Casino Slots: Everything to Know About RTP, Bonuses & More

As the wheels of the casino slot begin spinning, your pulse starts to rise. Then the first wheel stops. Were there any high payout symbols there? A scatter or bonus symbol maybe? As the next wheel stops, the tension increases. Now, you will know if there is any chance of winnings or not. The third wheel brings the same symbols as on the previous, a second scatter appear. Can huge winnings be afoot? 

Once all the wheels have stopped, your winnings on several lines, some of the highest paying symbols is being counted up on the screen with big numbers and fireworks. The feeling of pure joy spreads throughout your body, even more so if there are 3-4 scatter symbols on visible on the wheels. Now onward to the free spin feature! 

This happens on a real money slot, it`s easy to understand why online slot machines what draws most people to online casinos. In this article we will tell you all about casino slots, the different types, the most popular ones, talk about the themes and the best providers on the marked. If you like to play slots online this article will provide you with lots of useful information and strategies for choosing casino slots. 

Types of Casino Slots

The first slot machine was invented in the late 1800`s by Charles Fey, They had three wheels and one line. The first ones with a slot for coins where Card Bell and Liberty Bell. We still see the influence of the early slot machines in 2024, as they still have card symbols as the lower paying symbols, as well as the bell symbol. Since then the slot machines have evolved quite a bit, no more than with the invention of the video slot in 1975, the precursor to today's online casino slots. Let's have a closer look at the different types of casino slots you might encounter when you play slots online.

Three-wheels Casino Slots 

Casino Slots with only three reels are often called classic slots. On these slots you will rarely encounter anything else then what you see on the reels as you start playing. They won't feature any fancy free-spin feature that takes you to a new screen with new graphics or other video clips with special symbols or mini-games. 

Here you usually play on 1-3 lines, sometimes 5 or up to 10 at the most. You may find they have low Volatility as a result of the low number of lines, in return the prizes are bigger when you win. The goal of many of these slots is often to get three jokers, stars or another special symbol on the reels as scatters or on a payline to start the free spin feature, where these appear more often. You will find lots of classic slots at the best online casinos in 2020. Sometimes the casino will have a separate link that will take you to the casino's Classic Slots section where you can play three-wheel casino slots. 

4-5-wheels Casino Slots 

Now we are talking about the modern casino slots, although some are older and designed for physical video slots. There are thousands of top modern casino slots with 4-5 reels made for online casinos, you can play both old and new at online casinos in 2024.   

In addition to regular symbols that give you payouts on anywhere from 1 to thousands of lines or ways, you will be able to win exciting free spins features or/or a bonus feature. Scatter symbols can also give big winnings when two or more appear anywhere on the reels. 

In addition to this, the best casino slot machines with 4-5 reels can offer special features of various kinds. These will vary from machine to machine and will be related to the theme of the playing machine. If you play on a slot machine with Norse gods as a theme, Thor can bring the hammer and randomly place wild symbols. If you play a game with the Wizard of OZ as a theme, it can be a storm to turn the whole wheel into wilds. These functions or features usually happen at random, not requiring any special symbols to initiate.  

Other Casino Slot with dwarfs or other some other special character, will give you a mini game or several different types of special features depending on which dwarf appears, random wilds, extra symbols selected at random or higher winnings in the form of X2-20 Wins. These are just a few examples of what additional features you can get randomly while playing, the game developers constantly coming up with new exciting and fun features.  

4-5-Wheel casino slots are probably the most common slots, five wheels or reels more than four.  

Here we can also mention Gods of Gold and other slots that feature a new game mechanic called infinity reels or INFINIREELS, depending on the game provider. These start off with as little as 3 or four reels but can expand indecently as long as you keep winning.  

6-7-wheels Casino Slots

Now we getting to the slots with many winning opportunities. These slots let you win any way. Meaning you don’t have to rely on a set number of paylines for your winning combinations. You can find machines with 4-5 wheels that win in any way too, there you can win in a maximum of 243 ways. When you play online on a casino slot that have six or seven wheels, you can win in 720 ways, 1024, at the most as much like 3125 ways. 

Not all slots with 6-7 reels have any ways pay. Where you can. You can also find these casino slots with 50+ lines, but not every way possible. Some have 99 lines some more.  

These casino slots also have free spin features and other bonus features. However, some of them will not offer any free spins feature, they will have other features that offer great prizes when playing regular spins, such as expanding wild symbols, stacked symbols or similar functions. 

Mega Ways Casino Slots 

If a set number of ways to win does not give you the excitement you need, you can experience the great thrill of a new number of ways to win each spin on a Megaways slot. Each spin will reveal a new and unique number of ways to win. This is done by changing the number of symbols on each wheel from spin to spin. Sometimes you can get several reels with 4-5 big symbols on each and therefore only get a few hundred ways to win. If you are really lucky you will get lots of little symbols on all the wheels up to seven on each wheel. Then you will be able to win in many thousands of ways, tens of thousands in fact. The maximum being 117,000 different ways. 

The most extreme slot machines you come across, in terms of ways to win, will probably be the ones using Megaways. The game mechanic was developed by BTG, but they licensed the software to many other game developers.  

