What is Slingo?

The game of Slingo (so called because it is a cross between bingo and a slot machine) was invented in 1996 by Sal Falciglia Sr (a businessman from New Jersey) and was first launched on AOL.  In Slingo, players have to complete lines and coveralls on a board that resembles a bingo card, by marking off numbers as they are spun on a set of slot machine reels.  This turned out really to resonate with players and Slingo theming has cropped up everywhere from lottery scratchcards to gaming machines in bricks and mortar casinos.

A number of real money versions of this exciting game are now available to play at UK bingo sites and slot sites.  All are single player and are essentially slot machines or scratchcards offering an extended gameplay experience with elements of bingo. There was also a multiplayer version, Slingo Boom, which was basically 75 ball bingo on steroids but this never caught on and is no longer available.  In this article, we explain how to play all the different real money versions of Slingo and where to play real money Slingo games.

The original home of real money Slingo was Gaming Realms sites (aka River iGaming), but these were suspended at the end of 2019 following their decision to concentrate on B2B; a couple of them including Slingo.com have reopened as Skill On Net casinos.  All the varieties of Slingo (and other popular games from Slingo Originals such as Baking Bonanza) are now widely available at Dragonfish bingo sites, Buzz Bingo and Foxy Bingo amongst others and most new bingo sites now have Slingo games.

How To Play Slingo

1. Bingo crossed with a slot machine
2. Single player real money Slingo
   1. Slingo Riches
   2. Slingo Extreme & Slingo XXXtreme
   3. Deal Or No Deal Slingo & Slingo Fortunes
   4. Britain’s Got Talent Slingo
   5. X Factor Slingo
   6. Love Island Slingo
   7. Rainbow Riches Slingo
   8. Slingo Showdown
   9. Slingo WWTBAM & Slingo Reveal
   10. Slingo Cascade
   11. Slingo Monopoly
   12. Slingo Centurion
   13. Slingo Classic
   14. Slingo Carnival
   15. Slingo Berserk
   16. Slingo Advance
   17. Slingo Friends
   18. Slingo Xing Yun Xian
   19. Slingo Ante Up
   20. Slingo Lucky Streak
   21. Slingo Fluffy Favourites
   22. Slingo Reel King
   23. Slingo Lightning
   24. Slingo Starburst
   25. Slingo Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania
   26. Book Of Slingo
   27. Slingone Fishin’
   28. Slingo Big Wheel
   29. Branded Slingo
   30. Red Hot Slingo
   31. Slingo X-Scream
   32. Slingo Sweet Bonanza
   33. Slingo Bells
   34. Slingo Fire & Ice
   35. Slingo Super Spin
   36. Slingo Racing
   37. Slingo Inca Trail
   38. Slingo Shark Week
   39. Slingo Da Vinci Diamonds
   40. Slingo Stampede
   41. Stinkin’ Rich Slingo
   42. Slingo Rakin’ Bacon
   43. Slingoooal!
   44. Slingo Deadliest Catch
   45. Slingo Golden Envelope
   46. Slingo Cleopatra
   47. Slingo Pirate Treasure
   48. Slingo Lucky Joker
   49. Slingo Money Train
   50. Slingo Piggy Bank
   51. Slingo Space Invaders
   52. Slingo Tetris
   53. Slingo Elf Blitz
   54. Slingo Wolf Snowstorm
   55. Slingo Hot Roll
   56. Slingo China Shores
   57. Slingo Constitution Hill
   58. Slingo Capital Gains
   59. Slingo Gold Cash Freespins
   60. Slingo Day of the Dab
   61. Slingoooal! Championship
3. Multiplayer real money Slingo
4. Other Slingo games
   1. Big Money Slingo & Big Money Slingo Bonus
   2. Slingo Cash Buster
   3. Slingo Shuffle Roulette
   4. Slingo Reel Riches, Slingo Reel Extreme, Slingo Price Is Right & Slingo Wild Adventure
   5. Slingo Cosmic Clusters

 

Bingo crossed with a slot machine

Slingo is a hybrid of 75 ball bingo with a slot machine, combining the excitement of spinning reels with that of marking off numbers on a card.  It is played on a 5 x 5 grid that resembles a 75 ball bingo card.  Directly below the grid are the reels, but they do not look much like a regular slot machine as only one space on each reel is visible.

The idea is to complete the grid by matching numbers from the result of spinning the reels with numbers from the grid.  In each game, a maximum number of spins is allowed and in the non real money versions this is typically 20, but only the first 16 spins are free.  The others have to be paid for either by using free spins or cashing in points already scored.

In the classic play-for-fun Slingo game, it is mostly numbers that come up on the reels, but they can also contain 4 other symbols.  The Joker allows any number in the above column to be daubed.  The Super Joker allows any number anywhere on the grid to be daubed.  The Gold Coin awards points.  The Free Spin awards a free spin token that can be used to pay for one spin after spin 16.  Some versions also have the Cherub who doubles your score and the Devil who cuts your score in half unless the Cherub also comes up at the same time.

In all the play for fun versions points were awarded for completing horizontal, vertical or diagonal lines on the grid (known as Slingos) and in some cases patterns, and the aim was to score as many points as possible.

Typically the grid had to be daubed manually against the clock, although the fancier versions of the game included a power up called Slingo Vision that highlighted numbers that could be daubed.

There were many variants of play-for-fun Slingo including larger grids and all manner of exotic power-ups which added to the fun.  This screenshot is from Slingo Daily Challenge where a preset score had to be beaten by judicious use of the power-ups of the day.

There were even multiplayer versions of Slingo where you could play against and chat with players from all over the world.

As we will see, most of these games have been replaced by real money version of Slingo but there are still a few play-for-fun Slingo games at the Classic Slingo site.

