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Apr 13 2025, 1:57pm | 5 min read

How To Play Slot Machines: Online Slots For Beginners

How to play slot machines for beginners is just what those of you who have never played at an online casino before are looking for. If you are one of those people, then this article is perfect for you as it tells you how to play slot machines and all of the important details about them!

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It isn't as easy as it once was to play slot machines, with a significant increase in the amount of reels, rows, and paylines on your average slot machines.

How to play slot machines is easy to understand once you know the basics, and we're going to tell you everything you need to know below from the symbols that you will see appear, bonus features you might encounter, as well as different types of slot games you will come across.

And on top of that, we have plenty of casino bonuses that you can claim once you know how to play slot machines, giving you a perfect way to play for real money when first trying them out without having to worry about depleting your own bank account by too much.

We have no deposit bonuses, risk-free bets, deposit match bonuses and plenty more waiting for you, but first, let's find out how to play slot machines and what they entail.

How To Play Slot Machines: Symbols & Paylines

When it comes to how to play slot machines, the first thing you need to understand is the symbols that will appear on the reels every time you spin them. First of all, we will talk about the symbols in the base game.

Typically, you will want to land at least three of the same symbols on a payline to trigger a winning spin. It's quite straightforward when you understand it, and over time you will instinctively know what is a winning spin or not on most slot machines.

What is a payline you ask? Well, they will never be visible to you when playing slot machines, but they are most definitely there. Paylines won't always be as simple as getting three symbols in a line either, they can appear diagonally and will sometimes surprise you with the irregular patterns that still trigger a winning spin.

Some slots will have as few as 10 paylines, while some have 50 different paylines! This is why it's important to understand the mechanics and how to play slot machines before you start spinning the reels on any game you like the look of.

As you can see from the 88 Fortunes paytable in the image above, certain symbols will pay more than others, and it's good to look at the paytable before playing any slots to understand the value of each symbol.

As you can see, there are symbols based on a pack of cards like J, Q, K, and A, while there are other symbols that relate more to the theme. Typically, those symbols will pay more, but always look to the paytable to get an understanding of what pays out the best.

Now you might need to play quite a few times on slot games before it becomes second nature and you know the payouts from landing the same symbols on successive reels, but you will get there.

In addition to these symbols, there are usually wilds and scatters too, which can contribute to bonus rounds and help land the biggest wins, and we will tell you all about that next.

How To Play Slot Machines: Bonus Rounds & Features

To really round off an excellent slot machine, it will need to have excellent bonus features to really propel the game into stardom. This can be via a bonus round where you get a certain amount of free spins, and these are often triggered by seeing scatter or bonus symbols on successive reels.

These free spins rounds can be really lucrative, especially when respins can sometimes be applied to them to help you land even more than just a standard bonus round.

The respins feature can also be a part of the base game too, eradicating certain symbols after you land a win and giving you the chance to win multiple times on one spin.

Other bonus features of a slot game include win multipliers which multiply your win by a certain amount, expanding wilds or other symbols which can take over the reels and see you earn a huge payout from just a single spin! There is an example of this in Jumanji below with the Wild Stampede feature of the NetEnt title.

These are the main bonus features you will find when playing slot machines, but others are also available which you will realize through trial and error or researching specific slot mechanics.

There's no doubt that when playing slot machines you will want to know all about the bonus features, and you will hopefully reap the rewards of them too.

Megaways Slots: How To Play Slots With A Megaways Engine

From what we've talked about above, you now know how to play slot machines that offer you the very basics. However, there are now numerous other types of slot machines available like Slingo titles, jackpot slots, and what we're going to talk about now, megaways slots.

Slots with a megaways engine are a little bit more complicated than typical slot machines, which you will see immediately with how the reels are laid out when you click into any megaways slots. As the Bonanza slot below shows you, some reels have just two symbols on, while others have as many as five!

The benefit of the megaways engine is it gives you 117,649 ways to win due to the symbols appearing in irregular patterns. Now you won't always win or win big playing on megaways slots, but it's certainly encouraging to know that there are that many ways to.

And the even better news with megaways slots is, rather than on a payline, you just need matching symbols anywhere on successive reels.

How To Play Jackpot Slots

Due to the popularity of slot titles, you will now see that there are hundreds of jackpot slots available at online casinos or on real money casino apps. Even games that don't specify as a jackpot slot may have a jackpot feature involved when you start playing.

Progressive jackpots, which are quite common at online casinos, are exactly what they say on the tin. The jackpot of the game progresses each time you or anybody else takes a spin until somebody manages to land that winning jackpot.

