A slit or narrow opening into which something else can fit. A slot on a vehicle or piece of equipment. The slot in a door or window into which a lock is inserted. A time period or event that can be reserved with another person or group. For example, a health care provider might use time slots to organize appointments for urgent care, routine check-ups or consultations with patients.

A game whose symbols and paytable line up on a winline to award credits to the player. Players insert cash or, in “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, paper tickets with barcodes, into a slot to activate reels that stop and rearrange the symbols when the machine is activated by a lever or button (physical or virtual on a touchscreen). Some slots have a theme and incorporate classic symbols such as fruit and stylized lucky sevens. Others have a video game appearance and are based on popular computer games. Online slot games are programmed to randomly place symbols on multiple reels according to a random number generator, and the odds of winning are determined by the frequency of those combinations appearing. In addition to their theoretical percentage payouts based on coin denomination and spins, online casinos also publish pay tables for each of their slot games. These include a game’s payout schedule, number of reels, symbol frequencies and special features such as bonus rounds. This information is provided on each machine’s page or in its help menu.