How to Play Slots

Slot game is easy to play when familiar with
the game buttons and options

Slot game is very easy to master if the player is familiar with all the game options and knows which buttons are used to choose the betting amount, paylines, make bet or activate the slots reels. No matter what type of the game you play and how much you are going to spend during the play (your bankroll) the procedure of slot game is always the same. If you visit the real casino and are not sure about the game rules or payouts, feel free to ask the casino employee how to play slots. However, if you play slots online, you can learn complete rules of slot machines at SlotsDoc.com.

Slots Rules

Before starting to play and risking money you must decide on your bankroll which is in fact amount of gambling dollars you are ready and can afford to wager or lose on slot games. The second and very important step is to select “appropriate” slot machine with high payback percentage and coin denomination that suits your overall bankroll. This is crucial if you don’t want to lose all you have in a moment and wish to “stretch” your cash. Today casinos offer many themed slots of different types that is why you can select the game that is really pleasant to play, with great images, animation and sounds. After you decide on a slot machine, it is time to play. These are the basic rules of playing real casino slot machines (installed at land gambling halls) and online slots:

Slot Machine Technology

The main feature of slot games which distinguishes slots from other casino games is, of course, spinning reels. The reels on slot machines stop on their own or by pushing the Stop button (this is the so-called skill stop option), the period of spins and time of stop are influenced by a RNG which generates random numbers determining the game results. When the reels stop, the symbols on the lines player bet on are compared to the winning payline patterns in the game paytable. In case of a match the win is calculated and paid out. The amount of a win is the value of a bet per line times the winning amount in the paytable.

Modern slot machines and online slots use different number of symbols on the reels. It influences the number of possible combinations that can occur during the game and thus affects the player winning odds. Here are several examples of 3-reel and 5-reel slots with different number of symbols on the reels. You can see how the number of possible combinations in the game depends on the number of symbols on each reel.

However, modern technologies allow to increase the player odds by offering a great variety of bonuses, special substitute symbols and paylines which substantially influence the game results. Today the player may try 3-reel classic slots with up to 5 paylines and 5-reel video slots with the number of paylines from 1 to 100! Casino comps can be also counted as a great benefit and additional chance to save up money for playing and to decrease losses.

Player can choose any denomina-
tion to play at slots

Slot machines usually offer different coin denominations from $.01 to $100.00. These are multi-denomination slot machines which allow the player to choose any coin denomination they want to play rather than always bet the set amount. Multi-denomination slots have extra +/- button by pushing which the player increases or decreases the coin denomination. These machi­nes automatically calculate the number of credits to pay out in exchange for cash. Large slot machines which offer to bet $5, $10 or more on one line are often for high-rollers and are usually placed in special casino areas.

Slots Paylines

Slots payline can be defined as a line (straight or zig-zagged) that crosses one symbol on each reel and is what players bet on; or the combination of symbols on the slot machine reels for getting which the player is paid out in case he has made bet on that combination. For ease paylines are usually depicted in the form of standard patterns in the paytable. Let’s consider an example of payline patterns of free slot machine game available at SlotsDoc.com. This is 5-reel video slot game with 25 paylines which means that the player can bet on 1 to 25 paylines and get paid out for 1-25 combinations that occur on the reels.

For better understanding of the slots paylines let’s consider the examples of winning combinations on the reels and payline patterns from the paytable they correspond to.

Payline Patterns

There are 25 standard paylines used in most 5-reel slot games. As you see, slot paylines can be lines of different directions: straight, zigzagged, diagonal, vertical or horizontal. To be easily distinguished each payline is marked with a definite color.

The examples below show how the paylines look like on the reels. Moreover, all the combinations you can see on the slot game reels are winning as they contain sequences of at least 2 matching symbols starting from the first reel.

If you wish to try online slot games with different number of reels and paylines we suggest you using our slots catalog. Choose slot games by type, software or theme and play online for free or real money.