How to read a slot’s paytable and help screen
A slot’s paytable, and the rules pages around it, answer the questions the reels leave open: what each symbol pays and in what unit, which way a win is counted, what the wild leaves out and when a feature stops. This guide sets out six steps for reading those pages. The rule wording quoted below comes from the studios’ own public game pages, not from inside the games. A game’s own rules pages can word a rule differently or add to it, so treat each quote as the studio’s summary and check the game itself.
| Step | What you are looking for |
|---|---|
| Step 1 | What a pay row means, and what its numbers are counted in |
| Step 2 | Which way wins are counted, and from which reel |
| Step 3 | Whether two wins on one spin are both paid |
| Step 4 | What the wild stands in for, where it can land, and what a multiplier covers |
| Step 5 | How each feature starts, what changes during it, and how it ends |
| Step 6 | The maximum win, and how the RTP line was worked out |
Finding the paytable and rules pages
The six steps are for the rules pages inside a game. Look for the game’s own info, menu or help button and open what sits behind it. Read all of it before you go back to the reels, because the rule you need may not come first.
On this site every demo runs on virtual credits. If a currency symbol appears beside the balance, the balance and any amounts the rules pages show are still virtual credits: nothing is deposited and nothing is paid out.
Step 1: how a pay row reads, and what its numbers are counted in
The two rows below belong to a game that does not exist. Read each row across: the symbol, then one column for each number of matching symbols, showing what that many matches pay.
| Symbol | 5 matching | 4 matching | 3 matching |
|---|---|---|---|
| A | 1.00 | 0.40 | 0.20 |
| K | 0.50 | 0.20 | 0.10 |
In this made-up game, five A symbols pay 1.00 and three pay 0.20. There is no column for two, so two matching symbols pay nothing. Every figure in the table depends on the unit its caption names. Without that caption, 1.00 could be a multiple of the total bet or of some other amount, and nothing else in the table says which.
Some studio pages state the unit outright. On Habanero’s page for 12 Zodiacs, the Zodiac symbols “pay as Scatters, i.e. x Total Bet”. NetEnt says the main-game scatter wins in Dead or Alive “pay the multiplier displayed in the paytable multiplied by the total bet”.
Not every number on a studio’s game page is a pay value. Habanero lists Shaolin Fortunes under Lines as “243 Ways (25 Coins)”. That coin count sits beside the number of ways. The page never says what the game’s symbol pays are counted in, so a coin figure on its own does not tell you the unit of a pay row.
Step 2: which way wins are counted
Which reel does a win start counting from? NetEnt describes Twin Spin as a 243-ways game with no bet lines, yet its description still needs matching symbols on three or more adjacent reels “starting from the leftmost reel”. Habanero’s 12 Zodiacs, a line game, counts from both ends. In the figure, three A symbols sit on the middle row. The first run starts on the leftmost reel, the second pays only where the rules also count from the right, and the third touches neither end reel.
A feature trigger can have a direction too, and two pages from the same studio show the difference. 12 Zodiacs starts its feature on “3 or more Scatters anywhere”. Shaolin Fortunes asks for “3 or more Scatters Left to Right”.
A run can also count more symbols than there are reels. On Hot Hot Fruit, Habanero says doubled symbols allow up to 10 in a row and triple 7s up to 15.
How both-ways lines, ways and pay-anywhere games count a match is covered in how slots pay.
Step 3: what happens when two wins land at once
GLI-19, a testing standard published by the lab Gaming Laboratories International (GLI), asks the rules of games tested against it to say how a spin is paid when it could form more than one win. Any regulator can adopt it in whole or in part (section 1.3.3), and the version cited here is 3.0, revised on 17 July 2020.
Section 4.4.1(j) wants the rules to settle whether three, four and five of a kind all pay or only the top one, and whether a line holding more than one winning combination pays only the highest. It also covers a line win and a scatter win that share a symbol, both paid or only the larger, and scatter wins that coincide, all paid or only the top award.
Habanero’s page for Panda Panda settles one case of this: “Symbols pay Left to Right or Right to Left depending on max pay”. When the same symbols could pay either way, the direction that pays more is the one that counts.
None of the studio pages used here, Panda Panda’s included, says whether a line win and a scatter win made from the same symbols are both paid. Look for that in the game’s rules pages.
Step 4: what the wild, the scatter and any multiplier cover
The same section of GLI-19 asks the rules to name which symbols act as wilds and scatters, and in which winning combinations (4.4.1(m) and (n)). It asks them to say when a symbol changes role or can only appear in certain places (4.4.1(l)), and to make clear what a multiplier applies to and what it does not (4.4.1(k)). The studios’ pages show why: one word can carry different rules.
| Rule | Game | What the studio’s page says |
|---|---|---|
| A wild with no pay of its own that never lands on reel 3 | Hot Hot Fruit | “Wilds and double Wilds do not pay and occur only on Reels 1,2,4 and 5.” |
| A wild that pays on its own but does not stand in for scatters or bonus symbols | Blood Suckers | “The Wild substitutes for all symbols except Scatters and Bonuses”; the page adds that it also pays on its own. |
| A wild that does stand in for scatters | Shaolin Fortunes | “Wild (appearing on Reel 2 and Reel 4), substitutes for scatters.” |
| A wild kept off the first reel | 12 Zodiacs | “Wilds do not appear on Reel 1.” |
| How a wild is counted on a line | Butterfly Staxx | “Wild symbol substitution pays the highest possible winning combination on a bet line according to the Paytable.” |
Multiplier rules differ in the same way. Gates of Olympus and Fortune of Olympus, both from Pragmatic Play, keep a running total of multipliers during free spins. In Gates of Olympus the total is “applied to that win”, meaning the win on a spin where a multiplier symbol lands. In Fortune of Olympus it is “applied to every win throughout the round”.
