A narrow depression, notch, groove or slit for receiving or admitting something, such as a coin or a letter. Also: A slot on a list, schedule, or other arrangement. A position or job occupied by someone: He has the slot as chief copy editor. (Linguistics) A place in a construction into which a specific morpheme or morpheme sequence may fit; compare rim, filler, or slot in tagmemics.
Historically, the popularity of slot machines spawned legislation to regulate their operation and prevent criminal activities. Initially, this was driven by forces of morality and religion and later by legal restrictions on gambling in general. Even in states that did not legally prohibit gambling, the machines were often outlawed from saloons and other public places.
As the microprocessors that power modern slot machines replaced electromechanical components, they became able to assign different weighting to each symbol on a reel. This allowed the odds of losing symbols to be disproportionately high relative to their frequency on the physical reel, giving the appearance of a near-miss effect.
Aside from this, the computer-driven nature of modern slots has also resulted in different emotional responses to wins and losses, both in terms of auditory and visual feedback. When a machine loses, it is silent and waits for the player to press the spin button again; winning machines generate both celebratory sound effects and visual animation. As a result, the same slot game offered by operators X, Y and Z can be very different experiences.