Eight of the best slot games for beginners
A shortlist of popular, easy to learn titles.
The best slots for beginners don’t lean too hard on multiple features and bonus rounds. They have a solid concept and visuals you can read at a glance. If you can’t tell what just happened without opening the paytable, the game isn’t doing its job.
Slots don’t have much of a learning curve (you’re mostly just pressing a button), so the questions worth asking are more like: Do I enjoy these features? Do I want to spend money on this game?
Here are eight slots worth starting with, plus the basics to keep in your back pocket.
How were these slots chosen?
Our filter was simple: one main feature instead of four stacked together, a layout you can read without opening the paytable, and a minimum bet low enough to learn on.
Big Bass Bonanza
RTP: 95.67% (94.2% in Alberta)
Volatility: High
Min. bet: $0.10
Max bet: $110 ($250 in Alberta)
Max win: 2,100x
Provider: Pragmatic Play
Available in: Ontario and Alberta
Read our review of Big Bass Bonanza.
A fisherman collects fish, and that’s most of the game. Three scatters gives 10 free spins, four gives 15, five gives 20. Inside the round, the money symbols show a cash value but only pay when a fisherman wild lands to collect them — so you’re watching for the fisherman, not the fish.
Every fourth fisherman adds 10 more spins and raises the multiplier on what it collects: 2x, then 3x, then 10x.
Starburst
RTP: 96.09% (94.05% in Alberta)
Volatility: Low
Min. bet: $0.20
Max bet: $200
Max win: 60,000x
Provider: Evolution
Available in: Ontario and Alberta
Read our review of Starburst.
Starburst has ten paylines and no free spins round. Wilds only land on the middle three reels — each one expands to cover the reel, locks there, and gives you a free respin. Land another wild and it happens again, up to three times.
Combinations count from the left reel or the right, so a run that starts at either end still pays.
Cleopatra
RTP: 94.02%
Volatility: Medium
Min. bet: $0.20
Max bet: $600
Max win: 624x
Provider: IGT
Available in: Ontario and Alberta
Read our review of Cleopatra.
Cleopatra runs on up to twenty selectable lines with one bonus behind them. Nothing tumbles and there are no side bets — the paytable hasn’t changed in twenty years. The Cleopatra symbol stands in for anything except the sphinx and doubles whatever line it completes.
Three or more sphinxes anywhere on the reels opens 15 free spins with every win tripled, and more sphinxes during the round add another 15, up to 180 in total.
Gonzo’s Quest
RTP: 95.97%
Volatility: Medium
Min. bet: $0.40
Max bet: $20 ($100 in Alberta)
Max win: 2,500x
Provider: Evolution
Available in: Ontario and Alberta
Read our review of Gonzo’s Quest.
Blocks fall instead of reels spinning. Winning combinations drop away, the ones above fall into the gap, and each chain moves the multiplier up a step — 1x, 2x, 3x, 5x in the base game, resetting when a chain ends.
Three Free Fall symbols on reels 1, 2 and 3 opens 10 spins, where a second ladder starts at 3x and climbs to 15x.
Cash Machine
RTP: 95%
Volatility: Low
Min. bet: $1
Max bet: $100
Max win: 1,050x
Provider: Pariplay
Available in: Ontario
Cash Machine runs three reels across a single line, with digits instead of symbols, and they read across as the prize, so 1-0-0 is 100. Your bet decides how many reels are live — one credit plays the first reel only, a full bet plays all three.
Two respins sit on top of that, and only above the minimum bet: after a win, blank reels can respin for a number, and after a losing spin, any zeros lock in place while the other reels spin again.
Amazing Link Zeus
RTP: 96.33%
Volatility: Medium
Min. bet: $0.20
Max bet: $50
Max win: 5,300x
Provider: Games Global
Available in: Ontario and Alberta
Read our review of Amazing Link Zeus.
Amazing Link Zeus runs five reels and three rows, with 20 fixed lines paying left to right. Most of the game hangs on blue orbs. Land six or more in a spin and they lock in place, you get three respins, and every new orb that lands resets the counter to three.
When it stops, each locked orb pays the value printed on it, and some carry the Mini, Minor or Major jackpot instead. Fill all fifteen positions and the Mega pays on top.
Sweet Bonanza
RTP: 95.5%
Volatility: High
Min. bet: $0.20
Max bet: $22 ($46 in Alberta)
Max win: 21,175x
Provider: Pragmatic Play
Available in: Ontario and Alberta
Eight matching symbols anywhere pays, the winners vanish, more fall in, and it keeps going until no new win forms. Four lollipop scatters opens 10 free spins, where candy bombs carrying 2x to 100x drop onto the grid and are totalled, then applied to that spin’s win.
Keep in mind this is a high volatility title and Three more scatters during the round adds five spins. It swings harder than anything else on the list.
Triple Double Gems
RTP: 95%
Volatility: Low
Min. bet: $0.50
Max bet: $4.50
Max win: 18,525x
Provider: Pariplay
Available in: Ontario
Triple Double Gems fits on a three-by-three grid with up to nine lines and no bonus round. Most symbols have a 2x or 3x version, and when two land on the same winning line they multiply against each other rather than adding, so a 2x and a 3x makes it six times the line. Three wilds on a line is the top combination.
How to play slots, and how slot machines work
The result is decided the moment you press spin. The reels turning on screen are the game showing you what already happened.
Everything you actually control happens before that. You set your bet, and you set what it covers. Some games have fixed paylines, others let you switch lines on and off, and a few use the bet size to decide how many reels are even in play.
From there it’s pattern matching. Line games pay when symbols land along a line, usually left to right. Scatter-pay games ignore lines and pay when enough matching symbols land anywhere on the grid.
Then there’s RTP. It’s what a game returns over millions of spins, which makes it useful for comparing two games and useless for predicting your afternoon.
Learn more about how RTP works →
Learn more about how paylines work →
How to win at slots
You can’t do much beyond pressing play. No strategy makes a slot pay more often, and every spin is independent of the last.
What you can choose is the kind of session you want. Smaller wins landing regularly means low volatility. Lots of dead spins for a shot at something bigger means high volatility. Volatility doesn’t change what a game gives back over time, only how it gets there.
Learn more about how volatility works →
Where to start
Start with the game you can follow without opening the paytable. Starburst and Triple Double Gems are the shortest way in — one idea each, low minimums, nothing to unlock.
If you’d rather wait for a chance at a bigger swing, Sweet Bonanza and Big Bass Bonanza pay less often and pay harder when they land.
Set your deposit, loss and time limits before your first spin. It takes about a minute.
Every game on this list is live at Betty, plus a few thousand more behind them.
