A narrow opening in something, for example the hole that you put coins into to make a machine work. It can also refer to a position or time: He was in the slot for the chief copy editor job. In computer programming, a slot is the operation issue and data path machinery surrounding a set of one or more execution units, with which it shares resources such as CPUs. A slot is an essential concept in very long instruction word (VLIW) computers. It is a special case of a more general concept, called an execute pipeline.
In casino slots, a player inserts cash or, in “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, a paper ticket with a barcode into a slot, which then activates the machine. The reels then spin and stop to rearrange symbols, and if a winning combination is lined up, the player receives credits according to a paytable. Symbols vary with each machine, but classic symbols include fruits, bells, and stylized lucky sevens. Most slot games have a theme, and the symbols and bonus features are aligned with that theme.
In the past, slot machines had only a few symbols and a fixed number of combinations. This limited jackpots and made the odds of winning disproportionate to the amount of money that could be won, but newer machines weight symbols differently. Often, the less common a symbol is, the higher its payout. This gives the player more chances to line up the symbols he needs to win and reduces the number of “false” hits that result in no payout.