In football, the slot is the second wide receiver on the outside of the field. Located just behind the wideout and a few yards behind the line of scrimmage, the position requires a player with precise route-running skills and great hands. It’s an underrated aspect of a team’s offense, and one that can make or break a game.
Historically, slot machines were very simple and did not require much in the way of instruction above the reels. Today’s hi-tech games, however, can be packed with screens full of instructions that explain the rules and features of each machine. Collectively, these informational displays are called the pay table.
When playing a slot machine, players insert cash or, in the case of ticket-in, ticket-out (TITO) machines, a paper ticket with a barcode into a designated slot on the machine’s face. The machine then activates, spinning and stopping to rearrange symbols into combinations that earn credits according to the machine’s pay table. Depending on the machine, these symbols can be anything from classic fruit and bells to stylized lucky sevens.
The pay table also displays the machine’s minimum and maximum bet amounts, as well as its jackpot status and other game-specific details. A separate display, the credit meter, shows the amount of money or credits that have been won or lost in a given timeframe. This meter is usually shown on a large central display, although some video slots use a smaller display that blends into the game’s theme and user interface.