Atlassino Academy · Slots · Lesson 1 of 10
Reels, lines and what a spin costs
The big number on a slot machine counts credits, and a credit is not a dollar. Here is where the panel says what one credit is worth, and how to work out what your next press takes.
The glass on the slot machine says your bet is 200 credits. How much money is that?
The short answer
Nobody can tell you that from the number of credits on its own. Two hundred credits is $2.00 at one machine and $200.00 at the machine four seats along it, and the glass says two hundred credits at both of them. What a press takes is three numbers multiplied by one another, and the count of credits on the glass leaves one of those three numbers out.
Credits on a line, times the lines switched on, times what one credit is worth, makes what the press takes.
What one credit is worth is the number people walk past.
Leoformer dealer · rules and maths
I worked a floor where a whole wall of machines looked alike, and one press on them ran anywhere from a cent to a couple of dollars. None of that was hidden from anybody. All three numbers — how many credits sit on a line, how many lines are switched on, and what one credit is worth — stood on the glass the whole time, and anyone could read them.
Two of those three numbers are yours to set, and a machine will let you set them both without your noticing that you have. That is why I ask people to read one bet panel slowly, line by line, before the first press of the evening. Read one panel properly and you can read every panel on the floor, because all of them carry the same three numbers.
The three numbers
A line is a run of symbols that pays if it comes up. How many lines are switched on is yours to choose, and every line you switch on is charged for separately, so switching on more lines raises what the press takes.
BET PANEL
The press takes $0.50
On every line that is switched on you put credits, on most machines from one to five. The panel multiplies the credits on a line by the lines switched on and shows the bet in credits: 2 credits on each of 25 lines is why the bet reads 50 credits.
The third number is what one credit is worth in money, and it is printed on the panel as well — usually in the smallest type there. At a machine you have not sat at before, look for what one credit is worth before you look at anything else, because until you have that figure the bet in credits tells you nothing about the money.
| One credit | 1 line1 credit on each | 9 lines5 credits on each | 25 lines5 credits on each |
|---|---|---|---|
| $0.01 a credit | $0.01 | $0.45 | $1.25 |
| $0.05 a credit | $0.05 | $2.25 | $6.25 |
| $0.25 a credit | $0.25 | $11.25 | $31.25 |
| $1.00 a credit | $1.00 | $45.00 | $125.00 |
The same reels at twelve prices: each row is what one credit is worth, fixed in the cabinet; each column is the lines and credits on each line you set. Amounts are in Canadian dollars.
You can put the machine in front of you through the same arithmetic in the Slot denomination calculator.
The big number is a count, not money
A credit is neither a coin nor a press. A credit is the unit the machine counts in, and every machine decides for itself what one of its credits is worth in money. The machine counts your bet in credits; your pocket pays for it in dollars.
The machine by the door
BET200CREDITS
One credit here is worth $0.01
So the press takes $2.00
The machine four seats along
BET200CREDITS
One credit here is worth $1.00
So the press takes $200.00
A machine gets called a penny machine after what one credit is worth on it, never after what a press on it takes. The smallest bet such a machine will accept can be a great deal more than a penny, because even the smallest bet still pays for every line that is switched on.
The max bet button raises both of your numbers
Max bet raises both of the numbers you control — how many credits sit on each line, and how many lines are switched on — as far as that machine allows, in one tap. One tap multiplies what the press takes twice over.
THE LOWEST SETTING THIS MACHINE OFFERS
The press takes $0.01
AFTER THE MAX BET TAP
The press takes $1.25
People reach for that button for a reason: where a machine feeds a prize that grows across the whole floor, a bet below a certain size is not in for that prize at all, and the size the machine asks for is often the max bet. What it costs to chase a prize like that comes later in this track.
What you can read before you pay
Everything that decides what your press does can be read before you bet.
- The paytablewhat every symbol pays, line by line
- The rules of the gamehow the game works, in full
- What each feature doeswhat the extra rounds advertised on the glass actually do
On a slot machine you reach all three of them through the More Info button, in the same way that the odds for a table game are printed on the felt of the table itself.
