Slots

The most common slots are single pay line machines with the pay line horizontal across the center of the symbol windows. Get a row of winning symbols on this line when the reels stop spinning and you have some money coming back.

Single pay line machines will prominently display the message All Pays on Center Line Only. Among every group of slots, you will find several which seem identical in appearance until you take a closer look and see that, instead of a single line, these machines may have three pay lines or more.

The three liners are popular among many slot players because they appear to offer three times as many winning chances. Not so!

When the biggest payout increases with the volume of play, we call it a progressive slot. In progressives the accent is on the jackpot. Over a given number of pay cycles, the total payback, including the jackpot, will meet the manufacturers specified percentages and thus comply with gaming regulations. On that basis alone, you can guess that the return from regular play is going to be less than on most other types of slots.

A lot of money has been won on stand-alone progressive slots in the past using the jackpot measurement theory. To all practical purposes, the rationale is alive and well today and applies to a greater or lesser extent to all types of progressive machines.