When you’ve built a nice cushion in your bank account, it’s a good idea to think about longer-term financial goals. You may want to buy a house or invest, and it’s worth researching what your options are. But where do you start?
A narrow opening or groove, especially in wood: Compare slit. The narrow opening in the wing of some birds that helps them maintain a steady flow of air during flight. A position, especially in a game of chance: The poker player won the jackpot when his pair of jacks beat everyone else’s hand.
A gambling machine that spins reels with symbols (usually fruits, card letters, or numbers) and pays prizes based on how many of them line up in a given row or column—called a “payline.” These machines are often called slot machines in the U.K. and are available in casinos, pubs, and private clubs.
Online slots let designers create creative bonus events, such as a mystery chase through a crime zone in NetEnt’s Cash Noir and outer-space cluster payoffs in ReelPlay’s Cosmic Convoy. They can also incorporate a feature called cascading reels that replace spinning reels with falling symbols, adding to the excitement and potentially triggering big wins.
Until recently, when you played a slot, you dropped coins into the machine to activate games for each spin. This changed with the advent of bill validators and credit meters in live casinos, as well as online gaming where players deposit advance deposits or play credits. A similar change occurred when online slots adopted virtual currency.