Real Money Slingo

Real money bingo and slots are both so popular that it was only a matter of time before someone came up with a real money version of Slingo.  That someone was Gaming Realms, and they also bought the rights to the name and the Slingo.com domain which resulted in the disappearance of most of the free versions of Slingo that were accessible to UK players.  The first real money version of Slingo to be released was Slingo Riches in 2015, and it was followed by other versions a few months later. To start with all were only playable at (now defunct) Bear Group sites including Slingo.com,  but they were later licensed out to many other sites.

Real money Slingo has continued to evolve over the last 5 years. As well as new and exotic variants of the game, the existing versions have been tweaked to include more information about risk and reward when buying extra spins and most recently, a whole raft of player configurable controls have been added so that players can protect themselves from the temptation of getting carried away and buying too many extra spins at too high a price for comfort.  Players can limit the number of extra spins they are offered, set a maximum price above which they won’t be offered the spin and/or set a stake and/or loss limit per game, as seen here in Slingo Berserk.

You can also see what your base and total stakes are.  And presumably in order to avoid confusion between free spins (which are awarded by symbols on the reels) and extra spins (which you pay for), free spins are now added and played immediately, not saved until the end of the initial spins.

It remains to be seen just how the statutory maximum stake limits to be introduced in September 2024 will apply to Slingo; it’s not clear whether the maximum of £5 (£2 for under 25s) applies to extra spins one at a time, or to the total stake for the whole game.

The comparison table shows the main differences between real money single player Slingo games.  The RTP given is for the initial spins without any extra paid spins; each paid spin has RTP in its own right and this is usually but not always the same as the base game RTP.

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Slingo Riches

Slingo Riches differs from the earlier, play-for-fun versions of Slingo in a few important ways:

• By FAR the most important difference is that there are only 11 initial free spins rather than 16 and only 15 in total rather than 20.  This substantially decreases the chance of filling the grid, and if you are used to playing a free version of Slingo it can come as a nasty shock!
• You do not need to match up the numbers on the reels with the numbers on the grid –  they are autodaubed immediately after the reels spin.  You do still need to choose where to use the jokers and super jokers (super jokers always come first)
• There is a bonus payout for 3 or more jokers on one spin (analagous to a scatter payout on a conventional slot), as well as for a coin symbol (these appear on the centre reel only).
• There is no time limit and you can resume an interrupted game later if you lose the connection or have to stop playing .
• The free spin symbol awards a free spin but this is instead of not as well as one of the four possible paid spins.  The free spin symbol can only come up during the 11 initial spins, not during the extras (whether free or paid).
• The 4 extra spins have to be paid for in real money (unless the free spin symbol has come up) and the cost of each extra spin depends on both the number of Slingos won so far and the number that could potentially be won with the remaining extra spins; typically it is a bit more than the payout due for the number of Slingos already scored.
• There is no Cherub in Slingo Riches and the only function of the Devil is to be a non scoring symbol blocking any numbers from coming up on that reel that spin. The Devil appears on the centre reel only.
• There are none of the fun power ups seen in some of the free versions as these would prevent the game from having the consistent RTP it requires in order to gain regulatory approval for real play.

 

You win money for the number of completed Slingos at the end of the game – how much you win depends on the size of your initial bet which ranges from 50p to £100.  The break even point is 4 Slingos and if you do manage to mark off the entire grid you win 200x your original stake – but do bear in mind that you are EXTREMELY unlikely to be able to complete the grid without using extra spins, and if you pay for extra spins the amount you pay for them is likely to be a long way in excess of your original stake.  In the screenshot below (from the original release of the game), the starting stake was 50p and just ONE extra spin is priced at £2.46.

Slingo Riches has an advertised RTP of 95% but seems to be quite a high variance game with most games being loss making.  11 spins frequently seem to result in just 1 or 2 Slingos for a return of 10% or 20% stake; as has already been pointed out, this can be a bit of a nasty shock when used to 16 spins with power-ups as found in the free versions, which generally enable the player to clear most of the grid.   Although potentially more Slingos can be completed by using extra spins, the extra spins can be very expensive (each extra spin itself has a theoretical RTP of 95%).  Later releases of Slingo Riches (and other Slingo games) include quite a bit more information for the player about the risk and reward of extra spins, as seen in this screenshot.

One thing that Slingo Riches does have going for it is that each game takes several minutes to play and this is more akin to a game of bingo than a slots spin.  When you play slots it is possible to burn through quite a lot of money in a very short space of time if luck is not on your side, whereas with Slingo it takes a lot longer, so there is more entertainment to be had for the same outlay.

 

Slingo Extreme and Slingo XXXtreme

Slingo Extreme was the second real money version of Slingo to appear, with a couple of important differences from Slingo Riches:

• Smaller payouts for 6-9 Slingos and bigger payouts for 10 Slingos and Full House (500x original stake).
• The same 11 initial free spins as in Slingo Riches,but 8 extra spins instead of the 4 in the earlier version.
• Because of the differences in the paytable, pay spins which could result in getting a number of Slingos between 6 and 9 are less expensive than in Slingo Riches, whereas a spin that could result in 10 Slingos or a full house can be very pricey.

 

Slingo Extreme later underwent a few tweaks and an even higher variance version, Slingo XXXtreme, was introduced

• Additions were made to the paytable of Slingo Extreme to add the instant cash prizes for spinning three or more jokers and for coin symbols.  These also feature in the paytable for Slingo XXXtreme.
• In both games, the reels spin again automatically unless a joker needs to be placed (in the other versions the Spin button has to be pressed).  This speeds up the play.
• Slingo XXXtreme has a minimum stake of 20p and a maximum stake of £100.
• In Slingo XXXtreme there are no prizes for 3 or fewer Slingos and the full house prize is 1000x stake.

