Sticky wilds in slots explained 

How good have slots games gamblers had it for the majority of the 20th and 21st centuries? Seriously, there aren't many more gambling games that have benefited as much from the technological progress made in recent history, with casino classics such as roulette, poker or blackjack staying largely the same apart from the fact that you can know play these games over the Internet on online and live casinos.

Slots on the other hand have changed remarkably since their inception at the beginning of the 1800s, going from completely mechanical machines all the way to outrageously exciting and complex online games. There have been a myriad of new features introduced along the way too, one of which are sticky wild symbols. More experienced online slot gamblers will have no trouble at all in explaining what these are, however those of us more on the beginner side of spectrum will surely want to know what sticky wilds are. Read ahead to find out! 

A re-cap on wild symbols

The first thing to talk about here are wild symbols themselves, as there is absolutely no way of explaining what sticky wilds are if you do not first understand what the more common wild symbols are and what they do. Wild symbols caused absolute pandemonium when they were first released into the industry, as they immediately made slot games a whole lot more interesting. 

The basic premise of a wild symbol works like this: these icons will usually either have “Wild” written on them or will look a lot more distinctive than most of the other symbols on the reels. The reason why it is so special is because a wild symbol can swap with most other symbols in order to make winning combinations, it's a bit like the use of the joker card in some card games.

What is a sticky wild symbol?

Now then, you are probably wondering what on earth a sticky wild is, as it isn't a term that is particularly intuitive even when you know what a wild symbol is. Well, things will get made a lot more apparent when you realise that a sticky wild symbol is essentially a wild icon that can stick in place on the reels if it isn't able to join any winning combinations when it first appears. 

This means that you could theoretically get a sticky wild symbol and then reap the effect of it only five spins later! It is a great feature that simply makes the art of online slot gambling that little bit more exciting.  Moreover, modern online slots can often end up paying huge amounts because of sticky wilds! 

The history of sticky wild symbols

So then, what is the history of sticky wild symbols in slots? Well, before the invention of video slots this feature simply wasn't possible, and it is a great illustration of how important technological progress is to the online gambling community, especially in regard to online slots. You just cannot make sticky wild symbols work on a purely mechanical set of reels you see!