A narrow opening, groove, or slit, such as in a door, piece of machinery, or container. Also, a slit for a coin in a vending machine.
A type of slot in a computer or other device, into which you can insert a printed circuit board (PCB), called an expansion board. A slot is not to be confused with a bay, which is an area in the front of a computer into which you can install disk drives.
Psychologists have found that people who play video slots reach a debilitating level of gambling addiction three times as fast as those who play traditional casino games, even if they have previously played without problem. The 2011 60 Minutes report “Slot Machines: The Big Gamble” highlighted this growing issue.
The original mechanical slot machines used revolving reels to display and determine results. The number of possible combinations was limited to a cubic number because there were only three physical reels with 10 symbols per reel. Modern slot machines use microprocessors, which allow manufacturers to assign different probabilities to different symbols on each of the machine’s multiple reels, making it appear that a particular symbol is “so close” to winning, when in reality it may be far away.
Many slot players let their paranoia get the better of them and believe that some unknown entity in a back room is pulling the strings and determining who wins and who loses. In reality, all slot games are based on random number generators and outcomes are determined solely by Lady Luck.