Online video slots are the most popular and the most abundant of casino games. The traditional video slot has five reels with three rows of symbols running across them. The rules define certain paylines, with each payline covering one spot on each reel. Only when the like symbols appear on paylines can they result in payouts. If like symbols appear in a combination that is not defined as a payline then there is no payout.

Today most of the video slots will have between 20 and 40 paylines. There are video slots with 9 and 15 paylines and also with 50 and 100 paylines but these are fewer in number. In a video slot with five reels and three rows of symbols across the reels there can be 243 combinations of symbols. Even online slots game with 100 paylines pay out on less than half the combinations. Slots games with 40 paylines pay out on about 16% of the total combinations. In order that players do not miss out on any combination the leading online casino software provider Microgaming launched a ‘243 Ways to Win’ video slot in February 2009.

This slot game was titled Burning Desire and was released on the occasion of Valentine’s Day. It was in the traditional format of five reels and three rows of symbols. Like symbols could appear on any spot on the reels but had to be on successive reels aligned from left to right. The Diamond and the Seven symbols start paying with two like symbols and therefore they need to appear at least on the first two reels. The other symbols start paying with three like symbols and therefore they need to appear at least on the first three reels. Thereafter Microgaming has released several slots games with 243 Ways to Win such as Voila, Thunderstruck II, Reel Gems and Lord of the Rings.

Online slots is competitive business and soon other software providers released games without defined paylines. They gave different names to this concept. Cryptologic launched Savannah Sunrise with the popular African Safari theme calling it All Pays. Savannah Sunrise also gives the players an option of choosing the number of reels. Other All Pays video slots by Cryptologic are Noughty Crosses and Just Vegas. Playtech has a slot game titled Archer based on the legend of Robin Hood. The feature is termed All Ways.

Usually in online slots games the total bet is the line bet multiplied by the number of paylines enabled. With 243 paylines this amount goes too high. Therefore a fixed multiplier is selected. In Burning Desire even though the player has to wager with all 243 paylines enabled the total bet is fixed at 25 times the line bet.

The concept of using all paylines has been developed further. Instead of three rows of symbols software providers have begun to use four rows of symbols. This increases the number of ways to win to 1024. Some of the video slots that offer this are Arctic Fortune from Microgaming and White Orchid from WagerWorks. Dolphin Coast from Microgaming uses five rows and hence the ways to win increases to 3125. Software providers are getting more innovative. WagerWorks recently launched a slot game titled Siberian Storm. It had three rows on the first and last reels, four rows on the second and fourth reels and five rows on the third reel. This unusual structure gives a total of 720 combinations.