Online Slots FAQ

In the mid-1990s the slot machine made the leap to cyberspace. The very first web based casino was Internet Casino. There you could find most of the games players still love today, although they've gotten a lot more sophisticated and varied since then. The first slot machines online looked pretty much the way they did in real life - minus the side arm land based players pulled to make the wheels rotate. In its place was the "spin" button you now see online.

When you open an account at any of the online casinos we list, you will have your own cashier section where you can upload money privately and securely. Although each casino accepts deposits in various ways, they do not all accept each of the available methods. If you have a preferred method of uploading funds, make sure that the site you choose to use works with that system. Most sites allow deposits from a bank account, credit cards or from various online e-wallets such as PayPal and Skrill(Moneybookers). When you’re dealing with your hard earned money, put in the research first.

A welcome bonus is a monetary award that online casinos give new players for joining and uploading funds. The amount of the bonus varies from one site to another. We look for the online casinos that offer the very best welcome bonuses, as well as those who make it easy to get the reward.

No. Most of the online casinos have a no-download instant play option where you can choose the practice mode to play. This gives you the same great playing experience so you can learn new games, master the paylines and understand the rules before taking a chance with real money. Remember though, you have to play for real cash to win for real, there’s no shortcuts!

No. Some online casinos are strictly software based, and you must download their software or app to play the games. Some, however, offer browser based options. These offer the same ability to open an account, deposit money, and play the games. They are also great for players looking to use mobile devices and Mac operating systems.

This is where the jackpot accumulates value every time it is played. This can be a progressive jackpot involving a single game, or may be linked to multiple slot machines in the online casino, all having one combined jackpot award. This means one thing - huge real money jackpots!

The payline is a line that extends from one side of the slot window to the other. When the wheels stop spinning, the icons under the payline must match in a particular order. Unlike the earliest versions of slot machines, however, the modern slot machines do not just have a single center payline that runs straight across the face of the window. The payline can have many different geometric shapes, zigzagging across the screen through the three icons. Betting on more than one payline greatly increases your odds of winning.

Free spins are extra perks that online casinos throw in so players can get an extra chance to win. The number of free spins and how they are awarded vary from one online casino to the next.

The paytable is a chart showing how much you will win on a bet of a certain value for each particular payline. Every online slot machine has a paytable unique to its patterns, so be sure to study it before beginning to play.

Look for the scatter symbol details on each slots machine you play. Scatter symbols have various meanings depending on the game, and in some cases even different meanings depending on where they show up. You get different bonuses from a scatter symbol depending on how many appear in a payline, and sometimes they even earn extra bonuses just for showing up anywhere on the board. Those bonuses could be anything from free spins to extra bonus winnings.

A wild symbol is separate from the scatter symbol. It is a designated icon that is a wild card, and can fill out any winning payline. You might want to keep your notepad nearby with all the information readily available, there’s a lot to keep track of on some slots.

Slot machines are games of chance in which a Random Number Generator (RNG) is rapidly picking random numbers that correspond to game outcomes. You interact with the game by wagering a bet, which gives you the opportunity to engage a mechanism that instructs the game to take a snapshot of the current random number.

The game reveals the outcome associated with that random number through audio and video cues. If the game's paytable defines the outcome as a winner, the game credits you with a respective win amount predetermined by the paytable. You can then repeat the cycle by wagering another bet.

They are at our recommended top sites. Game fairness is one of the attributes of the best online slots sites, and we're sticklers about sites using fair Random Number Generators (RNGs). That means a site's RNGs are validated and certified by third-party auditors recognized worldwide like GLI (Gaming Laboratories International) or eCOGRA (eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance).

They can, and that's why it's important to play only at sites licensed in strong regulatory jurisdictions. Strong licenses set boundaries on a permissible slots payout percentage, which measures how much return you can expect when playing a site's online slots. Better sites tend to exhibit higher transparency by publishing this metric. And you can be sure that our top picks are well-licensed organizations.

Class III slots are probably the kind you're more familiar with. Also referred to as "Vegas slots", class III games employ an RNG that randomly selects random numbers corresponding to predetermined payouts. You play class III slots by placing a bet and telling the game to take an instantaneous snapshot of the current RNG random number and display the payout it represents. Class III games run independently of each other. It's just you and the RNG.

