Beginners Guide to Online Slots

January 13, 2012

Many people who are new to playing online slots, even if they have a history of playing casino slots, can find the learning curve a little steep at first. In this short article we will take a look at the features which make up online slot gameplay, from a new players perspective.

The first thing which new online slots players need to learn about is the concept of win lines. A win line is any line formed across, down or even diagonally on all visible symbols on every reel. So if an online slot has 5 reels, with 5 visible symbols on each real, the number of possible win lines is 5x5 = 25. However, to activate additional win lines the player will have to increase their wager to pay for opening up the extra win lines.

When the reels spin in, there are three possible outcomes. The first outcome is a total loss. The second outcome is a fix win, such as spinning in 5 of the same symbol on one of the active win lines. The third outcome is the activation of some type of bonus feature. A bonus feature can be considered as a kind of sub-game within the main online slot game. These bonus features are intended to be fully interactive, fun features which offer a chance to win cash in alternative ways. One common theme is that the bonus feature will often pay out in freespins. A freespin is free credit to be used in the current gaming session and the freespins are only available on the online slot you are currently playing.

The big money comes in the form of jackpot payouts. There are two main types of online slot jackpots. The first of these is the fixed jackpot. The jackpot is set at a fixed figure, and can be won at any time during the play session and then is reset. The second type of jackpot is known as a progressive jackpot. A progressive jackpot will payout a much higher amount, quite often more than a million dollars. The reason for such a high payout is that the online slot is usually (but not always) part of a progressive jackpot network across dozens, sometimes hundreds of other online slots, which all share the same jackpot pool. As more cash is wagered across the entire network, then the progressive jackpot pool is added to. Eventually, a lucky online slots player will win the progressive jackpot and it resets to zero.

This has been a very broad description of several of the fundamental features on online slots. In the coming weeks we will take a more in depth look at each of these in future articles.

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