Slot paytable: what each symbol is really worth

A slot paytable fits on one screen, sometimes five. It tells you what each symbol pays, how many you need to be paid and under what conditions. Most players skim it; those who read it know before the first spin what a game can give back, and what it will not.

To keep things concrete, this article works from the rules screen of a game in the catalogue, Big Bass Dice by Pragmatic Play, with the stake set at €2. Every symbol value quoted comes from that screen.

Where to find the paytable

In most games it opens from the “i” icon or the menu at the bottom of the screen. On Big Bass Dice it runs to five pages: the first shows the symbols and their values, the next ones cover the features and the rules.

It opens without staking and stays available during play, in demo mode and for real money. It is the only document that counts: neither the animation nor the name of the game tells you how it pays.

Reading a symbol’s value in the paytable

Each symbol comes with a small scale: “5 - €400.00”, “4 - €40.00”, “3 - €10.00”. The number on the left is how many symbols line up, the one on the right is the amount paid. The reading rule sits at the top of the screen: symbols pay left to right across neighbouring reels, beginning with the first.

Those amounts are not fixed. They are calculated for the stake on screen: drop to 20 cents and five green dice are worth €40 instead of €400. Some studios show euros, others multiples of the stake, and the logic stays the same. To compare two games, divide the amount by the stake: €400 for a €2 stake is 200 times the stake.

How many symbols you need to be paid

The minimum is usually three. Big Bass Dice makes a single exception: the green die, the best-paying symbol, pays from two of a kind. But that €1 win on a €2 stake reveals something many players miss: a “winning” spin can pay less than it cost. Three white dice pay €1 too.

The direction matters as much as the count. Here a combination has to start on the leftmost reel: three green dice on reels 2, 3 and 4 pay nothing. That rule varies between online slots, depending on whether a game pays on lines, ways or clusters, and the paytable always states which one applies.

Special symbols have no payout scale: they are described in words. On Big Bass Dice, the paytable explains that the fisherman, the Wild, only appears during free spins and substitutes for every symbol except the Scatter. In the base game, no Wild will turn up to complete a combination.

Colour matters more than pips on a dice slot

Big Bass Dice swaps classic symbols for dice, and its paytable holds a surprise: the number of pips on a die says nothing about its value. The green four-pip die pays the most, ahead of the orange three-pip die. The blue two-pip and the red one-pip dice are worth exactly the same. And the five white dice, from one to five pips, all pay €20 for five of a kind.

So it is the colour that sets the value. A player going by the pips would think a five-pip white die beats a one-pip red one; the paytable says the opposite, with €100 against €20 for five symbols.

One spin worked out in full

Take an imaginary spin, using the real amounts from the paytable at a €2 stake. Winning symbols land on three different lines:

• three green dice on one line: €10;
• four orange dice on another: €30;
• three white dice on a third: €1.

Winning lines add up: the spin pays €41, or 20.5 times the stake. With ten fixed lines, a €2 stake means 20 cents per line, but the paytable gives the final amount directly. There is nothing to multiply, as long as you check the table at the stake you are actually playing.

What the gap between symbols hints at

On this first page, five green dice are worth twenty times more than five white ones. As a rule, small symbols land often and pay little, while big ones are rare and pay a lot. The wider that gap, the more the game concentrates its wins on a handful of combinations.

It is only a hint: how often each symbol actually lands is not shown anywhere. The figure that sums up the game’s return, its return to player, is in the rules: 96.71% for Big Bass Dice.

The rules almost nobody reads

The last pages read like terms and conditions, and that is often where the real surprises are. Four points deserve a look.

• The maximum win: most games cap what a single spin can pay. Big Bass Dice stops at 2,100 times the stake; on Money Stacks Dice the cap drops from 5,000 to 2,500 times the stake when the bonus bet is on.
• Malfunction: a common clause states that a fault voids the wins and games concerned.
• Interrupted games: the rules explain how a spin cut short by a disconnection is completed or resumed.
• Paid options: when a game offers a bonus buy or a bonus bet, the rules give the price and often a return to player of its own.

These figures are not just claims. In Belgium, every game goes through an independent laboratory before launch, which checks among other things that the stated return matches how the game really behaves: it is part of what legal play guarantees.

Two minutes before your first spin

Open the paytable at the stake you intend to play, find the best-paying symbol and the minimum needed to be paid, then glance at the win cap. Demo mode then shows how those numbers play out on screen, without staking anything.

Dragon Casino, the online casino site in Belgium licensed under B+3817, hosts Big Bass Dice and the rest of the catalogue, open to anyone aged 21 or over. A budget decided in advance remains the first habit: a well-read paytable helps you pick a game, not beat chance.