A slot is a narrow opening or groove in something, such as a door, a card, or a piece of wood. Someone might say, “I slid my credit card into the slot.” A slot can also refer to an allocated time for an airplane to take off or land, as authorized by an airport or air-traffic control. Someone might be waiting for a “slot.”
A slots game’s pay table displays how much you can win for landing symbols on a specific pay line or winning combination. It may be a simple table or a more detailed chart, and it can even include the game’s rules and bonus features.
The pay tables for each machine are spelled out on the glass above the reels, and video slot machines often have a HELP or INFO button that will walk you through the different payouts, play lines, and other information. You should read a slot’s pay table before you start playing so that you know how the machine works and what your odds are of hitting a winning spin.
It’s important to remember that every slot has its own cycle, and the odds of hitting a jackpot are extremely low — it takes a lot of split-second timing to hit the right combination at the right time. So if you leave a machine to try your luck at another, don’t worry that you lost your chance at the big one; the odds are that you’ll never see a better opportunity than the one that just disappeared.
