Introduction

With its 5×3 reel grid, 20 paylines and high volatility, the Tipsy Tourist video slot by Betsoft brings the holiday theme to life with its symbols, animated graphics and background music.

Among other things, our happy traveller sheds his corporate suit in the hopes to find plenty of sun, sea, and sand, as well as plenty of alcoholic drinks and perhaps the company of a beautiful woman. Symbols like these appear repeatedly on the reels, along with a ball symbol for free spins, a beach sign that acts as a wild symbol and a fun bonus game where players must drink their way to the riches.

Tipsy Tourist is an exciting video slot with accessibility on mobiles, tablets and computers. Bets start at only 0.02 coins per spin and a max bet of 100.

Symbol Payouts

Poker seems to be a favourite pastime of this Tipsy Tourist and you can earn up to 375 bonus coins if you land matching poker symbols on the reels. You can also receive up to 750 coins if you land a plane ticket or shell symbol. Up to 1,750 coins can be won with a beach babe symbol.

You’ll win eight free spins with three, four, and five beach ball symbols appearing across the reels of the screen. There is also a ‘clingy wild’ feature that retriggers the feature when wild signs appear on the reels, which in turn, makes winnings that much more lucrative.

Bonus Feature

Red cup icons appear on the first, second, and third reels to trigger the drinking game bonus. The game asks players to guess if a coin will land on tails or heads, resulting in the character downing a shot. You’ll then win a prize if you can guess correctly before the first person drinks a total of three shots.

The term ‘slot machine’ is actually a contraction of ‘nickel-in-the-slot machine’ and was originally used to describe any coin-operated machine, including vending machines. However, the invention of the first modern slot machine – in the sense of a coin-operated gambling device, which also paid out in coins – is credited to Bavarian-born American inventor Charles Fey in 1895. His so-called ‘Liberty Bell’ machine featured three mechanical reels activated by pulling a lever and offered a ‘jackpot’ of fifty cents, which was paid out into a trough at the bottom of the machine.

Fast forward nearly seven decades and the next step in the evolution of the modern slot machine came in 1963, with the appearance of the first fully electro-mechanical slot machine, known as ‘Money Honey’. Manufactured by Bally Technologies, Money Honey was still, essentially, a mechanical device, but an electrically-operated coin hopper made for larger, more spectacular payouts, while flashing electronic lights added to the allure of playing.

The first video slot machine – that is, the first to employ a microprocessor, random number generator and video screen, rather than physical, mechanical reels – was made available to casinos in 1975. However, the so-called ‘Fortune Coin’ machine, invented by Walt Fraley, was not well received by sceptical gamblers and the following year Fraley sold out to International Game Technology, who used the machine as the basis for several new games.

Last, but by no means least, in the evolution of the slot machine came the online slot, which was made possible by the invention of the World Wide Web, by British computer scientist Sir Tim Berners-Lee, in 1989. The first online casino, ‘Gaming Club’ by Microgaming, launched in 1995 and included a rudimentary, three-reel online slot called ‘Fantastic Sevens’. Three years later, Microgaming also launched the first wide area progressive jackpot online slot, known as ‘Cash Splash’.

Slot machines blow ‘hot’ and ‘cold’

No, they don’t. The outcome of each spin of the reels is determined by a random number generator – or, at least, a pseudo-random number generator – and is an independent event, completely unaffected by previous events. The odds of winning are determined by the number of reels, the number of symbols on each reel and the ‘weighting’ of each symbol. Weighting information is usually known only to the casino, but the point is that the odds of winning, say, the jackpot, are exactly the same whether the slot last paid out the jackpot on the previous spin or six months ago.

The longer I play the better my chances of winning

Not so. Each outcome is completely random and independent, so the odds of winning are the same however long you play. In fact, the longer you play, the closer you’ll come to the percentage return-to-player (% RTP) figure for the slot in question. % RTP typically ranges between 85% for offline casinos and 96%, or more, for online casinos, but the inherent house edge actually means that the longer you play the worse your chances of winning.

A percentage return-to-player figure of 92% means I’ll only lose £8 of every £100 I stake

No, it doesn’t. The percentage return-to-player (% RTP) is an average, calculated over infinity – or, in practical terms, the lifetime of the slot – and, as such, does not apply to a single gaming session. In the short term, you could win the jackpot, win a little, lose a little or lose £100 for every £100 you stake, so don’t rely on % RTP as an accurate guide to returns.

Casino staff can ‘loosen’ or ‘tighten’ slot machines

No, they can’t. Whether lower than average, high than average or just plain average, the payout ratio of any slot machine is determined by a microprocessor, pre-programmed at the factory. Casino staff can do nothing to change it, one way or the other.