Traditionally online slots had paylines, which were defined combinations of across the reels. Like symbols had to appear in these paylines in order to result in a payout. Then Microgaming changed the game. It introduced a slot game titled Burning Desire that had 243 ways to win. In Burning Desire three or more like symbols could appear at any spot on the reels aligned from left to right in order to pay out. In simpler terms all possible combinations were paylines. Therefore these slots came to be known as “All Pays”. The standard structure of video slots was five reels and three rows of symbols across the reels. Mathematically, this led to 243 combinations and therefore the “243 ways to win” tag.

In the traditional format, many times like symbols appeared in successive reels from left to right. But because they did not fall on the defined paylines, no payouts accrued to the player. This is not the case with All Pays online slots games. Therefore payouts accrue more frequently in such games. The important thing to realize is that this does not lead to increase in the average return to the player. The amounts of the payouts are reduced so as to level the playing field for the online casinos. All Pays online slots are less volatile and are ideally suited for conservative players. Some popular 243 ways to win online slots are The Dark Knight from Microgaming, Archer from Playtech and Just Vegas from Cryptologic.

In the short time that they have been around, All Pays online slots have seen considerable development. The first change that was made was to increase the number of rows across the reels from three to four. This resulted in the number of ways to win increasing from 243 to 1,024. There are fewer All Pays online slots with 1,024 ways to win, but all leading software providers have dabbled in this format. Microgaming has Hot Ink, Playtech has Lucky Panda and WagerWorks has White Orchid. Microgaming has gone one step ahead with a 3,125 ways to win online slot game titled Dolphin Coast. This All Pays slot machine has five rows of symbols across the reels.

As the number of ways to win increases so does the stake. It is just like activating a larger number of paylines in a traditional slot game. It is for this reason that All Pays slots with 1,024 and 3,125 ways to win are not as popular as 243 ways to win slots games. WagerWorks has achieved a compromise and devised an innovative 720 ways to win structure. The structure is hexagonal in shape and has been created with reels 1 and 5 having three spots, reels 2 and 4 having four spots and reel 3 having five spots. Siberian Storm is a slot game with this structure.

Cryptologic has devised an All Pays online slot game with a lightly more complex structure. Players can select the number of reels. Active reels will have all three spots and the other reels will have only the central spot. Therefore one reel selected gives 3 ways to win, two reels selected give 9 ways to win, three reels selected give 27 ways to win, four reels selected give 81 ways to win and five reels selected give 243 ways to win. The number of coins wagered increases with the number of reels selected. Thus the player can select parameters according to his comfort zone.