How to play fruit machines

How to play fruit machines: a first game in seven steps

Every fruit machine looks a little different, but the sequence of a game hardly changes. If you have never played one, this is what happens from the moment you walk up to the cabinet. Our guides hub has related pages if you want the background first.

1. Check you are allowed to play: pub fruit machines are for adults aged 18 and over.
2. Read the rules or info screen so you know the stake options, the top prize and how the features work.
3. Load credit with coins or notes; the credit meter shows the amount in pounds and pence.
4. Choose your stake if the machine offers more than one, up to the £1 maximum.
5. Press start: the reels spin and stop, and any winning line pays into the bank or credit meter.
6. If the machine lights up hold or nudge buttons, decide whether to use them (see below).
7. Press collect when you want to stop; the machine pays out what is in the bank.

Before you start: age, limits and a spending plan

Pub machines are almost always Category C, which caps the stake at £1 a game and the prize at £100, according to the Gambling Commission’s list of machine categories (opens in a new tab). Category D machines, with far lower limits, can also be found in pubs. Pubs with an alcohol licence have an automatic entitlement to two Category C or D machines, set out in the Commission’s guidance on the two-machine entitlement (opens in a new tab); more need a permit.

Decide what you are prepared to spend before you start, because fruit machines are quick. Even if a game takes a few seconds, a few hundred games pass in an hour. At 50p a game, 300 games put £150 through the machine; if the machine displays a target return of 85% (an illustrative figure), the average cost would be £22.50, and any single session can land far from that.

Fruit machines cost money to play and over time the machine keeps its share. Treat what you put in as the price of the entertainment, and walk away at the limit you set.

The buttons on a fruit machine and what they do

Knowing how to play fruit machines is mostly knowing the buttons. Names vary between makers, but the jobs are much the same. Learn these and you can play almost any pub machine.

On digital machines several of these may share a touch screen, and some games add a skill stop that lets you halt a feature reel. The page why do fruit machines say hold? explains the most-flashed button of all.

Credit, bank and collect: how your money moves

Money you put in goes on the credit meter. Each game takes the stake from that meter. Wins often go to a separate bank, which you can collect as cash or transfer back to credit to keep playing. The difference matters: money left in credit gets used for the next game, while money in the bank waits until you decide.

A simple habit helps here. When a win lands in the bank, decide there and then whether to collect it or transfer it. Many players set aside any bank above their starting amount and only play on with the rest. That doesn’t change the odds, but it stops winnings quietly drifting back into the machine.

Reels, the win line and the fruit paytable

Most UK fruit machines have three reels and a single central win line, though some have more. A win comes from matching symbols on that line, in an order the paytable sets out. The classic symbols are cherries, lemons, oranges, plums, melons, bells, bars and sevens, and their history goes back to the American gum-vending machines of the early twentieth century.

Cherries often pay even when only one or two appear, which is why they show up so often on small wins. Higher symbols such as sevens and bars usually need three in a line. The exact values are on the machine’s paytable, which is the only reliable source for that cabinet.

Using holds when the machine offers them

A hold keeps a chosen reel still while the others spin again. The machine decides when holds are available; you decide which reels to hold. The usual approach is to hold reels that already show part of a winning line. With two cherries in place, for instance, holding those reels and respinning the third keeps that partial line in play.

Some machines offer ‘auto hold’ suggestions, and some games describe hold offers that follow a nudge, which players call a ‘hold after a nudge’. Either way, a hold uses information the machine has given you; it doesn’t beat the machine’s built-in percentage. Our holds feature page has worked examples.

Nudges: moving a reel into a win

A nudge moves one reel up or down a single position. When the machine awards nudges, a counter shows how many you have, and you spend them on whichever reels you choose. Part of learning how to play fruit machines well is simply reading which symbols sit just above and below the win line, so you can see whether a nudge or two would complete a line.

Nudges are one of the features that make fruit machines feel different from online slots. If you miss a nudge win the machine offered, you lose a prize that was available; if you use them well, you collect it. That’s all a nudge does. Our in-depth guide on how to use nudges on fruit machines works through real-looking reel positions.

The feature board, trails and cash ladders

Above the reels, most fruit machines have a feature board or trail. Certain symbols, number reels or features move a marker along it, and reaching particular squares awards cash, nudges, repeat chances or a bonus game. Our page on the feature trail explains the typical layout.

Many machines then offer a cash ladder or hi-lo gamble, where you can risk a prize for a chance of moving up. A gamble doesn’t make the game more generous over time; it swaps a certain smaller amount for an uncertain larger one. If you want to keep a win, take it.

How much fruit machines pay back

A Category C machine must display its theoretical target return, but the law sets no minimum. Figures on pub machines are generally lower than those on online slots, partly because the machine’s takings also cover the pub’s share, the supplier and Machine Games Duty (opens in a new tab), which businesses pay on net takings at 20% for machines costing 21p to £5 a game.

The figure applies over a very long period, so short sessions vary widely. A machine with a target return of 85% has an average cost of £15 for every £100 put through it, but one evening could see you lose your whole budget or collect the £100 top prize. More detail is in what is the return on a pub fruit machine?

Fruit machine myths: full machines, timing and tricks

Some UK fruit machines are compensated: the software steers the long-run payout towards its target. That has given rise to the belief that you can spot a machine that is ‘full’ and about to pay. In practice you can’t see the machine’s internal balance, other players’ wins and losses are an incomplete picture, and the target itself still includes the machine’s share. Nothing about a machine’s lights or sounds tells you it is ready.

• Feeding a machine someone else has ‘filled’ is not a reliable approach; see why fruit machines pay out in bursts.
• Hold-after-nudge ‘cheats’ printed in magazines describe features, not loopholes; they work only as the game allows.
• No button timing, coin order or stake pattern changes the built-in percentage. See can you trick a slot machine?

How to play fruit machines online

Online fruit-style slots borrow the look of pub machines but play by online rules: each spin is random, a spin takes at least 2.5 seconds, there is no autoplay, and the stake is capped at £5 a spin (or £2 for players aged 18 to 24). Classic examples include Fire Joker, a 3x3 game with 5 paylines and an 800x max win, and Mega Joker, which has a Supermeter mode. Barcrest, a long-standing UK pub machine maker, also produced Rainbow Riches.

Most online fruit games have no real nudges or holds you control, and where a game uses the words, the outcome has usually already been decided. Our fruit slots online page compares the main styles.

Where to play fruit-style slots online

If you prefer to play fruit-style games online, the offers below are open to new customers aged 18 and over, and terms apply. At Coral, betting £10 on slots brings 100 free spins at 10p each on selected games, with 48 hours to accept, 7 days to use them and no wagering on the winnings. At Ladbrokes, playing £10 on slots brings 50 free spins a day for 10 days, up to 500 at 10p each, claimed by 23:59 each day and valid 7 days, without wagering. PlayOJO gives 80 no-wagering free spins on Big Bass Bonanza, at 10p each, on a first deposit of £10 or more.

The free spins usually apply to selected games rather than fruit slots specifically, so read the terms; some payment methods are excluded from the Coral and Ladbrokes deals, and both are run by LC International. Check the lobby for fruit-style titles, as availability changes. See our Ladbrokes page for the full terms.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment that costs money, not a way to make it. Decide a budget before you play: plan a slot budget. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.