A slot is a position in a group, series or sequence. A slot can also be a position of employment in an organization or hierarchy. It can also be a way of referring to an area on something such as a map. It can be a narrow opening or groove. It can also refer to an air gap between a wing and tail surface used in connection with a high-lift or control device.
Modern slots may have a variety of different symbols, including fruit and bar icons, traditional Liberty Bell or number sevens, as well as poker card symbols such as Jacks, Queens, Kings and Aces. Depending on the game theme, there may be even images of movie characters!
In computer science, a slot is the combination of the operation issue and data path machinery surrounding a set of one or more execution units. It is also the name given to a specific place in a VLIW (very long instruction word) computer’s execute pipeline.
When choosing a slot machine, ignore the top jackpot and focus on the middle-of-the-board paybacks instead. For example, Machine A offers a low jackpot but decent middle-of-the-board payouts, while Machine B has an attractive jackpot but only average middle-of-the-board paybacks. Machine A is your best bet if you want to keep a large chunk of your bankroll.