NetEnt’s descriptions also show that a multiplier rule names the wins it covers. The one for Dead or Alive names bet line wins: “All bet line wins during Free Spins are doubled (x2)”. For Blood Suckers, NetEnt says that bet line wins and Scatter wins are both tripled during free spins.
Step 5: the feature rules, start to finish
Each feature raises five questions: what starts it, what changes while it runs, whether anything is capped, whether it can start again, and how it ends. Play’n GO’s page for Book of Dead covers the start, the changes and the restart, and says nothing about a cap or how the round ends:
- Landing “three Scatter Symbols”, in the page’s words, starts 10 free spins.
- Before the round begins, an ordinary symbol is picked at random to act as a special expanding symbol for the whole round.
- Regular wins are counted first. Then that symbol may expand to fill its reel, and expanded symbols do not need to sit on neighbouring reels to form a win.
- Three or more Scatters during the round add another 10 free spins.
Habanero gives the start of Hot Hot Fruit’s free games as “6 free games awarded for 3 or more Wilds left to right”, and 12 when three or more run both left to right and right to left. It also states a cap: “A maximum of 14 symbols can lock during free games.”
On 12 Zodiacs the feature changes the symbols themselves: “Only Zodiac symbols appear during Free Spins.” Habanero adds that the free games cannot be retriggered.
For Butterfly Staxx, NetEnt says when wins are paid and how the feature ends. Bet line wins from the spin that set off the Re-Spins are paid before the Re-Spins begin. The Re-Spins end on the first one that lands no new visible Butterfly symbols, and any bet line wins are paid then.
Step 6: the maximum win and the RTP line
A maximum figure means little without the condition attached to it. Pragmatic Play names one event that awards the maximum on Gates of Olympus Super Scatter: “if four Super Scatters hit while triggering the feature, the maximum win of 50,000x is awarded.” On its Shaolin Fortunes page, Habanero shows a “Max Multiplier” of x2,220 and does not say how that figure is reached. Read the label, and what it is tied to, before reading anything into the number. The volatility guide looks at what a game’s maximum win says about volatility.
The RTP line comes next. GLI-19 leaves it to each regulator whether a game’s artwork must show its RTP (section 4.7.2, which covers house-banked games). Where one is shown, the rules should explain how it was worked out, whether as a minimum, a maximum or an average, and what jackpots and features contribute to it. A figure measured from actual play should come with the number of plays it covers and the period those plays took place in. For how studios publish the figure, see the RTP guide.
What the testing standard and regulators ask of these pages
GLI-19’s section 4.4.1 covers a game’s artwork, paytables and help screens, in writing, graphics or sound, in the game or on a page the player can reach. Its glossary counts help screens as part of the “artwork”. For games tested against it, that information must be complete and clear and must not mislead (4.4.1(a)). Help screens must be reachable without depositing funds or placing a bet, and must describe features such as free spins (4.4.1(b)).
The standard also asks for a clear unit (4.4.1(e)), every winning combination with its payout (4.4.1(d)), for line games the pay direction (4.4.3(e)), and any restrictive feature such as a maximum win value (4.4.1(r)).
In Great Britain, the Gambling Commission’s technical standard RTS 3 requires licensees to make the rules easily available before a customer commits to gamble (3A). Its guidance says that on phones and other small screens the rules should at least be reachable through a menu item or link. Among the things it lists to consider including are maximum wins and the rules for moving into a bonus round.
In South Africa, the Gauteng Gambling Rules, as published by the Gauteng Gambling Board, include rule 5.010, which covers land-based casinos. It says payoff schedules for casino games, gaming machines included, must be “displayed or easily accessible at all times”, accurate and not misleading.
“Paytable” has a second meaning as well. GLI-19’s glossary also uses it, or “Variation”, for a game’s maths: the version set out in the maker’s specification sheet for the game, known as its PAR sheet, return percentage included. One game theme can carry more than one, which is why one game can be offered at more than one RTP, as the RTP guide explains.
Three rules to look for in a demo
Open a demo, find its info, menu or help button, and try these three:
- Find what the rules pages of 12 Zodiacs say, if anything, about where the wild cannot land, and compare it with Habanero’s wording in the Step 4 table.
- In Shaolin Fortunes, check whether the scatters that start the free spins have to run in a set direction.
- See whether the rules pages of Book of Dead say when its expanding symbol is chosen, and compare that with Step 5.
We do not configure the demos shown here and cannot see which maths version any of them runs. A demo is a place to read a game’s rules and watch them play out on virtual credits. It says nothing about how often a game pays when played for money, and it is not practice for playing with money.
If gambling has stopped being fun for you or someone close to you, the responsible gambling page lists where to find help in South Africa.
Sources
- Gaming Laboratories International, GLI-19 Standards for Interactive Gaming Systems, version 3.0, revised 17 July 2020: sections 1.3.3, 4.4.1, 4.4.3 and 4.7.2, and the glossary.
- UK Gambling Commission, Remote gambling and software technical standards: RTS 3, rules, game descriptions and the likelihood of winning, and the definition of terms.
- Gauteng Gambling Board, Gauteng Gambling Rules, rule 5.010.
- Play’n GO: the Book of Dead game page.
- Habanero game pages for 12 Zodiacs, Hot Hot Fruit, Shaolin Fortunes and Panda Panda.
- NetEnt game pages for Dead or Alive, Blood Suckers, Twin Spin and Butterfly Staxx.
- Pragmatic Play game pages for Gates of Olympus, Fortune of Olympus and Gates of Olympus Super Scatter.