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Slot Machine Types – Your 2024 Guide to Different Types of Slots in the UK
With so many different slot machine types on the market, it can be hard to keep track of what games offer which features. Read our handy guide and you will soon know your 3-reelers from your Megaways, and themed games from fruit machines. We’ll look at land-based and online slots, covering the pros and cons of each. Besides that, we’ll walk your through how online games work across desktop and mobile platforms and reveal how different levels of volatility can affect payouts.
Online Slots Vs Land-Based Slots: What’s the Difference?
Land-based slot machines and their online counterparts may look the same, but there are a few key differences. We outline the pros and cons of each here to help you understand these differences:
Land-Based Slots
A social atmosphere, with other players enjoying the games alongside each other.
The physics and sensations of mechanical reels is hard to beat.
More immersive sound effects and engaging animations.
❌ Even the biggest establishments can’t provide as many slot machine types as UK real money online casinos.
❌ A lower Return To Player percentage. (RTP). This is a big drawback with land-based games, as the operator needs to cover overheads, including the building, staff, and any free drinks they may offer.
Online Slot Games
A virtually unlimited number of slots available to play on mobiles or desktop platforms.
No need to leave home, Play mobile optimised games when you’re out and about.
Improved average returns. The overheads of online casinos are drastically reduced, meaning they can put more money towards prizes.
Better promotions. While they can’t provide courtesy drinks, online casinos can offer enhanced bonuses, such as extra credits, or free games. For example, you can play all types of online slot with no deposit bonuses at our recommended sites.
Different Slot Machines by Denomination 🪙
You can play online slots for free at VegasSlotsOnline. Real money stakes start at pennies, while high rollers can wager substantial amounts on each spin of the reels. Splitting the types of slot machine games this way is a good indication of what games you should look for. If you want to play for Pennies, Nickels, Quarters, Dollars, or like to spin the reels of slots with higher limits, there’s a game to match your budget.
Pennies
Penny slot machines won’t bring in much money for the casinos and players won’t win much either as the stakes are just too low. But it’s a great way to get people playing the games, with the idea being that once someone is a customer, they will move on to more rewarding slot types.
Nickels
If you want to win anything worth playing for, you should play slots with a bare minimum of a Nickel. Some Nickel online slot games offer a shot at progressive jackpots, although your odds of landing a massive prize at this level is slim, to say the least.
Quarters
Now we’re starting to enter the territory where prizes can be worth the effort. Slots you can play for Quarters include jackpot games, slots with bonus features, and games themed around movies, TV shows, and celebrities.
Dollars
Perhaps the most common of all slot types. Dollar slot games cover every theme, style, format, and feature you can wish for. Popular examples of Dollar slot games include Wheel of Fortune, Jackpot Jinni, and Fruit Mania, and they're part of a vast selection of Dollar slots at top sites.
High Limit
You’ll need to place big bets to pay high limit slot machines, but there are several advantages to these games. They tend to offer higher average returns, so you can get a greater percentage of your stakes paid back in prize money, as operators want to attract as many high rollers as possible.
📣 Heads Up 📣
Whichever slot denomination you opt for when playing online, always make sure it suits your budget. Never gamble with money you afford to lose, and make use of the responsible gambling tools at your disposal at casino sites.
Different Online Slots by Reels
While the earliest slots had only three reels, times have changed and you can now play games with five, six, seven, or even a theoretical unlimited number of reels. Most types of online slot games still pay prizes when you match at least three examples of the same symbols across adjacent reels, starting on the left side, however.
Learn more about the different reels online slots can have below:
3 Reel
These slots often feature traditional fruit symbols, with just a few paylines, typically from one to five. You’ll need to fill a whole line with matched symbols to win prizes as you play three-reel slot machines.
5 Reel
Slots with five reels are the standard format, although the number of rows can vary from three to five or more, depending on how many paylines are available.
6 Reel
Play six-reel slot machines and claim wins as symbols match across paylines, or enough of the same type stop on adjacent reels.
7 Reel
In recent years, slot machines with seven reels have become hugely popular. They often use a Megaways system, pioneered by Big Time Gaming, where the number of symbols per reel varies randomly from two to seven.
Other Reel Systems
Online slot developers are always looking for something new to attract players. Recent innovations include Infinity Reels, where each win in a series adds one extra reel to the game. In theory, there’s no limit to how many reels can appear, although the number resets on any losing spin.
Slots with cascading reels have also become popular. Any symbols in a win vanish, leaving spaces for those above to drop down. New symbols appear from the top and if this mix creates another winning combination, the cascades feature repeats, without limits until there’s no new win. Avalanches, Tumbles, and Drops are among the other names for this fantastic feature.
Remember, you can always play trending games with the latest reel systems at our new online slots hub.
Popular Online Slot Game Types Explained
Here’s a quick look at the most popular types of slot machines. Follow the links provided for more details on each kind:
Classic Slots
Traditional games with just three reels, one, three, or five paylines are the perfect introduction to the world of slots. They are easy to understand, and many come with simple bonus features, such as wild symbol substitutions and scatter symbols that pay in any places. Other common features include a simple bet structure, and the paytable listing symbol values to one side.
Video Slots
Video slots now dominate the land-based and online markets. These replace mechanical reels with computer animations and come with a wide choice of symbols, paylines, bonus features, and prizes. Some emulate traditional slots while others link to popular topics such as Ancient Egypt, Irish luck, or the Wild West. These are just a few examples of the seemingly endless variety of themes.
