Slots Terminology – The Definitive A to Z of Spina Zonke Terms

A

• Action – Refers to the total amount played on a particular Spina Zonke game/slot machine over a selected period. 
• Active payline/s – The payline/s active during play. There can be one or several, depending on the game that you’re playing. 
• All-ways – These games pay if symbols land on adjacent reels – often left to right AND right to left. 
• Auto-play/Auto-spin – Allows you to choose how many games or spins you’d like to play with a pre-determined bet amount. This requires player input. 

B

• Bar – This is a symbol – often high-paying – that appears on many slot machines. It can appear in single, double or triple variants. 
• Basic Slot – The most basic type of slot machine. These have a single payline and sometimes feature a fixed jackpot. 
• Bet – How much you wager on a single spin.
• Bet Max – The maximum amount that you can wager on a single spin. Differs from game to game.  
• Bet Min – The minimum accepted bet for a slot. This also differs from title to title.  
• Big Hit – Makes reference to a huge win, often a jackpot. 
• Bonus Feature – Rewards – often in the form of mini-games – that can augment the title’s mechanics to give you a shot at bigger wins. Includes multipliers, free spins, expanding wilds and more. 
• Bonus Multiplier – Applies a multiplier to all wins earned during a particular bonus feature. 
• Bonus Round – A free play round that often appears within a bonus feature. 
• Branded Slot – Any slot game whose theme is inspired by a musician, celebrity, actor, television or brand. An example is Hot Hot Hollywoodbets, which can be played exclusively with Hollywoodbets. 
• Buy Feature – Paying upfront to guarantee the triggering of a bonus feature. 

C

• Cascading Reels – The winning symbols in your game are removed from the reels and the remainder are allowed to cascade down. This can potentially result in further winning combinations. 
• Coin In/Coin Out – Monetary total of bets made/Total winnings on coins in.
• Coin/Coin Size – Determines the value of each credit.
• Columns – Also known as reels. Refers to the vertical columns of spinning symbols.

D

• Demo – A free-play version of a slot title. These allow you to play the game without having to wager real money. The obvious trade-off? You won’t be able to win anything. 
• Doubles – These are symbols that can double the amount won. This is what happens during Hot Hot Fruit’s “Hot Hot Feature”.  

E

• Expanding Wilds – This is a special Wild symbol that grows to occupy all positions on a single reel. 
• EGM – Stands for “Electronic Gaming Machine”

F

• Feature – A bonus extra a game offers such as free spins. Often takes the form of a mini-game.
• Fixed Jackpot – The available jackpot that can be won is locked as a fixed amount. 
• Fixed-Value Slot – A game whose bet value can’t be altered
• Free Play – Often linked to a feature, free play gives you the chance to spin for free at a certain coin amount while still receiving winnings. 
• Fruit Machine – A title that features a fruit theme with fruit symbols appearing on the reels. 

G

• Gamble – A feature that gives you the chance to increase the payout of a spin at the risk of losing the initial payout. 

H

• High Volatility – Refers to a machine or slot that has a big difference between its minimum and maximum payout. 
• Hit and Run –  Refers to a player who plays with a maximum bet on a machine for a few spins before moving on to another. 
• Hot Machine – This is more of a land-based casino term, but refers to a machine with the highest payout frequency. 

J

• Jackpot – The highest value prize offered by a particular slot.

 L

• Line Bet – How much you bet on a single payline. 
• Linked Progressive Jackpot – A jackpot in which funds from multiple machines – and often casinos – are pooled.

M

• Max Bet/Maximum Bet – The highest amount you can bet on a single spin. 
• Megaways – A slot design with 117 649 ways to win. The format was created by Big Time Gaming back in 2015.
• Min Bet/Minimum Bet – The lowest amount you can bet on one spin. 
• Mobile Slot – A game that can be played on a mobile device. 
• Multi-Line Slot – A game that features more than one payline.  
• Multiplier – A bonus feature that multiplies your winnings by a fixed amount.

N

• Nudge – This occurs when the symbols on a reel are nudged up or down, normally one or two places.

O

• One-Armed Bandit – Not really relevant to online slots, but is used to refer to slot machines in brick-and-mortar casinos.
• Online Slots – Slot games that are played over the internet.

P

• Payline – Refers to horizontal or vertical lines (or ways) on which symbols must land to trigger a payout. 
• Pay Table – A table often found in a game’s info section that displays how much each winning combination pays out. 
• Payout – Refers to winnings that you receive on a successful spin. 
• Primary Jackpot – This is the maximum you can win on a specific title. 
• Progressive Jackpot – A type of jackpot that continues to increase for as long as it isn’t won. 
• Progressive Slot – This refers to a single machine/game whose prize money continues to grow until won. 

R

• Random Number Generator (RNG) – Software or hardware that generates and outputs a number taken from either a limited or unlimited distribution.
• Reels – Makes reference to the vertical lines of symbols on a slot. 
• Return to Player (RTP) – A theoretical number in the form a percentage. Refers to all wagered funds that will be paid back to players in a specific title. 
• Rows – Similar to reels – rows refers to the horizontal arrangement of symbols in a game. 

S

• Scatter – A symbol that can land anywhere across the reels. Landing a certain number in a single spin usually triggers a bonus. 
• Second Screen Bonus – Triggered by a specific combination of symbols, this bonus takes you to another screen.
• Signature Slot – A slot or game owned by a casino.  
• Slot Tournament – 
• Slots – The reason you’re here! A casino game featuring spinning reels and symbols.  
• Spin – Speaks to the reels spinning. 
• Stacked Symbols – Symbols that land on top of one another to increase the chances of bigger wins. 
• Symbol – Pictures/icons found on the reels of slot games. 

T

• Tight – Refers to slots that pay out infrequently. 
• Tumbling Reels – Also known as cascading reels, symbols making up winning combinations disappear and are filled with new symbols. 

 V

• Variance – This term speaks to how much a game is likely to pay out and often. 
• Video Slots – Games in land-based casinos that have digital displays instead of mechanical reels. 
• Volatility – Refers to risk in playing a slot.

W

• Wager – The amount of money that spend on a spin. 
• Wide Area Progressive (WAP) – Machines or games found across different casinos that all share one progressive jackpot. 
• Wild Multiplier – A multiplier attached to wild symbols. 
• Wild Symbol – A symbol in slot games that substitutes for just about all other symbols, except usually for the scatter. 
• Win Both Ways – A game in which you can land winning combinations both left-to-right and right-to-left.