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Slots Terms You Need to Know: Volume 5

Ghost: Spirits Of dearly-departed gamblers that still haunt the oldest casinos on the Strip. Also refers to blank spots on the reels (no symbols) used as place holders in combinations that are not winners.

Gimmick Machines: Slot games to be avoided by serious players, because they fool you by paying out frequently at very low amounts. Basically a waste of your time. Titles to avoid include Spin to Win and Slam Dunk.

Hand Pay: An attendant of the slot parlor or casino “hand pays” you your slot machine winnings on occasions when the amount you have won is too large for the machine to handle (lucky you!) or the machine is not working correctly (boo!).

Wild Symbol: This doozy of a symbol can stand in for any other on the reel. Imagine the Joker in a deck of cards, or a two in a game where deuces are wild. If you have two bells and a wild symbol on a three-reel slot machines, celebrate! You have just won, the same way as you would have by getting all three winning symbols.

Window: This term may refer to the location on the physical slot machine device that shows how many credits a player currently has. It may also refer to the big open area on a slot machine that shows the reels. Video slots have LCD screens instead of windows.

Winning Combinations: You probably know this one! This is the combination of symbols that stands for a win on your slot machine of choice. When the reels align to end up all on the same symbol, it’s safe to assume that this is a winning combination! Of course, sometimes its two melons and a grape symbol… slot game designers like to mix things up.

Continue to part 6 here.

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