Slot Machine Bonus Rounds
Last update: May 5, 2024
You came to the right place
Most articles about slot machines on the Internet are written by people who have no clue what they're talking about, either repeating popular myths or just pulling "facts" out of their asses. Me, I've done the computer programming for actual slot machines (see here), and for machines I haven't worked on, I cite my sources. (Other sources you can trust include Michael Shackleford, John Robison, John Grochowski, and Frank Legato.) So with that out of the way...
Bonus rounds
Early slots had physical reels, usually three of them. Video slots appeared in the 1980s but didn't get traction until the mid-90s when they introduced the concept of the bonus round, a "game within a game". Getting certain symbols on your spin would trigger that bonus round, where you'd get to play a second game at no additional cost. You'd usually win something in the bonus round, and you could never lose. The game that popularized bonus rounds was Reel 'em In by WMS Gaming, where the bonus round has the player trying to catch a fish (through free spins), with the bigger the fish caught, the bigger the payout. The game was popular, and the concept stuck: nearly every modern video slot has some sort of bonus round. (source)
Bonus rounds are usually triggered by getting 3 or more "scatter" symbols somewhere on the screen. They're called "scatter" symbols because they don't have to be on an active payline; if they appear anywhere on the screen, they count.
Bonus rounds come in various flavors, depending on the machine:
- A certain number of free spins. And in most games, getting more scatter symbols during free spins, wins more free spins. Often, wins on free spins are increased by a bonus multiplier.
- A screen giving you various choices (such as picking one or two treasure chests out of many). A common question about this type of game is, does the player really have free will? Meaning, if the player picks two chests and wins prizes of 10 and 25, was it going to be 10 and 25 no matter which chests she picked? The answer is that if the game shows you the values of all the unpicked items after you picked, then you really did have free will, and would have won the amounts shown on the unpicked items, had you picked them. If the game doesn't show you the value of the unpicked items after you pick, then the result was predetermined.
- Some animation where you watch some short story play out, and it tells you what you won at the end.
How much of the RTP is from the base game and how much is from the bonus round?
If you've wondered about this or thought to ask this question, then congratulations: you're way ahead of others on understanding the workings of slot machines.
Most video slots pay out about 2/3 of their RTP is the base game (the normal game), and about 1/3 in the bonus. Here's a list of the split on various actual slots. And by the way, this aggregated list is the kind of thing you get here at Easy Vegas, and exactly nowhere else.
| RTP split between base game/bonus game | |||
| Slot | % of RTP from base game |
% of RTP from bonus round |
Total game RTP* |
| Cleopatra |
55% |
45% |
95% |
| Hexbreaker |
61% |
39% |
87.5% |
| Lucky Larry's Lobstermania | 65% | 35% | 92.5% |
| Lucky Larry's Lobstermania | 68% | 32% | 85% |
| Jackpot Party |
69% |
31% |
86.1% |
| Money Storm |
71% |
29% |
92.5% |
| Triple Double Diamond with Hot Roll |
75% |
25% |
91.1% |
| Source for data. • Many slots pay a prize (a "scatter pay") just for landing the symbols to enter the bonus round. I'm counting these scatter pays as part of thebonus round winnings. • Figures are rounded. * Slots with the same name are usually offered in various RTP flavors by the manufacturer. So, it's not that "Money Storm" is a 92.5%, machine, it's that this particular flavor of Money Storm is 92.5%. |
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Play slots online
I suggest you play something other than slots because slot odds are so bad. You could also play online with fake money, because then it doesn't matter if you lose. A good casino for free-play is Bovada, since it requires no download and no registration. (If you see a registration box, you can close it and continue without registering.) You can play with real money too, though I hope you won't (or at least won't bet more than you can comfortably afford to lose). (advertisement)
All my slot machine articles
- Slot machine basics. How much it costs to play, how much you can win, expected loss, why they're a bad bet, why they're popular, how you can limit your losses, speed of play
- How to play slot machines
- Slot returns. How much they pay back.
- The Randomness Principle. Slots don't continually get looser and tighter as they're played. They don't have to.
- How they work. Explains the randomness principle, and runs through the math to show how a game returns a particular payback percentage. There's a companion page on Par sheets.
- Strategies. Tips for increasing your chances of winning, and saving money.
- Slot Jackpots. Odds of hitting the jackpot, progressive jackpots, and other jackpot topics.
- Bonus Rounds (all about them)
- How to Beat Slot Machines, aka Advantage Play (AP). It's not what you think: it's not easy, and for the most part, not lucrative.
- Slot Machine malfunctions. How and why slot machines screw up, causing players to think they've won the jackpot when they really haven't.
- Slot Machine Myths
- Slot Machine B.S. Wrong info that's published elsewhere.
- Biggest Jackpots. The largest slot and table game jackpot wins in Vegas.
- Skill-Based Slots. The scoop on the new games in which your results aren't entirely determined by chance.
- Slot Machine Simulator. I programmed an exact replica of the Blazing 7s slot (odds-wise). Click it to play thousands of spins in one second and see how you do.
- Slot name Generator. Randomly creates a slot machine name using common slot words. Hilarious!