7 Strange Slang Words You’ll Hear on the Slot Machines

One of my favorite things about walking through the casino floor is hearing just how many weird words I’ve never heard before. Every area, from the poker room to the table game pit to the sportsbook, and indeed the slot machine parlor, is home to its own unique language of slang lingo.

For many reasons, regular gamblers love to talk in code and innuendo, using esoteric phrases to describe everything from the roulette ball (“the pill”) to the pink $2.50 chips (“snappers”) paid out to a $5 bet for landing a natural blackjack. Slot spinners are no exception either, so check out these seven slang terms you’ll hear while playing on the old one-armed bandits.

1 – Big Bertha

Bigger is always better in Sin City, and that maxim applies to the world of slot machine design as well.

In many Las Vegas casinos, the very first thing to greet guests as they walk through the main doorway is a gigantic novelty size slot machine. These bad boys can clock in at over 10 feet wide while towering all but the tallest players. And while there are specifically branded “Big Bertha” machines in casinos like Bally’s on the Strip, the term has come to encompass any of the town’s massive slot games.

A personal touchstone that I never miss when I’m gambling in the Downtown Fremont Street district is the gilded Big Bertha machine at the Golden Nugget. Set directly into the wall, this four-reel monstrosity features a lengthy pull lever that takes all your weight to set into action. For the $5 maximum bet, you can take your shot at bagging the $50,000 jackpot—and all before you’ve even checked into your room.

Big Bertha slots tend to be old-school, displaying a physical reel layout rather than the video slots that have come to dominate the industry. You’ll be spinning symbols like the cherry, 7-7-7, and BAR while trying to line them up along a single payline.

Of course, slot games like this have fallen out of fashion in the era of 100-payline designs, wild symbols, and all the other bells and whistles. But for fans of the old-fashioned slots, strolling up to a genuine Big Bertha machine and taking your shot will always offer a special sort of thrill.

2 – Hammer

Due to the relatively low payback percentage found on Big Bertha machines, you definitely don’t want to try and “hammer” one into submission.

No, the strategy known as hammering among slot enthusiasts is typically reserved for games boasting a high payback percentage coupled with a progressive jackpot. To hammer a specific machine simply means to play it over and over again in succession, while hoping sheer brute force is enough to eventually trigger the progressive payout.

Hammering a slot game requires patience and a healthy bankroll, so this approach definitely isn’t for every spinner out there. But when you have the money to burn and time to spare, devoting all of your energy toward a single machine is said to offer the best chance of finally breaking through into the big-time jackpots.

Whether that holds water on a statistical level is obviously debatable, seeing as how every individual spin represents a wholly independent event. In other words, you have the exact same odds of winning the progressive jackpot on a single, one-off spin compared to a hammer player who has put in hundreds of spins before their next attempt.

Slot machine designers have gotten in on the fun too, with games like Golden Hammer, Buster Hammer, and Jack Hammer becoming popular attractions for players in the know.

3 – Vulture

Whenever you see a slot player standing around a carousel of machines, watching and waiting—but seldom sitting down—you’ve just spotted a “vulture” in its natural habitat.

Under the impression that this particular machine has now been “primed” to pay out imminently, the vulture swoops in like its avian namesake to steal the kill for themselves.

Once again, this strategy for winning at slots doesn’t really hold up to any serious scrutiny. Machines are programmed to use the exact same odds on any given spin, and they don’t wait until a certain amount of money has been brought in before paying out.

Sure enough, you’ll see machines go weeks without ever lighting up for a jackpot, while the same game on another machine nearby pays out two jackpots in the span of an hour.

Even so, vultures have had enough confirmation bias over the years when their pirated prey does happen to randomly pay out. These lightning strike wins help convince vultures that their approach has panned out, while inspiring the next generation of vultures waiting in the wings.

4 – Megabucks

Speaking of progressive jackpots, the biggest and best of them all is known as “Megabucks.”

Pioneered by slot designer and manufacturer International Game Technology (IGT), the first Megabucks machines were rolled out in Las Vegas back in 1986. Back then, the idea of linking several machines together as part of a wide area progressive network, thus allowing all linked machines to generate one enormous jackpot, was quite novel to say the least.

Today, you can find hundreds of Megabucks machines in dozens of casinos and gambling halls throughout the Silver State. Each machine sends a portion of every bet placed into the progressive jackpot, which seeds at an astounding $10 million.

Playing the straightforward three-reel, single-payline game doesn’t offer much in the way of features and other frills. Nope, this is old-school slot gameplay—plain and simple. You can win smaller prizes to stay afloat, but the name of the game for Megabucks players is shooting for that life-changing eight-figure jackpot.

Each spin costs $3 to become eligible for the progressive jackpot, making it one of the pricier machines on the floor. You’ll need to line up three of the “Megabucks” logo symbols along the single payline to score, and the odds of winning are an astronomical 1 in 49,836,032 on any given spin.

Because the game can go years without paying out, that $10 million starting seed can balloon to truly unbelievable proportions. Most hits come out to between $12 million to $18 million, but back in March of 2003, an anonymous 20-something tourist turned $100 into $39,713,982.25 at the Excalibur on the Strip.

5 – Pokies

Americans call their favorite machines “the slots,” Europeans have their “fruit machines,” and in Australia, they’re called “pokies.”

Short for “poker machine,” the term pokies is affectionately used by Aussie slot fans the world over. And because so many Australian gamblers love to make their way to Las Vegas each and every year, chances are good you’ll hear an offhand reference to “playing the pokies” during your next trip.

6 – Scatter

Thanks to the advent of video screen technology, today’s slot machines look and feel more like arcade games than anything else. You’ve got sound effects and musical scores, side games that require memorization and hand-eye coordination, and an array of onscreen features to spice things up.

One of those features is known as the “scatter” symbol, and it’s become all the rage among regular slot players.

In a slot game with scatter symbols on the reels, players are hoping to see that designated symbol appear at any time. When it does, a scatter symbol works somewhat like a wild symbol, connecting with all other symbols to help create winning combinations.

In other words, when you have two ion symbols lined up along a payline, but need three or more to earn a payout, seeing a scatter symbol show up next is just as good (or better) than a third Lion.

7 – Raining

This is a holdover from the old days when slot players used actual coins to fund their action.

Whenever a big payout would arrive, players would celebrate the sound of “raining” as a flood of new coins fell down into the payout tray. Modern machines use paper betting vouchers, of course, but the popularity of that signature raining sound remains strong.

So much so that slot designers have even equipped new machines to play a special “coin raining” soundtrack to mark their major payouts.

Conclusion

Slot machines get a bad rap among serious gamblers who prefer the skill-based games, but for my money, the pokies can be an entertaining and enjoyable diversion. Sure, you can’t control the outcome after letting the wheels fly, but the same can be said for the wheel in roulette or the dice in craps.

And like both of those classic casino offerings, the slot machines have given rise to a language all their own. The next time you’re spinning away and searching for jackpots, try a few of these slang terms on for size.