Online slots wagering and online slots tournament play are done on the same slot games. However the objectives are different. Normal slots wagering is done with the player’s own bankroll. If the player starts with a bankroll of $500 and ends up with $550 he has won $50. In the tournaments the player pays an entry fee and wagers with a bankroll provided by the online casino. Even if he converts a $500 bankroll to $1,500 he may not win any amount because others have performed better. And on odd occasions he may end up with $450 and yet come first because others have performed worse. These different objectives require different information inputs while playing slots normally and while participating in tournaments at online casinos. Therefore the leading online casino software provider Microgaming has created a special slots tournament interface. This interface automatically appears in the slots games during tournaments at Microgaming online casinos.

The reels and the operating buttons appear in their usual positions. At the left hand side of the bottom toolbar is the tournament interface box that is divided into three columns. At the top of the left most column appears the player’s alias. Below that is the Win Box. The Win Box displays the amount of coins that are won in the tournament by the player. These coins decide his position on the leader board. Below the Win Box is a box titled Coins. This displays the current chip balance of the player. In once through slots tournaments when this balance reaches zero the player is out of the tournament. In rebuy tournaments the player can buy another stack when the coins balance is zero.

The second column of the Microgaming tournament interface displays the Play Time. In Microgaming online slots tournament players are given a fixed time to wager. The Play Time indicates the amount of time left for the player to complete his tournament play. When the play time reaches zero the tournament session will automatically close, unless the player has bought more play time.

The right-most column displays three tabs. The My Place tab displays the player’s current rank on the leader board and the current amount won by him. The details of the players immediately above and below him are also displayed. The Top 5 tab lists the ranks, names and balances of the top five players in the tournament. This lets the player know the difference between his balance and the winner’s balance and therefore tells him how much catching up he has to do. The Show in Window tab displays the entire leader board split into a number of pages in a different window. The player can navigate through the pages using the forward and backward arrows. Each entry displays the player’s position, alias, coins and win box. In order to locate his position the player need not navigate through the pages. He has to simply click on the “Where am I?” link on the first page that will take the player directly to his entry.

All the games used in Microgaming slots tournaments have this interface. Some of the more popular slot games are Loaded, Tomb Raider, Avalon, Hitman and Ladies Nite.