- A bigger bet does not buy a better share coming back. A machine gives back the same share or more on a higher bet, never less, and its payout floor holds at every setting. More lines buy more of the same share, not a better one.
- A bigger bet does not always bring a bigger payout. Raising your bet raises the stake on each line; it does not promise that a line pays more when it comes up.
The machine may not encourage you to raise the total you have decided to bet. Nothing in that rule stops your own thumb from reaching for max bet.
An hour of pressing
A slot machine runs at about 14 presses a minute. Here is what that means for one hour of unbroken pressing.
- One press$2.00forty lines switched on, five credits on each line, at $0.01 for one credit
- One minute of pressing$2814 presses
- One unbroken hour of pressing$1,680840 presses
That last figure is the money passing through the machine, not the price of the hour to you: some of it comes back as credits and gets pressed again, and what stays with the room is a share, which is the next lesson. Price of an hour picks the arithmetic up from there, and the first thing it asks you for is what one press takes.
Take $120 as the money you brought for the evening. Divided by what one press takes, it gives the number of presses that money pays for.
This is a division, not a forecast: how far money actually carries at a machine is two lessons further along this track.
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Decide how much money the evening gets while you are still at home, and then let that amount choose the machine and the setting for you. Do it the other way round — sit down, set the machine, and then watch what the evening does to the money — and the machine has chosen the amount for you.
What a press takes is the one part of this you hold in your own hand. It decides how much money leaves you on every press, and it decides nothing at all about how much comes back.
If it stops being fun
If gambling stops being entertainment, help is available. 19+ in most of Canada; 18+ in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec. More on responsible gaming.
Practice: read the panel
First a bet panel stands in front of you and you say how much money the next press takes. Then the money you brought for the evening decides how high you are allowed to set a machine. Then two machines stand side by side, and one of the two takes more money a press than it looks as though it does.
Nothing spins here. There are no reels in the practice run, no outcome and no money coming back, because a machine has no decision left in it once the button is down. Every decision you get to make happens before the button goes down, and those are the decisions worth practising.
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Level 1 · Read the panel
BET PANEL
What will the next press take?
- $0.25 1 credit on each of 25 lines makes 25 credits, and one credit on this machine is worth $0.01.
- $25.00 That is the count of credits on the glass read as an amount of money. A credit is worth whatever this cabinet was set to, and the panel prints that figure — usually in its smallest line.
- $0.01 That is what one credit is worth on this machine. The press is buying 25 credits, not one credit.
Three numbers multiplied together: how many credits sit on one line, how many lines are switched on, and what one credit is worth in money. The credits on a line and the lines switched on are the two you set yourself. What one credit is worth was set into the cabinet before you sat down at it.
The denomination or value of a credit is rarely the same as the cost of a spin on that machine. Even machines called “penny” or “nickel” may actually have minimum bets that are much higher. In other words your spin will never cost only one cent on a penny machine.OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
Level 2 · The bet you meant to make
BET PANEL
You have decided that one press should take no more than $0.50. What is the most you can put on each line, in credits, and still stay inside that?
- 1 credit on each line — $0.25 a press A press at this setting is inside the amount you decided on, and so is a higher setting on the same machine. The question asks for the highest one that still fits.
- 2 credits on each line — $0.50 a press This is the highest setting the panel offers that still keeps one press inside the amount you decided on.
- 3 credits on each line — $0.75 a press A press at this setting takes $0.75, which is more than the amount you decided on.
- 5 credits on each line — $1.25 a press A press at this setting takes $1.25, which is more than the amount you decided on.
- None of them — every setting on this machine takes more than I decided on The smallest setting on this machine takes $0.25 a press, so the machine does fit inside the amount you decided on. The question is how high you can set it and still fit.
The amount you decided on at home is what chooses the setting on the machine. Do it the other way round — set the machine first, and then see what the evening does to the money — and the machine has chosen the amount for you.
Level 3 · Two machines
FIRST MACHINE
SECOND MACHINE
You want each press to take less money. Which of these two machines do you sit at?
