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My €100 Slot Challenge: Playing Every Top Slot and Recording Everything
Seán Kelly
Entertainment & Social Content Creator
15 September 2024
7 min read
38,920 views
I took €100 and played the most popular slots available to Irish players, tracking every spin, every bonus, and every emotional rollercoaster. Here's exactly what happened.
The €100 Slot Challenge: A Journey Through Hope, Despair, and Free Spins
Alright, confession time: I've always wondered what would ACTUALLY happen if I properly tracked a slot session. Not the "I won big!" highlights, not the edited clips—the real, honest experience of putting €100 through popular slots.
So that's exactly what I did. €100 budget. Ten of the most popular slots available at Irish casinos. Complete tracking of every spin, every bonus, and every emotion. Let's go.
The Rules I Set Myself
Before we dive in, here's how I structured this challenge:
- €100 total budget - When it's gone, it's gone
- €10 per slot - Fair distribution across 10 games
- €0.20 base stakes - 50 spins minimum per game (barring total loss)
- No buy-bonus features - Organic bonus triggers only
- Real money, real stakes - No demo mode shenanigans
I also set a session time limit of 3 hours total. Because even I have limits.
Slot 1: Gates of Olympus (Pragmatic Play) **Starting Balance: €100 | Slot Budget: €10**
Starting with the classic. Gates of Olympus has been absolutely everywhere, and there's a reason—the tumble mechanics and multiplier potential are genuinely exciting.
The Session: First 20 spins: Dead. Nothing. Zeus was clearly on his break.
Spin 27: Finally hit a decent connect with a 3x multiplier. Paid €2.40.
Spin 34: FREE SPINS TRIGGERED! 15 free spins, let's go!
Free spins result: Built up to an 8x multiplier by spin 10, then... nothing connected. Final free spins payout: €4.80.
Ending Position: €7.60 remaining (€2.40 loss)
Classic Gates experience. The free spins looked promising but delivered disappointment. Story of my life, honestly.
Slot 2: Sweet Bonanza (Pragmatic Play) **Running Total: €97.60 | Slot Budget: €10**
Another Pragmatic tumbler, but with candy instead of Greek gods. Let's see if the sweets are sweeter.
The Session: This one started HOT. Three decent hits in the first 15 spins put me up €4 immediately.
Spin 23: Bonus trigger! 10 free spins.
The free spins were mental. A 27x multiplier built up, then a full screen of purple grapes connected. Payout: €31.40!
Ending Position: €25.40 profit from this slot
THIS is why people love Sweet Bonanza. When it hits, it properly hits. My best result of the entire challenge (spoiler alert).
Slot 3: Big Bass Bonanza (Pragmatic Play) **Running Total: €123.00 | Slot Budget: €10**
Right, riding high from Sweet Bonanza. Time to see if the fisherman can deliver.
The Session: I've always found Big Bass a bit slow in base game, and this session confirmed it. Lots of small wins, nothing exciting.
Spin 41: Bonus! 10 free spins with the fishing feature.
Caught three fish in the free spins, but all were low value (1x-3x). Payout: €3.20.
Ending Position: €4.80 remaining (€5.20 loss)
Meh. Big Bass needs patience and a much bigger bankroll than €10 to show its potential.
Slot 4: Gonzo's Quest Megaways (Red Tiger) **Running Total: €117.80 | Slot Budget: €10**
Old school meets new school. The Megaways version of Gonzo's Quest has up to 117,649 ways to win. Sounds impressive, but does it deliver?
The Session: The avalanche feature is satisfying when it gets going. Had a nice 5x multiplier chain early that paid €6.40.
But no bonus. 50 spins, no free fall feature. The variance on this slot is brutal.
Ending Position: €3.20 remaining (€6.80 loss)
Frustrating. Gonzo needs proper budget to weather the dry spells.
Slot 5: Starburst (NetEnt) **Running Total: €111.00 | Slot Budget: €10**
Time for a classic. Starburst has been around forever, and it's still in every casino's top 10. Low volatility should mean steadier returns, right?
The Session: And it did! No massive wins, but also no long losing streaks. Lots of small 2x-5x stake returns. The expanding wilds triggered frequently enough to keep things interesting.
No bonus feature (Starburst doesn't have one), but the base game kept me entertained.
Ending Position: €8.40 remaining (€1.60 loss)
Exactly what I expected. Starburst is the dependable friend who won't make you rich but won't completely destroy your bankroll either.
Slot 6: Book of Dead (Play'n GO) **Running Total: €109.40 | Slot Budget: €10**
The classic book game. Everyone's played it, everyone has opinions on it. Time to add mine.
The Session: Dead dead dead. Book of Dead in base game is absolutely brutal. 35 spins of essentially nothing.
Spin 42: BONUS! 10 free spins with expanding symbol.
The chosen symbol was the explorer (Rich Wilde), which is mid-tier. Managed one decent hit for €8.40.
