A brief history of online slots

If you have never played an online slot and don’t know what the term actually means then you have come to the right place! Online slots are basically digital versions of slot machines that can be played on a variety of devices such as PCs, laptops, tablets and mobile devices.

Types of online slots

There are two kinds of online slots. There are ones you need to download software in order to play them which are called downloadable online slots. And the more popular ones where you can play them right away without having to download a thing and these are called instant play online slots. These slots can be played in most internet browsers by using an up to date flash player. They are readily available in most casinos and have recently become extremely popular thanks to a gigantic upsurge in mobile gaming. Online Slots can now be played instantly on mobile and tablet devices and this has provided a huge market for lots of online casinos to take full advantage of.

A history of online slots

Online Slots came about in the late 1990’s when online casinos started to emerge all over the internet. These casinos knew there was a nice gap in the market for players who did not want to visit bars and casinos in order to play some games and place a few bets. Online casino providers started to created digitised versions of various popular slot machine games and then things really picked up. To date, there over 40 software companies that develop online slots and this is gradually increasing as online slots become more and more popular with players. The oldest known online slot is the classic three reel slot game. These type of slots normally have just one single winning payline but some also range between three and nine. They do not feature special symbols such as wild, scatter, or free spins symbols, nor have any bonus games features.

Modern online slots

Nowadays, online slots contain a whole host of features to ensure players are entertained for hours on end and to ensure that they keep coming back for more and more action. The latest online slots feature reels ranging from 5 to 9 reels and can have paylines all the way up to 100. A lot of companies like to experiment with different ways of placing bets and some have created online slots that offer up to 243 different ways to win per spin. Most modern online slots also feature scatter, wild, bonus, and free spins symbols. These symbols can be quite lucrative and the majority of them aid you in receiving a bigger payout.

For instance, Scatter symbols are randomly occurring symbols that can help you win bigger payouts when you land a certain amount of them when spinning some reels. Free Spins symbols always give the player a few free spins and just like Scatter symbols, the more of them you land, the more free spins you will receive. Some online slots even allow you to retrigger free spins if you are lucky enough to land more of these symbols across the reels. A lot of online slots also feature unique bonus games that are tied into the theme of the game such as helping a Leprechaun find a crock of gold in Leprechaun-based games.

Online slots are determined by frequently tested and regulated Random Number Generators (RNGs) and this ensures fairness and transparency for both online casinos and players. With mobile gaming currently exploding right now, I wonder what will next be in store for online slots as well as online gambling?