BetMGM’s online slots guide covers a wide array of topics on a broad level. One aspect that is worth a more detailed discussion, though, is the paylines of your favorite games.
Slot paylines come in a variety of forms and packages. These differences are significant in much more than just the number of animations and different symbols on your screen as you play your favorite online slot games.
Smart players notice these variations and alter their betting plans to accommodate the differences. These tweaks are simple and easy to put into practice at BetMGM.
What Are Paylines in Slot Machines?
Slot machine paylines are an important part of the reel configuration of slot machines. They are your literal ticket to a payout in the game.
Paylines on slot machines are normally a combination of specific symbols in a certain sequence that pertains to a payout. To receive the prize, the symbols must match.
The number of ways to arrange these paylines is almost as large as the number of slots in BetMGM Casino’s massive library of games. There are some ways to categorize the paylines, too.
Types of Slot Paylines
Slot machine lines can trigger different slot features, award payouts, do both, or neither. When you choose an online slot, you should be aware of the possibilities unique to each title.
Variations exist in how the paylines read and the types of sequences necessary to form them. It’s just another way that slot developers prevent monotony.
Vertical Paylines
Vertical paylines hit when the right combination of symbols appears running from the bottom to the top of a slot’s reels, or from the top to the bottom. In either case, the horizontal alignment of the symbols isn’t crucial. Vertical paylines are less common in online slots in the United States.
Horizontal paylines are the norm by a wide margin.
Horizontal Paylines
With horizontal paylines, that orientation of the slot symbols is all that matters. How the symbols stack up vertically is of zero importance.
With both horizontal and vertical paylines in some games, the sequences must be unbroken and form straight lines. Another variety deviates from those rules a little.
Diagonal Paylines
Diagonal paylines are exactly what the name suggests. The pertinent symbols dictate a payout when they stack up in the right order on a diagonal line.
In many games with diagonal paylines, these diagonal lines can run in any direction. Some games employ more than one type of payline, including diagonal, horizontal, and vertical, too.
Clusters
Symbol clusters are an innovative slot mechanic that rewards players when matching symbols land on the reels. Instead of needing the correct sequence of symbols running diagonally, horizontally, or vertically, your ideal result is similar symbols appearing in groups next to each other on the reels.
Normally, it makes no difference where on the reels these clusters appear. In some other slots, the location can change in terms of paylines.
Megaways
People wondering how Megaways slots work often confuse them with slots with expanding reels or cascading reels features. The result can be similar, but these mechanics are still very different.
In Megaways slots, reels randomly increase or decrease in size, creating additional paylines and ways to win. This is an important distinction when you understand how to read slot paylines.
How Do Slot Paylines Work?
Each slot includes a unique combination of symbols, some of which can award payouts, activate features, or both. While most of these symbols need to be part of a specific sequence to prompt these results, some symbols do so on their own.
For example, scatter symbols have an immediate impact on the slot regardless of where they land as long as you land enough of them. Meanwhile, sticky wilds can replace other symbols in paylines and stay in place for subsequent spins.
For symbol combinations, there are myriad ways game designers have built them to pay out. Finding your favorite can be fun.
Left To Right Wins
The most common read pattern for slot paylines is how most people in the United States read words on a page: from left to right. This only applies to horizontal paylines, of course.
For vertical paylines, top to bottom is also the most common read pattern. You’ll find some games that defy these norms, though.
Right To Left
In Arabic and many other languages, characters flow from right to left. Some slots mimic that effect.
It’s also not completely unheard of for vertical paylines to read from bottom to top. What is more common, though, are slots with few restrictions on paylines.
Pay Both Ways
Both ways slots make no differentiation between bottom to top, left to right, right to left, or top to bottom. There are only distinctions between whether the paylines run horizontally or vertically.
While that looser structure might suggest that it’s easier to win these games, that’s not necessarily the case. A more open-ended payline format doesn’t mean your odds of winning are automatically better.
All Ways
Slots with cascading reels features are beloved for that effect. But another much beloved type of slot uses an All Ways payline system. These are rare games that can pay out in a horizontal format if the symbols are in any adjacent position, starting from the first reel on the left.
There’s one format that you can’t cash out on with an All Ways slot, though.
Cluster Pays
The cluster pays system usually doesn’t distinguish between vertical and horizontal formations. The only thing that matters is that similar symbols are on adjacent spots on the reels.
They can be on top of, next to, on a diagonal, on the bottom, etc. Which of these formats is best is truly a subjective matter.
Paylines, Cluster Pays, or Megaways: Does It Really Matter?
When people ask, “Is there a trick to slot machines?” what they really want to know is if there is a way they can defy the random nature of the game and get a competitive edge. The simple answer is no.
There are tips and tricks for online slots that can help you get the most out of the games, though. For example, suppose you want to explore the best Megaways slots at BetMGM Casino.
In nearly all cases, slots with that game mechanic will include Megaways right in the name. With that filter, you can then consider other aspects of the slots, like features and theme, to pick a game you believe you’ll enjoy.
From there, it’s just a matter of practicing responsible gambling and having fun. The exploration begins as soon as you register for BetMGM.
