3 Reel Basic Slots

You could be forgiven for thinking that 3-reel slots were extinct these days, with so many slot providers releasing nothing but 5-reel video games. But with those games getting ever more complex – sometimes requiring hundreds of spins to truly understand everything the slot has to offer – a large community of players has sprung up consisting of those who prefer the simplicity and elegance of a classical 3-reel slot.

Most 3-reel slots focus on traditional gameplay, finding your wins by spinning the reels in regular play as opposed to constantly crossing your fingers and hoping to hit a bonus round. Some 3-reel games do have bonus features of course, but they tend to be very fast and simple, sometimes being invoked just for those huge wins which aren’t possible via hitting a combination in the main game.

With just three reels to keep an eye on, these slots are simple to play making them ideal for a relaxing, fun night of gaming. Some 3-reel slots will use just a single pay line, whilst others can feature three or five pay lines at the most. Whenever you are given a choice of how many lines you would like to play you should always stick to the maximum available, even if it costs more for each spin.

One feature that seems to be almost exclusive to 3-reel slots is that some of these games require you to bet the maximum number of coins per line to be eligible for the biggest prizes. Keep an eye out for this rule by taking a quick look at the paytable before you start to play.

5 Reel Video Slots

These are the most common form of slot machine you will find online, with thousands of games already available and many more being created each week. Video slots are popular with gamblers all over the world, but Canadians seem to be particularly enthralled with these games and spend hundreds of millions of dollars playing them each year.

Many of the latest games feature stunning graphics and animation, sometimes even utilizing the 3D hardware players might have in their computer, tablet or smartphone. There’s a video slot styled after every theme you can think of these days whether that be your favorite movie, a famous character or superhero, sports such as football and basketball, and every kind of ancient lore and mythology imaginable.

In fact, let’s be honest – there are so many video slots available nowadays that you are simply spoilt for choice when choosing which game to play! This one category is amazingly broad… you’ll find games with several bonus features, some without any, and the way each bonus game works can be completely different from slot to slot. One video slot might use 20 pay lines whereas another will use 50, and the highest possible jackpot win can be dramatically different from one game to the next.

You may already have your preferences when it comes to features such as these but if not, go crazy and try as many games as you can – you’ll soon work out which styles of game suits your own personal style of play.

As with all casino games, there is one important aspect to keep an eye on – the RTP (Return to Player) percentage of each game. Many casinos advertise this alongside each of their slots, but you may have to search the name of a game to find out about this. The lower the RTP%, the more money the casino is making from you each time you spin the reels.

Your bankroll is likely to last much longer when playing a slot with a high RTP%, which can be important if you are only making a small deposit. On the other hand, it is common for the highest paying games to have the lowest RTP%, so you shouldn’t make this your ONLY consideration when choosing which slots to play.

Grid Slots

Now we get into types of slot that would be completely impossible to create using a manual setup, and it’s fascinating to witness what the gaming companies have come up with when given free rein to create anything they like!

Grid slots are an evolution of the classic 3 and 5-reel games, and may possibly have been inspired by Candy Crush and its hundreds of imitators. It’s difficult to say exactly who was first to create a grid slot, but NetEnt’s Aloha! Cluster Pays is certainly a contender, having been released on the 22nd of March 2016.

The typical setup will be a large grid, possibly 7×7 or 8×8 in size, with wins obtained from clusters of the same symbol forming rather than the more typical pay line mechanics. Doing away with pay lines has enabled developers to add innovative features that just wouldn’t be possible under traditional slot mechanics, and the large size of the grid makes for a huge range of potential wins.

In most games, you will need to have a minimum of four matching symbols touching each other horizontally or vertically to score a win, but as for the maximum… well, the sky’s the limit!

In addition to the cluster pays mechanic, most grid slots also feature cascading symbols with winning clusters disappearing immediately after each spin to allow new symbols to drop into their place on to the grid.

This enables you to score many consecutive wins with one single spin, and some games will even offer a bonus feature that kicks in after a certain number of symbols have been removed from the grid.

These games are proving extremely popular right now, which has inspired all of the biggest slot developers to take a shot at the grid slot concept. One company who seem particularly enthralled with this genre is Play’n’Go, who have already created dozens of fantastic grid slots, with many more on the way.

Megaways Slots

This type of slot has existed for some time but has exploded in popularity over the last couple of years, resulting in a craze for Megaways style machines and Megaways updates to many already popular slots.

