Ante Bet Slots

The cover charge

An ante is a switch that makes every spin dearer and the free spins more likely. The extra goes in on each spin whether the round turns up or not. It works like a cover charge at the door, paid again every time you press spin. The rules promise a chance, never the round.

Now, an ante isn’t a purchase. A bought bonus takes a printed multiple of the stake in one go and starts the round at once. The ante takes a little on every spin and leaves you waiting. No Olympus game here lets you run both together. You pick the slow charge or the lump sum.

The god on call

In 5 of the Gates of Olympus games the ante adds a quarter to the stake, so a $1 spin costs $1.25. The rules double the chance that the round arrives without being bought. Gates of Olympus prints 96.50% with the switch on or off, and so do the 1000, the Xmas 1000 and both Dice versions. You pay a quarter more for the same percentage.

Gates of Olympus Super Scatter charges half as much again, so $1 becomes $1.50. For that the reels carry more scatters and Super Scatters, so Zeus’s face on the scatter tile turns up more often. The demo rules print 96.55% with the ante against 96.50% without. It’s the only ante on this site printed above its own plain game.

The menu of bets

Gates of Olympus 2500 turns the switch into a menu of 5. Its 3 antes cost 1.25x, 2.75x and 5.5x the base stake at 96.49%, and the 2 dearer ones raise the chance of the round 8 times. Its 2 Super Spins cost 20x and 250x and promise a multiplier on each spin, at least 25x on the dearer one. The free spins can’t start in either Super Spin. At a $1 base the 250x spin is $250.

Fortune of Olympus sells 4 special bets, all printed at 96.55%. The 2x ante doubles the stake for more free spins, and the 7x ante aims at the super free spins. 2 Super Spins at 10x and 250x make sure every spin carries a multiplier, 50x or more on the dearer one. On a $0.20 base that 250x spin costs $50.

The small print

Forge of Olympus adds the usual quarter, and its rules print 96.23% with the ante against 96.25% without. Cats of Olympuss calls its ante the Push Bet. It adds 20% to the bet, so $1 becomes $1.20, and wins are still paid on the base bet. Its demo rules print 96.26% against 96.31%. Those 2 antes give back a hair less than the plain game.

Mind you, a better chance is still only a chance. Every one of these games prints its ante in the rules, and none of them promises the round on a given spin. Switch it on for the scatters, with the dearer spin in plain view.

Those percentages come from the rules inside each demo, the first of the 2 sources that How the Reviews Work allows.