A narrow notch, groove, or opening, such as a keyway in machinery or a slit for a coin in a vending machine.
Also known as slott (south-central Swedish, West Germanic, Dutch) and schloss (Germanic)
A position in a group, series, or sequence.
A slot in Web design is a dynamic placeholder that either waits for content to be added to it (a passive slot) or calls upon a renderer to fill it with content (an active slot). A slot can be created using an Add Items to Slot action, a Slot element in a scenario, or a Slot item in a template.
Once upon a time, people dropped coins into slots in casinos to activate games for each spin. This changed with the introduction of bill validators and credit meters, which enabled players to pay off advance wagers with paper money instead of directly putting cash in the machine.
As the technology behind slot machines evolved, manufacturers began adding electronics into the machines to weigh particular symbols against others in order to improve the odds of winning. However, this practice was illegal because it constituted cheating.
Today, video slots often offer up to fifty pay lines—whether vertical, horizontal, diagonal, or zigzag—and many have bonus features that can enhance your winning chances. While some of these bonuses may require a deposit, most are free and easy to unlock. In addition, new online slot designers can let their imaginations run wild to give you creative bonus events like the crime zone in NetEnt’s Cash Noire or the outer-space cluster payoffs in ReelPlay’s Cosmic Convoy.