The idea behind Megaways was invented by Big Time Gaming (BTG), and first featured in their 2015 release “Dragon Born”. Whilst that game failed to garner much of a following, their later release “Bonanza” quickly managed to catch the eye of a significant number of players.

The buzz around Bonanza was so huge, both in Canada and abroad, that many other companies approached BTG, begging to purchase a license to include the Megaways concept in their own machines. As a result, you can now find games of this style from NetEnt, 1×2 Games, Scientific Games, iSoftBet, Blueprint Gaming, and many more.

The licensing of a slot design concept was something of a first within the industry, which suggests that BTG’s early Megaways games must have been so popular that they were taking profits away from other, more established slot developers.

But what exactly IS a Megaways slot, and why are they so popular? A Megaways slot does not use pay lines in the way a regular 5-reel video slot does, instead using a dynamic system whereby the number of paylines is determined by the symbols which land on each individual spin.

Megaways slots will often use six reels, but the height of each symbol is not fixed and can cause an unusual looking arrangement of symbols at the end of each spin. The variable heights create a random number of pay lines, maxing out at an outrageous 117,649(!!) according to BTG.

Most of these games also make use of the cascading wins idea found in grid slots whereby winning symbols will explode or disappear. This allows new symbols to drop down into their place, potentially awarding further wins.

Megaways slots will usually add an ascending multiplier to wins which result from cascading symbols, and bonus rounds often include higher multipliers which can eventually award enormous jackpots of up to thousands of times your stake. This, I’d guess, is the secret to their popularity!

Megaclusters Slots

After the huge success of the Megaways concept, it’s unsurprising that BTG then sought to find another new slot mechanic that had the potential to take the market by storm. Megaclusters is what they came up with and it’s an interesting idea, but has yet to make much of an impact with Canadian players.

Essentially, Megaclusters is to grid slots what Megaways is to regular 5-reel slots, mixing up the number of ways to win on each individual spin by introducing symbols of different sizes and proportions on to the grid. Winning symbols cascade after each initial spin, and the new symbols which fall into place can vary in size from the ones that disappeared before them.

Just like Megaways games, a multiplier is awarded for each consecutive win caused by cascading winning symbols, with additional multipliers possible through wild symbols and bonus games. The free spin feature is often played on a larger grid, giving more possibilities for higher multipliers and larger wins.

The Megaclusters concept is still very new, and the developers themselves currently say that the mechanic is still evolving and taking shape. Game developers are slowly getting to grips with this concept and searching out its potential, so the way Megaclusters slots work may change in the future.

That said, these games are already plenty of fun, and it’s exciting to try these slots and imagine what new features could be added by future evolutions of this innovative new format.

Progressive Jackpot Slots

It’s all well and good introducing fancy new arrangements and mechanics to the slot machine, but not all gamers are impressed by these increasingly more complex and intricate slot designs.

After all, slot machine gambling may well be lots of fun, but most players have another important concern whilst playing online slots – winning a huge pile of money!

This is where Progressive Jackpot slots come in – these games shave a small percentage of every bet made as the player spins the reels, then collects those small amounts into a jackpot pool, ready to be won by some lucky player.

Some Progressive Jackpot games may set a limit on the size of the jackpot, at which point the jackpot contribution of further spins will go to a second pool which takes the place of the first one after the jackpot has been won. Other games allow the pool to continue growing forever, resulting in slots that have a jackpot of hundreds of thousands – perhaps even millions – of dollars.

Because every spin on a Progressive slot makes a contribution towards funding the next jackpot, the RTP of these games is always somewhere between low to medium. For many players, this is a worthwhile sacrifice for the chance to win such an enormous prize. Other people see it as throwing money away, knowing that the chance of them ever seeing a return from their contributions is very close to nil.

On most Progressive Jackpot Slots, you will need to make sure you are betting on the maximum number of pay lines to be eligible for a jackpot win. Sometimes you will also need to ensure your bet is above a certain amount too, and if you do not wish to place bets of that size you should immediately choose another game instead.

After all, there is no point playing a progressive jackpot machine unless you actually have the chance to win that jackpot – otherwise, you are effectively burning money as you are still contributing towards the jackpot with every spin you make!

NetEnt

NetEnt, previously known as Net Entertainment, is now one of the largest development companies in the entire gambling market. It wasn’t always this way.

The company was founded in 1996 as a modest business with just a handful of employees, and it wasn’t until 2006 when things really began to take off for the fledgling software house. It was that year when they finally obtained a license from the Maltese Gaming Authority, which opened the door for them to be able to sell their games to the biggest of the regulated online casinos.

