“Cold” describes a losing run. A cold player keeps missing, a cold table keeps favouring the dealer and a cold slot has not paid anything notable for a while. The word is the opposite of hot, used for a player or machine on a winning streak, and both are heard in land-based venues and online.
Both labels describe only what has already happened. Slot results come from a random number generator and every table round is independent, so a cold machine is not “due” to pay and a hot one is no more likely to keep paying. Players who move to a machine because it must be about to pay are falling for the gambler’s fallacy.
Hot and cold lists in the lobby
Lobby widgets that rank games as hot or cold are popular engagement tools. Build them from real recent data, show the time window clearly and avoid wording that suggests a game is about to pay, which would mislead players.