5 Reel Slots

While three-reel slots once dominated the slot machine landscape, today most new machines are five-reel games. These five-reel slots allow for more complex gameplay and even bigger prizes, making them the gold standard when it comes to online casino slot machines.

What Are 5 Reel Slots?

A five-reel slot machine is any game that features five reels of symbols. These games will generally feature a larger number of symbols and possible combinations than the simpler three-reel slots. This makes it possible to award bigger prizes, as well as offer players more ways to win, keeping them more engaged in the game.

One big feature of five-reel slots is the fact that they can offer numerous different paylines for players to gamble on. Most online slots use three rows of symbols, meaning that there are 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 * 3 possible unique paylines — or 243 in total. Typically, a five-reel video slot will offer players the opportunity to wager on anywhere between 20 and 50 of these paylines, though some games allow players to win on all 243! Of course, players are not obligated to play on every line; depending on how much the player wants to bet, they may choose to wager on anything from a single payline to every available combination.

Players are also usually given the option of wagering a single coin per line, or as many as 5 to 10 coins at maximum. This means that relatively inexpensive sounding slot machines can actually allow you to play for high stakes if you want to make the maximum possible bet. For example, a quarter slot machine sounds cheap; however, if you’re allowed to play that machine on 30 different paylines for up to five coins per line, it’s possible to spend as much as $37.50 per spin.

History of 5 Reel Slots

Five-reel slot machines have existed for almost as long as the slot machine itself. In fact, one of the early versions of what would eventually become a true slot machine was a five reel game that was developed by a company in Brooklyn, New York. This game featured five “drums” that each had the pictures of ten cards from a standard deck of playing cards. Depending on the combination of cards a player received, they might trigger a prize. These games became popular in New York bars, with each bar giving out prizes like drinks and cigars depending on what hands players made.

However, despite the fact that this first machine used five reels, the five-reel slot machine actually went out of style for most of the 20th century. The problem was that early slot machines were entirely mechanical in nature; this meant that malfunctions and broken parts were far from rare, and could immediately shut a slot machine down. Since three-reel games required fewer moving parts than five-reel slots, they tended to be more reliable.

However, the five-reel games never went away entirely, and there were always some players who enjoyed the complexity these games offered. In the last two decades of the 20th century, slot machines began to incorporate more electronics and programmable features, and while these games mostly emulated the three-reel slots that preceded them, they also made five-reel slots more viable. While these games still made up the minority of offered games, five-reel slots were now easier to find in brick-and-mortar casinos.

But the real breakthrough game with the invention of video slots. By the mid-1990s, video slots had become common in land-based casinos, and within a few years, they were also found in the new online casinos that had begun to show up on the internet. Video slots didn’t use any physical parts; instead, all of the actions simply happened on a screen, like a video game. This once again put five-reel games into the mix, and quickly turned the tables to make them the new standard in slot machines. With more possible symbol combinations, five-reel video slots allowed casinos to offer bigger jackpots, multiple ways to win prizes, and second screen bonus rounds that took players away from the reels for a chance to win bonus prizes.

How 5 Reel Slots Work

Five-reel slots are very simple to play. These games tend to be very customizable, allowing players to adjust the denomination of each coin, how many coins are used on each line, and the number of paylines they want to play. Once these options are chosen, players hit the spin button and watch the reels spin. Depending on the combinations of symbols that a player hits, prizes are awarded, or special features are activated. Many five-reel slots include bonus games, free spin awards, or other special features that can also be triggered by landing special symbols on the reels.

Advantages and Disadvantages to 5 Reel Slots

The greatest advantage to five-reel slots is their complexity. Five-reel slots have significantly more possible combinations of symbols than three-reel games, allowing casinos to offer larger jackpots that are more difficult for players to hit. In addition, there are more winning combinations that offer smaller prizes, giving players many different ways to come out with at least a small prize on each spin.

The only downside to playing five-reel slots is actually the exact same feature that makes them so much fun: they are complex, and for some people, that just means more things to worry about and keep track of. If you prefer simpler, old-fashioned games that offer more straightforward gameplay, you’ll probably have a better time playing three-reel slots.