Traditionally slot machines have used paylines to evaluate matching symbols and wins. With video slots came more reels and more complex paylines.

Multi Line Slot Machines

Any Way pays do away the the idea of traditional paylines and instead pay for adjacent symbols in any position. Put another way, on any way pay machines, every possible combination is a “payline.” The number of possible combinations is the (number of each symbols in each reel)^(number of reels).

Each manufacturer seems to call this game mechanic something different. WMS calls it “Any Way Pay”, Aristocrat refers to it as Reel Power, and IGT uses the “Multiway” term. So when we refer to “Any Way pay games” we’re referring generically to the game mechanic, not to any particular manufacturer’s game.

1. The old slot machines featured a single payline that ran across the middle position on all three reels. Nowadays, things are much different. Modern online slots can have anywhere between 1 and 50 paylines, with great variation between the different titles. Some come with as little as 9 paylines, while others can have 50 or more.
2. The number of paylines has increased dramatically, too. Early slot machines had a single payline, but now, common slot machine games offer the following numbers of paylines: 2; 3; 5; 9; 20; 25; A new type of Australian slot machine game does away with paylines altogether, and these games offer 243 different ways to win.
3. Typically the range is anywhere from 2 paylines to 100 paylines; this type of slot machine is hugely popular both in land based and online casinos. However, the most common multi-payline slots are 3, 5, 9, 15, 20 and 25 payline games. So what is a slot payline?
4. After opening 30 paylines section, the player gets to enjoy legendary projects, like Greedy Servants, Stones, and Bones, Valkyries of Odin, Sorcerers of the Night, Glitter Gems. The gamer should feel the power of these slots, because they have good storylines and characters, unlike their predecessors from early 2000s.

Consider a 5-reel game with 4 symbols in each reel like Buffalo, there’s 4^5 = 4x4x4x4x4 = 1024 possible combinations allowing a win. The 6-reel game Raging Rhino also contains 4 symbols in each reel, but the addition of the 6th reel means that game has 4^6, or 4096 winning combinations. Some games offer even more.

Special - 1024 Paylines Slot Machines for Free on SlotsSpot ⚡ No Download Demo & Online 44 Amount of Slots with 1024 Payline - Work 24/7!

Why are Any-Way Games Usually More Volatile?

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking any-way pay games are more volatile than traditional payline-based slots. That’s because any way pay games, especially those with stacked symbols or multiplier wilds, can pay massive wins.

Let’s look at the difference for a full screen of symbols:

Say the game pays $15 for 5-of-a-kind 7’s.

On a typical slot with 30-lines you’d get 30 5-of-a-kinds which is equal to a $450 win. Not bad.

But say the same game uses an any-way pay mechanic with the same bet size and pays. The same full screen would be a $3645 win because a 5-reel, 3-row game has 243 maximum combinations, which would be 243 5-of-a-kinds in our example.

You can see how big the win possibilities can get if a 6-reel, 4-row game allowed a full screen of any symbol.

Calculating Wins on Any Way Games

Calculating a win on an any way pay game is easy. You take the symbol’s win amount (whether it be 3, 4, 5, or 6-of-a-kind depending on the game configuration) and multiply it by the number of symbols in each row.

Take this win of Ravens on Wicked Winnings II. 5-of-a-kind ravens pay $500 for a $5 bet, which is then multiplied by the number on each reel: $500 x 1 x 1 x 2 x 1 x 1 = $1000.

Looking at the math, you can see that if just 1 of the reels with 1 raven had 2, the win would have doubled. That’s the kind of math that makes any way pay machines so potentially good with the wins (and heart-breaking with the losses).

Examples of Any-Way Pay Games

There are hundreds of slots that offer any way pays, but here is a very limited list of some of the most popular:

• Buffalo
• Wicked Winnings
• Timberwolf
• Raging Rhino
• Lady Godiva
• Fu Dao Le

Traditionally slot machines have used paylines to evaluate matching symbols and wins. With video slots came more reels and more complex paylines.

Any Way pays do away the the idea of traditional paylines and instead pay for adjacent symbols in any position. Put another way, on any way pay machines, every possible combination is a “payline.” The number of possible combinations is the (number of each symbols in each reel)^(number of reels).

Each manufacturer seems to call this game mechanic something different. WMS calls it “Any Way Pay”, Aristocrat refers to it as Reel Power, and IGT uses the “Multiway” term. So when we refer to “Any Way pay games” we’re referring generically to the game mechanic, not to any particular manufacturer’s game.

Consider a 5-reel game with 4 symbols in each reel like Buffalo, there’s 4^5 = 4x4x4x4x4 = 1024 possible combinations allowing a win. The 6-reel game Raging Rhino also contains 4 symbols in each reel, but the addition of the 6th reel means that game has 4^6, or 4096 winning combinations. Some games offer even more.

Why are Any-Way Games Usually More Volatile?

Of course there are always exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking any-way pay games are more volatile than traditional payline-based slots. That’s because any way pay games, especially those with stacked symbols or multiplier wilds, can pay massive wins.

Let’s look at the difference for a full screen of symbols:

Say the game pays $15 for 5-of-a-kind 7’s.

Slot Machine Ebay

On a typical slot with 30-lines you’d get 30 5-of-a-kinds which is equal to a $450 win. Not bad.

Paylines Slot Channel

But say the same game uses an any-way pay mechanic with the same bet size and pays. The same full screen would be a $3645 win because a 5-reel, 3-row game has 243 maximum combinations, which would be 243 5-of-a-kinds in our example.

You can see how big the win possibilities can get if a 6-reel, 4-row game allowed a full screen of any symbol.

Calculating Wins on Any Way Games

Calculating a win on an any way pay game is easy. You take the symbol’s win amount (whether it be 3, 4, 5, or 6-of-a-kind depending on the game configuration) and multiply it by the number of symbols in each row.

Take this win of Ravens on Wicked Winnings II. 5-of-a-kind ravens pay $500 for a $5 bet, which is then multiplied by the number on each reel: $500 x 1 x 1 x 2 x 1 x 1 = $1000.

Looking at the math, you can see that if just 1 of the reels with 1 raven had 2, the win would have doubled. That’s the kind of math that makes any way pay machines so potentially good with the wins (and heart-breaking with the losses).

Examples of Any-Way Pay Games

There are hundreds of slots that offer any way pays, but here is a very limited list of some of the most popular:

• Buffalo
• Wicked Winnings
• Timberwolf
• Raging Rhino
• Lady Godiva
• Fu Dao Le