As far as gambling success stories go in the 21st Century you would seriously struggle to find any other example of a casino gambling game that has triumphed over the market in such a way as online slots.
Seriously, these delightful little gambling games have well and truly taken over the world in the last two decades, with millions upon millions of players spinning the reels of their favourite online slots pretty much every day. Don’t believe us? Well just know that the overall revenue taken from online slots in 2020 is almost equivalent to any other casino gambling revenue stream combined! It really is ludicrous, and we cannot imagine that Charles D. Fey, inventor of the world’s first slot machine, would have had any idea how much his critically acclaimed invention would have evolved since the late 1800s.
It is funny, because before Charles D. Fey’s input slot machines didn’t even pay out any money at all, and all it took was 50 or so years before things like the Las Vegas Megabucks machines were paying out well over a million dollars. It just goes to show how innovative and forward-thinking the slots industry has always been, a fact that has never been more relevant today. Oh yes, the online slots of the 21st Century can be incredibly complex, with developers such as NetEnt and Microgaming constantly vying for the top spot. It is all about attracting the most slot gamblers to your games, and one of the best ways to do so is to make sure that they are constantly evolving. This is fantastic news for most of us, however it can also make the online slot world slightly less accessible for complete beginners. Never fear though, we are on hand to help here with our complete guide to online slots. Read ahead for everything about slot guide to know before you start betting on these fantastic gambling games.
A brief history of online slots
First things first, let’s take a brief exploration into the history of online slots, as this is always a good idea to give complete beginners a suitable context into these gambling games. In many ways the story starts with the discovery of the RNG – Random Number Generator – something that first enabled physical slot machine developers to use video screens in their games, hence the video slot explosion in the 1980s. Now the only piece of technology left to complete the puzzle was the Internet, something that would flower into a usable platform by the late 1990s.
By now the race was on between several developers to see who could make the first slot game specifically for an online platform. The Australian developer Eyecon are widely acknowledged to have been the first to arrive at this point, with their game Temple Of Isis in 2003, and the rest, as they say, is history!
How online slots work
So, if you are familiar with the world of land-based casino slots you will be able to pick up the basics of online slots pretty fast. They work in basically the same way, with the vast majority of games having a reel grid on which a variety of different symbols can appear. The aim of the game in most cases is to find as many winning symbol combinations as you can, however as the modern online slot world progresses you will find all manner of bonus rounds too.
Every online slot will have a number of pay lines, and this can vary from 1 to 50 in some cases. Each game will also have set requirements on the minimum and maximum line bets, something that you will have to be aware of if you want to win any money. Other than this it is really quite simple, place your line bets, spin those reels, and hope for the best!
Online slot basic vocabulary
There are a few pieces of essential vocabulary when it comes to online slots that you are really going to want to know, because without knowledge of this you will quickly end up becoming confused. Here are a few of the most important:
- Payline: A payline is the line (it doesn’t always have to be straight and can come in many different patterns and sequences) on which winning symbol combinations can be made. There are often a lot more than one of these on any given online slot.
- Wild: Most online slots these days have a wild symbol, and this can swap with all other icons other than the scatter in most cases in order to create winning combos.
- Scatter: This is another common special symbol in the online slot world, and will often lead to a free spins bonus round.
The importance of online slot bonus features
One thing we really cannot stress enough is how important the online slot bonus features are in the 21st Century, especially if you are looking to win some money. We’re not saying it’s impossible to win a handsome sum on the base mode of a modern online slot, but you are far more likely to do so on the bonus features.
For this reason it is of paramount importance that you always make sure you know how the specific bonus features work in your chosen slot before you throw serious money at it. You don’t want to miss out on the chance to win a sizeable amount of cash, do you?
Some of our favourite online slot developers
These days there are unbelievable amount of slot developers around, and it definitely pays to know what some of the best ones are, otherwise you could get bogged down in the companies that aren’t quite up to standard. Here are a few of our favourites:
- NetEnt: NetEnt are without a shadow of a doubt the most consistent online slot developers in the game, and have been since pretty much the start.
- Microgaming: Microgaming is another seminal developer studio, with a progressive jackpot network that will make your jaw drop.
