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In a recent article, we here at Everygame Casino Red listed a general online casino gaming glossary of terms. As we were researching that article, we noticed that there are a lot of terms that are exclusive to slots. So, we decided to accumulate a glossary of slots terms.
All-way Slots
These are slots with so many ways to win that some casinos and game providers use this term to describe them. In fact, there are a very large fixed number of ways to win. A decade or so ago 243 ways to win was introduced. Today there are slots that in some configurations have over 1000 ways to win!
Bonus Round
This is an extra round that usually includes free spins. The bonus round feature is usually triggered by three or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. The bonus rounds also usually have extra winning methods such as multipliers and many others.
Cascading Reels
This is an innovation in which when a spin results in a win, the winning lines cascade down and are replaced by new symbols and characters which may also result in a win.
Characters
Modern slots have characters and symbols. The characters tell the “story” that the slot is trying to tell. A slot about ancient Egypt will have characters that are consistent with ancient Egypt and not about ancient Mayan or Aztec culture.
The original slots had symbols but not characters. Creating interesting and meaningful characters is the challenge the top game developers face every month.
Classic Slots
This term has two meanings. The first is the three-reel slots with bars, cherries, and other symbols that were the only kinds of slots around for a few decades before slots took on themes and story lines.
The second meaning is slots that few gamers play. Online casinos such as Everygame Casino, can carry this type of classic slot since we have no space restrictions.
Land-based casinos that do all have space restrictions cannot carry slots that few players will play.
Color
Color has taken over slots in ways that the slots of yore could not imagine. Even as we carry many slots with subdued themes, we carry a lot of slots, especially slots that SpinLogic, our exclusive game provider, has developed in the last few years.
Slots enthusiasts love the colorful slots that reflect well on how much better graphics and animation have become in slots and in online casino games in general.
Expanding Wilds
This is another of the many ways that wild symbols help gamers win more. Expanding wilds simply grow to cover more than one space on the reels. Expanding wilds can expand to where they cover most of the reels and this create a lot of wins.
Exploding Wilds
In this variation of wild symbol action, a wild will explode on the reels sending out many other wilds that then occupy many spots on the reels.
Fixed Paylines
Some slots have a fixed number of paylines that gamers have to bet on. This does require more money on the part of gamers. Many slots allow gamers to choose which paylines to bet on or have relatively few paylines.
Free Play
Online casinos can afford to give free play to gamers while land-based casinos cannot allow players to play limited slots terminals for free.
Online casinos such as Everygame Casino offer free play for two main reasons. First, to help gamers play the casino’s games and also to keep responsible track of their monetary budget. The second main reason is to allow gamers to learn any game they are not familiar with at no risk.
This second reason also leads to the understanding that online casino gamers can play every game offered by the casino while land-based casino players normally play no more than a few games even in a long weekend.
Graphics and Animation
We mentioned graphics and animation in the entry on color. The advances in the technology for graphics and animation has simply exploded in recent years. We all know how good digital graphics and animation have become.
The improvements in graphics and animation have gone a very long way to making online casino gaming more fun and more entertaining than ever.
Free Spins
These are given in bonus rounds and in many online casino promotional offers. Some free spins offers call for many free spins on one or more specific slots.
Jackpot
This usually a very large sum of money that a gamer can win while playing slots. The best-known jackpots are the progressive jackpots. We talk about progressive jackpots at that entry.
There are also random jackpots. See random jackpots for more explanation.
Mobile
Casino gaming has gone from land-based only to land-based and online at a gamer’s desktop computer to laptop and now overwhelmingly to mobile on smartphones and tablets. Mobile has taken over casino gaming! The graphics and animation for mobile have improved so much that gamers find it comfortable, convenient, fun, and entertaining to play on Everygame Casino’s mobile platform.
Even some land-based casinos now offer a mobile platform in the hotel.
Multiplier
Many free spins bonuses add a multiplier to the wins. While most multipliers are less than 10x, some multipliers can reach very high multiples. Some bonus rounds offer gamers a choice between more free spins and a lower multiplier or fewer free spins and a higher multiplier.
Paylines
These are the combination of places on the reels that become winning paylines when like symbols or characters land on them. Some slots have fixed paylines.
Progressive Jackpots
The really big progressive jackpots are run by the game developers. The game developers have a much broader reach across the globe than even the largest online casino. They take a penny or two from every bet and the jackpot grows progressively.
In order to win the progressive jackpot, the gamer has to bet the maximum on the winning payline. It has happened that a jackpot winning combination came about but the gamer had not bet the maximum and this did not win the jackpot.
For many gamers, this rule makes playing a progressive jackpot slot somewhat expensive. We recommend budgeting your money wisely for all games and especially for progressive jackpot slots.
Random Jackpots
These jackpots are embedded in the individual games. Some slots that have random jackpot have three while some have four. The lowest random jackpot is small and the highest can be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Random Number Generator
This is software that produces “stops” on the reels at random. All slots at online and land-based casinos have random number generators. The key point here aside from the guaranteed randomness of all outcomes is that the random number generator can be calibrated in slots.
We have our game provider calibrate slots to return 96-97% of all wagers while land-based casinos have the RNG calibrated to return closer to 90%.
Return to Player Rate
As we said just above, online slots return a higher rate to gamers than land-based casinos do. See volatility.
Scatter Symbol
This is the symbol that brings gamers to the bonus round. It is called the scatter because it works anywhere on the reels while most wins have to start from the left-most reel.
Wild Symbol
The wild symbol replaces all other symbols and characters except the scatter. There are now many ways for a wild symbol to increase wins.
Volatility
This is a slots-only term. High volatility means larger and fewer winning spins while low volatility means more and lower winning spins. Thus, two slots might have the same return to player rate but the one with high volatility will share the winnings with fewer gamers and the slot with low volatility will share the winnings with more gamers.
Everygame Casino Has More Than 200 Slots
We never have to take out a slot since we have no limitations of space. So, gamers here at Everygame can play every slot we carry over the course of time. We also carry may other great casino games such as blackjack, video poker, Caribbean Poker, Pai Gow Poker, Banana Jones, and many more.
