Reel Paper

a notebook about how slot machines are put together

Ornamental paper divider with a small reel motif

Filed under Reels

Entries in the notebook carrying the reels label, newest first.

  • 11 August 2026

    How a reel strip is laid out

    The reel you see on screen is a window onto something longer. Three visible positions do not mean three symbols; they mean three of however many are printed on the strip behind them. Almost everything interesting about a machine lives in that hidden length.

  • 4 August 2026

    What volatility describes

    Volatility is a word about spread, not about generosity. It describes how unevenly results arrive over a stretch of play, and a machine can be described as high or low volatility without that saying anything at all about what it returns.

  • 27 July 2026

    Paylines, ways and clusters

    There are three common ways a machine decides that something has happened on screen. Knowing which one you are looking at changes what counts as a near miss and what is simply noise.