Jackpot slots are undoubtedly tempting to play, but it must be noted that they're extremely difficult to win on. And it makes sense considering an online casino will be paying a mammoth amount to the user, they aren't going to want to do it very often, are they?

This is represented in the volatility and RTP of jackpot slots, which is typically high for volatility and on the lower scale of RTP percentage in comparison to the average.

High volatility means you will most probably need heftier pockets to play and patience because the payouts are extremely infrequent, compared to low volatility where payouts are small but more frequent.

RTP is more of a representation of how much you are expected to win in the long run, with 96% being the average. It's no exact science because volatility also comes into it and if you were to hit the jackpot for example you'd undoubtedly end your session playing significantly up. On other occasions, there may be a day when the slot pays out specifically poorly, but the RTP is just an indicator of how well the slot pays.

How To Play Slot Machines at Online Casinos

Now you have all of the information you need about how to play slot machines, and specific slot machines at that, now it's time to start playing them! Even if you don't feel comfortable using real money at first that's absolutely fine, as all of the online casinos that we recommend will allow you to play in demo mode first.

We understand that just reading about how to play slot machines isn't necessarily the same as getting a feel for how they work, so we'd always recommend playing them in demo mode first.

And then even when you decide to start playing slot machines with real money, two of the three offers below reward you with a no deposit bonus when you sign up, meaning you can actually start playing without having to add any real money funds.

How To Play Slot Machines at FanDuel Casino

FanDuel Casino Promo Code
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Expiration Date	N/A
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If you want to play slot machines anywhere for the first time, one of the best online casinos to try them at is FanDuel Casino.

They have a sensational list of titles from developers like IGT, Microgaming, Light & Wonder, and plenty of others. There are hundreds of options to choose from, and you will have no issue finding a game that suits you at FanDuel Casino.

To make things even sweeter, when you first sign up in MI, NJ, PA, or WV you can wager up to $2,000 in your first 24 hours on those FanDuel slots, or even some table and live dealer games if you like to, and know that any net losses will be returned in bonus funds after 24 hours.

This is thanks to the FanDuel Casino promo code, which is available for new players at the gaming site only. Thanks to our link above or when you CLICK HERE you can guarantee that you either earn profit with your $2,000 wagered on slot machines in your first 24 hours at FanDuel Casino, or you will get your net losses in bonus funds!

How To Play Slot Machines at BetMGM Casino

BetMGM Casino Bonus Code
Bonus	$25 No Deposit Bonus + $1000 Deposit Match
Expiration Date	N/A
States	MI, NJ, PA, WV

Now you know how to play slot machines, a great place to start would be at BetMGM Casino too, especially when they're giving you a no deposit bonus for simply signing up!

The BetMGM Casino bonus code can be claimed by new users only in MI, NJ, PA, and WV and guarantees when you use our link that a $25 no deposit bonus will be added to your account once you sign up.

This can be used on some superb slot titles like Cash Machine, Piggy Riches Megaways, Fortune Coin, Fruit Blast, and plenty more. BetMGM Casino specializes in more than just slot games too, with their fair share of table and live dealer games also available to try.

If you love playing BetMGM slots, you will probably want to get more bonus funds than just the $25, and you can do just that when you make your first deposit after claiming the BetMGM Casino bonus code! You can get a 100% deposit match bonus of up to $1,000 when you first add real money funds.

CLICK HERE or press on the claim now button from the offer we have listed above and claim your BetMGM Casino bonus code today!

How To Play Slot Machines at Caesars Casino

Caesars Palace Online Casino
Bonus	100% Deposit Match Up To $2,500 + 2500 Reward Credits
Expiration Date	N/A
States	MI, NJ, PA, WV

Claim it now here!

Last but not least of your options now you know how to play slot machines is the Caesars Casino bonus code, which grants you a $10 no deposit bonus just for registering at the legendary gaming site.

Offering you not only a $10 no deposit bonus when you sign up, but a 200% deposit match up to $100 in MI and $200 in PA too, you will have access to one of the best game catalogs in the industry.

With plenty of bonus funds to use on Caesars slots once you claim the Caesars Casino bonus code, we strongly recommend you sign up in MI or PA if you haven't already. All you need to do is the use the offer button we have provided or CLICK HERE and you will be able to receive all the benefits of the Caesars Casino bonus code!

If these offers aren't quite what you are looking for, there are plenty of others we have included in this page, while you can also check any of our main pages where there are numerous different options for you to claim as a new user.