 

Deal or No Deal Slingo & Slingo Fortunes

Deal or No Deal Slingo is a tie-in with the famous Endemol TV programme and arrived in Spring 2016.  It is even higher variance than Slingo Extreme and although it has the same 95% RTP (for the base game and per extra pay spin) it differs from the other two versions of real money Slingo in a number of ways:

• The minimum stake is £1 (there is no 50p stake level as found in the other games) and the maximum stake, £100.
• In Deal or No Deal Slingo, the first thing you must do after buying into the game at your chosen stake level is to choose one of the 26 red boxes to be the player’s box. The other 25 boxes appear on the card.
• The contents of all the boxes is listed at the side of the play area.  As numbers are marked off the corresponding box is opened and its contents eliminated from the list.
• There are 10 initial free spins (instead of the 11 in the other games).
• There is NO limit to the number of extra spins that can be bought but no more than 4 can be free spins from free spin symbols.
• In this version there is no payout at all for 1,2, or 3 Slingos.  When the player completes 4 Slingos the Banker’s Offer comes into play.  The player has the choice of opening their box, accepting the Banker’s offer or spinning again.  The cost of extra spins depends on which boxes have been eliminated as well as on the chances of getting a Slingo on the next spin.
• Instead of the fixed paytable in the other versions there is a series of multipliers – x2 for 5 Slingos, going up by one for each Slingo until it reaches x7 for 10 Slingos and then it jumps to x20 for full house.  The multiplier is applied to the contents of all the boxes left in the game (at full house, however, there won’t be any boxes left apart from the player’s box).
• The top prize in Deal Or No Deal Slingo is £100,000 but not only would this require a full house win at the maximum stake, the player would have to have been lucky enough to pick the box containing the biggest prize in the first place.
• Slingo Fortunes is exactly the same game but without the Deal or No Deal theming.  The red boxes are replaced by lucky envelopes.

Britain’s Got Talent Slingo

BGT Slingo is basically a reskinned version of Slingo Riches, created for a BGT themed slots site.

 

X Factor Slingo

X Factor Slingo is also based on the Slingo Riches engine, but with the addition of three progressive jackpots which can be won by collecting 7, 8 or 9 of the special X Factor logo symbols.  These appear on the centre reel only from time to time, and are also awarded (instead of the cash prize in the other versions) for a spin that contains 3 or more jokers or super jokers.   The game has an overall RTP of 95% just like the original, but the return on the base game is lower because some of it is tied up in the jackpots.  X Factor Slingo also has a higher minimum stake than Slingo Riches, of £2 a spin (and a maximum of £100 a spin).

 

Love Island Slingo

Love Island Slingo is another TV tie-in version of Slingo and is lower variance than the others.

• The paytable has slightly larger prizes at the lower end balanced against a full house prize of just 50x stake
• The RTP is the usual 95%
• The jokers are replaced by beach balls and the devils with sharks
• It has the usual 11 initial spins and a maximum 6 respins

Rainbow Riches Slingo

Rainbow Riches Slingo is themed on the much loved Rainbow Riches slot machines and has a slightly better RTP than other versions, at 95.6%.

• It resembles Deal Or No Deal Slingo in that there are 10 initial spins (plus any free spins tokens collected) and an unlimited number of respins.
• The player has to complete 5 or more Slingos in order to win anything at all (an unlikely occurrence without paying for respins).
• The prizes are not fixed amounts – they all consist of entry to various bonus rounds, based on the bonus rounds in Rainbow Riches slots.
• In the bonus round, the multiplier you win is applied to your original stake. The top prize in the top bonus round is 1000 x stake.

Slingo Showdown

As if a hybrid of slots and bingo wasn’t exciting enough, Slingo Showdown adds poker to the mix.

• The game is played with 5×5 array of playing cards instead of numbers
• There are no reels as such but instead the player is dealt a hand of five cards (from a full deck each time, so cards can repeat in subsequent deals). Cards are matched off anywhere on the board regardless of where they appear in the player’s hand.
• The real object of the game is to get dealt a scoring poker hand.  If you don’t, you won’t win anything no matter how many Slingos you collect.
• If you also collect 4 or more Slingos a multiplier is applied to the prize for the poker hand.
• The game has 10 initial free deals and an unlimited number of extras.  There is a free deal card (which, along with jokers and super jokers, counts as wild for the purpose of poker hands)
• The minimum stake is 20p and the game has an RTP of 95.4% for the base game and 95.9% for each extra deal.
• The top prize is 1500x stake but this would require a royal flush and clearing the board.  The odds against getting dealt a royal flush from an ordinary deck of cards are 649,739 to one.  Without knowing how common jokers, super jokers and free deal cards are in Slingo Showdown we can’t say what the chances of getting a royal flush in this game are, but it’s fair to say they won’t be good.

Slingo Reveal and Who Wants To Be A Millionaire Slingo

• Both these variants resemble Slingo Showdown in that there is no prizes for the Slingos themselves.
• Both games have 9 initial free spins and an unlimited number of extra spins can be paid for (until the card is full).
• Each Slingo reveals a randomly selected symbol when completed.
• The aim is to collect three of a kind of one or more symbols.  This is harder than it sounds as symbols from an already completed set can still appear.
• In WWTBAM Slingo there’s also a jackpot of 100,000 x stake for completing the card in 7 spins.
• WWTBAM Slingo has stake levels ranging from £1 to £10 and RTP of 95.9% (plus 95% on each extra spin)
• Although it appears to be much the same game Slingo Reveal has a considerably worse RTP of 89.5% (again plus 95% on each extra spin).  Stake levels are 20p to £25.

