What is a Slot?
A slot is a place, time, position, or window. For example, a player might be asked to fill in for someone else in the squad. The team might also use the term to refer to a position on the field, like the Z receiver, who is supposed to stay back and give other players a chance to beat the coverage.
A pay table in a slot game is the list of rules that dictate how much a player can win by lining up certain symbols on the pay lines. The rules can vary from one slot to the next, but they usually include a breakdown of how many combinations are possible, what each symbol pays out, and any special symbols (like wilds) that can substitute for others. A pay table also explains what bonus features are available, such as free spins or re-spins, and how to trigger them.
The pay table is normally displayed above and below the reels, but on modern games it can be accessed from a help menu. Some manufacturers even post the average payout percentages for their slots on their websites, so players can keep track of their results.
Before microprocessors were integrated into electromechanical slot machines, they were programmed to “weight” particular symbols, meaning that a losing symbol would appear more often on a particular reel than it should. This gave the illusion of a close call, but in actuality, the winning symbol was much more likely to appear than the losing one.