A payline is a path across the reels. If matching symbols land along it, it pays. The number of them is one of the most heavily marketed and least meaningful figures in a slot.
Do the arithmetic
A 20-payline slot at $0.05 per line is a $1.00 spin. A 40-payline slot at $0.05 per line is a $2.00 spin.
More lines does not mean more chances to win for the same money. It means more stake. The lines are separately funded, and the RTP already accounts for the structure — a 40-line game and a 20-line game at the same RTP return the same proportion of what you stake. You are simply staking more per spin.
The structures
- Fixed paylines. Every line is active on every spin. The stake per spin is line count times line bet.
- Adjustable paylines. You can deactivate lines. This lowers your stake and lowers your coverage proportionally — it does not improve your position, it just reduces the size of your play.
- Ways-to-win. "243 ways" or "1,024 ways" means any matching symbols on adjacent reels pay, in any position. It is a different accounting method, not a better one.
- Cluster pays. Symbols pay when a group of them touches. Same story.
- Megaways. Up to 117,649 ways. Same story, larger number.
The conflation to resist
"1,024 ways to win" is written to be read as "1,024 chances to win". It is not. It is a description of the paytable's geometry, and the paytable and the RTP were designed together — one compensates for the other exactly.