When a player plays an online slot, they’ll need to understand the rules of that particular game. While simple slot machines only involve a couple of paylines and symbols, many modern online slots include a host of bonus features that aren’t always easy to keep track of. The best way to find out about these rules is by looking at the slot’s pay table.

The pay table of a slot will list how much a player can win when symbols land on a winning combination on the reels. It will also contain instructions for special features and any jackpots that may be attached to a slot machine. Pay tables originally appeared on the physical machines, but now they’re usually listed within a help menu or on a screen.

Some people believe that slots payout in cycles, and this is why you might notice more people winning at night than during the day. However, this belief is incorrect as each spin of a slot is independent of previous results. It’s also against the law for casinos to alter their machines to payout more or less at certain times of the day.

The computer inside a slot machine records the sequence of numbers and then uses an internal table to map each number to a stop on the reels. The RNG then translates these numbers into a sequence of symbols and, if the reels stop in a winning combination, awards a payout.