Slot Terminology For Professionals
Slot terminology is important if you are a new comer to the game of slots, even professionals will find these slot terms helpful in their everyday slot playing life.
1) Pay Table
This is a part of the machine that will display and tell the player if he won by hitting a specific combinations of the winning symbols. Also from the pay table, the player can determine how much he will receive if he gets a winning combination or combinations. The pay table is placed at the right side of the slot machine or can be found on the menu bar if the player is playing online.
2) Stops
The stop, from the word itself, is anywhere that the reel will stop. The reel can stop on the symbols or even between symbols, if the reel stops between symbols it is called "blanks". On a machine the number of stops will identify the number of losing and winning combinations.
3) Symbols
The pictures on the reels that the player will see are the symbols. It can be any pictures like animals, fruits, pyramids, specific theme of the machine, cherry, money sign, numbers, boat or any kind of pictures.
4) Payback Percentage
This is the amount that the slot machine can pay the playing customers in the form of percentage. For example, a 96% payback percentage means that on average the machine will return $96 for every $100 wagered.
5) Hold Percentage
The Hold Percentage is the exact opposite of the Payback Percentage. Taken from the example above, from the $100 that the player wager's the hold back percentage of the machine would be at 4%. Every time the player will play at that slot machine, the casino will automatically hold 4% of the player's wager money.
6) Progressive Ticker or Progressive Meter
This is where the player will see how much the jackpot of the machine is if it is a progressive type of slot machine. At this time, all slots are progressive already. The machines are hooked up to computer systems that keep record of all the wagered money from the interconnected machines. The more money the player wagers the higher the jackpot potential of the slot machine. If a player gets a perfect winning combination, he can win millions of dollar depending on the machine system used.
7) RNG or Random Number Generator
This is computer based number generator that determines a random number with each turn or pull of the lever. This ensures that the game remains completely unpredictable as the random number generators can produce literally millons of unpredictable number patters.
8) Reel
This is the name of the wheel inside the maching that has symbols on it and it is placed inside the slot machine. In the good old days, machines had three reels, some of todays variants have up to seven or more reels.
9) Mechanical Slots
This refers to the traditional slot machine known as the one armed bandit. These machines have actual reels in them and function using internal gears and levers to move the reels.
10) Video Slots
Video Slots can be found on the internet. It features virtual reels and offers the widest variety of available options as the programmers can create virtually any type of slot game desired.