Casino Slots

Whether you play casino slots in a real-world venue or an online casino there can often be a bewildering array to choose from and, at first glance, casino slot machines may all seem to be alike. Bar an obvious difference, such as having three of five reels, one casino slot machine can appear much like any other casino slot. But if you want to get the most out of these machines it's valuable to know the different types of casino slot you might encounter and how to assess their features to choose which to play.

Coin Values For Casino Slot Machines

Whether playing real-world or online casino slot games you'll find variations in the coin value needed for each play - it's not uncommon to find one particular model of casino slot offered in versions that play for different value credits. Naturally the higher the cost of each play on a certain casino slot machine the larger a jackpot you can expect to be playing for.

With online casino slots you can't play the 'wrong' coin, but be aware of this error with real casino slots. If you find a casino slot machine keeps spitting out the coins you're feeding it , it's pretty likely that that slot needs a higher denomination coin! Believe us, it happens!

The Casino Slot's Paytable

All casino slot machines will have a 'paytable' legend either on their fascias or, more commonly with online casino slots, that can be displayed onscreen at the users request. The paytable is where you can read which combinations of symbols that casino slot / online casino slot will payout, and how much each combination is worth if it shows up on an active payline. Some paytables are more generous that others with respect to the credit value per play, so learn to read these to make sure you're getting the best bets when playing a real-world or online casino slot.

Multiple Payline Casino Slots

These casino slot games allow more than one payline to be in play on every spin. With multiplayline casino slots each additional payline a player wants in play slots costs an extra coin per spin so, for example, if you want three paylines to be active you need to deposit three coins in that machine. Traditional mechanical reel slots could manage three paylines, but modern video versions can have many more with some online casino slot games boasting fifteen or more! Indeed online casino slots like WagerWorks' Multi-Strike machines boast sixty lines across three sets of reels on the one screen... that's a helluva lot of paylines to choose from these hip-shaking, Elvisly yours casino slot machines!

Multipliers and Bonus Multipliers on Casino Slots

These are symbols unique to a specific casino slot machine that pay the player a multiple of the coins they staked for that spin. For example if one coin earns you ten back for getting three 'multipliers' on a casino slot's payline, two coins will earn you twenty back. The bonus multiplier is a variation of this that adds a further bonus payout to reward a player staking the maximum number of coins that casino slot will allow per spin. In the previous example this would mean that (assuming the machine has a maximum stake of three coins per play) the payout for hitting the jackpot would be much higher than the thirty coins you would expect without the bonus feature.

Progressive Jackpot Casino Slots

These are the casino slot machines that every casino slots' player dreams of hitting the jackpot on! See our separate article on these machines for more details, but in essence these are casino slot games that grow their headline jackpots with a percentage of every stake played through them. This 'progressive' mechanism means this format of casino slot machine can end up with simply staggering jackpots - multi-million pound payouts are not unknown - that can drop on a single spin. (By the way don't expect to find free casino slots with progressive jackpots on offer for obvious reasons... no pots going to be built if no real-money stakes are being bet!)

Free Casino Slots

Free casino slots may seem too good to be true, but they do exist, particularly in the realm of online casino slots! Part of the appeal of playing online casino slots is that most machines (bar progressive jackpot machines) have a 'for fun' (or 'demo') mode which lets players enjoy all their features for free. You won't win any real cash from an online casino slot in its 'free' mode, but the thrill of a winning spin is still present and it's an excellent way to learn that casino slot's features before committing to playing it with real money. We'd recommend anyone new to casino slots to take advantage of these freeplay modes to ensure they're comfortable playing them.