NetEnt’s slots have been enormously popular throughout Europe for many years, but have not always been easy to find for US players. This has changed as alternative deposit methods such as BTC have grown in popularity, creating a loophole that some casinos have been able to exploit allowing them to offer these games to Canadians.

NetEnt was also one of the first companies to obtain a license from New Jersey when they legalized online casinos in 2013. The company went on to establish a presence in Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan and West Virginia, every US state that has legalized online casino gaming at this time.

And as for the games? NetEnt’s slots ooze quality and professionalism, as the company never cuts corners when it comes to presentation. Every game they release has both desktop and mobile-specific variants, ensuring that players using all devices can be sure of an excellent experience.

They also have a rapidly expanding portfolio of branded slots featuring big-name licensees such as Jumanji, Guns n’ Roses, Dracula, Motorhead, Jimi Hendrix and Scarface, just to name a few.

Out of all the developers on this list, NetEnt is perhaps the most consistent of all, very rarely releasing a duff slot. For this reason, we cannot recommend them strongly enough!

Highest RTP Game: Mega Joker (98.90%)

IGT

Short for “International Gaming Technology”, IGT is a brand with a complicated heritage resulting from a seemingly endless line of acquisitions, mergers, and reverse buyouts. The company that exists today is not the same one that has been operating in the US for almost fifty years.

It was previously named Gtech, before purchasing the Canadian company International Gaming Technology in 2015 and adopting the acquired company’s name as its own.

Currently based in the United Kingdom, IGT’s core business is physical slot machines and cabinets. The company is particularly well known for its video poker machines which can be found in almost every land-based casino throughout the United States, Europe and Australia.

IGT is another company that was quick to enter the legal US market. Online casinos in every state with regulated gambling now have IGT slots available including Las Vegas favorites such as Cleopatra, Wheel of Fortune, Da Vinci Diamonds Dual Play, Black Widow and Siberian Storm.

Highest RTP Game: Texas Tea (97.35%)

Barcrest

Those who frequent land-based casinos will no doubt be familiar with the Barcrest name, although like IGT the company has a complicated history.

In fact, Barcrest was previously owned by IGT and it was during their ownership that the company developed most of the Barcrest slots that remain popular to this day.

Today, Barcrest is owned by Scientific Games Corporation who have rebranded many of their slots with the SG Gaming label, though the games themselves remain unchanged.

Their most well-known slots are the Rainbow Riches series of games, a franchise which has now spawned countless variations including Rainbow Riches Fortune Favours, Rainbow Riches Free Spins, Rainbow Riches Pick’N’Mix and Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold, to name but a few.

SG Gaming don’t seem to be too fussed about the online gaming market at this time, rarely releasing new titles and seemingly having no interest in acquiring a license to offer their games at regulated US casinos.

You’ll still be able to find these games at some offshore casinos, but even within that space, they are not particularly common. It’s a real shame because these slots are of excellent quality and it’s easy to imagine this company creating fantastic new titles.

Highest RTP Game: Monopoly BIG Event (99.00%)

Ainsworth

This is the newest gaming brand created by Leonard Ainsworth, the founder of Aristocrat Leisure. That company remains one of the largest suppliers of slot machine cabinets worldwide to this day.

As for Ainsworth, they have only recently entered the online casino market but have already made a big splash. Their video slots are licensed throughout Europe, Australia, South America and most recently the legal US states such as New Jersey.

In fact, the company seems to be focusing much of its energy on the US market right now. They recently made an agreement with ROAR Digital LLC to provide 20 exclusive slots under the Ainsworth brand, a selection of games that will not be available for play anywhere else in the world.

And speaking of the rest of the world, Ainsworth isn’t silent there either. Their Quickspin brand has found great success throughout Europe, and the Covid-19 pandemic does not seem to be slowing them down whatsoever.

In fact, the company has been expanding rapidly over the past 18 months, perhaps benefiting from increased online casino revenues as a result of people spending much more time at home.

Highest RTP Game: Golden Wisdom (96.10%)

Konami

If you are a console gamer you will no doubt be familiar with Konami. The company has been producing some of the finest video games in the world since the 1980s, eventually becoming a household name thanks to franchises such as Castlevania, Dance Dance Revolution, Metal Gear and Pro Evolution Soccer.

The downturn in arcade gaming in the early 2000s led Konami to diversify its business, and the company began producing slot machines and Pachinko cabinets around that time. The company moved its headquarters to Las Vegas in 2005, hoping to gain a better understanding of the gaming preferences of Canadian slot players.

