When you play slots, you see what’s visible when reels come to a stop, and see the symbols spinning by. But how many symbols are there, anyway?
As an example, we typically see a screen that shows symbols three high on each reel. How many symbols are hidden “inside the machine” on each reel?
Darryl K.
This is one of those questions that doesn’t have a pat answer, but what can be shared around it is still a lot of fun to discuss, so let’s dive in!
The mechanical reel slots have a limited number of physical spaces, just by nature of the size of the reel. But even then the reels can be stretched virtually by making the positions of a reel weighted, in that some spaces can land more often than others.
That weighting, which maps into a taller virtual reel, can reduce the odds of a top prize occurring, even when visually it looks like it’s more likely to happen. And again, the actual height of that virtual reel will fall on the game designer and what they chose to do to each reel.
On today’s video reels, there’s no specific amount of symbols that are in there – that is up to the game designers and how it’s built. But they can get really tall. This is helpful to ensure the slots can offer some of these progressives that are possible nowadays.
And on newer slot machines, when you make a wager, the game can even now choose from multiple sets of reels each spin, further adding to the complexity of it all.
It’s important to note that all reels don’t have to be the same height. Specific reels can be made taller or shorter for various reasons, usually to do with the odds of things happening overall.
So this one isn’t one with a single answer, but as you can see, still quite a bit behind it. The nice thing is that reel design is what can make a slot feel like a slot. Playing a certain game and its reel design is part of what gives it that unique feel and personality that makes the game so fun.
So in a way it’s almost better that it isn’t one size fits all, but different by game, as it is one of the knobs that can be turned to adjust the way the game feels.
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