Some Megaways casino slots have a series of symbols over the wheels from the second wheel two help you win. These disappear when used and move to the left and new symbols are added. There are over 70 different Megaways slots, they are made by several different game developers and you can play for free in demo mode or play with real money on the Megaways slots. 

Casino Slots with Multiple Wheel-sets 

For those who are not satisfied with one set of wheels, multi-wheeler slot games might be the solution. You will often find slots of this type with a regular wheel set and a giant wheel set, with 20-40 symbols stacked. 

There you will almost always find the feature of transferred wilds, where a full wheel stacked with of wilds will be transferred to the same wheel on the large wheel set. There are also slots with even more wheel-sets, like Bruce Lee: Dragon's Tale 'where you'll find three extra wheel-sets. On the Planet of the Apes you play on two identical wheel sets. There are many types of new slot machines in 2020 for those who want more excitement than a single wheel set can provide. 

Slot Machines with Cascading or Falling Reels 

Traditionally, there will be rows of wheels on a slot machine online. The reels wheels of course spin until they stop and show the symbols you can win with. A reasonably new type of online slot replaces the reels with rows of symbols, that falls down, landing on top of each other to give you the result of your “spin” 

These slot machines have many names in English. They are often called Cascading, Falling, Rolling, Collapsing, or Tumbling real slots. Game developer NetEnt, which is one of the biggest and best slot providers, has called its version of falling-symbols slot machines Avalanche slots.  

What makes this type of slot machine so attractive to players is that when you win, the winning symbols disappear. The remaining symbols then fall down to take their place. When this happens, you will have brand new symbols descending on top and you will have a new chance for payable wins. This happens over and over as long as you win, some of the best slots using falling symbols also give you increased winnings with x2, 3, x5 winnings when you win multiple times in a row. 

Free Spin Feature

It's no secret, when we play on online slots, we want to win the free spin feature. This is where the big winnings are. Obviously, you can win big prizes on the regular spins too, If you get wilds or the top symbols stacked on all the reels and on many lines. However, if you get the same under free spins. Then we are talking at least x2 the win, very often x3, at the best slot machines on the net x5, some have a random x-factor that can give you 10-20 times the win or more. 

Since it is with the free spin feature that we win the most, you may want to familiarize yourself with how many spins it is possible to win before you start playing. The same goes for how many free spin symbols (scatters) you need to win, it is rather tedious to finally get three scatters, only to learn that they have to come consecutive reels for free spins feature to be triggered. Equally disappointing they can be if you expect the "standard" of 15 free spins and end up with 4-5 spins. 

The Bonus Feature 

It can be a little confusing, some slots use a symbol that says scatter or bonus to the free spin feature, too often the bonus symbols will give you something else. Again, it's good to have a look at the pay table to learn what symbols gives what. If both free spins and bonus features are available, the bonus symbol will often give you a feature of your own. 

Which bonus feature you get all depends on the theme and type of online slot. Let's have a look at the most common bonus features triggered by three or more bonus symbols. 

Mini-Games  

A very common bonus feature is that you trigger a mini game. You often get to choose among objects to reveal a cash prize, you can pick a key or similar symbol to move on to the next level, while there will be another symbol hidden somewhere  that will end the bonus feature. If you get to the last level, there is often a big cash prize, free spins or some other grand reward, perhaps a multiplier on the prize you won during the mini game.  

Another type of mini game gives you a wheel, dice or similar, these gives you move when you spin or roll. You then move on a path towards the big prize at the end, like a board game. If you land on the wrong field, the journey may be over, other fields will give you a multiplier or cash prizes 

The mini game will be related to the theme of the online slot, there are many special and fun mini games among the variety of online slots. 

Wheel of Fortune  

 Bonus feature in the form of a wheel of fortune, is also quite common. On these it will be possible to win cash prizes, free spins, wild symbols or multipliers for winnings you have already won on the spin that triggered the bonus. Here you will often only get one spin, unless you win more spins on the reel the bonus feature will be over when the spin is complete. Sometimes three bonus symbols give you one spin, while additional scatters add spins.  

 Monetary bonus  

A bonus can be as simple as winning a random amount of money when the bonus is triggered, the prize sum starts counting up, the sum increases and increases, until it suddenly stops and you know the final sum of your bonus.  

Jackpot 

Sometimes it is possible to win a jackpot via regular spins on a slot machine, but most often you will find jackpots as a mini game, were you pick symbols, or where spins give you prizes until no more prize symbols show up etc. There is often a Mini, Minor, Major, Maxi and Grand jackpot.  Sometimes there are only 3 jackpots, these can be progressive or have a set sum. 

RTP 

Return to player, this is the money paid out to the player, measured over time. This should always be over 95%, if not the slot is not worth playing on. Some of the most popular online slots have a high Volatility and a RTP over 98%. 

Online Slots for Everyone

You play online with real money and can win big winnings, among the most rewarding are the big progressive jackpots. Try different slots for free in demo mode before spending real money in search of the big winnings. Find an online casino with lots of great slots in 2024 in our new casino list.