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Slot Machine Types – Your 2024 Guide to Different Types of Slots in the UK

With so many different slot machine types on the market, it can be hard to keep track of what games offer which features. Read our handy guide and you will soon know your 3-reelers from your Megaways, and themed games from fruit machines. We’ll look at land-based and online slots, covering the pros and cons of each. Besides that, we’ll walk your through how online games work across desktop and mobile platforms and reveal how different levels of volatility can affect payouts.

Online Slots Vs Land-Based Slots: What’s the Difference?

Land-based slot machines and their online counterparts may look the same, but there are a few key differences. We outline the pros and cons of each here to help you understand these differences:

Different Slot Machines by Denomination ??

You can play online slots for free at VegasSlotsOnline. Real money stakes start at pennies, while high rollers can wager substantial amounts on each spin of the reels. Splitting the types of slot machine games this way is a good indication of what games you should look for. If you want to play for Pennies, Nickels, Quarters, Dollars, or like to spin the reels of slots with higher limits, there’s a game to match your budget.

Different Online Slots by Reels

While the earliest slots had only three reels, times have changed and you can now play games with five, six, seven, or even a theoretical unlimited number of reels. Most types of online slot games still pay prizes when you match at least three examples of the same symbols across adjacent reels, starting on the left side, however.

Learn more about the different reels online slots can have below:

Popular Online Slot Game Types Explained

Here’s a quick look at the most popular types of slot machines. Follow the links provided for more details on each kind:

Common Types of Online Slot Payline Mechanics ??


Different types of slot machine pay in different ways and here’s a look at the most popular payline mechanics:

Fixed Jackpot Vs Progressive Slot Machines ??

Jackpot slots offer players the chance to potentially win huge sums of money. Fixed jackpot games often feature several jackpots, but these are shown as multiples of the bet. Players can win minor prizes in the region of 10x the stake, or with the right mix of symbols, grab mega jackpots that can pay 5,000x or more.

The difference with progressive jackpot slot types is that a portion of all stakes placed on the game, across all online casinos that carry it, is set aside. This increases the value of progressive jackpot prizes and instead of set limits, these can grow to vast amounts of 10,000,000.00, 20,000,000.00 or more before one lucky player lands the perfect combination to win the lot.

Progressive jackpot values then ‘seed’ back to a base level and begin to grow once more until won again. Note the slot machines with progressive prizes often have lower average returns in the main games, as a few percentage points, typically around 4%, goes into the pot.

Some of the most well known progressive games include Microgaming's Mega Moolah, NetEnt's Mega Fortune, and Megabucks by IGT.

Gentle Reminder: It's quite hard to land the top prizes with progressive jackpots, as their RTP tends to be lower than that of standard video slots. It's important to bear in mind that these are games of chance, and playing more doesn't mean you'll always win more.

RTP ?? and Slot Volatility?

Different slot games will have varying Return To Players (RTP) and volatility, which tend to affect one another. The RTP is a calculation of what percentage of money staked on the game is paid out in prizes. A slot with a 95.0% RTP will, over the very long-term, pay 95.00 in prizes for each 100.00 placed in bets. All slot types at safe online casinos in the UK can guarantee their average returns.

Slots have low, medium, or high levels of volatility. Lower variance games tend to pay smaller prizes but with a greater frequency and usually have lower average returns. High volatility types of slot machine games pay less often, but there’s the chance of more generous prizes at any time, and average returns can be higher. Slots with a medium volatility sit somewhere in the middle. All of these are trends which can vary widely over the short to medium terms.

Low volatility, low returns games include Da Vinci Diamonds by IGT where the RTP is 94.93%. Conversely, the Jack Hammer slot by NetEnt has a high volatility and average returns of 96.96%.

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