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The slot machine is the one casino gambling game that is totally American in origin. The fist machine was pioneered by Charles Fey in 1897 with the Liberty machine. This machine had three reels with symbols that had a 3:1 payout ratio for nickels. By 1899 he had a machine that would divert coins to a payout tray. The next machine to appear was the Mills machine. Slots were the rage during Prohibition and even during the Depression. When gambling was legalized in Nevada in 1931, the slot found its home. Today, modern casinos have thousands of slot machines. Walking into any casino, you see row after row of slot machines.

The slot machine consists of a cabinet that houses all of its parts. The player watches the reels as they spin. As the reels stop spinning, one by one, the patterns of symbols appears. If the pattern matches a pattern on the payout display, the player wins and the winning coins come tumbling out in the payout tray. If not he puts in another coin, pulls the handle or hits the Play button, and tries again. The reels have Mylar-like strips around them that have symbols on them. The greater the number of symbols on the strip, the less the players chance of winning. Each reel has certain places where it will stop. These places are called Steps or Stops. The modern computerized machine has 128 Stops and 2,097,152 possible outcomes, with each reel's stop being determined by a Random Number Generator. There is no way to predict the outcome of a slot pull. The computerized chip in the machine is called the Payout Percentage Chip. This chip is programmed to determine the payout percentage over the life of the machine. If the slot has a 95% Payout Percentage this means that the house has 5% of every dollar that is played over the long-run.

The Service Light or Candle in on top of the machine. The player pushes the Change button to activate this light and a member of the casino staff will appear. The player uses this button when he needs change, has a questions, wants a drink, etc. This light will begin to flash automatically when the machine has a technical problem or if there is a winner. Never walk away from a machine that has a winner on it or you can't prove it is your winner. Always wait for a member of the staff to come with the payout.

When the player looks at the reels in front of him, he sees the Payout Line. This is the line where the symbols must line up. The number of payout lines depends on the game. Some games have one payout line, some have three, some have nine. These will be marked on the glass over the reels. These lines show the combination of symbols that have resulted from the pull, using either the slot machine handle or the Play button. The machine will have the Payout Display on it. This will either be on the Top Glass or the Belly Glass. The top glass is the square or rounded glass below the service light and above the slot reels. The belly glass is below the reels and above the payout tray. The payout display shows all of the winning combination of symbols and the amount of the payout. If the machine is a multi-coin machine, it will show the payout amount for each coin played.

You can play the machine by putting a coin in the Coin Entry and then pulling the slot handle or pushing the play button. If you don't want to enter a coin every time, you can deposit $10 or $20 or whatever amount you want through the Bill Acceptor, and play off the credits. The machine will have a Total Credits on the display showing you the total amount of credits you have. When you bet, there will be a Credits Played display that shows you the number of coins you have bet on the pull. If you decide to quit playing, you push the Cash Out button and the number of coins showing in the Total Credits display will empty into the coin tray.

Before each play there will be an Insert Coin light. You must insert one or more coins into the coin entry before you can play the machine. If you have credits on the machine you can Play One Coin for the appropriate number of coins you wish to play or you can push Max Bet. If you are playing a three coin machine, this will automatically bet the three coins. If you win on the play, the number of coins won will show in the Winner Paid display. If an Error Code appears anywhere on the display this means you need the assistance of the casino staff because the machine has malfunctioned. The service candle should flash automatically. If it doesn't, push the Change button and a staff member will come.

There are a variety of different games that you can play on slots, Now online slot. Some are very simple, one coin with one payout line; some are very complicated like progressives and multiple payout lines. Always make sure you know the rules of the game you are playing. They will be given on the machine display somewhere. If you don't know, ask a member of the casino staff. There is no worse feeling than sitting there wondering why you are winning or losing!

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