Slingo Cascade

Slingo Cascade is a pirate themed version of the game with several added elements which are clearly designed to make play more interesting.  It has 9 initial spins and an unlimited number of pay spins.  The numbers are all painted on gunpowder barrels and when marked off, the fuse is lit

• After every winning spin, the winning reels respin and this continues until there are no more wins.
• The Cherub appears in the game.  Each Cherub marks off 1 to 5 numbers.
• The board can never be cleared.  When a Slingo is completed all the barrels in it explode, the remaining barrels drop down to fill the gaps and more barrels drop from the top of the screen. This does mean that incomplete Slingos can become harder to complete as some of the barrels in them are replaced with fresh ones.

Scoring is based on the number of Slingos completed but you need to complete 3 to win anything at all and 5 to break even.  Complete 20 Slingos to win the jackpot of 5000x bet (no prizes for guessing how unlikely you are to do that without buying extra spins!)

Slingo Monopoly

In Slingo Monopoly there are no reels and the 5×5 array is property cards not numbers.  The first thing you must do is choose one of the 4 game pieces to set volatility; this affects the number of initial rolls (7 or 8), the number of extra rolls you can buy (4,6,8 or unlimited), the top prize (500x, 1500x, 2500x or 4000x stake) and the rate at which extra roll prices escalate.  Roll the dice to move around the board; as in the real game if you roll a double you’ll get an extra go.

• Land on a property to turn all cards of that set face down
• Land on all properties in a set to apply a multiplier to the prizes
• Pass Go to add money to the Free Parking spot and land on it to collect it
• Land on a Joker to advance to a randomly picked property
• There’s also Community Chest and Chance spaces but watch out, you could be sent to jail and lose 3 rolls which is massively annoying

Apart from going to jail, Slingo Monopoly is a fun game but unless you are very lucky with your rolls you’ll need to buy extras to get anywhere.

Slingo Centurion

Slingo Centurion is similar to Slingo Rainbow Riches in that all the prizes are bonus rounds – in this case, bonus rounds from the Centurion Maximus Winnus slot, played at a spin value corresponding to initial stake level.  It has 10 initial spins and an unlimited number of extra spins BUT an extra spin can only be purchased if there is a possibility of winning a bonus round on the next spin.  If not, the game ends automatically.

Slingo Classic

Slingo Classic is a retro styled version of the game that is very similar to Slingo Extreme but with a lower minimum stake and no auto spin.

Slingo Carnival

Slingo Carnival is similar to Slingo Rainbow Riches and Slingo Centurion; all the prizes are bonus rounds themed on carnival attractions and you need to complete 5 Slingos to win anything at all.  With a minimum stake of just 10p, it’s the cheapest to play of the bonus round Slingo games.

Slingo Berserk

Slingo Berserk is a fast paced Viking themed version of Slingo with auto spin. Instead of jokers and super jokers, it has lightning wilds; each time one of these appears it throws up a coin which has a chance to trigger the jackpot game.  This is a pick-me game similar to the jackpot game in Age of the Gods – match three to win one of the four jackpots, the biggest of which is 1000x stake.

Slingo Advance

Slingo Advance is a new and fresh take on Slingo, themed like a retro arcade game.  You start with just one spin, and only the bottom line of the play area unlocked; to advance, you need matches on already unlocked lines (so if you don’t match anything on the first spin, it’s instant game over).  You score for every match as well as for Slingos and the higher up the play area they occur, the more they are worth.  There’s extra prizes for completing an X or T pattern.

Slingo Friends

Slingo Friends appears to be a reskin of Slingo Reveal, based on the classic TV series and exclusive to Foxy Bingo.

Slingo Xing Yun Xian

Slingo Xing Yun Xian appears to be a reskin of Slingo Extreme, the only real difference being in the lower minimum stake.

Slingo Ante Up

Slingo Ante Up is a version of the game where there is no facility to buy extra spins at the end; instead, you decide how many spins you want to play before you start.  The prizes are stake multiples of the stake for the standard 10 spins; if you choose a different number of spins (anything from 9 to 16) the prizes stay the same and your stake is adjusted to keep the RTP constant.

Slingo Lucky Streak

In Slingo Lucky Streak, there’s no set number of spins.  Instead, you start with two lives.  Every time you have a spin that marks no numbers off, you lose a life, and every time you have a spin that marks one or more numbers off, you gain a life – but only up to the maximum of two.  Lose both lives and the game’s over; you’ll only have the opportunity to buy extra spins if you’re close to a winning number of Slingos.

Slingo Fluffy Favourites

Slingo Fluffy Favourites is in the same vein as Slingo Rainbow Riches and other “win the bonus round” Slingo games.  In this case the bonus rounds are based on Eyecon’s wildly successful series of slot games.  In the base game only (not extra spins) Slingo Fluffy Favourites has an extra feature; the Super Joker is replaced by the twerking pink elephant for the slot games and if 3 or more of them appear on the same spin, extra spins are added.

Slingo Reel King

In Slingo Reel King you can win Reel King Bonus rounds, but these are as well as and not instead of the regular prizes.  The game starts off with 11 spins, and there’s prizes starting at 1 Slingo, so you’ll win little and often compared to other Slingo games.

Each yellow number that appears on the reels lights up a step on the path to the Reel King bonus rounds, but the path resets after each spin apart from on the very few occasions that the Held light also lights up.  This means that the bonus round is incredibly rare (but if you do get it, it can pay very well).

 

 

Slingo Lightning

Slingo Lightning is a back-to-basics version of the game with straightforward prizes and no extras.  It also plays at breakneck speed, so if it weren’t for having to choose where to place the lightning bolt jokers, you might blink and miss the whole thing!

Slingo Starburst

Slingo Starburst is by necessity a bit different from other slot game inspired Slingo games, as there are no bonus rounds in Starburst that could be awarded as prizes.  Instead, you get to play guaranteed win spins on a modified version of the slot game; the more Slingos you collect, the better paying symbol you get.  The purple gem isn’t used but instead makes an appearance in the base game (3 or more of them award an extra prize) and the Starburst wild also makes an appearance in the base game as an extra joker that stays in place for the next spin.

