One of the most enjoyable ways to spend some free time is playing games and there are lots of ways to do it. Some people favour the convenience of hopping onto the internet to play, while others prefer to play games the old-fashioned physical way at special gaming venues.
A lot of popular games are available in both online and offline form. Take slot machines for example. They can be found in any digital casino and are also a standard feature of land-based casinos.
There are differences between them though. For one thing, there are many more online slots than offline ones, so players have a wider choice when it comes to themes. Online ones also often give players better odds of winning than the physical machines, so there can be distinct advantages to choosing them beyond simple convenience.
You will need to know what all of the various features mean before starting to play though, which is what this article will cover.
The Theme
The theme of an online slot is simply the subject matter, but some do a better job of developing and maintaining their themes throughout the play than others. In the case of the best slots, the theme is not just a gimmick, but is a fully-fledged story that plays out.
An example of just such an online slot is the Sweet Bonanza one. Here the theme is mining and the video graphics depict a tale of miners working to uncover precious jewels in a harsh, but beautiful landscape. The typical slot play interacts with that story as you help them to find the gems by spinning the reels.
A theme is a way to make the standard format of a slot game more interesting and to exploit the ability to create HD video graphics for the games now.
The Pay Table
This can be found to the side of the main game grid featuring the reels. It is smart to study the pay table prior to starting the play, because it contains useful information.
It will show you all of the reel icons and tell you the value of each one, which can greatly impact on the scale of any payout you win. It will also tell you how you go about triggering any bonus rounds there are and how to play those rounds if they come up.
If the pay table for a slot does not have that detailed information it is a bit of a red flag. It could be worth switching to one that does instead.
The Bonus Icons
Every slot game has reel icons, but not all of them have bonus icons. These are ones that serve specific purposes within the game and they are always beneficial to the player.
Standard bonus icons are a Scatter and a Wild. In the Bonanza slot, the Scatter is the gold nugget icon and the Wild is the TNT one. Scatter icons trigger free spins that can potentially bring about matching lines and payouts. Wilds fill in for missing icons to complete those matching lines, so the value of both is clear.
They will help you when playing and slots that feature them are always more popular than those that do not. That is because they increase the winning odds.
The Mechanics
A slot will always have a set of pay lines to one side of the screen. A player can choose how many they want to bet on, but the more they bring into play the better their winning chances become.
There are also minimum and maximum bets for each slot. Bets can be adjusted at any point by using the ‘stake value’ button. Most games do not let players try for the jackpot without betting the maximum though.
Again, the more popular slots tend to be ones with a decent betting range, because they suit people on differing budgets. Online slots are run on Random Number Generator tech, which guarantees that the results of each spin are arbitrary.
Beyond these basic game mechanics, some slots deploy additional tech to make them more appealing to consumers. For example, the Bonanza game uses Megaways tech to give players 117,649 potential ways to win.
Others use Cascading Reels to similar effect. Slot games that do this are almost always the most widely-played at casino sites simply because the chances of winning money on them are a lot better.
The Bonus Round
If a slot has a Scatter icon, it is a clear sign that there is a bonus round. They are great features because they add another level to the play and they can be lucrative.
There are some features that every slot has and other ones that only the very best slots have.