-reel slots, on the other hand, are usually video slot machines and use a screen rather than physical reels to help you complete the patterns you need to win. Most video slots come with lots of paylines and increase your chances of winning with the help of extra features and patterns.
Features People Love in Slot Machines
It is no wonder why people tend to gravitate towards 5-reel machines and video slots. The huge number of features that help increase your winnings is a hard draw to resist. To show you what features people love with these machines, here are some of the more common ones:
Wild Symbols – These are seldom, if ever, found on classic slots but are often present in video slot machines. The wild symbol substitutes for any of the symbols on the board and can help you complete a pattern easier. These can appear on all the reels or on specific reels only, depending on the machine’s design.
Scatter Symbols – This is another mainstay on many video slot machines and is one that can trigger either a special round where you can win more or automatic bonus spins that can give you extra spins without the need to bet while doing so. Again, what these symbols do is dependent on the machine you are playing on so you should check the paytable and other similar information for this.
Gamble Feature – This is a feature that not all slot machines have but a few of them do show up on your machine when you win a spin. This allows you to bet your current winnings in a double-or-nothing spin or in a mini-game. If you decide not to gamble your winnings, you can simply ignore the gamble button and continue with your game.
Mini-Game – Sometimes completing a specific number of scatter symbols on your screen can result in you being taken to a mini-game. Mini-games usually increase your winning exponentially. Some of the mini-games that you can expect to find when you play these machines include pick-me games, high or low games, and special slot games that have more multipliers and special symbols for big wins.
Multipliers – These are also some of the more favorite features of gamers worldwide since these help increase winnings. Multipliers often start at X2 and can go as high as X7 or X8, depending on the machine that you are playing on. These usually appear in the bonus game of the machine.
Sticky symbols – The sticky symbols you find in slot games are usually those that help complete any pattern on the board. These include Wild symbols and special full reel symbols. These are called sticky because when they appear on your reels, they stick and stay there until the bonus round is done or until the set number of spins are completed.
Choosing the Right Machine to Play
If you were to choose a slot machine to try and win on, it’s but natural to go for one that has lots of features for you to choose from. What you should do however, particularly if you are playing online, is to check a few things that will help make winning easier. These include the following:
RTP – This stands for Player Return Percentage. The higher the percentage on the RTP of a machine, the bigger the chances of you winning. It’s said that an RTP of 95 and higher is what you should look for.
Number of paylines – The more paylines a machine has, the more chances you have of winning. This is because you get to complete more patterns that add up to your winnings when they align the right way. Of course, some patterns pay less than others so you might have to complete more patterns in order to amass more winnings when you play a machine with lots of paylines. You should also remember that some machines require a bet for each active payline, so if a bet is $1 and there are 200 paylines, you may have to bet $200 to activate all paylines for a spin.
