Patterns: All slot machine results move in random statistical trends. It does not matter what type of slot machine you play, it is the same in all slot machines. If you recognize the trend of a specific slot machine and then play hard on the upside, then get away fast in the down trend. Pay attention to lucky streaks, etc., as they can help determine the trend on the slot machine. Do not play a bad trend, you will lose.

Pay Cycle: Many slot machine players believe that after so many coins have been deposited into the slot machine, the machine must pay out – thus the casino meets its percentage payout. However, this number is usually met after thousands of plays, so calculating when it is supposed to pay out is practically impossible. 

Pay for Play Machines: Usually one, two, or three coin option slot machines, they have staggered payoffs that are higher the more coins you play. 

Pay-line: This is usually the line in the middle of the slot machines that the reels line up against – it determines if you have won or not. In a multi-line slot machine, the pay line can be straight across, up and down, etc.

Pay Table: This is the section on the front of the slot machine that will show you how much you will win for each combination. It also informs you if there are bonus features on the slot machine or not.

Payback Percentage: The amount of money a slot machine plays back to its players. It is in relation to the amount of money the slot machine players have put in.

Payout Percentage: The measurement of a slot machine, it calculates the number of times a given set of symbols occurs in the computer selection table times its particular coin payout. The payouts are then added up and divided by the total possible combinations. In the long run, it is the amount of money the slot machine will return to the player. 

Plow: The term for putting the winnings back into the slot machine. 

Poker Machine: Also known as a “pokie,” it is the name for a slot machine in Australia.

Pokie: See poker machine.

Primary Jackpot: The biggest amount you can win on a slot machine based on their table.

Progressive Jackpot: A slot machine that grows as money is put in. The more money that goes into the slot machine, the more money you win when you hit the primary jackpot. There is the individual progressive jackpot that is determined by just the slot machine you are playing, or the multiple progressive jackpot, which is several slot machines linked together to add to one main jackpot. 

Progressive Meter: See progressive ticker. 

Progressive Ticker: Shows how much the progressive jackpot on a slot machine is worth, it is also known as a Progressive Meter. 

Progressive Slots: See Progressive Jackpot.  

Published Payouts: Overall payouts that are published by a state’s gaming board, players will read these to find out where the best payouts are for slot machines.  

Random Number Generator (RNG):  This lies at the heart of the slot machine, perhaps better described as its brain. It is a computer chip inside the slot machine that randomly selects hundreds of numbers and symbols every second. When the machine is played, the RNG captures a number sequence and that determines the winner.

Reels:  These are the wheels that display the symbol combinations. There usually are three, but some slots have five.

Reel: The wheel within the slot machine that has the symbols on it that determine the win.  

Rhythm Play: A strategy that some slot machine players use to control the slot machine’s reel, it says that a player can get a winning combination through skill and timing.

RNG: See Random Number Generator.

Rollup: When a slot machine hits, it is the sound made to announce it while the slot machine meters add up the amount won.

Scatter Pay: These slot machines will reward you even if you just have one symbols somewhere in the window.

Second Screens: Only found on video slot machines, when you hit a bonus on the slot machine your screen will fade to a secondary bonus screen. 

Session: The amount of time a slot machine player allows themselves to play the slot machine. They must have an end time or they will continue to play until they have no more money. 

Short Pay: When a slot machine only pays out part of the winnings of the slot machine as there isn’t enough money in the hopper. A slot machine attendant will pay the winner the remaining money.

Short Win:  A large jackpot win after a small cash outlay. 

Sizzling Slots: A slot machine that has a very high payout rate.  

Slant Top Slot: Commonly referred to as a low level slot machine, it has a stool so that players can sit and play.

Slot Club: A club that slot machine players can join that keeps track of how often they play the slot machines. The card that the player receives is then put into the slot machine and it keeps track of wins and losses, as well as how much the slot machine player plays. They will then earn rewards for playing.

Slot Machine: Also known as a poker machine, a fruit machine, a pokie, etc., it is a traditionally coin operated machine that has three or more reels that spin when a lever is pulled or a button is pushed. They have a currencty detector that validates the amount of money put into the machine, and it pays off based on the symbols on the reels and how they line up. Most slot machines make up roughly 70% of a casinos income.  

