A time slot, especially for aircraft at a busy airport, is an authorization for a particular flight to take off or land during a specified period of time. Air traffic controllers use slots to prevent repeated delays due to too many flights trying to take off or land at the same time.
In a slot machine, the term “hot slot” refers to the slots that have paid out the most money over the past few spins. This statistic is calculated by dividing the total amount of money won (paid out) by the amount of money played (paid in) over a selected timeframe (1 hr to 30 days). Hot slots are typically those with higher volatility, meaning they don’t win often but when they do the winnings can be substantial.
The pay window on a slot machine displays the various combinations of symbols that can appear in a spin, along with their corresponding payout odds (also known as the payout schedule). The payout odds are inversely proportional to the probability of a specific combination appearing on a given reel. The payout windows are usually displayed as small tables, which are coloured to make them easier to read.