How Does a Slot Machine Work?
1 min read
When you play a slot machine, the chances of winning depend on which symbols land on the reels. These symbols are called paylines, and they can run straight across the reels or in V’s, upside-down V’s, zigzags, or other patterns. The more paylines you have active, the higher your chance of hitting a winning combination.
In online slots, a pay table displays all the regular paying symbols, alongside their payout values. It also lists the bonus features and how to trigger them. Bonus features can include Megaways, sticky wilds, re-spins, and scatter pays.
A random number generator, or RNG, is the brain of a slot machine. It produces numbers at a rate of dozens per second. Each possible combination of symbols is assigned a unique number, which the RNG then records. When the machine receives a signal — which could be anything from the button being pressed to the handle being pulled — the RNG stops the sequence at that number and sets the reels to spin.
A slot machine’s taste is the amount of money it pays out over a short period of time. It is a measure of the frequency of wins and losses, and is not the same as its hold percentage or jackpot frequencies, which are calculated over longer periods of time.