Slots Strategies: Overview

Slots are the ubiquitous casino machine games that have found happy homes in many entertainment venues beyond a traditional casino setting right across the globe – by contrast, you don't find many Baccarat tables in your local pub or Roulette tables at the chippy do you? The Slots' popularity with players of both real and online casinos is beyond doubt as it comfortably leads the pack as the most subscribed game to be found in casinos, with research of gamblers' habits revealing that, on average, a casino can expect to generate over two thirds of its income from its roster of Slots!

The physical machines you'll encounter in a modern land-based casino or the virtual versions to be found at the UK online casinos we list are pretty hi-tech affairs under computer control, but the origin of these digital reel delights goes back as far as the 19th Century. The very first gaming machine we'd recognise as a three-reel Slot, was debuted in San Francisco in 1887 by one Charles Fey. Since that time, electronics have replaced the purely mechanical engines of those first Slots, although one physical attribute of those pioneering machines has endured as a less-than-flattering nickname for Slots in general – the ‘One-Armed Bandit'! Getting this moniker from the traditional Slots' designs which used a single, player-operated mechanical lever to spin the reels coupled with the apparent ease with which such machines could relieve a player of their money, it's still common to hear players use this name when referring to Slots.

Mercifully for players, the ‘bandit' reputation is just as out-of-date as the mechanical lever to spin the reels, since Slots in licensed premises (which also includes the software Slots to be found in the UK online casinos we list) must payout a certain minimum percentage under the gaming laws of the jurisdiction which regulates that place. By way of example, in the US State of New Jersey the minimum payout percentage must be 83%, and in Nevada – home state of Las Vegas - it is 75%. The great news for online Slot jockeys is that the competition between the best UK online casinos to win customer loyalty is so intense that they often have far higher payout rates to woo players, often exceeding 95%, and endorsed by independent auditors too (in case you doubt their word)!

For more information about playing Slots online, and some of the conventions of the progressive jackpot games that are a big draw at UK online casinos, please click the relevant tab above.