Slots are actually a fascination. When I was in a casino for the first time and saw so many people in front of the machines I thought to myself what’s the point of that. You throw a coin in, press a button or press a lever and then wait what comes. That’s the great thing about slot machines: they are so easy to use and you have the opportunity with little investment win a lot of money – at least if you play at the right slot. There are even progressive jackpots which number in the millions, just like in the lottery. So it is no wonder why every day so many people play at slot machines and hope for the big jackpot. And as funny as it may sound but slots are for me personally the best casino games!

What are slots?

The definition of slots is quite vague. According to Wikipedia: “slot is a casino gambling machine with three or more reels which spin when a button is pushed” (see Wikipedia). This means that, for example, all of the video poker machines also fall in this category because they determine the outcome of the game by the principle of chance. In general, slot machines (American English) are also informally called fruit machines (British English), the slots (Canadian and American English), poker machines (Australian English and New Zealand English) or simply slots (American English). These are characterised by the fact that there is no interaction with the machine once the game has been started. At the video poker and similar machines you have the option to make decisions, for example, which cards you want to keep and which ones to sort out. This is not possible with a slot machine because once the bet has been placed and the play lines have been set, there is no way back and the player can only wait for the result.

Jackpots

The the jackpots topic has already been discussed. These are payouts that exceed the original stake. Actually the term jackpot comes from the poker and was then extended to other luck games (Source: Wikipedia). That’s why jackpot also refers to the slot machines but for smaller winnings the jackpot concept is avoided. Nobody speaks of jackpot when you have 21 at the blackjack or at roulette with a good number order. In the latter case you get 35 times the original bet but if you crack a jackpot you can win 1000 or 250000 times more – depending on which jackpot it is.