Slot Placement: The way the casino sets up their slot machines on the casino floor.  

Slot Schedule: This is information posted on the front of slot that discloses what type of slot, denomination, and win amounts possible for each coin played. 

Slot Testing: Trying to determine what the possible payout percentage of a slot machine is by playing through a single roll of coins at one slot machine.  

Slot Tournament: Club members can play slot machine tournaments against other slot machine players for a larger jackpot. They do not use coins, and the tournaments are usually free. The prizes and payouts are determined by how much a player wins on his individual slot machine.  

Slot-Mix: Also known as slot placement, it means that usually the loosest slot machines are placed in high-traffic areas where passersby's can see other players winning often; it encourages others to play the slot machines as well. 

Slots: Nickname for slot machines. 

Slots Drop: The amount of money played into a slot machine. 

Slots Hold: amount not paid out as wins; these two numbers determine slot's payout percentage.  

Slot-aholic Pain: This comes from staying too long at one machine.

Slot Talk:  The information traded between players, a good way to improve slots knowledge.

Sound of Rain:  The coins dropping into the holder after a payout.

Spooning: An illegal method of playing a slot machine, the device resembles a spoon in nature, and it confuses the slot machine’s coin counter so that it pays out more than it should. 

Sputtering Slot: See sizzling slots. 

Stand Up Slot: Commonly referred to as an upright slot machine is involved standing instead of sitting at the slot machine. 

Static: The opposite of a progressive slot machine, it is a payout that is previously determined and never changes. 

Stops: The white space between the symbols on the reel, also known as Ghosts.  

Straight Slots: You spend a fixed sum into the slot machine and are guaranteed a win. 

Stringing: Another form of cheating the slot machine, players use a coin or token on a string and they put the coin in the slot machine and then pull it out so that they can keep playing for free.

Symbols: The fruit, etc. that appear on the slot machine reels.

Take Cycle: The slot machine will not payout until it has reached the number of coins that it is supposed to have taken in. Sometimes it will pay out smaller jackpots, but it will not pay out the big one until it reaches its quota.

Theoretical Hold Worksheet:  The worksheet that comes with the slot machine, it gives the casino the reel strip settings, how much the slot machine should hold based on adequate levels of coin-in, the number of coins that can be played in the slot machine, and the number of reels.

Tight Slot: A slot machine that does not pay out much.

Tilt: It is a common term meaning that there is an error with the slot machine.

Token: Looks similar to a coin, and it is played in a slot machine the same way.  

Trends: See patterns.  

Two-Armed Bandits: Slot machine hustlers, they try to swindle new slot machine players.

Up/Down Slot Cycle:  All slots are required by law to pay off a certain percentage over a specified period, possible as long as one year. Therefore, a slot with a 98 percent payoff rate will pay off at 130 percent sometimes and 50 percent at other times. The lower percentages indicate a down cycle and the higher number an up cycle. This also is known as a “Sizzling” or “Sputtering” slot.

Upright: See stand up slot machine. 

Video Machines: Mandated in Minnesota, they are very similar to a slot machine. There is a video screen instead of spinning reels and as a rule just not as popular as regular slot machines. As more types of video machines become available, that may change, but those that look just like regular slot machines only with a video reel instead of a real one have never taken off.  

Vigorish: See hold or house edge.

Weigh Count: The way that the coins or tokens from the slot machines are calculated, they use a weigh scale to see how much is there.  

Well: The area at the bottom of a slot machine where the coins pay out, also known as the bin. 

Wild Symbol: This is like a joker only for slot machines; it can act as any symbol on the slot machine. 

Window: This can refer to either the open area on the front of the slot machine that shows the reels, or the area that shows how many credits are in the slot machine.  

Winning Combinations: The specific order of symbols on the front of the slot machine that will trigger a payout. It can be three cherries, two cherries and a grape, whatever the slot machine is set up for.

Slot Machine Terms:   A-D | E-O | P-Z

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