Konami has been doing so well in the slot machine sector that their video games seem to have become something of an afterthought for the company, much to the disappointment of console gamers. Their loss is the gambling markets gain, however, and their experience in the gaming industry shines through with each new slot they create.

Great sound and music, awesome gameplay and the highest quality graphics and animation are all hallmarks of Konami’s slot design. Plus, let’s be honest – if you aren’t excited at the prospect of a Castlevania or Dance Dance Revolution slot machine, then you are definitely in the minority!

Highest RTP Game: Wealthy Monkey (96.10%)

WMS

Initially known as Williams Manufacturing, WMS are another gaming company with decades of previous experience in the land-based casino industry. They have been manufacturing slot and pinball machines since 1943 and were fast to make the switch to creating online slots as soon as digital casinos began gaining popularity in the early 2000s.

The company has been purchased by Scientific Games Group in recent years but continues producing online slots and physical cabinets under the WMS brand throughout Europe and Canada. Their recent focus seems to be on the growing legal US market, having made several deals with top Canadian casino brands such as MGM.

Currently, the most popular WMS slots are the Zeus series, Raging Rhino, Montezuma, Monopoly and Kronos, but this could change at any time as the company continues to rapidly expand its portfolio.

Highest RTP Game: Pride and Prey (97.52%)

Bally

Based in Las Vegas, Nevada, Bally is another hugely successful player in the land-based casino business. They have been producing all kinds of slot and gaming machines since 1968 when they were known as Advanced Patent Technology. The company later renamed itself as Alliance Gaming, before finally returning to the Bally name after a buyout in 2006.

Bally is well known for going above and beyond with regards the presentation of their games, insisting on the most advanced graphics, multiple user-selectable soundtracks, and a host of unique technologies including tournament modes and social media sharing functionality.

The company was slow to enter the online gaming market but made up for lost time quickly when they finally did decide to port their games to online casinos.

Well known titles include games such as Cash Wizard, Dragon Spin, Quick Hits and Titanic, but the company has a huge backlog of previous physical games they could draw on for new online content.

Highest RTP Game: 88 Fortunes Megaways (96.26%)

Big Time Gaming

The slot developer who all the other brands are jealous of, Big Time Gaming went from being a small Australian software house to a worldwide phenomenon pretty much overnight following the release of their Bonanza slot in December 2016.

The company currently makes games exclusively for the online market, though there have been plenty of whispers regarding land-based casinos being interested in obtaining their games to place on the casino floor.

Although their catalogue is still relatively small, it includes a host of tier-one slots such as Bonanza, Danger High Voltage, Monopoly Megaways and Star Cluster Megaclusters.

Speaking of Megaways and Megaclusters, BTG has found itself in the enviable position of being asked to license these patented technologies to scores of other slot providers.

This has led to the creation of dozens of Megaways slots based on a host of popular brands, licenses, and even other previously popular slot machines.

Highest RTP Game: White Rabbit (97.72%)

AGS

AGS or Canadian Gaming Systems was founded during the 1990s, initially focusing on producing physical cabinets for land-based casinos.

The company proved a capable player in that market with more than 10,000 of their machines currently installed all around the United States, with countless more in other parts of the world.

AGS later sought licenses from top regulatory authorities such as the Malta Gaming Authority and the Gibraltar Betting and Gaming Association, required for the new digital versions of their slots to be taken on by casinos who are licensed by those same authorities.

Today, AGS sports a monstrous catalogue of more than 600 games, all of which have been programmed to provide the best possible experience to users of desktop, tablet and smartphone devices.

This should make AGS one of the biggest players in online slots, but for some reason, the company insists on limited distribution agreements. As a result, each individual online casino only has rights to a limited selection of their full portfolio.

Highest RTP Game: Golden Wins (96.05%)

Rival

Whilst Rival are relatively unknown in many parts of the world, Canadian players are much more likely to be familiar with the brand. This is because the majority of casinos running their software decided to remain in the Canadian market after the UIGEA was passed in 2006.

Along with RTG, Rival had the Canadian market pretty much to themselves for a couple of years – more than enough time for their games to win the hearts and minds of Canadian gamblers.

In the past, the presentation of some Rival slots was visually inferior to other major brands such as NetEnt, WMS and IGT. It seems that the company hired new artists at some point though because their newest games feature much better graphics and higher quality animation.

The company has unfortunately gone quiet over the past year or two, with few new releases. Despite this, their games continue to be some of the most popular among Canadian players.

