A slot is a container for dynamic items in a Web page that are dictated by a scenario. A slot can either wait for content (a passive slot) or call out to a renderer to fill the slot with it. Slots are also known as a placeholder or an event.

In ice hockey, the high slot is a position directly in front of an opposing goalie that affords a good view for a defenceman to rip a one-timer. A well-placed high slot can be one of the most devastating shots in hockey.

In slot machines, a player inserts cash or, on “ticket-in, ticket-out” machines, a paper ticket with a barcode, then activates the machine by pressing a button. The reels spin and, if a winning combination of symbols appears on the payline, the player receives credits according to the machine’s pay table. Symbols vary from game to game but typically are aligned with the machine’s theme.

In the 1980s, slot manufacturers incorporated electronics into their products and programmed them to weight particular symbols. This gave the appearance of a higher frequency of losing symbols on the payline than would be possible on a mechanically-driven machine. The result was a lower return to the player percentage and smaller jackpots. The number of symbols was later increased to 22, allowing 10,648 combinations, but this still limited jackpot sizes. Today, some slots use an internal sequence table to map the random numbers to specific stops on the reels.