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The Dancing Drums slot machine is a game that has stood the test of time on the casino floor. An evolution of games like 88 Fortunes and 5 Treasures, it’s become a franchise in its own right, with multiple extensions that take the game in some additional directions.
But it’s the original that captivated everyone’s attention and got things rolling. And with a unique betting structure, it also offers players different ways to go about the games. The all-ways-pays format opens up the opportunity for big wins, as does the choice of volatility on the free spins.
The Gold Symbol Bet Options
Most slot machines give you a set of bet options. In the case of Dancing Drums, you actually have two decisions to make. The first is the number of gold symbols you wish to bet. The gold symbols impact two aspects of the game.
One is that it determines which symbols have their full pays activated. You can select between one and five gold symbols, with the total amount of credits invested determined by the number chosen:
- 1 gold symbol: 8 credits per spin
- 2 gold symbols: 18 credits per spin
- 3 gold symbols: 38 credits per spin
- 4 gold symbols: 68 credits per spin
- 5 gold symbols: 88 credits per spin
Since the amount of high paying symbols effectively increases as the bet increases, the trade-off is spending more, but a better chance of getting a high paying symbol line hit.
The gold symbols also have a second important meaning, which is it also determines how many progressives you’re playing for. Starting with the second gold symbol, each additional gold symbol activates the opportunity to win a progressive:
- 2 gold symbols: Mini eligible
- 3 gold symbols: Mini and Minor eligible
- 4 gold symbols: Mini, Minor and Major eligible
- 5 gold symbols: Mini, Minor, Major and Grand eligible
As such, if you wish to have access to all the progressives, you need to bet 88 credits a spin at a minimum. But if you don’t care about the progressives at all, there’s a version of the game where at 8 credits per spin you can basically spin for gold coins as your top symbol and what will pay big relative to your bet.
The Line Bet Options
The second option is to make a decision as what your line multiplier bet will be, which multiplies your gold symbol choice, instead of a number of lines.
For instance, if you do one gold symbol at 8 credits, and do a 10x line bet option, you’re betting 80 credits a spin, which at penny denomination would be 80 cents. If you do five gold symbols at a 1x line bet option, that’s 88 credits a spin, or 88 cents at penny denomination.
This offers a broader array of bet options – 25 in total – than most single denomination games offer, and offers bets that are accessible to pretty much any type of slot machine bettor.
Free Games Bonus
The Free Games is another unique aspect of the Dancing Drums slot machine – it carries over the active number of gold symbols bet on the base game, and then lets you decide what level of volatility bonus you want. From least to most volatile:
- 15 games with 243 ways to win (5×3 reel set)
- 10 games with 1,024 ways to win (5×4 reel set)
- 5 games with 3,125 ways to win (5×5 reel set)
- 3 games with 7,776 ways to win (5×6 reel set)
- Mystery choice that will select from the four game amounts listed above and the four ways wo win listed above at random – best outcome is 15 games at 7,776 ways to win, and worst outcome is 3 games at 243 ways to win
As a player, you can decide which bonus fits your risk appetite and try to swing for the fence or keep building upon smaller wins.
Watch Brian Play the Dancing Drums Slot Machine
Brian got a massive handpay on an $88 bet on the high limit version of the Dancing Drums slot machine:
In this video Brian’s still doing high limit bets, and gets two free games bonuses with mystery selected each time. The second time the mystery delivered:
Where to Play the Dancing Drums Slot Machine
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