A narrow opening for receiving or admitting something, such as coins or letters. Compare slit (def 2).

The slot in a machine in which coins or paper tickets with barcodes are placed to activate the reels. Machines may be designed for a specific theme, with symbols or bonus rounds aligned with that theme.

Slots are one of the most popular ways to gamble, but many people don’t understand how they work. There are a lot of factors that go into determining how often and how much a machine pays out, including its volatility. Understanding these factors can help players make informed decisions about which machine to choose.

In computer science, a slot is the operation issue and data path machinery surrounding a set of execution units. A slot is common in very long instruction word (VLIW) processors, where the relationship between an operation and the pipeline to execute it is explicit.

A pattern that determines if a spin is a winning one. Most paylines are straight lines that read from left to right, but some slots have zigzag, diagonal and other styles that can award multiple payouts per spin. Some machines have as few as one fixed payline, while others have up to a hundred different possible pay line patterns. Unlike win ways, which are not fixed, pay lines are always active in a machine. This is why they are sometimes called active paylines. The payline configuration is usually preset when the machine is first turned on, but can be changed if desired.