A narrow opening, groove, notch, or slit, especially one in a machine through which coins or tokens are dropped or cards and bets placed. Also used as a verb, meaning to place something into such an opening. He slotted the coin into the machine’s slot and dialed the number.
In a computer, a position into which a file is stored. A disk drive may have a different number of slots, depending on the manufacturer.
Slot is a term used in the NFL to refer to a defensive back who covers the third receiver on offense. The position requires both athletic ability and good press coverage, so it’s not for everyone. To be a successful slot corner, you need to have exceptional foot speed and the ability to play both man and off-man coverage.
Originally, all slot machines paid out only the top prize if all symbols on that pay line lined up. Charles Fey’s 1907 invention, however, added a new feature: three aligned liberty bells triggered a jackpot worth five times the maximum bet. In addition, the Fey machine allowed players to select the amount they wanted to bet.
Modern slot machines use microprocessors to weight particular symbols and determine their probabilities. This means that a single symbol might appear to be close to a winning combination on one reel, while on another it might be much farther away. This change has skewed the odds of hitting a jackpot. To compensate, some casinos offer special prizes for certain combinations of symbols. Pay tables are usually posted on the machine – either on the face above and below the reels or in a help screen.