Slots are the most popular games in the casinos, by far. If you walk into a casino in Las Vegas you will undoubtedly see banks and banks of slot machines of all kinds, stretching on for almost as far as the eye can see.
In the world of online casinos, nothing is different. Slots are still tremedously popular games, and the casinos know that. So, they keep making slot machines month after month. And, they make every kind of slot that you can imagine.
One Armed Bandits
There are different types of slot machines thay you can find online. The three reel slots you find in a casino, the kind where there are actual reels spinning, and you start the game by pulling the arm of the slot machine, can be found online as well. They are usually referred to as "Classic Slots" or "Traditional Slots".
These games can usually be found in the "Three Reel Slots" section of the casino. Some of them will have a single payline across the center making it very easy to find your winning combinations. Others might have three, or even five different paylines. If you're playing a machine with more than one payline, you usually have to wager one coin to activate each payline.
Video Slots
These are the slot machines that have a video screen instead of the spinning reels. Of course an online casino is the perfect place to play video slots since even when you're in Vegas you're still playing video slots, you're still playing on a computer screen.
There are usually five reels on these slots, and lots and lots of playlines. Even if you can't keep track of all the ways you can land a winner on these machines, the great thing about slots is that the machine will point out all of the winners for you.
Video slots often have extra bonus games that you can play once you land the winning combination to unlock them. They might also have a Free Spins feature where you can earn a series of free spins. Add to that the special scatter symbols that do not need to line up on any payline in order to provide a winner, and there are a lot of different ways to win on video slot machines.
These games usually let players wager more than one coin on each of the paylines, so you can get creative with the amount you'd like to spend on each spin if you'd like.
Progressive Jackpots
Any kind of slot machine can have a progressive jackpot attached to it. When a machine or game has a progressive jackpot, it means that each time someone wagers on the game, a portion of that wager is put into a growing jackpot pool.
So, for a slot machine, each time someone takes a spin on one of the slots, a portion of what they wagered on the spin goes to the Progressive Jackpot. The more people play the slot, the more the jackpot grows.
What's great about online casinos is that when I play the Cash Splash progressive slot machine at a Roxy Palace Casino, part of my wager goes to the jackpot. If you play the Cash Splash at Spin Palace, part of your wager goes to the jackpot - even though we're playing at different casinos.
It makes it really easy for jackpot totals to grow fast, and large.
Fruit Machines
Popular in the UK, fruit machines are basically three reel slots with a couple of added features. You can sometimes "Hold" a reel in place while respinning the other reels. So, if on your first spin you land a pair of bells, you can hold them in place while spinning thre third reel hoping to land another bell.
You can also sometimes "Nudge" a reel, and make a symbol fall down one notch further, helping to land a winning combination.
Sometimes a Fruit Machine is also called an "AWP", which stands for Amusements With prizes.
8 Liners
This is a type of video slot that has one symbol per reel, and 9 reels. They are shaped like a box that is three reels high and three reels wide.
The popular Cherry Master slots are a good example of an "8 Liner" named because there are 8 paylines on the game. Three paylines go across each row, three go up and down each column, and the final two paylines cover both diagonals.
Usually these machines have "in game" jackpots that are built as players land certain winning combinations. For instance, there may be a bell bonus that increases by 100 credits each time a player lands a set of beels. This bonus might pay off every tenth time a set of bells is hit, so of course we're more likely to keep playing when the bells bonus is at 900 credits!
Skill Slots
for the most part, there is no way to be good or bad at a slot machine. You simply decide how much to wager and let the reels fall where they will. Sometimes good things happen, other times, we don't win.
Skill Slots change that because the unlockable bonus game involves skill. there aren't many of these machines online, but they are out there. Usually the skill games involve shooting things with your mouse, or other simple tasks.
They are certainly different than most bonus games, and some people enjoy them very much while others so not like to have their videogame skills tested while playing slots.