With a better than usual RTP and prizes starting at 3 Slingos, this game is easier on the wallet and the nerves than the likes of Slingo Rainbow Riches.

Slingo Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania

Based on the Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania slot game, this is yet another slot themed Slingo game with bonus rounds as prizes – and as they are all quite good bonus rounds (even “1-2 Picks” can trigger a further bonus round), you need to collect 5 Slingos to win anything at all.  Spin up a full house and there’s two different bonus rounds up for grabs, each with a heavy multiplier – but be aware that you win one or the other, not both.

Book Of Slingo

Book Of Slingo is an interesting case as although it’s slot themed, it’s apparently been inspired by the “Book of….” genre started off by PlayNGo’s classic Book Of Dead rather than being themed on a specific actual slot game.  The classic “Book of…” free spins bonus round with its expanding symbol comes into play when you spin up three or more books in the base game, so in theory you could trigger it and win big without completing ANY Slingos.  If you don’t manage that, you’ll have to complete 8 or more Slingos before getting the opportunity to choose a bonus round as an alternative to a cash prize – and let’s face it, that’s not very likely without paying for extra spins.

 

Slingone Fishin

Slingone Fishin’ is yet another slot themed Slingo game, this time inspired by the fish collection mechanic from that classic slot, Fishin’ Frenzy.  It’s one of the higher variance versions of Slingo and you’ll need 4 or more Slingos to win anything, unless you manage to reel in a fish.  One of these appears each time you complete a Slingo and when a Rod symbol appears on the reels, a random fish is collected and you win the multiplier on it.

Slingo Big Wheel

In Slingo Big Wheel, all the prizes are spins of a prize wheel.  Each prize is a multiplier of your base stake and the more Slingos you win, the higher the multipliers on the wheel get.  If you spin a wheel and it lands on Boost instead of a multiplier, you move up to the next wheel.

Branded Slingo

The branded Slingo game made its appearance in 2021, as Paddy Power Lucky Pants Slingo and Heart Slingo at Paddy Power Bingo and Heart Bingo respectively and will no doubt appear at many other sites too.  It looks and plays like a regular Slingo game with no special features, but is radically different in that there are only 50 numbers instead of 75; this means that you are a lot more likely to win something than in regular Slingo, especially as the prizes start at just one Slingo.

Red Hot Slingo

Red Hot Slingo has even more of a slot machine feel to it than other Slingo games.  The reels where the numbers appear are a 5 x 3 array and you can score wins for scatters or lines of matching symbols on the reels as well as for Slingos.  You only get 5 spins to do it in though.

Slingo X-Scream

Slingo X-Scream is Slingo Extreme again, luridly re-skinned for Halloween.

Slingo Sweet Bonanza

Slingo Sweet Bonanza is themed on the Pragmatic Play slot game and has a pick-me bonus round on the prize table.  It’s got the same issue as Book Of Slingo – unless you trigger a bonus round by getting 3 or more scatters during your initial spins, you’re going to need to complete 8 or more Slingos to win a bonus round prize and that’s pretty unlikely if you don’t want to buy any extra spins.

Slingo Bells

Slingo Bells is another visually stunning re-skin, this time of Slingo XXXtreme for Christmas.

Slingo Fire & Ice

Slingo Fire & Ice is the first truly inventive Slingo game to be released for quite some time.  It has two grids, arranged side by side; the spins take place on a reel in between and symbols can be marked off on either or both grids depending on whether they have a fire surround, an ice surround or a mixed surround.  Especially potent are mixed wilds as they allow the player to mark off a symbol of their choice on both grids. Get Slingos on the ice grid to win prizes and get Slingos on the fire grid to apply a multiplier.  If a Slingo has been completed on both sides of a reel space leaving no more numbers to be marked off, that reel space changes to the jackpot reel which can award one of the two jackpots.  One interesting thing about this game is that regardless of the number of Fire Slingos you complete, you need 2 or more Ice Slingos to win anything.  Another is that once you go to extra spins, you pay separately for each side of the board – so if you’ve paid for an ice spin and you get a fire wild, it’s useless.  If you haven’t completed any ice Slingos, you’ll only be offered extra ice spins unless and until you do.

Slingo Super Spin

In Slingo Super Spin there is an extra reel (above the record player in the screenshot) which can also mark off numbers – here, it’s just marked off number 24.  The extra reel can also contain a wild or super wild, and in the unlikely event that all six reels are wilds or super wilds the jackpot pays out.

Slingo Racing

Slingo Racing, exclusively launched at Paddy Power Games, adds a horse racing feature to the base game.  Before you start to play, you choose a horse (and yes, they are all called amusing names like Horsey McHorseface).  As you play, the numbers and the wilds come up in colours, and when you match one the horse of the corresponding colour moves a space up the track.  In the screenshot, number 65 green has just been matched and moved the green horse forward by one. If the horse you chose reaches a space with a multiplier on it, you win that as well as anything you win for completed Slingos.  The nice thing about this is that the three horses have different variance so you can pick the one you are comfortable with.

Slingo Inca Trail

Slingo Inca Trail has a similar bonus round mechanic to Slingo Reel King.  Advance arrows can appear on the reels instead of numbers and if you manage to advance to spaces 7,8 or 9 on the trail you’ll trigger one of three versions of the Inca Trail map bonus.  This is rare as the trail is almost always reset between spins (in the screenshot it’s been held).

 

Slingo Shark Week

Slingo Shark Week is one of the higher variance versions of the game.  It’s a tie-in with the documentary TV series and almost all of the prizes are shark themed bonus rounds.  You have to collect 5 Slingos to win anything which happens only rarely without extra spins.

