Online Video Slots Guide for 2023

The history of slot machines is a long and exciting one, and it all started in the late 1800s when the first mechanical video poker machines were created in America.

Video poker machines featured a deck with just 50 cards, with the extra two taken out to give some house edge, and were often deployed in bars and other drinking establishments across the continent.

At the turn of the century, the first slot machine, dubbed Liberty Bell, was created by Charles Fey in San Francisco. This machine and its successors were responsible for making slot games so popular across the US, all the way until the 1960s.

The 1960s and 1970s were an exciting period in the development of gaming machines, as first video slot machines actually appeared on the market in the production of the likes of Bally, IGT, and WMS.

While these companies continue to dominate the live slots industry in the US, a number of other developers like NetEnt, Microgaming, and Play’n GO have taken over the online slots industry and created many of the games we know and love today.

The growth of the internet and the explosion of online casinos has made online slots more popular than live slots ever were, and this expansion only continues with each passing year.

Here are a few slot terms you should know before you start playing:

• RNG: Stands for random number generator, a computer algorithm that generates the random symbols on the reels.
• Payline: A line across the reels that connects symbols into winning combinations.
• Paytable: A screen in the slot game that displays all the possible winning combos.
• Scatter: A symbol that can activate when it appears on the reels, regardless of the exact position.
• Bonus Round: A special gameplay mode in which additional multipliers or wins are activated.
• Free Spins: A type of bonus round in which you don’t pay for spins, and special features are often active.
• Megaways: A modern gameplay mechanic that gives slots thousands of potential paylines.
• Progressive Jackpot: A major jackpot that is collected over time by thousands of players for one lucky winner.  

Unlike gambling games like blackjack or roulette, slots don’t have a single set of rules you can learn, but they do have a lot of common rules that apply to most games in the category.

To start playing, you will need to load up the game and set up your initial bet. You will choose how much money you want to bet per payline, and how many paylines you want to play. In many games the number of paylines is fixed.

Once your bet is all set up, pressing the spin button will get the reels rolling and determine which symbols appear on the reels.

The symbols on the reels will line up across paylines, and you will be paid in accordance with the winning combinations displayed in the game’s paytable.

Slots are one of the gambling games that don’t allow for too much strategizing, as the outcome of each spin is completely random, and there isn’t any way to predict what will happen next.

For that reason, the best strategies you can come up with have to do with your slot selection and the approach you will have to your betting patterns.

More risk-averse players like to play low volatility games that don’t come with big swings, and will often play such games with a higher bet.

On the other hand, risk takers often enjoy playing the highest volatility games around, which offer massive returns even on small starting bets.

Whichever type of approach you decide to take, remember that there isn’t really anything you can do to fool a slot into activating a bonus round or trigger a jackpot.

You will win whenever you are lucky, and you will lose when you are not. The only strategy you can really have is to have enough money in your bankroll to survive a losing stretch and be ready for when symbols start coming your way.