Slot Machine Terms and Conditions

What are Slot Machines Pay Outs?

For online slots players, the payout schedule is a vital piece of information that should be studied before playing any slot machine.

Unlike casino slots, where the percentage are rarely revealed, all good online slots casinos will inform players exactly how much, on average, their games pay out

That said, it is true that online slots players do need to dig a little to see the payout schedule. However, finding and understanding the payout schedule is a slots strategy that can help a player decide which slot machine is going to have the best payouts and is going to have the most consistent payouts as well.

Knowing the payout percentage is one of the big advantages of online slots that players have over their land-based casino counterparts. Even when you play the same games you find in Vegas, like Cleopatra slots or Wolf Run, you can find out the online percentage, whereas you would have almost no hope in your regular local casino.

Whether you like to play 3 reel slots, or video slots, or even progressive jackpot games, this information is really useful to have

Slot Machine Payout Basics

The first thing to look for on any slot machine payout schedule is the range of payouts. Payouts are typically listed not as monetary amounts but multipliers of the line bet. Verifying this is important as especially with the technology behind online slot machines, it is easy for them to display dollar amounts instead.

Once this is established, look at the payout range. The smallest payout can be as little as a 1x the original line bet and will go up from there. The top prize can be as much as 10,000 times the line bet or more with progressive jackpots.

However, the most important part is to look at what the most common payouts are. Sure, a 10,000x jackpot is impressive but if there are few options between tiny payouts and a potential big payout, the game play is going to suffer.

Finding games that have a good number of mid-pack payouts will actually keep players bankrolls going as well as keeping their interest in the game with a good number of mid-size hits.

Basically, if you want to make online slots work for you, finding out the games that pay out the most will help you enormously

The payout schedule for any slot machine is also the place to go to find out information about game features for the game. For example, the payout schedule will talk about scatter symbols and whether they just payout or take players to a mini-game feature or if this awards free spins.

The payout schedule will also talk about the rules for accessing mini-games that are not awarded based on scatter symbols and instead line based symbols.

There will also be a mention of progressive awards and how they are accumulated in the payout schedule, as well as how it is won. Some games require a fairly extensive series of steps to get the top progressive payout while others require only one lucky spin to do so.

Interpreting the Payout Schedule

Understanding how much each payout can payout can help a player decide if a game is going to be a good fit and also how best to approach the game.

For example, some of the classic three reel slot machines have the option to play one, two or three coins per spin. Playing one each is safe and the payouts can be good' however, the top payout going from one to two or two to three coins can jump dramatically.

Some of these have progressive jackpots that are only accessible by playing the game at the max bet and many other slot machine games have similar restrictions.

Only by looking at the payout schedule will the player know how to get the best payouts for their slots play.

What is Slot Machine Variance?

When used as a slot term, the word 'Variance' is used to describe how a slot plays. The term applies to the games in regular land based casinos and also for online casino slots

It refers to whether a machine is set up to give lots of small wins or whether it is more likely to have long losing streaks, followed by one or two big wins. A slot that gives many small regular wins is known as low variance, whilst one that gives fewer wins, but bigger when they do come is known as High Variance

Some people may use the term 'streaky' to describe a slot that is High Variance

Whether one is better than the other is a matter of choice. Some people prefer to play in hope of that big win, whilst other people prefer to win small amounts on a regular basis

Examples of high variance slots could be those with many 'Wild' symbols that can line up to give huge numbers of line wins within a single spin.

Wolf Run is a good example of a high variance slot, with its stacked wild symbols. Line them up whilst playing the maximum 40 credits and you stand to win a lot on one spin as all 40 lines pay-out

Elvis Multi-Strike is another example of a high variance slot - with its three-in-one layout, if you win on the first slot to progress to the second and then to the third you will then be on a 4x payout to add to you winnings already accumulated on that spin. If it happens you win big, but it doesn't happen very often and you have to play 60 credits to get the maximum action, making it extremely high variance.

If you were looking for an example of a good low variance slot machine, then many of the older video slots are the ones to look at. Games like Texas Tea and Lobstermania give out lots of small wins, but rarely a big one. The benefit is that you can be pretty sure you will get to play for a reasonably long time before your cash runs out. The downside, though, is that you are not likely to hit big wins very often, if ever. these machines are not connected to progressive jackpots and so there will never be the 'life changing' win.

The low variance slots really are all about getting maximum entertainment for you money rather than playing in hope of that big win

When you visit Vegas casinos or any other land-based casino, you will find a good variety of games and the trick is to discover which ones you really enjoy playing the most, rather than the ones which have the most floor space