Slots Games

Hard to believe slot machines date back to 1891, but they do! During the Great Depression, Charles Fey developed the Liberty Bell and instantly it became a hit. The slot itself was more popular among women than men as it allowed wives to accompany their husbands at the casino. While the husbands were playing poker and roulette with their friends, the Liberty Bell provided endless entertainment and ways to win money.

Fast forward a couple hundred years and slot machines have changed dramatically! The first video slot to emerge came in 1976 in Las Vegas, a flashy contraption with computerized components. And today, we have mobile technology to thank for never being more than a few feet away from a gaming machine with exciting bonus features and mega win potential.

Classic Slots

One of the most popular slot games to date is Starburst, the 2013 NetEnt release, and it’s gaining in popularity despite slot machine mechanics becoming more elaborate, but why? The 5-reel, 10 win line engine offers players the chance to pick up wins from left to right as well as right to left with its win both ways mechanic. Hiding within the dazzling gemstones are re-spin wilds, a feature where reels 2, 3 and 4 could become one massive 3x3 wild for massive win potential, plus a maximum win of 50,000 coins!

Another favourite is Book of Dead by Play’N Go, the 2016 ancient Egyptian title with wilds, scatters, free games, expanding symbols and a max win of 5,000x your stake! Styled on the 2004 Book of Ra release by Greentube, players gain access to the special free games feature by spinning in three book symbols. Ten spins are awarded, and a special symbol is chosen at random. During those spins, all instances of the special symbol, a minimum of 3 for low paying symbols or 2 for higher paying symbols, will expand to cover the entire reel and award cash prizes in the process.

Immortal Romance by Microgaming is up there with the most popular classic slots of all time. Released in 2011 and enhanced for mobile devices in 2021, this vampire-themed game is effectively a love story on reels. You have the ancient vampire professors and the human students, and a tale of lust, love and excitement plays out with every spin. The more you play, the more of the stories and accompanying features become available.

Maximise Your Ways to Win Slots

Big Time Gaming (BTG) revolutionised the slot machine in 2016 when Bonanza hit the online casino scene, becoming the very first game of its type to offer 6-reels and up to 117,649 ways to win per spin! The key to mega wins comes with the bonus spins round, as wins lead to an increase in the multiplier until you either have 10,000x applied to the winnings or a win of £250K!

Loaning out the Megaways mechanic has led to some fascinating titles, some with upwards of 1,000,000 ways to win per spin! The features of these types of slots will vary from developer to developer with Blueprint Gaming offering a random progressive jackpot on some of their titles as well as numerous randomly activated reel modifiers during the base game.

Types of Bonus Features

• Bonus Spins: The most exciting bonus feature of them all is the free games bonus, as this offers multiple ways to win without risking your cash! How you trigger the bonus depends on the game, with some awarding spins randomly, others on the presence of three or more scatters and then there are many slot titles offering a buy-in feature too! The aim of the game is to spin in as many wins as you can, only you have no control over the values or the symbols that fall. More often than not, the free games on the house feature offers the best chance to win the biggest cash.

• Pick and Click Bonus: Popular among mFortune and Mr Spin releases, this bonus offers instant style wins based on where players click. It could be money bags, pirate ship wheels or even scratchcards, all offer great big win potential for any level of bet.

• Hold and Re-Spin to Win: This bonus right here is triggered on the presence of a set number of money icons. In Chili Heat Megaways and Wolf Gold by Pragmatic Play, six money icons award the feature, in Gold Collector by Microgaming only three coins are needed, so it all depends on the game you play. Another example of this feature comes from the Fluffy Favourites franchise: Fluffy in Space by Eyecon, with cash values being held in place on the presence of three (or more) Elephant symbols.

So how does it work? Three re-spins are awarded, and cash values are locked in place for those spins. Should more cash spin itself into any of the empty spaces on the reels, the re-spin meter resets itself to the maximum of 3 spins. This bonus will continue until you either have no spins left or an entire grid packed full of cash. At the end of the bonus, all money is added to your bankroll.

• Walking Wilds: One of the most exciting examples of a walking wild comes with the Wild Walker release by Pragmatic Play. In an apocalyptic and dystopian world, zombies roam free and the more of them that roam free, the better for your bankroll! During the bonus spins round, expanding wilds remain locked in place – the more spins you gather, the more wilds in view. This alone could lead to an entire 8-reel engine stacked full of wilds!

Different Jackpots

In some cases, the jackpot you could win will have nothing to do with the value of your stake, this is true with the likes of Mega Moolah by Microgaming and many of the umpteen Jackpot King progressive jackpot slots on the market. When it comes to pre-set jackpots, or the maximum you can win during the base game, the value of your stake will ultimately determine how much you can win. Say a base game jackpot of 5,000x is available, this multiplier sum will be far greater value to those playing £10 stakes compared to those playing a 20p spin.

Progressive jackpot slots can drop at any time and regardless of how little or big your stake is, you could win the lot! Jackpot King titles such as Fishin’ Frenzy and Slot O’ Gold Megaways offer three pots of cash, only access to the big cash comes with a change in theme. Only when those reels light up red with golden crowns, will the jackpot bonus be offered.

There are many ways to win a progressive jackpot. Three scatter wheels in the Mega Dreams release by NetEnt offers this opportunity, all you need to do is get to the inner wheel to win. Mega Moolah series is random, and when that jackpot bonus message appears, you know you’re guaranteed one of the stated jackpots. Then you have Red Tiger Gaming’s jackpot network, with hourly, daily and two other jackpots ready to drop any time of the day!