In the physical world, slot refers to a place on a casino machine where coins are inserted or cards and bets placed. When it comes to online casinos, the duality in meaning remains as the concept has expanded to include a variety of casino games.

Pay table

The pay table in a slot displays the various symbols, their payouts and prizes, as well as any bonus features. It can be found on the game’s screen, or in some cases, in a dedicated help menu. Depending on the machine, the paytable can also display how to activate different bonus features such as free spins, sticky wilds, cascading symbols and more.

On modern machines, the pay table is typically shown on the screen above and below the reels. In the case of older, “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, it may be printed on the machine’s face. When the player selects a button or lever, the microprocessor in the slot then assigns each symbol a probability of appearing, which is then compared to the pay table to determine how much the player will earn if a winning combination is triggered.

In sports, a slot receiver is a smaller receiving player who can stretch the defense vertically with speed and is normally employed on short routes such as slants or quick outs. These players are normally able to beat linebackers off the ball with their speed and have a unique skill set that many other players cannot match.