Pachinko is a mechanical gambling game, which originated in Japan in the years following World War II and has since developed into an industry with an annual turnover of ¥21.5 trillion, or $200 billion. Indeed, Japan is home to tens of thousands of pachinko parlours, which are largely the preserve of the Korean Japanese, who were excluded from the traditional workforce in the post-war years.
Pachinko is akin to pinball, insofar as it involves launching steel ball bearings into the machine, but is played vertically, rather than horizontally. The word pachinko is the diminutive form of the Japanese word ‘pachin’, which describes the natural clicking sound the machine make. Players insert money, push the so-called ‘tamakashi button’ to release a fixed number of balls into the upper ball tray and gently rotate a handle to start firing them into the machine.
The idea is that as many balls as possible negotiate the pin maze and drop into the main prize hole, a.k.a. the ‘gate’, in the middle of the field of play. Too little, or too much, pressure on the handle may result in balls missing the field of play altogether and only a small percentage of those that do make it – perhaps 6% or 7%, on average – will enter the gate. Nevertheless, each ball that does enter the gate wins additional balls, plus a spin of the reels, which provides an opportunity to hit a bonus, including the jackpot. At the end of a playing session, winnings, in the form of balls, are tallied by a member of staff, who creates a receipt that can be redeemed, for prizes large and small, at the prize counter.
Game of Thrones Powerstacks is exclusively designed for Microgaming by Slingshot Studios, and with their valuable input, I might add. The slot is a Slingshot Studios creation and features a 5×4 grid and 40 paylines. It is a slot game that comes via the Power Stacks network with several jackpots available.
Game of Thrones is a branded slot. Many of the characters from the series are on the reels; it launches in August 2021 with a variety of RTP configurations where the most generous has a theoretical return value of 96.20%, very high volatility. The maximum win in this superb slot is 25000x the stake. Microgaming has have been here before with their other releases, Game of Thrones 243, along with a 15 payline version
Game of Thrones Powerstacks Symbols
The low pay symbols are the four great house emblems Greyjoy, Stark, Lannister and Targaryen, worth between 2 to 2.5 x the bet for a line of five. The higher paying symbols are the five key figures from the drama Tormund Giantsbane, the Night King, Sansa, Dany and Jon Snow, who pay out between 5 to 7.5x for five on a line. The games logo is the Wild and can pay out as much as 25x for five of a kind.
Game of Thrones Powerstacks Features
Let’s start with the Power Stacks indicator. It’s visible on the left-hand side and randomly displays symbols. The displayed symbol is Super Stacked for the current spin, with Stacks added to all 5 reels. All symbols bar the Wild and Scatter can be Power Stacked.
There are Special Coin symbols, and when 6 or more land, they trigger the Link&Win Feature. Triggering symbols get locked in place, and all the other symbols get removed from the board. Three spins commence where new coins reset the counter while locking into position as well. The feature ends when the spins run out or the Valyrian prize gets won.
The special coins represent 4 Jackpots, and they are the Bronze, Silver, Gold and Valyrian. They are worth 20x, 100x, 500x, and 2500x the bet, respectively.
Head back to Westeros and take on the fight for the Kingdom in Game of Thrones Powerstacks by Slingshot in partnership with Microgaming.
The word ‘keno’ is an Americanism, in fact, a corruption of the French word ‘quine’, meaning ‘group of five’, but the game originated, as ‘ baige piao’, or ‘white pigeon ticket’, in China at least 2,000 years ago. Essentially, like bingo, or lotto, keno is a lottery played as a game and, as such, offers a house edge of 20% or 30% in many cases.
Keno is played with a ticket – either a physical, paper ticket or a virtual, electronic version on a video touchscreen – bearing the numbers 1 to 80, arranged in an 8 x10 grid pattern. In traditional keno, a.k.a. ‘spot keno’, players choose between 1 and 20 numbers, or ‘spots’, typically between 1 and 15, and are paid according to the numbers of spots they ‘catch’. ‘Catching a spot’ simply means matching one of their numbers to one of the 20 winning numbers drawn, at random, in each single game of keno. Historically, for legislative purposes, keno was known as ‘race horse keno’ and each single game is still known as a ‘race’. Keno payout odds vary from casino to casino but, in Las Vegas, if a player marks, say, 15 spots, they can expect to receive $10 for catching seven, $30 for catching eight, $100 for catching nine, and so on, all the way up to $50,000 for catching all 15, for a $1 bet.
Baccarat is a simple casino card game in which players attempt to predict which, if either, of two hands, known as ‘Player’ and ‘Banker’, will reach a total of nine, or as close as possible, in two or three cards. All betting must be completed before any cards are dealt. A winning bet on the ‘Player’ hand or the ‘Banker’ hand pays 1/1 although, in the latter case, winning bets are subject to 5% commission, threby reducing the overall odds to 19/20. A winning bet on the tie pays 8/1, or 9/1, depending on the house rules. In terms of the mathematical advantage in favour of the casino, a.k.a. the ‘house edge’, the ‘Banker’ bet offers 1.06%, the ‘Player’ bet offers 1.24%, but the tie bet offers a much less competitive 14.36%.
The total of each hand is calculated by adding together the value of each card; tens and court cards count as zero, aces count as one and all other cards count as face value. However, the maximum total for either hand is nine, so if the individual cards total above nine the first digit is dropped, thereby leaving a single-digit total.
The ‘Player’ hand is completed first; if the first two cards dealt add up to eight or nine, no further cards are drawn and the ‘Player’ hand, known as a ‘natural’, wins automatically, unless the ‘Banker’ hand has an equal, or higher, natural, in which case the hand is tied, or the ‘Banker’ hand wins automatically. If the first two cards dealt add up to five or less, the ‘Player’ hand draws a third card, but stands pat if the first two cards add up to six or seven. If the ‘Player’ hand stands pat, the ‘Banker’ hand also draws a third card on five or less and stands pat on six or seven but, otherwise, the decision to draw a third card depends on the ‘Banker’ hand total, the third card drawn by the ‘Player’ hand and the strict rules of the game.