Of all the different casino games out there, the most popular, without question, are online slots. They’re fun, they’re easy, and you can play them anywhere, anytime, on mobile or desktop. But with so many different types of online slots to choose from, where to begin? It helps to have a basic understanding of the various categories that slot players use to decide which games to play.
How Do Online Slots Work?
If you’re completely new to online slots, here’s a quick 101. A slot is a recreational gambling machine that creates a game of chance. A standard slot machine layout features a screen displaying three or more reels that appear to spin when the game is played. Appearing on the reels are various symbols. You place a bet that the combination of symbols appearing on the reels at the end of a spin will award a prize according to the game rules.
Types of Online Slot Machines: Classic Vs. Video
The most common distinction in online slots is between classic and video slots. Classic slots are based on the original land-based cabinet slots, often referred to as fruit machines, one-armed bandits, or stepper slots. In their purest form, classic slots consist of 3 reels with three rows of symbols each and a single payline across the centre row. Vintage fruit machine symbols like cherries, bells, 7s, golden dollar signs ($), and BARs appear on the spinning reels, and payouts occur when three identical symbols match on the payline. Some steppers include additional paylines based on the patterns that three symbols can make on a 3×3 grid.
Video slots are in a different category altogether. While they keep the basic concept of matching symbols on spinning reels, they can have any number of reels and typically include special features not found in classic slots. What’s more, slot developers are free to create innovative themes that tie in with the gameplay. Hockey, fishing, football, Irish luck, ancient Egypt, space exploration, pirates, Norse and Greek mythology — you name it, there’s a video slot theme for it with immersive 3D slot graphics and sound effects.
Today’s most advanced video slots are virtual reality slots that use VR headsets to generate a realistic 3D slot environment for players. The number of VR slots is currently small, but the range is expected to grow as the technology catches on.
Online Slot Features: Winning Combinations
As video slots have expanded beyond the original classic slot set-up, developers have come up with more ways to make winning combinations. First, they started increasing the number of reels present on the screen and varying the number of rows in the reels. Browse through the online slot section at BetMGM Casino Ontario, and you’ll find slots with 5×3, 5×4, 6×4, and other formats. These larger grids make it possible to include more paylines.
As developers became more innovative, they started producing games that dropped the payline concept in favour of “win ways” or simply “ways.” Instead of lining up on a pattern, symbols only have to be on adjacent reels to match. First came the 243-ways games, so called because there are 243 ways for symbols on adjacent reels to match three, four, or five times on a 5×3 grid. The bigger the grid, the more ways. The next size up is 1,024 ways on a 5×4 grid, while a 6×4 setup generates 4,096 ways.
Then there are Megaways slots, which feature special Megaways reels. Instead of a fixed number of rows, a Megaways reel can have between two and seven positions on any spin. Some Megaways slots also have a horizontal reel at the top of the grid. A slot with six Megaways reels and a horizontal grid is capable of generating 117,649 ways to win at max Megaways.
Online Slot Features: Extra Spins
One of the most important considerations for slot gamers is whether a game has any special features. Perhaps the most common feature of this type comes in the form of extra spins. These are spins you can win real money from without having to place a bet. Extra spins are usually associated with special symbols known as “scatters.” These symbols will trigger a boost when a specific number of them (typically three or more) appear on any position on the reels.
Extra spin features can include other modifiers, such as win multipliers, stacked symbols, expanding symbols, collect symbols, and more. The variety of modifiers is so great that it’s impossible to summarise in this space. Fortunately, online slots always have an information section where you can find information about the paytable and the rules of extra features.
Online Slot Features: RTP & Volatility
Among the most important topics for a beginner player to learn about are the related concepts of RTP and volatility. RTP stands for return to player and is expressed as a percentage. What it refers to is the amount of betting money that will be returned to a player on average over hundreds of thousands of spins. If a slot has an RTP of 96%, it means that, on average, a player who spends $100 on bets will get $96 of it back. As it happens, 96% is more or less the average RTP in the slot industry right now. The higher the RTP, the less it will cost you to play a game long-term. To put it differently, the online slots with the best odds have the lowest volatility.
So why play games with below-average RTP? Here’s where volatility comes in. This refers to how rough or smooth the upswings and downswings you experience during a slot session can be. A low-volatility game will be relatively smooth, delivering frequent hits but with modest payouts. Medium volatility games will have relatively frequent hits with modest payouts and the occasional big win. High-volatility games can produce spectacular wins or leave you with nothing.
As a rule of thumb, the higher the volatility, the bigger the risk. That’s why it can make sense for players who enjoy risk to play high-volatility games with lower-than-average RTP.
