This article is devoted to a question, which arises in minds of many players every day – How are slot wins calculated?

I’ve noticed that a higher percentage of players don’t understand what stated payouts stand for and how they are calculated.

Anyone can understand that. The only thing you need to do is to go deep into it. We will do that together in this article.

I think, many people are interested to know and understand what paytables show, how maximum win is calculated and some other calculation features and secrets!

I’ll cover slots by several developers in this article.

Let’s begin!

243-ways slots

Consider an example of a 243-ways slot with well-known Immortal Romance by Microgaming.

Speaking of Microgaming slots, their paytables are really handy – the bet determines values shown in paytable, these values will change when you change the bet.

You can find paytable for €0.30 bet below.



Let’s unravel it.

Scatters

2 scatters pay €0.30. In other words, you get your bet back.

3 scatters along with bonus game award €0.60; 4 scatters - €6.00; 5 scatters award as much as €60.00.

As you can catch only 5 scatters (1 on each reel) no other symbol substitutes for that. 5 scatters is the maximum number.

It is worth mentioning, that very often when you get 4 scatters, the bonus game pays nothing, as you have already received the whole winning amount. The same happens when the bonus game is retriggered.

Symbols

We will consider the cheapest symbol – Sara. 3 Saras pay €0.20; 4 Saras - €0.80; 5 Saras - €3.50. It’s that simple.

All other symbols are calculated the same way. Only 1 symbol can appear on a reel but, in fact, there may be more symbols as this slot has got Wild symbols. It is getting more interesting now.

Wild symbol in Immortal Romance

This symbol not only substitutes for any other symbol except scatter but it adds one more.

It means, when a Wild appears on the reels 5 Sara symbols get doubled! It works for all other symbols except scatters. In this case, 5 Saras can be seen as 10, or the payline paid twice!

Wild symbols not only multiply the wins but pay as they are. 5 Wilds in a row pay €1.00; 4 - €2.50; 5 - €15.00.

And there is a reason for that! Let’s proceed to the most interesting question. How much can this slot pay?

Wild Desire blood drops

It goes without saying, many people dream of getting 4 blood drops on the reels and they are even afraid to dream of 5 blood drops.

I have the answer: it is real. There is no need to look through the internet for screenshots to prove that. Simply open the slot information tab.



Firstly, it says that 5 blood drops can cover all the reels; secondly, maximum possible win is always stated in a slot.

It means the maximun possible win for max bet for this very casino. Max bet depends on the casino you play at. The maximum win for this casino is €72900.00 with the max bet of €6.00.

Here comes the most interesting thing, let’s count payouts:

5 Wilds with €0.30 bet pay €15.00 according to the paytable.

How many lines have we got? 243!

What is the max bet? €6.00!

15x243x20 = 72900

Compare this to the maximum win above. That’s right, this is exactly €72900.00.

And the maximum payout for €0.30 bet is 15x243 = 3645. This is how much you’ll win if you are lucky to get 5 drops with €0.30 bet.

Now let’s count maximum multiplication. 3645/0.3 = 12150x This is the maximum multiplication for this slot.

If the maximum multiplication is not stated in slot information, there is another way to count it.

5 Wilds pay €15.00 with €0.30 bet. It is equal to 15/0.3 = 50x multiplication.

Now multiply this number by number of lines. 50x243 = 12150x.

This is the way to count maximum multiplication in any slot.

It is worth mentioning, that the maximum multiplication for Playboy slot is a bit lower – 8100x.

But what will you do if Wilds don’t pay as normal symbols at paylines? Or the number of paylines is different? What if Wilds don’t multiply the win?

Let’s have a look.

Paylines slots

Consider an example of a slot of this kind with Creature from the Black Lagoon by Netent.

It is not more complicated than the first example but there is a thing to remember: all payouts are stated for a 1-coin bet. Bet change doesn’t affect the paytable. In fact, it is not a big deal. Let’s count:



The most valuable symbol is a young lady named Kay. 3 symbols pay 25 coins for each of 25 lines; 4 – 250 coins; 5 – 750 coins.

If you play with second coin level, simply multiply these values by 2.

If you catch 5 symbols of this kind and a Wild, 2 paylines will pay which will result in 1500-coins win.

In other words, in this situation you’ll get €15.00 if you bet €0.30 as the slot will pay 2 times: 1 time for each line and we have the win at 2 paylines.

The number of paylines is 20.

Wild symbols don’t pay at paylines; they can only substitute for other symbols.

Maximum multiplication is 750x for a single spin.

Let’s consider another well-known slot by NetEnt – Space Wars.


The most valuable symbol pays 1000 coins per line. 1 coin is equal to €0.40.

There are 40 lines in this slot. So, we multiply 1000 coins by 40 lines and get €400.00. That is how much you’ll get if you see crystals covering all the reels.

It stands to reason, I couldn’t ignore Jack and the Beanstalk slot. Many players ask if it is possible to catch 5 harps in bonus game and what the maximum payout is.

Let’s figure that out together! Firstly, have a look at the slot information:



As you can see, the maximum payout for the most valuable symbol is 1000 coins for 1-coin bet. All wins with wilds and harps are multiplied by 3.

Let’s count:

It is just the same like for The Creature from the Black Lagoon, Wilds are not counted as symbols, they only substitute for other symbols. Since that we will be counting the wins for the most valuable symbol.

We multiply 1000 coins by 20 lines and get 20 000 coins. Multiply this value by 3 as Wild grants x3 multiplier.

We get 60 000 coins. This is the maximum payout if you catch 5 harps.

In other words, maximum possible multiplication per spin is 3000x.

As I have mentioned above, there is simpler way to count that – you need to multiply the most valuable symbol payout by number of lines and 3.

Book of Ra, Book of Aztec, Book of Dead and other slots of the kind.

Let’s consider Book of Ra and some other slots of this kind.

If you don’t understand the way the wins are calculated, we will find it out together.

All of these slots have got the same operating principle.

Classic Book of Ra by Novomatic

As the slot information states, paytable displays values based on your bet size and these values are changed if the bet is changed.

The main feature of these slots is bonus game. One specific symbol is chosen in the beginning of a bonus game. When several symbols appear on the reels they pay. There is no need for the symbols to be located on consecutive reels. There may be gaps among them and still they pay.

This slot pays the following way:

Out of the bonus game the most valuable symbols pay starting with 2 in a row; the rest – 3. When 2 top symbol appear, you get your bet back, when 5 appear – 500 bets! That’s payout for a single line.

What happens when this symbol is chosen as a bonus symbol in the bonus game and appears on 5 reels? It expands and pays for 10 paylines.

Multiply 500 bets by 10 lines and get 5000 bets or 5000x multiplication!

Check that with the paytable.

Top symbol pays €50.00 with €0.10 bet per line. With 10 lines in total, the maximum payout for this slot with this bet is €500.

Book of Dead by Play’n GO

According to the paytable, this slot is identical to the previous one. But the payout is displayed for 1-coin bet only. Still, there is additional space which displays real win.

Slots featuring expanding symbols which pay on consecutive reels only

Let’s consider Casanova slot.

The slot offers bonus game with expanding wilds. But unlike Book slots, Wilds and other symbols pay on consecutive reels only.

It is easy to count the maximum multiplication as well:

With €0.20 bet 5 Casanovas pay €100.

At the bonus game, these 5 symbols expand to cover all the reels which results in 20-lines payout.

€100 x 20 lines = €2000 which means that maximum multiplication per spin is x1000.

I hope you find this article useful. Now you know how to understand paytables, how the wins are calculated and hot to calculate maximum multiplication. Using the examples above, you can count payouts for any slot you like!