Online Slots

Online slot machines are a natural evolution from their mechanical ancestors. Some casinos still have the old-fashioned mechanical reel machines which are activated by pulling the lever of the venerable “one-arm bandit.” Two generations ago, Bally invented the first electro-mechanical slot machine, using integrated circuits. Later high-resolution graphics and realistic sound effects mimicked well the reels and wheels of the older types. With the coming of the Internet, it was not a large leap to highly realistic and entertaining “virtual” slot machines that anyone can access and play for hours online.

Many of the online machines are just animated versions of older, recognizable designs. Many others are brand new creations. Some try to involve a plot or story, perhaps using images from a popular adventure movie on the face of the machine and in the reels. All of them use the same basic math. The probabilities and payout tables will vary from machine to machine, but the approach is the same: symbols (like fruit or logos or other icons) appear in windows, which represent the visible portions of virtual “reels.” In the old machines, the symbols occurred one or more times on one or more of the reels, and this determined the probability that they would appear in the window when the lever was pulled. Online, the probabilities are set specifically by programs, and a random number generator produces the specific outcomes. Different patterns in the windows (like “three cherries”) will pay a certain number of credits. Players have the option to wager between one and some higher number of credits, usually 5, and this affects the number of credits paid back when a winning combination occurs. Since 1996 most machines in brick-and-mortar casinos offer a bonus round, in which a winning player can play another game to add to winnings, at an additional risk. This was very easy to program into the online slot machines. Most online slots are set to return around $95 in winnings for every $100 the customer loses.