A slot is a small opening into which something can be inserted. A slot can also be a position in a list or a timetable, and a word used to refer to the spot at which a newspaper’s chief sub-editor sits (at the “slot”).

In slots, players insert cash or, in “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, a paper ticket with a barcode into a designated slot on the machine. The machine then activates reels that spin and stop to rearrange symbols in combinations that earn the player credits based on the paytable. The number and type of symbols varies from game to game, but classics include fruits, bells, and stylized lucky sevens. Most slot games have a theme, and bonus features often align with that theme.

The term “slot” is also used in computing to refer to a position in the address space of a computer or operating system that maps to a specific memory location. A computer’s internal sequence table is populated with the locations of these memory spaces. When a program runs, the computer uses an algorithm to generate a sequence of numbers. This sequence is then compared to the internal sequence table to locate the corresponding slot locations. The computer then reads the corresponding symbol from the spinning reels and updates the internal sequence table to match the incoming data. The process is repeated over until the current set of numbers has been exhausted or the computer has matched a particular symbol on the reels.