GAMING MACHINES (SLOTS, VIDEO SLOTS)
One of the most popular types of gambling entertainment, which is an integral attribute of any self-respecting casino, is slot machines or slots. Even the most experienced players often prefer to play slot machines rather than blackjack or roulette. And there are several reasons for this: the slot game is truly gambling, since winning in it depends on pure luck, and the chances of victory for a professional and a beginner are absolutely equal. For a successful game, you do not need to memorize many rules and develop complex strategies. In addition, you can play slots at minimum bets, and the winnings can be several thousand, or even millions of dollars, if this is a jackpot. With the development of high technology, the “one-armed bandit” migrated from stuffy gaming rooms to the Internet, while playing became even more interesting, convenient and profitable. Any player can risk a large sum, try out online slot machines for free and enjoy a game of chance without leaving your own home.
Slots are considered one of the most popular gambling entertainment. According to statistics, about 50% of visitors to all of the world's offline and online casinos come to play slot machines. It is not surprising that when developing slots, manufacturers use the most advanced technologies and spend huge amounts of money on finding innovative solutions to make their products even more interesting and attractive for players.
Today, online casinos can offer their users hundreds of different models of slots: from classic to ultra-modern, with functional symbols and progressive jackpots, realistic 3D graphics and bonus rounds.
All currently existing slots can be divided into two large groups - offline and online.
Slot machines offline
Mechanical - the first (classic) slot machines with three reels, one playing line and traditional symbols (bars, sevens, cherries, bells), which are currently used, rather, as a decoration for the interior of gaming halls or exhibits in gambling museums. Now, like many years ago, these devices are called "one-armed bandits" because of the large lever that resembles a hand. The lever was used by players to trigger a mechanism that propelled the reels.
Semi-mechanical gaming machines are the next generation of slot machines, in which the rotation of the reels was controlled by a computer. Thanks to the improvement, semi-mechanical devices received several new options, such as multipliers, several winning lines, the option to buy an option, accumulation of points, etc. To start the reels, they often began to use the Spin button. True, some manufacturers continued to produce models with a lever - so to speak, a tribute to tradition. Semi-mechanical slots can still be found in the gaming halls.
Video slots - to the latest generation devices, in which real reels were replaced with a screen with their image. Hence the prefix "video". The use of new technologies in the slot game opened up great opportunities for creativity and each slot manufacturer used them in their own way. The playing field of the video began to include five, seven, nine reels with a huge number of payment lines (in some models more than 100). Bonus games, bank games and multi-games with the ability to select multiple games on one machine were added to the main game. The slots themselves became themed, with beautiful graphics and animation, realistic sound effects and additional screens for mini-games.
Progressive - slots that are programmed to deduct a certain percentage of the progressive jackpot from each bet made by the player. Such a slot can be single, that is, one progressive jackpot is accumulated by one machine; local - several slots are included in a single network within the same institution; The progressive network slot is part of a large network including multi-offline slot machines and online casinos. For progressive slots, players use a slightly different game strategy than the one used when playing video slots or slot machines with spinning reels. This is due to the high level of rates and variance of progressive slots.
Online slots
With the advent of online casinos, developers not only transferred all the functions and characteristics of ground-based gaming machines to online space, but also added a couple of new options to the list of varieties of slot games.
Classic slots are essentially a virtual analogue of the “one-armed bandit”. Also, this concept can be attributed to any offline or online slot machine with three reels and one game line. Unlike real 3-reel machines, classic online slots can vary in theme. Many developers abandoned traditional characters, replacing them with themed ones. Also, 3-reel online slots may contain special symbols or bonus games and be included in the network with a progressive jackpot.