A slit or narrow opening, especially one used to receive something, such as a coin. Also a position within a sequence or series, or an assignment.
You may have heard the word “slot” mentioned in conversations about casino games with friends, or when that youtuber you love to watch talks about his strategies. It is often used to refer to a specific machine, but it can also be used to describe a feature or a type of bonus in an online slot game.
The most common use of the term slot is to refer to a pay table. The pay table for a slot game lists the payouts that players can expect to receive if the symbols on the pay lines line up correctly. Originally, these tables were printed directly on the machine’s face; today, they are usually displayed on the game screen (for physical machines) or embedded into the help menu for video and online slots.
The pay tables for slot games are typically arranged in columns or rows and coloured boxes indicate how many symbols are required to trigger each payout. Each machine has a different paytable, but most have a theme that is aligned with the overall design of the game. Some classic symbols include bells, fruits, stylized lucky sevens, and other objects that match the theme. Today’s slot games can offer paylines in multiple directions, and some even include special symbols like wilds that can substitute for other icons to create winning combinations.