Highest RTP Game: Cosmic Quest: Mystery Planets (98.95%)

Betsoft Gaming

Betsoft has built its reputation on visual fidelity, most notably with their 3D slots series.

This is a range of games that introduced advanced graphics long before any of their competitors were making strides in that area. Their library now includes over 150 games, all of which can only be found online.

The company has struggled to get their games featured at a wide range of online casinos until now, but recent partnerships with bigger gaming firms such as Amaya may well help them reach a wider audience in the near future.

Highest RTP Game: Good Girl Bad Girl (97.79%)

Real Time Gaming (RTG)

Another company with a long history in the US market, RTG defied the rest of the industry when the UIGEA was passed in 2006, insisting to their casino partners that they would be continuing to offer their games in the country despite the new legislation.

The company from Atlanta, Georgia seems to have found a way to weather the storm, as they still have their main headquarters in Canada with more casinos now offering these games than ever before.

Unfortunately, the companies somewhat lax attitude towards regulation has resulted in RTG gaining a reputation as being the software of rogue casinos. This isn’t entirely fair, but it is true that the company leaves it up to the casinos who offer their software to decide who – if anyone – they are going to seek a license from.

One other downside to RTG’s games is that they all feature a maximum win in their bonus rounds, a caveat that no other slot supplier has enforced within their games and one which can have a severely negative effect on their games RTP.

This is a shame because RTG has made many excellent slots over the course of its history. Among the best are T-Rex, Ronin, Pandas Gold and Triple Twister, but there is a huge catalogue of further titles that are also worth checking out.

Highest RTP Game: Eye of Horus (96.31%)

Bonus Buys

This is a relatively new feature, first appearing in Big Time Gaming’s White Rabbit slot which was released in 2017… It seems that BTG’s name comes up a lot whenever new slot features and innovative ideas are being discussed!

In many slots, the highest winning potential can only be found during the bonus round or feature. Because of this, many players are willing to pay a premium to skip the waiting around with crossed fingers, hoping to see the scatters drop.

Many other slot providers such as NetEnt and Blueprint Gaming have incorporated this feature into their slots in the years since White Rabbit. The typical price to skip straight to a bonus round is usually between 50 and 200 times your current stake.

Whilst bonus buys can undoubtedly be a lot of fun, it’s worth keeping in mind that bonuses do not always result in a huge win. Playing only bonus rounds dramatically increases the variance of every slot which offers this feature, so keep an eye on your bankroll!

Progressions

Early examples of multiplier progressions could be found in some of NetEnt’s earlier titles such as The Invisible Man and Gonzo’s Quest, but BTG once again took the concept to another level with the release of their Bonanza slot in July 2016.

Games which include this feature usually have cascading symbols which disappear each time a winning combination lands on the reels. Each time a set of symbols is removed, the progressive multiplier will increase.

In Gonzo’s Quest, this multiplier could reach 5x during regular play and 15x during the bonus round, whereas in Bonanza, the multiplier progression can continue indefinitely.

Keep an eye out for slots with this feature, as they usually have the potential for enormous wins.

Blitz Mode (netent slots fast play feature)

Ever wanted to play slots, but without the slots? That’s effectively what NetEnt is offering here, getting rid of the traditional user interface altogether and replacing it with a simple win box which updates to show your increasing profit each time the game engine hits a winning spin. Almost sounds like an April fool, doesn’t it?

The RTP of the slot you are playing stays the same as it does during regular play because the spins are still taking place in the background. The difference is that instead of having to watch all of the inconsequential dead spins, you only see a result each time you win something.

This one does seem a little naughty, and has already been outlawed in some European markets such as the United Kingdom. Thankfully, the US isn’t quite as trigger happy with draconian legislation as many other countries, so this feature will likely continue to be available to Canadians players should they wish to use it.

Cashpot Slots

Slots with this feature offer a fixed jackpot prize, usually something midrange – perhaps around $500 – which is factored into the games regular RTP rather than being funded by player stakes as with a progressive jackpot slot.

The jackpot will automatically trigger once during a pre-determined period, usually once per day or once per week, and the odds of a jackpot win will slowly increase throughout that period before resetting to their baseline level after it has been won.

One interesting thing about Cashpot slots is that every spin played is eligible for a chance of the jackpot prize, even if it no other wins were hit on any of the standard pay lines.

Because of this, your disappointment over a losing spin can quickly be replaced by the thrill of a huge jackpot, just when you thought you had lost!