Ending Position: €6.20 remaining (€3.80 loss)
The variance on Book of Dead is no joke. You need the right expanding symbol AND good positioning. I got neither.
Slot 7: Crazy Time (Evolution - Live Game Show) **Running Total: €105.60 | Slot Budget: €10**
Technically not a slot, but I had to include it. Crazy Time is everywhere and Irish players absolutely love it.
The Session: This is pure chaos and I'm here for it. Bet distribution: €1 on each number (1, 2, 5, 10) and €1 each on Coin Flip, Cash Hunt, Pachinko, and Crazy Time bonus.
Round 1: Landed on 2. Won €2. Round 2: Cash Hunt bonus! Won €7.20 after picking my multiplier. Round 3: Number 1. Break even. Round 4: Pachinko! This is the good one. Landed on 8x, won €8.00. Round 5: Number 5. Won €5. Round 6-8: Three 1s in a row. Back to €4.
Ending Position: €12.40 (€2.40 profit)
Crazy Time is pure entertainment. Not the best for grinding profit, but the dopamine hits are unmatched.
Slot 8: Reactoonz (Play'n GO) **Running Total: €108.00 | Slot Budget: €10**
Cluster pays slot with cute aliens. Different mechanics from the standard stuff.
The Session: Reactoonz is weird. You need big clusters to fill the meter, which then unleashes special features. It takes AGES for anything significant to happen.
Spin 30: Finally filled one meter level. Decent cascade for €4.60. Spin 47: Gargantoon feature triggered! Big alien stomps around, creates wilds. Paid €11.20!
Ending Position: €14.80 (€4.80 profit)
Reactoonz requires patience but rewards it. Just expect a lot of nothing before the good stuff.
Slot 9: Jammin' Jars (Push Gaming) **Running Total: €112.80 | Slot Budget: €10**
Similar cluster mechanics to Reactoonz, but with disco jam jars instead of aliens.
The Session: The jam jars bounce around as multipliers when they're part of a win. In theory, incredible. In practice today... not so much.
One jar consistently avoided every cluster. The other sat in a corner doing nothing. No feature triggered in 50 spins.
Ending Position: €2.40 remaining (€7.60 loss)
My worst result. Jammin' Jars giveth and Jammin' Jars taketh away. Today it definitely took.
Slot 10: Dead or Alive 2 (NetEnt) **Running Total: €105.20 | Slot Budget: €10**
Finishing with a cult classic. Dead or Alive 2 is famous for its "go big or go home" volatility.
The Session: This slot is terrifying on a €10 budget. Long stretches of absolutely nothing.
Spin 46: Finally. FREE SPINS. Chose the High Noon Saloon feature (balanced volatility).
The feature started slow but then—sticky wild. Then another. Screen ended with 4 sticky wilds with multipliers. Final payout: €18.60!
Ending Position: €20.60 (€10.60 profit)
Dead or Alive 2 delivered when it mattered. But I genuinely thought I was toast around spin 40.
The Final Results
Starting Bankroll: €100 Ending Bankroll: €125.80 Net Profit: €25.80 (+25.8%)
Breakdown by Slot: - Sweet Bonanza: +€25.40 ⭐ Best performer - Dead or Alive 2: +€10.60 - Reactoonz: +€4.80 - Crazy Time: +€2.40 - Gates of Olympus: -€2.40 - Starburst: -€1.60 - Book of Dead: -€3.80 - Big Bass Bonanza: -€5.20 - Gonzo's Quest Megaways: -€6.80 - Jammin' Jars: -€7.60 ⚠️ Worst performer
What I Actually Learned
1. Variance is Real: I came out ahead, but it could have easily gone the other way. Sweet Bonanza carried my entire session—without that €31 free spins hit, I'd be underwater.
2. Budget Per Game Matters: €10 is genuinely not enough for high-volatility slots like Dead or Alive 2 or Gonzo's Quest. The variance can destroy you before features trigger.
3. Entertainment Value Varies Wildly: Crazy Time was the most FUN, even though it wasn't the most profitable. Sometimes entertainment value matters more than pure RTP.
4. Low Volatility Has Its Place: Starburst was the most consistent. If you want longer sessions without wild swings, low-volatility slots are genuinely solid choices.
5. Never Trust a Single Session: This is ONE challenge. Run it again tomorrow and the results could be completely different. That's gambling.
Would I Do This Again?
Absolutely. But with better planning—higher budget per high-volatility slot, and maybe skip the ones I know need bigger bankrolls.
The honest truth? I got lucky. Sweet Bonanza saved me. If that €31 hit hadn't happened, this article would have a very different tone.
That's gambling, lads. Sometimes you're the lucky one. Sometimes you're the guy in the comment section saying "rigged!"
Stay smart. Set limits. And remember—it's entertainment, not income.
Seán out. 🍀
#slots#challenge#bankroll#pragmatic-play#reviews#ireland
Seán Kelly
Entertainment & Social Content Creator
TikTok-famous casino content creator bringing Irish humour to online gaming.
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