Fruit Machines
While these games usually feature fruit symbols, perhaps alongside themed ones, it’s the mechanics that defines a fruit machine. These games let you Hold or Nudge reels, for the chance to match symbols for a win. These types of online slot also let you gamble wins, boosting the prize on the correct pick of a card colour, or moving you up a win ladder.
Themed Slots
Thanks to the proliferation of themed slots on the market, fans of movies, game shows, cartoons, and music can experience their favourites in a whole new way. It’s a perfect match as the copyright holders get extra exposure to their properties, and game developers have a built-in fanbase for the games.
3D Slots
New technologies allow game developers to create slots with 3D effect graphics where the symbols seem to jump from the reels. Unlike the movies, these don’t require special glasses, although it’s more of an illusion than true 3D. Popular examples of 3D effect games include A Night in Paris and The Slotfather, both from the studios of Betsoft.
AWP Slots
Amusement With Prizes games can be any type of slot machine, and it’s more a term used in certain establishments to cover licensing and legality. Generally, AWP games have lower bet limits and pay smaller prizes, but this varies depending on local gambling laws.
Mobile Slots
Most of us now play slots on mobile devices, and it’s the most popular way to access online casinos. Other than some controls and icons rearranged for ease of use, these slot machine types work in exactly the same way as their desktop counterparts, with the same graphics, gameplay, and features.
VR Slots
Although something of a novelty, Virtual Reality slots take players right into the heart of the action, surrounding them with symbols in CGI environments. A VR headset is needed, and the range of games is limited, but it’s an experience like no other.
Common Types of Online Slot Payline Mechanics 🎰
Different types of slot machine pay in different ways and here’s a look at the most popular payline mechanics:
Fixed Paylines
The most widely available system pays when enough examples of the same symbol type land across defines pathways, usually running from the left reel. Slot types with a Win Both Ways mechanism pay when combinations start from both the left and right-side reels. The symbols need to be in an unbroken sequence across a payline and prize values increase with more of the line filled.
Ways To Win
In these types of online slot games, symbols can be on any row, but still need to land in unbroken runs, usually from the left. A five-reel, three-row game equals 243 different ways to win, and if the game has four rows, this increases to 1,204 ways. There are several variations on this as more reels or rows give extra winning ways.
Cluster Pays
These slot types pay when identical symbols connect horizontally or vertically on a grid, usually of 5x5 size or more. The clusters can land in any places and the more connected symbols, the higher the prize will be. A variation on this is Scatter Pays, where the symbols can be in any places on the grid to count.
Fixed Jackpot Vs Progressive Slot Machines 💸
Jackpot slots offer players the chance to potentially win huge sums of money. Fixed jackpot games often feature several jackpots, but these are shown as multiples of the bet. Players can win minor prizes in the region of 10x the stake, or with the right mix of symbols, grab mega jackpots that can pay 5,000x or more.
The difference with progressive jackpot slot types is that a portion of all stakes placed on the game, across all online casinos that carry it, is set aside. This increases the value of progressive jackpot prizes and instead of set limits, these can grow to vast amounts of 10,000,000.00, 20,000,000.00 or more before one lucky player lands the perfect combination to win the lot.
Progressive jackpot values then ‘seed’ back to a base level and begin to grow once more until won again. Note the slot machines with progressive prizes often have lower average returns in the main games, as a few percentage points, typically around 4%, goes into the pot.
Some of the most well known progressive games include Microgaming's Mega Moolah, NetEnt's Mega Fortune, and Megabucks by IGT.
Gentle Reminder: It's quite hard to land the top prizes with progressive jackpots, as their RTP tends to be lower than that of standard video slots. It's important to bear in mind that these are games of chance, and playing more doesn't mean you'll always win more.
RTP 💯 and Slot Volatility⚡
Different slot games will have varying Return To Players (RTP) and volatility, which tend to affect one another. The RTP is a calculation of what percentage of money staked on the game is paid out in prizes. A slot with a 95.0% RTP will, over the very long-term, pay 95.00 in prizes for each 100.00 placed in bets. All slot types at safe online casinos in the UK can guarantee their average returns.
Slots have low, medium, or high levels of volatility. Lower variance games tend to pay smaller prizes but with a greater frequency and usually have lower average returns. High volatility types of slot machine games pay less often, but there’s the chance of more generous prizes at any time, and average returns can be higher. Slots with a medium volatility sit somewhere in the middle. All of these are trends which can vary widely over the short to medium terms.
Low volatility, low returns games include Da Vinci Diamonds by IGT where the RTP is 94.93%. Conversely, the Jack Hammer slot by NetEnt has a high volatility and average returns of 96.96%.
What different slot types can I play in the UK?
You can play a vast range of online slots at our recommended UK casino sites. They all come with different layouts, themes, volatility, bonus features, and prizes.
Should I play online slots or land-based games?
Many people enjoy both land-based and online slots, but online games have some advantages. They usually have higher returns, and you can access a wider range at any time of your choosing.
Which online slots can I play on a mobile phone?
Most online slots work across desktop and mobile platforms. You can enjoy a vast range of games on iPhones, iPads, Android, and Windows devices at our recommended mobile casinos.
How many reels do online casino slots usually have?
Typically, the number of reels varies from three, to six, but some slots have just a single reel, while others have no theoretical limit on how many reels can add on over a series of wins.
What are the most popular themes of online slots?
Whatever your favourite topic is, there’s probably on online slot to cover it. Perhaps the most widely available include games based on ancient civilisations, fruit, Irish luck, blockbustre movies, and wildlife.
