Slots Glossary

Slots aren’t the most complicated casino games to play by any means, but there are still a few slots terms that you need to understand. Here’s our one-stop concise glossary of words that you are most likely to come across:

Hopper – This is where the coins are stored in the machine.

Low Level – Slot machines that you can sit at to play.

Pay for Play Machines – These are generally three coin slot machines where the first coin is limited to paying for certain symbols. The second coin will similarly pay on another set of symbols with the third coin playing on any win. Big wins are always on the third coin.

Payline – The line on which symbols must appear in order for you to win a prize. Many modern machines have several paylines.

Payout – The payout is the percentage of winnings that a machine will pay out in comparison to how much it takes. This can vary by as much as 20% depending on casino and machine. Don't misunderstand this to mean that if you play £1 on an 80% payout machine you are guaranteed 80p back. It is an overall percentage and applies only over a large number of spins.

Progressive Slots – These are machines that are linked together to accumulate giant jackpots. To simplify the idea imagine a set of machines all using a percentage of their income to form a kitty. The kitty is the jackpot that can be won by using any of those machines. They work in a similar way to Pay for Play machines and you will not qualify for the big win if you haven’t played with the full amount of coins. The size of the jackpot will determine how often it is won – you can be sure that the ones paying out the largest jackpots pay out less often than those with more modest jackpots.

RNG - The Random Number Generator that determines the outcome of each slots game.

Reels – The reels are the spinning barrels on which the symbols are displayed.

Stand Up – Slots that are played standing up (as opposed to Low Level machines).

Take/Pay Cycle – It is generally believed that most machines work on cycles, and that once they have taken a certain amount of credit they must pay out in order to meet their payout limit. However, there is no fixed point at which a machine will change from take to pay, so relying on this is a sure way to lose money.

Tilt – When a machine tilts it stops playing, usually because a coin is jammed or it hasn’t enough money to pay out a win. It is rare – almost to the point of non-existence – that a tilt will deprive you of your winnings.

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