A narrow opening or groove in a wall, window, door, etc., with a bottom edge that a fastener fits into. Also, a slit in a sandblasted or machine-grooved surface. A hole in a board that has been drilled, sawed, or milled to a specific shape, size, or profile. The term is usually used for the hole in a framed construction, but it may also refer to a slot cut in an engine block or the hole in a car wheel that accepts a tire.
In football, the position called a “slot receiver” is that of a wide receiver who typically lines up pre-snap between the tight end or offensive tackle and one of the outside receivers. This positioning allows the slot receiver to gain a number of advantageous positions during a play, particularly when the offense runs a wide open formation.
An air-traffic management slot is an allocated time for an airline to operate a flight at a congested airport, allowing it to avoid waiting in long queues of planes at busy times, or to land and take off at different times depending on conditions. Slots are typically issued by airports, or sometimes by EUROCONTROL as part of its network manager role.
Each machine has a pay table that tells players what the probability is of winning a particular combination of symbols on its reels. The table typically lists the various possible symbols, how many of them must appear on a payline for a win, and what the value is for three, four, and five of a kind wins. In modern machines, this information is generated by microprocessors rather than on a traditional printed chart.
While the odds of a particular symbol appearing on a payline are fixed, manufacturers can alter the chances of certain combinations by weighting different symbols differently. For example, a manufacturer can increase the probability of a particular winning combination by making it appear more frequently on the reels than any other. This can make a game seem unfair at first, but the odds are still mathematically correct.
The choice of whether to push the spin button again is a personal one. Some players feel that if they hit the button again immediately after seeing that a reel-dance is about to stop at a winning combination, they can control the outcome and improve their chances of getting a good payout. This is not true, however, as the programmer knows that over a large number of spins, the bonus event will yield an average payout. Similarly, your choices in pick’em-style bonus events do have an impact, but not in a way that you can predict or control.