How To Play Slots

How Online Slots Work

Before we get into how to play slots, it’s useful to understand some of the fundamental aspects of the game. Online slot machines are gambling machines with three or more reels, which spin once a virtual button, or lever is triggered. They work much in the same way as traditional slot machines: you deposit your money, hit the spin button and wait for your symbols to match.
Some online slot machines have the same three reels, but other online slots feature five and sometimes even over nine reels. As with traditional slot machines, you must match symbols. While some online slots require a single match straight across three reels, others allow multiple symbol matches across different lines in different directions, and symbols needn’t necessarily be next to one another to win. These lines are called paylines, and you can choose how many different paylines to bet on, and how much you wish to bet.
Your bets will take the form of coins, which can be worth as little as £0.01 in real money, but you can adjust their value as you wish. Minimum and maximum coin values will differ between casinos. Symbol meanings, bonus features, winning combinations and win amounts will vary across games and details of these can usually be found in the paytable for each game.

How to Play Online Slots

Now that you understand the basics, it’s time to learn how to play. We’ve broken down a standard online slots game down into these five straightforward steps:

• Pick your Game and Wager – Choose the slots you want to play, and decide how much you wish to bet per line. Do remember, though, the bigger your wager, the bigger the potential win. Tip: Start betting small until you get to grips with the game.
• Pick your Lines – The lines you bet on are called paylines, and the symbols will appear along these lines. The more paylines you bet on, the higher your chances of getting a winning combination. Bear in mind that, if you set your coins at 1p for each line, and bet on ten lines, you will bet 10p on every spin. This money will be debited from your online balance automatically. Tip: Increase your chances of getting a winning combination by experimenting with your bets between each spin. Increase and decrease the number of lines you bet on, as well as the amount you bet on them.
• Click Spin – This is the simplest part of playing online slots, simply click the spin button. You can stop the spin whenever you like, as RNG will have already predetermined the outcome. In other words, the timing of your spin will have no effect.
• Win or Lose – Once the reels have stopped spinning, you will see if you you have matched any symbols. Your winnings, in line with the hit-rate for that game, will be credited to your online balance automatically. The hit-rate is the amount you can win on each spin. You may be given the option of playing a bonus reel or ‘free spin’ to boost your winnings. Tip: Wilds and Scatters can also be winning symbols. Wilds can stand in for any other symbols, and Scatters will generate different rewards, depending on the game.

The Different Types of Online Slots

The best slot sites in the UK cater to everyone with their collection of slots games, but what exactly can you expect to find? Let us take you through the different types of online slot games.

3 Reel Slots

These are most similar to traditional slot machines. For these slots, paylines usually form across the middle of the reels.Typically, a payline on a 3 reel slot will require three matching symbols.

5 Reel Slots

5 reel slots have the potential for a larger number of paylines around the screen, giving you more of an opportunity to get winning symbol combinations.The paylines on these slots will often light up in different colours to mark out your winning combinations clearly.

Bonus Slots

Though not available at all online casinos, bonus slots have just one possible payline in the middle of the screen. You will need to achieve the bonus symbol to win your bonus payout on these slots. These bonus symbols will vary from casino to casino.

Feature Slots

Some online casinos provide users with the chance to play feature slots, which include special symbols (often called ‘scatter’ symbols). You will need to get a specific combination of these symbols to achieve a bonus win – these will differ from game to game.

Progressive Slots

Progressive slots can work alongside any of the slots mentioned. These slots will have a jackpot that increases gradually as you play the game, which means there is more at stake the longer you play.

Mobile Slots

These have been specifically designed to give you the same slots experience on the move, whether you choose to play in a mobile web browser or download an Android or iOS app. If you’re looking for some of the highest quality Flash and HTML5 mobile slots, the award-winning Play’n Go slots might be for you. Alternatively, if you’re into classic, retro-style slots, reminiscent of Vegas real-world casinos, with the option of playing branded slots on occasion, IGT casino slots are the way to go!

Understanding Wilds

Wilds are always a welcome sight on the reels. These special symbols can substitute for any other, giving you a little extra help to complete winning combinations.