Slingo Da Vinci Diamonds

Slingo Da Vinci Diamonds is themed on the classic slot game by IGT.  Although some of the prizes are bonus rounds from the slot, you do not have to play them as you can choose a cash alternative.  They are also not the most important part of the theming; Da Vinci Diamonds was one of the very first slot games to have Tumbling Reels (the cascade feature) and they have been cleverly incorporated into the Slingo game.  Whenever you get a match on the reels, the number disappears and another number drops in.  If that number is a match, it gets marked off and disappears too.  This means it is possible to mark off up to 5 numbers in the same column (or anywhere, if a Super Joker drops in) in a single spin – a most enjoyable twist!

Slingo Stampede

Slingo Stampede is themed on the Eyecon slot game and is similar to Red Hot Slingo in that the numbers appear on a 5×3 reels array.  There’s no scoring for paylines on the reels, only for Rhino scatters; spin up 10 or more on a single spin to collect the top prize of 1000x stake.  Slingo Stampede has a slightly lower RTP than Red Hot Slingo.

 

Stinkin’ Rich Slingo

Stinkin’ Rich Slingo is yet another slot game themed version of Slingo.  All of the prizes are bonus rounds from the Stinkin’ Riches slot game, and as in Slingo Rainbow Riches you need to complete 5 or more Slingos to win anything at all.  It’s slightly less of a tall order to do this without extra spins than you might expect, because the top and bottom squares in the middle columns are free, meaning you only need 4 numbers to complete the top and bottom rows and only 3 for the middle column.

Stinkin’ Rich Slingo also has three jackpots than can be won by spinning up 3, 4 or 5 jackpot symbol overlays (as they are overlays not scatter symbols, this doesn’t interfere with being able to mark numbers off in the usual way.

 

Slingo Rakin’ Bacon

Slingo Rakin’ Bacon is yet another Slingo game where you can win bonus rounds on the corresponding slot game, but as you need 9 or more Slingos to win a bonus round rather than a cash prize, you’d have to be incredibly lucky to do so without using extra spins. There’s also a jackpot game which can be triggered by any wild; it’s a match 3 where you can win one of four jackpots of 10x, 25x, 800x or 10,000x stake.

Slingoooal!

Slingoooal is a really nicely done football themed version of Slingo, released to coincide with the 2022 World Cup.  It’s very similar to Slingo XXXtreme but with a slightly higher RTP.

Slingo Deadliest Catch

Slingo Deadliest Catch is another TV tie-in, this time with the long running Discovery Channel reality series about crab fishermen.  It’s another one where most of the prizes (for 6 Slingos and up) are bonus rounds, but this time there’s an added twist.  You can collect Bonus Crabs from the reels as you spin and each one you collect gives you an extra pick in any bonus round you win.  But the more Bonus Crabs you spin, the less numbers you spin, so the less likely you are to complete enough Slingos to win a bonus round.

 

Slingo Golden Envelope

Slingo Golden Envelope was released for the 2023 lunar new year.  It has two pick-me bonus rounds; one is triggered by collecting 8 red envelopes in the course of the game and the other by winning full house.

 

Slingo Cleopatra

Slingo Cleopatra is themed on arguably the most iconic slot game of all time and all of the prizes are Cleopatra bonus round spins.  They start at just 3 Slingos, and can also be won on a spin of 3 or more scatter symbols, meaning that the slot game elements come into play considerably more often than in some other slot game themed versions of Slingo.

 

Slingo Pirate’s Treasure

The special gimmick in Slingo Pirate’s Treasure is the Pirate Captain who can pop up on reel three and cause the cannons to the right of the play area to fire and mark off extra numbers.  Another innovation is in the paytable – the prizes for 6+ Slingos are all bonus rounds but with a cash prize as well, leaving players less at the mercy of how the bonus round goes.

 

Slingo Lucky Joker

Slingo Lucky Joker has an extra board game feature which plays at the same time as the regular game – the cute leprechaun walks round the outside of the play area collecting small cash prizes.  This means that unlike in most other types of Slingo, you’ll win something in most of the games you play.  There’s also two bonus rounds that can be triggered via scatter symbols as well as won by getting 4 or more Slingos.  And all of the Slingo prizes also have a cash element.

Slingo Money Train

Slingo Money Train continues the trend of having cash prizes as well as bonus rounds on the paytable, but in this case it’s only for 9+ Slingos.  The bonus wheels you can win for 4+ Slingos do have minimum payouts though.

Slingo Piggy Bank

Slingo Piggy Bank is a fairly trad version of the game, with a pick-me pig bonus round as well as a cash prize for larger numbers of Slingos.  The bonus round can also be triggered by getting 3 or more pig scatters in the base game.

 

Slingo Space Invaders

In Slingo Space Invaders, the prizes include a bonus game that plays like the vintage arcade game (but of course there’s no skill involved).  You can also shoot space invaders during the base game, which awards extra lives should you trigger the bonus game.

 

Slingo Tetris

Slingo Tetris is very much in the same vein as Slingo Space Invaders but themed on a different classic game.  Again, you can win bonus rounds that resemble the original but entail no skill, and again there are elements of the original incorporated into the base game play (you can collect 3 or more tetrominos for a cash prize).

Slingo Elf Blitz

This is a Christmas reskin of Slingo Racing with a slightly tewaeked RTP.  Instead of horses, you race elves on sleds.  And yes, they do all have silly names like the horses in the original.

Slingo Wolf Snowstorm

Slingo Wolf Snowstorm is a fast paced version of Slingo where each reel is up to 4 symbols high instead of 1.  Even with just 6 spins initially instead of 10, you’re likely to complete more Slingos than in other versions.

Slingo Hot Roll

In Slingo Hot Roll, all of the prizes you can win are dice rolls.  The bigger prizes are Hot Rolls, where you continue rolling and scoring until you roll a 7.

