Casino slots on online casinos have come a long way

Online casinos have always had casino games such as Roulette and Blackjack and apart from a few minor changes the games have remained pretty much the same for years. When it comes to casino slots however the changes over the years have been quite dramatic. In the very early days the casino slots at an online casino were replicas of the “one armed bandits” that were found in bars and clubs up and down the country which were basically three reel machines with one winning line and the occasional “nudge”. Advances in electronics, however, allowed the machines to become much more complicated which meant the arrival of five reel machines with multiple winning lines, often running into hundreds, coupled with wild symbols, free spins and of course jackpots and progressive jackpots. Casino slots can have their own individual jackpot but they can also be linked to other casino slots which share the same jackpot and these are known as progressive jackpot slots. This linking is done to allow the jackpots to increase in size faster and is done by the casino software supplier. There are far fewer casino software suppliers than there are online casinos and any single casino software company has many casino slots available which they can link together.

For example the casino slots Mega Moolah™ and Mega Moolah Isis™ which are casino slots from the software company Microgaming are linked and share a jackpot which can be won on either game. As there are fewer casino software companies creating casino slots than there are online casinos carrying the games you will find the same casino slots on different online casinos. All that means is that the online casinos in question are using the same casino software. When it comes to progressive jackpot casino slots this is not a bad thing as in addition to the slots being linked to increase jackpot size the games also feature on a number of online casinos increasing usage and increasing jackpot size even faster. The jackpot can be won on any online casino that carries the slot and the money is provided by the casino software company rather than the online casino so do not worry about playing at a smaller casino and wondering if you will get paid out. These jackpots are controlled by the casino software company that created the slot in the first place and every spin contributes a very small amount to the jackpot regardless of which online casino is being used or which of the linked machines is being played. When the jackpot drops the online casino that has the winning player is over the moon with delight as they can get all the publicity of claiming a large winner but it actually costs nothing extra.

One of the most recent developments in casino slots is allowing symbols to move independently rather than being fixed to a reel. This has a number of advantages and allows new features to be introduced. The biggest advantage comes when holding symbols for an improved win. On a regular five reel casino slot holding three symbols means holding three reels which only leaves two reels to possibly improve the win but on casino slots with independent symbols holding just three leaves the other twelve to be spun again with a chance to improve the win. A classic example of this can be found at the casino slot Jack Hammer™ which comes from the casino software suppler NetEnt which can in turn be found at several of the recommended online casinos on this site including All Irish Casino and Fun Casino. This casino slot utilises the independent symbols to create a feature called Sticky Wins™ which is effectively an automatic hold feature. When a winning combination of matching symbols is achieved, those symbols are automatically held and all others are spun again. If that re-spin results in the win being improved or a new win being triggered, which it invariable does, the process is repeated. There is no limit to the number of times that the process can repeat as long as the win is being improved. When the win is not improved by a re-spin the process stops and the largest win is paid out. There is no need to add additional funds when this is happening. This casino slot also has a free spins game where all wins are tripled and although it takes a minimum of five free spins symbols to enter the free spins mode the Sticky Wins™ feature is also applicable to the free spins symbols so three will be enough to get you started. Jack Hammer™ is one of the more interesting casino slots and it retains the excitement value because players never know what might happen. A very small win of three matching symbols can very quickly turn into something quite big before your very eyes.

Another of the casino slots that utilises independent symbols is Gonzo’s Quest although it uses them in a different way. This slot which is also from NetEnt and can be found at the same online casinos as previously mentioned has a sort of Aztec theme with the action taking place in darkest Peru with the adventurer Gonzo on a quest for gold. The symbols are carved on to blocks of stone in a wall and when a winning combination is achieved, the blocks in that win explode which allows any blocks above them to drop down with the ones in the top row being replaced with new ones. This creates a new arrangement of blocks which can result in a second win. After the first win a win multiplier ticks over to 2X so that a second win pays double but it does not stop there as a second win will increase the win multiplier to 3X and the same process of exploding blocks is initiated. After three successive wins the win multiplier will reach the maximum of 5X but there is no limit on the number of successive wins which can be achieved so once again a modest start can result in something very large.