Class II slots are connected to a single serve that determines outcomes in a way similar to Bingo where there is only one winner per outcome. In this case, you're playing against other players for winning outcomes each spin.

Yes. UK fruit machines provide a certain amount of control over the reels by randomly giving you the opportunity to either hold one or more reels at their initial values, or nudge one or more reels to adjacent symbols to wind up with a better outcome.

Fruit machines also provide a bonus board or bonus trail feature that comes into play at random intervals. The board/trail looks a bit like a racetrack of squares that are quickly lit and unlit as though a vehicle were traveling around the track. You attempt to stop the game when the most lucrative square is lit, and are rewarded whatever bonus the lit square describes.

Another striking fruit machine feature is the cash ladder in which symbols arranged vertically are rapidly lit and unlit successively, and your goal is to stop the action when the highest symbol is lit, which corresponds to the highest real cash win.

While it might be a secret to some, it's really just common sense. You need to play at the best sites with the highest payout percentages, because the chance of winning jackpots figures into that percentage. But it's also important to understand whether your wager even makes you eligible for a jackpot win. On some games, you must bet the maximum wager in order to win the jackpot. Don't disqualify yourself inadvertently by not meeting any potential minimum jackpot wager.

One would need to examine the software to know for sure. But there are a couple of useful rules of thumb. For example, less complicated games often have better odds than their more complicated counterparts. You'll also see better odds on games played at higher denominations.

All games are recommended at the best online casinos. That said, slots tend to have higher house edges than the best bets on other casino games. But for some people, slots are just plain more fun. And there's no question that no other game can give you such huge wins for relatively small bets.

No. Online casinos wish to serve as large an international audience as possible, which immediately renders the notion of time of day irrelevant.

You most surely can. And great real money mobile options are multiplying by the minute, especially at the top sites that we recommend. Login via your mobile in real money mode as you would elsewhere, and play to your heart's content - and hopefully your wallet's benefit!

You would have to have intimate access to the RNG software itself. In normal circumstances, the RNG is picking numbers far more quickly than human reflexes could ever take advantage of. And even if the Terminator were playing, the fact that the numbers are truly random nullifies the possibility of cheating the RNG.

No. The amount you deposit influences only the value of any matching bonuses you sign up for. However, once you've deposited real money, the amount you bet can influence a slot game by unlocking game features available only at higher wager levels. This is especially true on progressives, where a maximum is almost always required to hit the progressive.

Sure. Different casinos carry different titles and can adjust their payouts within the ranges specified by their licenses. However, the same titles made by the same game developer will have the same kinds of symbols, lines, features, and so on.

Slots volatility refers to a combination of a slot's payout frequency and the difference between its lowest and highest payouts. High and low volatile slots appeal to different kinds of players.

For example, a highly volatile slot doesn't payout often - but when it does, it's huge. You'll experience large runs of losing clicks followed by something big and beautiful. A low volatility slot, on the other hand, has more frequent wins per clicks, but the wins are modest at best. Your chances of hitting it big on a low volatility slot are small compared to a highly volatile slot.

First, they're simple. All you have to do is bet and tell the game when to select a random outcome. Second, slots developers put a lot of thought into the kinds of features that will attract and engage players. That includes showing you outcomes in and around your payline outcomes that are oh so close to bigger wins, motivating you to give it another go.

The pros tend to prefer more challenging games in which strategy truly matters. Or, better yet, games whose outcome is genuinely the result of skill, such as in poker. Plus, being a pro implies making a living from playing, and that implies giving the house the least amount of edge. Games like Roulette, Blackjack, Craps, and Baccarat all provide bets with lower house edge than slots. Even playing video poker with a strategy gives pros a better chance of winning in the long run.

Laws on owning a slot machine depends on local laws of where you are.

In Canada, it is legal across the country to possess your own machine. However, unless you are in possession of the correct gaming license the machine must be deactivated – meaning it’s largely okay for collectors who are not running their own casino.

In the USA, whether deactivated or not, there are certain states where owning a slot machine is banned outright. These states are Alabama, Connecticut, Hawaii, Indiana, Nebraska, New Mexico, South Carolina, Tennessee and Wisconsin. Though they are banned in these nine states, the laws are more open in the other forty-one.