- The machine where one credit is worth $0.01 A press on that machine takes $2.00: 5 credits on each of 40 lines, at $0.01 for one credit.
- The machine where one credit is worth $1.00 A press on that machine takes $1.00: 1 credit on each of 1 line, at $1.00 for one credit.
- Neither of them — a press on the two machines takes the same A press on the two machines does not take the same: $2.00 on the first machine against $1.00 on the second.
A machine that takes less money a press is not the same thing as a machine that costs less to sit at all evening, and nothing on either panel tells you which of the two gives more back.
Every press in the practice run is worked out the same way, from the three numbers standing on the panel in front of you: how many credits sit on one line, how many lines are switched on, and what one credit is worth. Nothing spins here and nothing comes back, because a machine has no decision left in it once the button is down. The practice stops where your decisions stop.
How the practice run works
Where the presses come from. Every panel in the practice run is three numbers — what one credit is worth, how many lines are switched on, and how many credits sit on each line — and what the press takes is those three numbers multiplied together, worked out when the page is built rather than written down anywhere by hand. The wrong answers are worked out from the same three numbers, and each wrong answer is one named mistake: the lines left out of the multiplication, the credits on a line left out of it, the count of credits on the glass read as an amount of money, or what one credit is worth mistaken for what the whole press takes.
One strip, and no rounds. Every square on the strip is one press of this lesson, and all of the squares are there from the start. Your first answer fills the square it belongs to; when the squares of one level are full, the next level begins by itself, with no button in between. Practising a press you got wrong turns its cross into “fixed in practice” and does not change the count, because only first answers count.
Level 2 uses your own money. The amount is the one the plan lesson uses, and the right answer is the largest setting that still keeps a press inside that amount — not the smallest setting the machine offers. A machine whose smallest setting is already past the amount you decided on is a machine to walk away from, and walking away is one of the answers on offer.
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Check yourself
Mayaformer floor supervisor · manners, money and breaks
Five quick ones. Pick an answer, then check it. No timer, no points: just whether it stuck.
Back to the question we opened with. Two hundred credits is a count of two hundred credits and nothing more than that, until you have found on the panel what one credit is worth at the machine you are sitting at.
Where the machines are, and further reading
19+ (18+ in AB, MB, QC) · Play responsibly · the helplines are further up this page
Further reading
- Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming, 11: Game Behaviour · Alcohol and Gaming Commission of OntarioWhat a slot machine in a room is allowed to do, clause by clause: the payout floor, the reel strip, the odds on the largest prize and the ten games of history every machine can show you.
- How to play slots · Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (PlaySmart)An operator walking through the arithmetic of one spin, with its own worked example: nine lines on a nickel machine, and what one press of it takes.
- How to play slots · British Columbia Lottery Corporation (Casinos BC)Reels, lines and the province’s average return, in the words of the corporation that runs the rooms.
- Understanding chance: slot machines · Loto-Québec (Wise Play)The near miss, volatility and the illusion of control, named and explained by a provincial operator rather than by us.
- Informed Gambling: slots and VLTs · Manitoba Liquor & LotteriesA short brochure on what a payout percentage is and is not, and why two machines with the same one can empty a wallet at different speeds.
- Registrar's Standards for Internet Gaming: game design and features · Alcohol and Gaming Commission of OntarioThe same machine on a screen: what a regulated site in Ontario may not do with the picture after the outcome has been drawn.
How it's worked out
Numbers, sources and hosts
Where this happens. Every machine on this page is a cabinet standing in a room you can walk into. A screen at home multiplies the same three numbers, but it is asked for different things by a different book of rules, and it belongs to a track of its own.
Numbers. Every figure on this page is those three numbers on a panel multiplied together, or that product divided into the money you brought, and every one of them is worked out when the page is built. The hour uses the one pace this page names and no other pace, and it multiplies rather than predicts: an hour of unbroken pressing is the shape of an upper limit, not a description of how anybody actually sits at a machine.
