Slots Terminology

Pay cycle: It is a widely held belief that slots go through pay cycles which means that, after taking in a number of coins They must pay out in order to meet the percentage payout that has been programmed into the software.

Take cycle: This is the opposite of the pay cycle. If you subscribe to the pay/take philosophy then you believe that a pay cycle is followed by a take cycle, whereby you may get the odd small hit but essentially it's feeding time for the slot.

Hold: This is the percentage of coins played that are held by the machine, the house profit. In most cases this number is from roughly 3% to 15% and up.

Pay line: Usually the line in the middle of the slot window but also it can be three lines or even five lines. Only winning symbols on a pay line will drop coins in the tray.
Reels: The reels upon which the symbols are displayed, usually three reels but sometimes you will find a two reeler and four or even higher. The more reels the machine has the harder it will be to hit the jackpot.

Symbols: The icons or symbols that appear on the reels are of an infinite variety and can be practically anything that the manufacturers and the casinos can dream up.

Tilt: Slots tilt usually because they have run out of coins, it happens, or because a coin is jammed in the mechanism. They stop paying and the tilt light comes on. Coins owing the player are held in the slots memory and will pay after corrections have been made to the problem. I have never seen a machine that didn't give out the correct number of coins, regardless of a tilt.

Fill: When hoppers run out of coins, a fill is called for which simply means an attendant gets a bag of coins from the cashier and refills the empty hopper.

Hopper: This is where the coins are held in the machine. Often hoppers are filled to overflowing by players, so they don't only run empty they sometime are overflowing. When this happens the excess coins drop into a bucket underneath the hopper. This is the profit the casino takes. The buckets are usually emptied in the early morning hours when the traffic is light.