Slingo China Shores

Slingo China Shores is unlike all other versions of Slingo in that you collect each prize, which is a cash multiplier or spins on the China Shores slot game, won by spinning the Mini Reel, as you complete Slingos. In the screenshot, the Mini Reel has just been spun after completing 3 Slingos and has awarded 0.5x cash multiplier.

This means that when you decide to end the game rather than buy extra spins, you can see exactly how much you’ve won so far.

Slingo Constitution Hill

Nothing new to see here – it’s a Cheltenham Festival themed version of Slingo Racing, with the RTP of Slingo Elf Blitz.

Slingo Capital Gains

In Slingo Capital Gains you mark numbers off from a 5×3 reels array instead of the usual 5×1 but only have 5 initial spins.  The game has a Cash Collect mechanic – Money Charge symbols can appear in the base game triggering the Money Charge bonus if there are 6 or more of them, and the Money Charge bonus is also awarded as a prize for 7 or more Slingos and is a possible outcome of the Vault prizes for 5 or 6 Slingos.  During the bonus, any Money Charge symbols stick in place for a respin; they can award cash prizes that are multiples of stake, or one of 4 jackpots.

Slingo Gold Cash Freespins

In Slingo Gold Cash Freespins the base game is standard Slingo and the prizes for 4-8 Slingos are bonus wheels where you can win either a basic stake multiplier, or a respin where the possible prizes are a bigger multiplier or free spins on the Gold Cash slot.  For 9+ Slingos you win a multiplier and free spins.

Slingo Day of the Dab

Themed on the Mexican Day of the Dead, this version of Slingo has a hitherto unseen gimmick in the base game. When you match a number, a candy skull is revealed.  Candy skulls then appear in all the adjacent squares that haven’t yet been marked off, and if they match the candy skull you revealed, that square gets marked off too and the squares adjacent to that are checked, until there are no more matches.  This means you can mark off a lot of numbers on one spin if you’re lucky – but you only have 5 initial spins to do it in. Slingo Day of the Dab has no bonus rounds and all of the prizes are cash.

Slingoooal! Championship

Again, nothing new to see here – it’s Slingoooal! reskinned for the Euros.  Nicely done though – check out the flags in the background!

 

While many of these Slingo games are almost the same as each other, with the differences lying in the paytable rather than in the gameplay, some of them – Slingo Cascade and Slingo Advance for example – are genuinely innovative, and others have extremely entertaining bonus rounds.

Multiplayer real money Slingo

The first multiplayer version of real money Slingo arrived on the scene in May 2016 and was available to play at Bear Group sites only.  It was called Slingo Boom and felt – and indeed was – much closer to bingo than the single player versions do, especially as it was played in what looked very much like a bingo room, complete with chat (and chat games).  Regular Slingo is bascially a slot machine with vastly extended gameplay.  In Slingo Boom, players competed against each other to win a prize pot (sometimes fixed, sometimes determined by player stakes) and this shared liquidity meant that it was essentially a type of bingo rather than a slot machine. Instead of there being a fixed number of spins, the game continued until someone won.

• • In Slingo Boom, the board looked like a 75 ball bingo card (the kind where the centre square is not free)
  • As in regular 75 ball bingo the first column only contained numbers from 1-15, the second column only contained numbers from 16-30 and so forth.
  • Each player had one card only (giving everyone an equal chance of winning) and these were priced from 25p – £1.
  • The numbers and symbols came up – 5 at a time – on a set of reels immediately below the board.
  • The cards were all different but the numbers and symbols that came up after spinning the reels were the same for all the players.
  • The numbers that could appear on the reels were those that could appear in the column directly above, e g reel 1 contained numbers 1-15 only.
  • The three symbols that could appear were the Joker, the Super Joker and the Devil.
  • The Joker marked off one number in the column above it and the Super Joker marked off one number anywhere on the board.  Slingo Boom was unlike the single player versions in that players did not have any control over where the Joker and Super Joker were used; the number to be marked off was randomly selected and auto-daubed and was not necessarily the best choice strategically.
  • The Devil was a blocking symbol which appeared on reel 3 only.
  • Single player versions of Slingo have a free spins symbol but this did not feature in Slingo Boom.
  • A “Slingo” was a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line with all 5 numbers marked off.
  • Game types were coverall, pattern or 1-2-Slingo (prizes for 1 Slingo, 2 Slingos and coverall, split as in 90 ball bingo).
  • When a prize was won, the name of the player popped up in the same way it would in a bingo game – unless you were the winner, in which case the message was BOOM! (hence the name)

• As in single player versions of Slingo the reels spun from left to right and the numbers were not normally shown being marked off until the spin was complete (after all the reels had stopped). Nevertheless, a check was made after each individual reel stopped (rather than after the spin as a whole) to see whether someone had won and if they had, the game paused mid-spin to award the prize, only resuming to show the rest of the spin if the win was on a Slingo rather than on the coverall.
• This means that if two players completed a Slingo on the same spin, they only split the prize if both completed from the same reel; if they completed from different reels the player who completed from the reel further to the left won.
• One fundamental difference between Slingo Boom and regular 75 ball bingo was that numbers were NOT removed from the reels after being called, so the same number could come up multiple times in one game.  This meant that although a game of Slingo Boom played quite a bit more quickly than a game of 75 ball bingo, it wasn’t the 5 times faster one might expect.
• When Slingo Boom was originally released there were no extra spins, but this functionality was added in a later version in Spring 2017.  Players who were close to completing the board might be offered the opportunity to buy (often quite expensive) extra spins to try and finish; if they succeeded they won the full house prize amount. Essentially this added a slot machine feature game to the bingo game (it worked like a slot, because the player was competing against the house and not other players)

So was it any good? Well, it depends what you want from a bingo game.  It was certainly a bit different from regular 75 ball bingo and had quite a lot more going on visually.  With only one board per player, it was fair for everyone.  It also had chat.

