The Main Types of Online Slots

A lot of people like casino gaming, but slots are far out in front of all the other games in terms of popularity. That has always been the case too – there has never been a time when they were not the games that drew the biggest crowds at casinos.

The main reason for that is that slots are not as difficult and demanding as the table games. Blackjack and poker require study and strategic ability, but the slots are fast-moving games of pure luck.

That is also true of roulette, but slots have the further advantages being low-cost to bet on and having interesting themes. They are also better suited to mobile phones than the other casino games and there are dozens of casino gaming apps available to download, click to visit a list of the top casinos available.

What are the top types of slots found on those apps though? Read on to find out.

Slot Types

Classic Slots

The key thing that marks classic slot games out from the other types is that they only have three reels. That is because they are based on the old fruit machines and one-armed bandits that were found in bars and games arcades.

It may seem surprising that they exist in the online gaming world, but some fans of the old physical machines like to relive them in the digital era. A big advantage of classic slots is that they are the easiest version – and we are not exactly talking about difficult games to begin with.

A disadvantage is that the reduced number of reels means that the potential winning combinations are also lower. That means the chances of a payout go down. On the other hand, they also tend to be high volatility, so wins can be on the large side if you are lucky enough to land one.

Video Slots

These are the games that supplanted the classic slots and that are most likely to be found on the internet. One big difference between them and classic slots is that video slots feature five reels instead of three.

That increases the possible winning combinations and improves the payout odds for the player. However, many video slots are low or medium volatility, so payouts are smaller if quite frequent.

Another notable difference with video slots is that they come with more pay lines to bet on. The higher the number of these that you bring into play, the greater the winning chances become.

These slots also feature various themes. They are sometimes spin-offs from hit movies or television shows and come with exciting video graphics that punctuate the play.

Progressive Slots

These are found at many online casinos, although they are not as numerous as video slots. The name ‘progressive slots’ comes from the fact that the jackpot in the games builds progressively in size until someone wins it.

Every time a player puts money into one of these games, it adds a little bit to the total of this jackpot. By contrast, with other types of slots, the jackpot stays at a fixed value at all times.

The potentially massive jackpots on offer with progressive slots have made them one of the most popular variants of the basic slot format. It is important to understand that you have to bet the maximum possible sum each time to be eligible for those jackpots though.

Progressive slots also tend to be very low volatility, so they do not pay out that often.

Megaways Slots

These games were developed by online slot creator Big Time Gaming and they usually have six reels. They also come with something called a random reel modifier that enables more reel icons to appear on the reels after they have been spun.

That adds up to more potential for the player to get matching reels and land payouts. This has unsurprisingly proven to be a big hit with slots fans.

3D Slots

3D slots are much more common at online casinos now and they are notable for the advanced visual and audio effects that they offer. Furthermore, while most types of slots have bonus games; the ones found in 3D slots are frequently more complicated and play out over multiple levels.

One example of that would be the Aliens 3D slot produced by NetEnt that has a three-level progressive bonus round. It makes them some of the more absorbing slot games on the market.

All of these slot types have their fans, but at the moment video and progressive slots are perhaps the most popular. The former because of the fun themes and the latter for their huge jackpots

These are the basic kinds of online slot that can be found right now, but new types including virtual reality slots are on the way.