Paylines and ways to win in slots, explained with examples

What a payline is

A payline is a fixed path across the reels that a winning combination has to follow. The paytable draws each line and says where a combination must start. The single term is defined in what a payline is in a slot; this guide sets it beside the other ways a slot can count a win.

Hacksaw Gaming's Wanted Dead or a Wild is a line game. Its page describes a grid of 5 reels and 5 rows and gives the win type as 15 paylines. A matching set that lands off those 15 paths does not count as a line win.

Features can change how a line is read. Play'n GO's page for Book of Dead says that in free spins a special expanding symbol can grow to cover all three positions on its reel. Once expanded, those symbols do not need to sit on adjacent reels to form a winning combination along active paylines.

On some line games the total stake is split across the lines. Illustrative example: a KES 20 stake spread over 10 lines puts KES 2 on each line. Some paytables print prizes as multiples of the line bet and others as multiples of the total stake, and the paytable states which one applies.

How ways to win work

A ways game drops fixed lines. Nolimit City's page for San Quentin gives the rule: winning combinations occur when identical symbols land on adjacent reels starting from the leftmost side. The row on each reel does not matter, only that each reel in the run shows the symbol somewhere.

The number of ways is the product of the symbol positions on each reel. Illustrative example: on 5 reels with 3 rows each, the count is 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x 3, which gives 243 ways.

If one reel shows the same symbol twice, a winning run through that reel counts twice. That is why a single spin on a ways game can pay on several ways at once, and why the total can still come to less than the stake.

Megaways: one provider's mechanic

Megaways is not a general word for ways games. Big Time Gaming calls MEGAWAYS its unique patented system, and its Bonanza page says the system gives each spin the potential of playing up to 117,649 ways to win.

The words "up to" matter: the page gives a maximum, not a fixed count. Illustrative example: 117,649 is 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7 x 7, which is the count for six reels showing seven symbols each; six reels showing two symbols each would give only 64.

The same page lists Bonanza's RTP as 96.00% and its ways as 117,649. It also describes DUELREACTION, a cascading reel system that lets the reels cascade in both directions.

Cluster pays and pay-anywhere games

Cluster games use a grid and pay groups of matching symbols that touch. Play'n GO describes Reactoonz as a grid slot on a 7x7 grid, where you win by collecting a cluster of five or more matching symbols. Symbols in a winning cluster are removed and new ones drop in, which can give several wins in the same round.

Pay-anywhere games ignore position altogether. Pragmatic Play's Gates of Olympus page says symbols pay anywhere on the screen across six tumbling reels, with 8 to 30 matching symbols needed for a win.

Scatter symbols follow a similar idea in line and ways games, paying or starting a feature wherever they land. The term is defined in what a scatter symbol is.

Win types side by side

Each example and figure in the table comes from the provider's own game page.

Does a bigger count mean a bigger return?

No. The number of lines or ways describes how a win is counted, not how much a game pays back over time. Bonanza, with up to 117,649 ways, lists an RTP of 96.00%, while Gates of Olympus, which has no lines at all, lists 96.50%.

RTP is the long-run share of stakes a game returns; the guide to return to player in slots works through it. Which symbols land on a given spin is down to the random number generator inside a slot, whatever the win type.

Some games also sell direct entry to their feature round, whatever their win type. What that costs is set out in the bonus buy feature in slots.

Where a game's win rules are shown in Kenya

Regulation 45(1) of the Gambling Control (Conduct of Gambling Operations) Regulations, 2026 (L.N. 112) requires online operators to display game rules clearly on the approved platform before a player places any wager. Under r.45(3) the Authority evaluates or certifies game rules every year.

The same regulation requires the random number generator for all games of chance to be certified by the Authority or its approved agent, and the theoretical return to player of each game to be disclosed to the Authority (r.45(2) and (4)). Section 71(1) of the Gambling Control Act, 2025 sets the minimum online bet at KES 20.

Neither the Act nor the 2026 Regulations as gazetted says how paylines, ways or clusters must be designed. The paytable inside each game is where the line shapes, the win type and the prize multiples appear.