If you’ve been playing online slots for a while now, you may consider yourself experienced. Maybe you’ve won back some substantial money. Maybe you’ve even hit a jackpot – learn more here.
However, even if you’ve been playing for a long time, the online slots world is always evolving. That’s the beauty of it. Therefore, there may be a word or some terminology that you’ve not heard before, however experienced you are.
Here’s a list of some jargon that’s definitely on a “need to know” basis.
· All Ways – This is an online slots game that has hundreds of possible pay-lines, both running left-to-right and right-to-left.
· Cascading Reels – Also known as Tumbling Reels or Rolling Reels, this feature involves winning combinations disappearing from the reels, before being replaced by the symbols above.
· Multi-way – This is an online slots betting system that can see hundreds or even up to one thousand pay-lines.
· Pokies – This is a humorous Australian term for online slots.
· Trail – A trail is a bonus feature where players progress round a track or ladder in order to gain more prizes.
· Annuity Winner – Some astronomical jackpot pay-outs are sometimes subject to astronomically high taxes too. As a way around this, some jackpot winners may choose to get paid in yearly “annuity” instalments.
· Loose slot – This is a slot machine that has a high pay-out rate. Statistically, this means a higher chance of winning some money back.
· Variance / Volatility – These two terms are interchangeable and refer to the game’s consistency and risk level. If a slots game has low volatility, it will pay out smaller amounts more frequently. However, a slots game that is considered high volatility, or variance, will pay out bigger sums, but less frequently.
· Expanding reels – Expanding reels are a feature that introduces additional reels to the game screen whenever a specific trigger appears.
· Expanding Wild – This is a special type of Wild that expands to occupy the entire reel instead of just one space.
· Pooled jackpot – This type of jackpot can grow to life-changing sizes. As it’s a pool of people contributing their wagers over a large network of casinos, the size of the jackpot increases and increases until the lucky winner takes all. Curiously, the word “pool” comes from the French “poule”, or “chicken”. How betting has changed over the centuries.
· Sticky Wild – The Sticky Wild remains locked in place for more than one spin. It is often included within other features such as re-spins or free spins.
· Zigzag – When you play slots with multiple pay-lines, you can win with a variety of zigzag lines.
· Stop Loss – The “stop loss” is personal to every gambler. It is the threshold at which you call it a day for the time being. Importantly, this could be after a specific amount of money wagered, or a specific amount of time spent gambling.
· LDW (Losses disguised as wins) – These are the sinister little victories you chalk up every so often when you’re gambling. They’re there to keep you interested, but they’re also designed to keep you entertained even though you’re making a loss.