At their simplest, they behave like any other symbol, sporadically showing up on the reels and hopefully landing you a win. But there are a range of more complex features available in the best slots titles. Let’s take a look!

• Sticky or Locked Wilds – When these wilds appear on the reels, they’ll remain in place while the other symbols spin around them, giving you some extra chances to pick up a win. Sticky wilds usually remain locked for a set number of spins, typically 3–5; 
• Stacked Wilds – Essentially, stacked wilds are where multiple wild symbols appear on top of together on a single reel. Many games with stacked wilds replace them with supersized symbols that take up several spaces. In some games, they’ll take up the whole reel and will even nudge into full view;
• Random Wilds – Slightly more unpredictable, these wilds appear on the reels randomly throughout the game. Sometimes they’re triggered by special events or features, or may only be available during a free spins round;
• Walking or Shifting Wilds – Walking wilds is a thrilling mechanic where the symbol stays on the board, moving horizontally or vertically across the reels with each spin until it reaches the edge. As it goes, it’ll present different opportunities to land winning combinations;
• Transferring Wilds – Transferring wilds are a bit like walking wilds, moving with each subsequent spin, but the position they end up in can be anywhere on the reels. These wild symbols usually stay in play for a certain number of spins;
• Expanding Wilds – Expanding wilds can present some big win potential. When they land on a reel, they’ll literally expand to cover multiple spaces. Most often, they’ll expand vertically and turn an entire reel wild, but you’ll occasionally find horizontally expanding wilds too. 

The Odds of Winning

In comparison to other casino games, such as blackjack or roulette, when it comes to online slots, odds have less of an impact on your potential success, and calculating odds can become difficult, taking features that increase your winnings, such as jackpot, multiplier and bonus rounds into consideration. Having said this, it is possible to work out the odds of getting a winning combination.

If the slot has three reels, which each have twenty symbols, the calculation would be 20x20x20, which reveals that there are 8,000 different potential symbol combinations. Providing you know how many times the same symbol appears on each reel, you can then calculate how likely you are to match that symbol.

If the symbol only appears once on each reel, the calculation would be 1/20 x 1/20 x 1/20, which reveals a probability of 1 in 8,000 on gaining a three symbol match.

In general, the most simple slots have better odds of winning, but this is usually accompanied by smaller payouts.

Can I Increase My Chances of Winning?

Given that online slots are controlled by random number generators (RNG), which ensure that the results of all spins are completely at random, there is little more you can do to improve your chances of gaining a winning combination than betting on more paylines and spinning more times.

You might also consider return to player percentages (RTPs) and slot variance when it comes to your understanding chances of landing a win. RTPs, sometimes called payout percentages, refer to the amount you can win back from an overall spend, and are usually between 90-99%.

These are different to hit-rates, in that they are averages which are calculated over millions of spins. Slot variance (also known as slot volatility) refers to how the slot is programmed to payout. Low volatility slots will give lots of small payouts often, whereas high volatility slots give larger payouts less often. In general, low payout percentages can cause you to lose money faster, while higher payout percentages maximise every bet you make. Similarly, if you are playing slots that pay bigger but less often, you will score winning combinations less frequently than on slots that are designed for smaller, more regular payouts.

Ultimately, though, the house edge means that casino will always have the advantage over the player. The house edge is the percentage of money that a player will lose to the casino overall, and can be calculated in line with the RTP. If the RTP is 96%, for example, the house edge will be 4%.

General Slots Tips

We’ve covered everything you should know to start playing online slots. Here is a summary of how you should approach the game:

1. Start Simple. There are many of complex, multi-reeled online slot machines, but we recommend that beginners stick to simple 3 and 5 reel slots;
2. Slots is a Game of Chance. Unfortunately, there’s little skill involved when it comes to online slots. Playing a game that you’re comfortable with and fully understand is the best you can do;
3. Choose Online Casinos Wisely. Be sure that you are playing with trusted online casinos that use RNG. Choose from our list of recommended UK-regulated casinos.
4. Bet Responsibly. Remember that a winning streak will not last forever. Set a budget before you begin playing and stick to it. Never bet more than you can afford to lose and, most importantly, enjoy it!