On the minus side, with only Slingo Boom on offer there wasn’t as much variety as at a regular bingo site.  The real problem, though, was that it simply didn’t catch on and there were never enough players in the rooms for the prizes to be worthwhile – and a further problem was that following the rollout of single player versions of Slingo elsewhere it was the only remaining USP of Bear Group sites and its failure may therefore have been an important factor in their eventual closure just before Christmas 2019.

Other Slingo Games

Big Money Slingo & Big Money Slingo Bonus

Big Money Slingo looks like a version of single player real money Slingo but isn’t really.  It features the same 75 ball game card and 5 reels but the object of the game is not the same.  Instead of getting a payout at the end of the game based on the total number of Slingos completed, each potential Slingo has a specific prize attached.  These prizes are multiples of stake level and are the same in every game, but the Slingos they are attached to move around from game to game.

There are 6 possible stake levels in Big Money Slingo, ranging from 50p to £15 and corresponding to 6 different play areas.  Players select a play area before starting to play, and in order to have a chance of winning the top prize of £150,000 it is necessary to play the £15 area.  In the 50p area, the prizes range from 25p to £5000.

Another very important difference between Big Money Slingo and the other versions is that there are just 6 initial spins and NO opportunity to buy extra spins (although up to 3 extra spins can be awarded by free spins symbols).  This means that it is essentially an instant win game that plays out with no player input.

Immediately after the start of the game and prior to the first spin taking place, up to 4 jokers appear on the card marking off numbers .  This is the only time in the game that jokers appear, and there are no super jokers and no devil.  The only non numerical symbol that can appear on the reels is the free spins symbol.

On the face of it Big Money Slingo has a substantially worse RTP than the other versions at 85.15% (87.5% for Big Money Slingo Bonus), but because there are no pay spins in this version there is no opportunity for the RTP to compound.  It only takes two pay spins on one of the other versions for the RTP on the original stake to be down to around this level.

Of all the real money versions of Slingo, this one is the furthest away from bingo and closest to a slot machine and this is because it is visually confusing in the manner of a slot machine. Because all the Slingos are worth different amounts, in order for the game to have the consistent RTP that is required for regulatory approval the chances of completing a particular Slingo have to be inversely proportional to the prize – i.e. completing the 25p Slingo is much more likely than completing the £5000 Slingo (and one need not play the game for very long to verify that 25p Slingos are indeed the most common).  In the screenshot below our eyes make us want to believe that the 45 is just as likely to come up as the 12 and that both have a 1/16 chance of showing up on the next spin (as there are 15 numbers plus the free spins symbol on each reel).

In the other single player versions and in multiplayer Slingo, what counts is the total number of Slingos and it does not matter which ones they are, so there is no need for any unequal weighting on the reels. The RTP in the other single player versions is kept consistent by adjusting the cost of the pay spins and the RTP in the multiplayer version is kept consistent by adjusting the prizes based on the number of players (just as in a game of regular 75 ball bingo).  Here, though, the 12 would complete the £5 Slingo and the 45 would complete the £5000 Slingo and therefore it must be a lot less likely that the 45 would be spun than the 12.  For this to happen, either the outcome has to be predetermined (like a scratchcard) or some sort of weighting would have to be applied to the reels based on which prize is attached to which Slingo for that particular game.  In effect, instead of being 16 symbols long (15 numbers plus free spin) the middle reel would have to be several thousand symbols long and only contain one 45.  This may sound very dodgy but in fact it is how all video slots work (online and offline) and it is what enables slot machines that do not have physical reels to offer much bigger top prizes than those that do.  In bingo, of course, all the balls have equal weighting and this is why it is important to understand that this particular version of Slingo has very little in common with it.

Big Money Slingo was also the first version of Slingo to be available at non Gaming Realms sites; in summer 2017 it started to be rolled out to Dragonfish and Cassava / 888 bingo sites where it appeared in the slots section.

Big Money Slingo Bonus is an enhanced version of Big Money Slingo.  It offers the same six stake levels and the same basic prizes, but there are also instant cash wins and the Key symbol.  Collect 5 keys over a series of games to spin the wheel for a guaranteed prize (this all has to be in the same session though – if you close the game and come back later any previously collected keys will be gone.)

Slingo Cash Buster

Slingo Cash Buster is another game that looks a bit like Slingo but isn’t really; it is a Slingo themed variant of the IWG Cash Buster series of instant games and has a dismal RTP of 87% but again, there are no extra spins so this isn’t necessarily worse than regular Slingo after buying extra spins.

Slingo Shuffle Roulette

New for Summer 2016 was a Slingo themed casino game – Slingo Shuffle Roulette.  This is actually a card game where players have the ability to place a range of different bets (similar to those in roulette).  Each bet has a different RTP (as detailed in the paytable) with the best being 96.67% for a bet on a single card.  The player wins and receives a payout at the quoted odds if all their selections are dealt from the deck before the Devil card comes up.  There’s the opportunity to buy extra cards if the Devil comes up earlier (like the extra pay spins in single player Slingo, these each have an RTP of 95% but be aware that the price is rounded up to the next penny).

 

With chip sizes of 5p – £100, and bets available at odds from 1/1 to 3000/1, this game suits all pockets and all risk profiles.

Slingo Reel Riches,  Slingo Reel Extreme, Slingo Price Is Right & Slingo Wild Adventure

These four games are Slingo themed slot machines.

Slingo Cosmic Clusters

Slingo Cosmic Clusters is a slot game with a Slingo grid attached which you slowly fill in as you play. Collect a cluster of grid numbers to trigger the Cosmic Spin bonus round, and collect Slingos to increase the number of Cosmic Spins you get when the bonus round is triggered.

Where To Play Slingo