Yes, though it depends on the circumstances.

In the areas of the world where it is legal to purchase slot machines, it is just as legal to buy them pre-owned – in fact, some places (such as the US states of Florida and Delaware) require machines to be at least 20 years old before they’re purchased, making buying exclusively preowned machines a necessity.

However, as is the case in buying anything pre-owned, you run the risk of having the machine plagued with issues. It’s worth ensuring a slot machine is in working order before committing to buy a pre-owned model, unless you’re capable of fixing it.

Yes – but you should always check on the website.

Most online slots should give you information of payout percentages for each slot before you commit your bet to your spin – this will give you an idea of how much you are set to make from a successful spin. The payout percentage shows how much of your winnings will go to you as your payout, with the remainder returning to profit the casino.

Free slots generally don’t display their payout percentages – because the money involved isn’t real, there would be no point.

Despite the name, random number generators are not completely random.

These random number generators, especially those used in online casino games, work via a pre-programmed list of possible numerical outcomes. This is referred to as pseudo-random, as opposed to real life casinos, dice rolls and lottery tickets that are truly random.

In pseudo-random number generators, the outcome is chosen from a huge list of predetermined numbers. For example, if you were to roll a dice in a random number generator, the outcome would be the next number in the sequence rather than a completely random outcome.

It absolutely depends on the slot you’re betting on.

Usually, the maximum bet is closely relative to the amount of reels the slot has, as well of the nature of the machine itself – that is to say, a $1 slot machine with three reels will likely have a maximum bet of only $3 at a time, with larger slots generally allowing larger bets. All online slots should indicate how much is the maximum you’re allowed to bet for each reel, so it’s always worth checking at the source.

Slot machines are by far one of the easiest and most straight forward games to play in casinos. The basics are as follows:

1. Input the credits you would like to play with. If you’re playing real money slots, this will come from your online wallet.
2. This is the betting stage. Choose the amount of credit you would like to gamble on this spin, up to the 'max bet' allowed. Some players bet the maximum every time to increase their payout on wins, but you might want to use a lower amount to help your bankroll last longer.
3. Next, spin the reels. After making your bet, there’ll be an option to pull the virtual lever as you watch the reels spin. Here’s hoping!
4. The outcome will be based on the images in the reels, and a win on any of them will result in a multiplier of your original bet. Make sure to check out the casino’s table of which images result in what wins, which should be posted alongside the slot.

Yes! Given how lucrative and popular the Game of Thrones franchise has been in recent years, it would be a surprise if there wasn’t an online slot tie-in for the series. Microgaming’s Game of Thrones slots has the great music and aesthetics that the show has received such high praise for, and unlike the show itself, you have the added benefit of nobody gruesomely dying!

Absolutely, but not just one.

As big and popular a franchise as Marvel comics, video games and especially their recent domination of the movie industry are, the media franchise has also spawned its fair share of online slot games. Created on the Wagerlogic online slot platform, there are Spiderman Revelations, Fantastic Four and Sub-Mariner just to name a few. The name recognition, as well as the high-polish and bright colors of these games, have contributed to these games being some of the most popular online slots around.

The use of fruit images and symbols in slot machines come from a tradition in physical slots stretching back one hundred years ago.

Older slot machines, to circumnavigate anti-gambling laws in the early 20th century, were marketed as “Chewing Gum Dispensers” – and instead of giving out payouts in cash, the player was rewarded with flavored chewing gum. The fruit images were indicative of the flavor of chewing gum that could be won – cherries meant cherry flavor gum for example. This tradition continued after the laws were abolished, and the use of fruit imagery is a nod to gambling history on the part of the manufacturer.

New online slots are created constantly, tying into popular existing franchises or based on original or generic concepts. Each new slot machine has its own flavor, style, music and payout – some are of dazzling high quality while others are barely playable. Some online slots even have minigame cutaways between spins, so that they’re not simply a matter of betting and spinning – and some are the basic three-reel spins that you may be used to.

Either way, with the huge concentration of online slots that there are, there’ll likely be one out there in the vastness of the internet that’ll be your game.

We hope that this FAQ page has helped provide you with the answers you need to play online slots with confidence. If you have any further questions, please contact us via email at info@onlineslots.com