Orange slot machine symbol

The orange slot machine symbol: a mid-table fruit

An orange on a slot reel is an ordinary paying symbol. It has no wild or scatter power; it pays when enough oranges match under the game's rules. Its usual place is the middle of the fruit order, which means it lands less often than the cheapest fruit and pays a little more. That middle tier is where a lot of a fruit game's everyday wins come from.

Ranking is a design choice, not a tradition with rules. On one game the orange may outrank the plum; on another the order is reversed. Our slot machine symbols hub compares the usual positions of the classic icons.

Where the orange symbol came from

The orange owes its place to a vending trick. The Wikipedia history of slot machines (opens in a new tab) describes a gum attachment for the Mills Operator Bell; fruit-flavoured gum meant fruit-themed reels, and the orange took its place in a quartet with the lemon, cherry and plum. A bell stayed on, and the gum stick pictured on the machine is said to be where the BAR came from. Caille, Watling, Jennings and Pace were among the makers who adopted the set.

The sources don't confirm the Operator Bell's year, and accounts of the earlier Liberty Bell, which had no fruit, disagree on its date: one gives a range of 1887 to 1895, another 1898. So the orange's arrival can only safely be placed in the early twentieth century, after the Liberty Bell and its card-suit symbols.

Oranges on British fruit machines: a short timeline

The classic fruit set became the signature of the British pub machine, which is where the name 'fruit machine' stuck. The rules around those machines changed several times. The table uses the limits recorded in the government's explanatory memorandum to the 2006 limits order (opens in a new tab) and current Gambling Commission figures.

Our slot machines in Britain page fills in the rest, and Bar-X (opens in a new tab) shows how long one classic fruit design lasted.

Reading an orange's prize: line bet or total bet?

The most common mistake with a mid-pay symbol like the orange is misreading its prize. Some paytables quote wins as multiples of the line bet; others quote multiples of the total bet. On a 10-line game at 50p a spin, the line bet is 5p, so '20×' means very different things.

Most UK games avoid the confusion by showing prizes in pounds once you've set a stake. If yours doesn't, the game rules say which bet the multiplier applies to. Our paytable guide covers the layout.

How to check an orange slot machine symbol's value

1. Set the stake you plan to use; some paytables only show multipliers until you do.
2. Open the paytable and find the orange.
3. Check the game rules for whether wins are line-bet or total-bet multiples.
4. Work out the prize in pounds for three, four and five oranges (or the cluster sizes).
5. Compare with your stake to see which orange wins are actually a profit on the spin.

Game information must be available under the Commission's rules; our guide to finding a slot's RTP walks through the help screen.

Online slots with oranges

Published descriptions put oranges on Sizzling Hot Deluxe, alongside lemons and plums in the lower fruit band, and on Mega Joker, whose casino-style fruit set also includes watermelons, bells and sevens. Pragmatic Play's Fruit Party uses oranges as one of its cluster fruits, and Push Gaming's Jammin' Jars puts them on an 8 × 8 grid with a jam-jar wild.

Those four games range from Sizzling Hot Deluxe's 95.66% RTP to Jammin' Jars' 96.83%, and from medium to high volatility, so an orange win means something different in each. Our fruit slots online page compares more.

Oranges on three-reel and five-reel games

On a three-reel game, three oranges is the whole win: there is no bigger orange prize to aim at, so the single line value is all that matters. On a five-reel game, three, four and five oranges usually pay rising amounts, and five of a kind can be worth several times the three-of-a-kind prize. That spreads the orange's share of the return across more outcomes.

Our guide to three-reel vs five-reel slot machines explains how the extra reels change hit rates and prize sizes, and why five-reel fruit slots usually feel less abrupt than the old three-reel designs.

What an orange on the reels doesn't tell you

• It doesn't show the machine is warming up. Online slots don't heat up or cool down; see our are slot machines rigged? explainer for how fairness is tested.
• It doesn't mean a pub machine is close to paying. Fruit machines can run a compensated model, but you can't see where it is in the cycle.
• It doesn't change the odds of the next spin. Every online spin is independent.

Where to play fruit slots with oranges

We carry three partner offers, all restricted to new customers aged 18+ and subject to full terms. Coral's deal (until 1 February 2027) is 100 free spins of 10p for selected games once £10 has been bet on slots; they last seven days and winnings carry no wagering. Ladbrokes hands out its free spins in daily blocks of 50 for ten days after a £10 slots spend, 500 in all, without wagering. PlayOJO pays winnings in cash from 80 free spins on Big Bass Bonanza, credited after a first deposit of £10 or more. None of these spins land on fruit games, and what each lobby carries changes over time, so search for the orange-filled title you have in mind. See our casinos page.

Fruit slots cost money over time like any other game. Our bankroll guide shows how to set a budget before you play.

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.