Slots With Multiple Paylines
If you want to play for fun as well as to win, then you should definitely look at the paylines on slot machines. The payline on a slot machine can be seen as the sequence of symbols on the reels.
The active payline is the payline you bet on as a player. If a combination of symbols appears after the reels have stopped, it is compared to the winning combinations on the payline table.
In other words, which lines or patterns in the slot machine give you a win when combinations of certain symbols appear. If the combination on the active payline matches a winning combination on the paytable, then you, the player, win the value displayed with that combination.
The win lines are not always clear to everyone. Is it very crucial that you understand exactly how the paylines work on all slots? Not necessarily, but it can be frustrating when you see 6 of the same symbols and it doesn’t pay off. In that case, you can either shrug or go out and investigate anyway.
The classic physical slots are what is known as one line slots, with one payline. This is because only one payline can be displayed on the slot machine’s screen.
With the introduction of video slots, however, that has changed radically. Slot machines with more than one payline are called multi line slots. Paylines traditionally run from left to right, but there are also slots that abandon this rule altogether.
The number of paylines and what a slot machine considers to be a payline can vary considerably between casino games. And thus there is great variation in the number of “ways to win”.
Paylines and bonus rounds, however, determine to a large extent your success on a slot machine. That’s why it’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with this section. Some important concepts and rules are explained below, such as the difference between fixed and adjustable paylines.
The second point of interest is the direction of the valid paylines in a game. And finally, we explain where those “ways to win” come from.
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Fixed vs Adjustable Paylines
A first important distinction is that between fixed and adjustable paylines. In games with fixed paylines your bet is all or nothing. In the case of adjustable paylines, you make a selection of the number you want to bet on. This is called active paylines and only these paylines give you a chance to win.
This way you can still make a bet on a small budget in online casinos. Slot machines with fixed paylines often have more options and perks such as free spins, bonuses and multipliers. Also, the payout is usually higher. Still, you can often count on winning with adjustable paylines.
Direction of Paylines
Paylines are winning combinations of symbols and they can run in different directions:
From left to right. In the old-fashioned fruit machines in the pub, you come across this most standard direction. That is, the symbols that form a winning combination should appear next to each other when viewed from the left.
- From right to left.
- Both ways, or in both directions.
- All ways. The symbols do not have to be adjacent. As long as they each appear somewhere in the successive reels, you’re fine. Usually the direction is still from left to right.
- Clusters. In this format symbols must form a contiguous group or cluster.
Betting on Slot Paylines
Before the game begins, that is before you press the button that starts the reels spinning, you must first choose how many coins you want to play with and what the value of those coins is. This determines the basis of your bet. Next, you choose the number of paylines you want to bet on.
Suppose you choose 3 paylines, then your total bet is 3x as big as if you were to bet on a classic slot with 1 payline. Thus, the number of spins required to reach the same bet becomes lower. Also, the whole game process becomes much faster, you have 3x as much chance in 1 spin, which of course also increases the tension element. Something can happen continuously.
Basically, provided you have enough play money of course, you should always bet on all win lines when playing a video slot machine. Only then will you have a chance of winning the maximum jackpot amount. As mentioned, make sure you have the budget for it, because if you bet on 50 paylines at once, you obviously can’t keep that up indefinitely with a maximum bet.
But then again, it’s frustrating to play a multi-line slot machine with 2 or 3 paylines with the certainty that you will never, ever win the jackpot.