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ARM – Also called the lever, this is the part of the slot machine that you pull to make the reels spin. This mechanism is the source of the nickname “one armed bandit” – because the devices have a single arm, and a tendency to take all your money! The arm came near to obsolescence with the advent of the push-button start, which was less likely to make a player’s arm tired after extended periods of play. Many players really like the nostalgic and tangible feeling of yanking the arm, however, and have fought back against the push-button revolution. As a compromise, many casinos have installed terminals that feature both an arm and a push-button.  

ATTENDANT – When you are playing your slot game of choice and get the message to call for an attendant, the news is either really great or pretty bad. These folks are employees of the casino, and are in charge of “attending” to the needs of players. Sometimes, they wander around the gaming floor and make change for patrons in the form of coins or tokens with which to feed the machines. If you are “told” to beckon an attendant, the odds are that you have either won a huge jackpot… or your machine’s out of order. (See? Really great or pretty bad!)

AUSTRALIAN-STYLE SLOTS – Those crazy Aussies. They insist on doing everything their own way, don’t they? (No offense to our Ozzie readers, of course!) For one, those living down under tend to call slot games, “poker machines.” For short, they call them “pokies” – singular “pokey.” These titles tend to incorporate playing card symbols and poker rules – payouts are tied to the strength of the “hand” you receive when the reels stop. Not all Australian slots are solely poker-based, although most will feature letters and numbers alongside the themed images on the reels. Which is one more big difference – Australian-style terminals are pretty much exclusively video slots, which use display screens to simulate the look of physical reels.

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