What is deliberately absent. There is no rate of return on this page, no hit frequency, and no figure for how long money lasts at a machine. Each of those three needs something this page does not have, and each of them has a lesson of its own further along the track. What the money you brought buys here is a division — the number of presses it pays for — and never a forecast of an evening.
Sources. Every claim on this page carries a button with the sentence it rests on, the publisher who wrote that sentence and the date we read it.
Hosts. Leo and Maya are illustrated characters. Their backstories, a former dealer and a former floor supervisor, are written for the course: neither is a real person, and neither speaks for any casino. The rules and numbers on this page come from the sources it cites, not from their experience.
No promise. A slot machine is played against the house. Reading the panel tells you what a press takes before you pay it; nothing on this page makes that figure smaller, and nothing here says how an evening at a machine would end.
A bigger bet and the rate that comes back
The theoretical payout percentage of a higher Bet amount must not be less than the theoretical payout percentage of a lower Bet amount for the same paytable and wager category.
The minimum theoretical payout percentage of a Game must be met for every available Bet configuration.
Section 11.9 Game Payout
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
A bigger bet and the payout
When playing slots it’s important to know that increasing your bet does not always increase your potential payout.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Betting on slots · read
A nickel machine, nine lines, five credits a line
Example: If you bet the max of nine paylines on a nickel machine, the credits per spin will be 45. Since the machine calls for five cents per credit, the total cost per spin (and of your bet) is $2.25.
Section How to Set Your Bet in Slots
What a credit is, and what a spin is
The denomination or value of a credit is rarely the same as the cost of a spin on that machine. Even machines called “penny” or “nickel” may actually have minimum bets that are much higher. In other words your spin will never cost only one cent on a penny machine.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
What a credit is, and what a spin is
The denomination or value of a credit is rarely the same as the cost of a spin on that machine. Even machines called “penny” or “nickel” may actually have minimum bets that are much higher. In other words your spin will never cost only one cent on a penny machine.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
How fast a machine goes
Slot machines play at super speed – around 14 spins per minute.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — strategies: Make the most of your play · read
What a credit is, and what a spin is
The denomination or value of a credit is rarely the same as the cost of a spin on that machine. Even machines called “penny” or “nickel” may actually have minimum bets that are much higher. In other words your spin will never cost only one cent on a penny machine.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
A bigger bet and the rate that comes back
The theoretical payout percentage of a higher Bet amount must not be less than the theoretical payout percentage of a lower Bet amount for the same paytable and wager category.
The minimum theoretical payout percentage of a Game must be met for every available Bet configuration.
Section 11.9 Game Payout
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
A bigger bet and the payout
When playing slots it’s important to know that increasing your bet does not always increase your potential payout.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Betting on slots · read
What a line is
A payline is a lineup of specific symbols on which a payout will be awarded.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
Slots machines typically have three or more “reels,” each of which has a number of symbols on it. The combinations of symbols the machine lands on are called “paylines.”
What a credit is, and what a spin is
The denomination or value of a credit is rarely the same as the cost of a spin on that machine. Even machines called “penny” or “nickel” may actually have minimum bets that are much higher. In other words your spin will never cost only one cent on a penny machine.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Breaking slots down · read
When a bet has to reach a certain size
Sometimes with progressives, you have to bet a certain amount to be able to win the jackpot – often the max bet.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — how to play: Slot machine features · read
What has to be there before a bet
All paytable awards, Game rules, feature information, and automatic selection behaviour rules must be available to the player prior to the player committing a Bet.
Section 11.1 Rules of Play and Information Display
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
Where the odds are written
Game odds are usually printed right on the playing surface for table games and can be found in the More Info button on slot machines.
Manitoba Liquor & Lotteries · Informed Gambling — Odds · read
A machine may not push you up
Games must not encourage a player to increase the total amount the player has decided to bet.
Section 11.1 Rules of Play and Information Display
AGCO · Minimum Technical Standards for Gaming — 11. Game Behaviour · read
How fast a machine goes
Slot machines play at super speed – around 14 spins per minute.
OLG PlaySmart · Slots — strategies: Make the most of your play · read
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