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Not to be confused with the late Yugoslav statesman, TITO is an acronym for Ticket In, Ticket Out, which is the method by which modern slot and video poker machine players collected their winnings. TITO technology has been in existence since the early Nineties and, essentially, uses machine-dispensed, barcoded tickets as an alternative to coins.

The transition to coinless slot machines has been rapid. TITO is popular with casinos because it avoids refilling slot machines, thereby reducing labour costs and downtime, and allows jackpot wins to be paid quickly and efficiently. Previously, nickel slot machines were notoriously labour-intensive, requiring any jackpot over $50 to be paid by hand. Likewise, slot players can insert a banknote into a machine and, at the end of a playing session, print out a ticket that can be redeemed at the casino cage or a redemption machine, or ‘kiosk’. Of course, coins do not drop into the coin tray, but some machines simulate the sound of falling coins.

Players no longer need to carry buckets of coins to and fro across the casino floor and can insert a ticket from one machine directly into another without cashing it first. Tickets do have an expiry date, up to a maximum of 180 days in Nevada casinos, but, in the meantime, can easily be tucked away in a wallet or purse for future use. Nevertheless, in Nevada, millions of dollars’ of slot machine tickets expire each year, with 75% of the revenue going to the state government and 25% being retained by the casino.

Online slots are some of the most played casino games in countries with legalised gambling. The reason for this is that they usually come with unique themes and special features designed to help boost your wins. All of this can be overwhelming to new players, which is why we’ve outlined some of the most common online slot terms, which you should learn before playing.

Reels

Reels in an online slot are the columns that slots are composed of. These reels display the symbols of an online slot, and to make wins in a game, you’ll be required to match several identical symbols across multiple reels. Most online slots will use five reels, but we’ve seen some slots have as little as three and others go up to six or seven. What’s more, there are some online slots with special features that allow you to expand the reels continuously to help create more wins.

Paylines

Paylines are lines that stretch across a slot’s reels in various shapes and directions. You’ll need to match a string of identical symbols on these lines to make wins, and the number of paylines in a slot will vary depending on the game. We’ve seen some online slots with as little as one payline, making it substantially harder to make wins, and we’ve seen other slots with over 100,000 paylines, which can make it easier for you to make wins. It’s worth noting that some online slots do not use the paylines mechanic and instead use a cluster mechanic where you must make clusters of matching symbols to make wins.

Variance/Volatility

Variance and volatility are terms used interchangeably that tell you how frequently and how much an online slot will payout. For example, an online slot with low volatility will pay small amounts frequently, while a slot with high volatility will pay large amounts infrequently. Slots can also have medium volatility, which means they provide you with a chance to win both big and small amounts.

RTP

The Return To Player or RTP rate is a term that informs you of how much of all wagered money an online slot will return. Before you get excited, RTP rates are calculated over a long period of time, not just as part of a single game. They also involve multiple players, so you can’t work out when you’re going to pay. However, you should always try to play the online slots with higher RTP rates as you’re going to be more likely to trigger a payout.

Special Features

In addition to all of the above, most modern-day online slots come with lots of special features that can help boost your chances of making wins. These features vary between games, but most online slots will have wild symbols that substitute for other symbols to make more wins and a free spins mode where you are given a selection of free spins. Other popular features in online slots include multipliers, mega symbols, expanding symbols, an avalanche mechanic where winning symbols are removed and replaced by new symbols that can trigger a chain reaction, and there’s so much more available.

Now that you have an understanding of the basic terms of an online slot, you’re free to select a game and start playing. If the selection of slots is too overwhelming, you can check out websites like www.onlineslotspilot.com for some recommendations of the best slots. Remember to read up on the various gameplay rules of a slot and check the RTP and volatility of a game before playing so you know what to expect.

Return to Player (RTP) is the term used to describe the proportion, or percentage, of the money staked on a slot machine that is returned to players in prizes over time. In the United Kingdom, by law, a slot machine must clearly display the percentage RTP figure but, even so, RTP is frequently misunderstood. It is also worth noting that there is no statutory minimum RTP figure for slot machines.

Winning on a slot machine is based purely on chance, as determined by the machine itself. Correctly interpreted, an average RTP of 90% means that a slot machine will, on average, pay out 90% of takings over an unspecified period of time. What is definitely does not mean is that a player will win on 90 spins out of every 100, or win £90 for every £100 staked, because each spin is a completely independent, random event. RTP is an average calculated over a significant number of spins – typically 10,000 or even 100,000, or more, depending on the type of slot machine – so, in a single session, the actual RTP could be significantly lower or, indeed, significantly higher than the advertised figure.

So-called ‘compensated’ slot machines are the only type in which the results of previous spins have any bearing on future play. If such a machine is operating below, or above, its advertised RTP, it may be designed to become more, or less, generous for a period of time to compensate. However, once again, the result of each spin is determined purely by chance, so pumping money into a machine that has not paid out for a while may still not result in a jackpot payout.