Around The World Slot Review
Pale blue columns stand on the left, a stepped pyramid sits in the dark on the right, palm fronds crowd the bottom corner and a starry purple sky fills the space behind the frame. Around The World stages its reels as a night-time tour of world landmarks, and the glossy painterly art commits to the postcard fully.
Endorphina have built a 5×3, 9-payline game on that tour, running at a 98.03% RTP that clears almost anything else on the shelf. The travel theme runs deeper than the backdrop, too: the free games round hands its multiplier to a compass, and a card gamble sits behind every win. It shares a busy catalogue with Book Of Vlad, Joker Ra and Fruletta, all of them classic-reel slot making in the same tradition.
The Base Game and Its Paytable
This is a straight 5-reel, 3-row game with 9 paylines, paying for combinations of a kind. Stake limits aren’t stated, so the numbers below are multiples of the total bet rather than the line bet. The symbol ladder is a world tour in miniature.
It runs from the Great Wall and the Taj Mahal at the top down through the Colosseum, a Pyramid and a Moai statue to the royals, with a Sphinx-styled Wild and a Scatter alongside them.
- Great Wall / Taj Mahal: 0.2222x for two, 2.7778x for three, 13.8889x for four, 83.3333x for five
- Colosseum: 2.2222x for three, 11.1111x for four, 44.4444x for five
- Pyramid / Moai Statue: 1.6667x for three, 8.3333x for four, 27.7778x for five
- A / K: 1.1111x for three, 5.5556x for four, 13.8889x for five
- Q / J / 10 / 9: 0.5556x for three, 2.7778x for four, 11.1111x for five
- Wild: 1.1111x for two, 27.7778x for three, 277.7778x for four, 1,000x for five
- Scatter: 2x for two, 5x for three, 20x for four, 500x for five
The Wild is the richest symbol on the board, out-paying even the landmarks. It substitutes for everything except the Scatter and the special Compass symbol, and any win it helps to complete is doubled.
That doubling is the base game’s main event. It’s what turns an ordinary line hit into something worth watching.
Two Scatters already pay 2x the total bet, and the count climbs fast from there, which softens the wait for the feature. The rest of the base game is unhurried line-hitting: landmark symbols, royals, and the Sphinx Wild drifting in to finish combinations. Auto Spins is on hand for stretches of quiet play, with a stop button if the reels start behaving.
Free Games and the Compass Multiplier
Free Games
Land three or more Scatter symbols and the game awards 15 Free Games. The round plays out on the same bets and lines as the triggering spin, and more Free Games can be won while it runs. Retriggers add spins and nothing else: the multiplier in play stays exactly as it was.
The Variable Multiplier
Before the first free spin, a compass indicator above the reels randomly selects one of four multipliers: x2, x3, x4 or x5. Every win during the round is multiplied by that number. The indicator stays on screen until the free games finish.
The Compass Symbol
A special Compass symbol can land during the feature, and only on the third reel. Each appearance nudges the multiplier one step clockwise around the indicator, so a round that begins at x2 has a route up to x5 if the symbol keeps arriving. Because the Compass is confined to a single reel, one spin can advance the multiplier by one step at most. It’s the game’s only piece of escalation, and it lives entirely inside the bonus.
The Risk Game
After any win, the game offers a card gamble. Four cards are dealt face down; pick one, and if it beats the Dealer’s card, the win is doubled and you can go again, up to 10 attempts in total.
Lose any round and the whole gamble is gone. A card of equal value is a draw: the winnings don’t change and another attempt is allowed. The Joker beats every other card, and the Dealer can never be dealt one. TAKE WIN banks the lot and quits at any point.
The clever part is that the return depends on what the Dealer is showing. Against a weak Dealer card the gamble is strongly in your favour; against a strong one it’s a trap. Round by round, the Dealer’s card makes the difference:
- Dealer 2: 162% return on the round
- Dealer 3: 121%
- Dealer 4: 113%
- Dealer 5: 101%
- Dealer 6, 7 or 8: 100%
- Dealer 9: 92%
- Dealer 10: 78%
- Dealer J: 69%
- Dealer Q: 66%
- Dealer K: 64%
- Dealer A: 42%
Taken blindly on every card regardless of the Dealer, the average return is 84%, which makes always-gambling a slow way to hand money back. The numbers point to the strategy on their own: press weak Dealer cards, collect against strong ones. Cards can reappear from round to round and the dealing probabilities aren’t evenly distributed, so the table above is an average, not a promise on any single pick.
Our Honest Verdict
Overall Rating: 7.7/10
Around The World is a classic 9-liner wearing a travel brochure, and it plays like one: patient line hits, the occasional doubled wild win, long stretches where the reels tick over quietly. The base game is old-school slot making with no moving parts beyond the wild doubling, and the art carries it further than the maths alone would.
The free games supply the character. Fifteen spins with a compass multiplier that can work its way from x2 to x5 gives a plain game somewhere to go, and retriggers at a locked multiplier are a fair structure even if they never escalate. The Risk Game is the strongest piece of design here: a dealer-dependent gamble where the choice actually changes the return rather than a coin flip.
No maximum win is stated for the game, and the free games multiplier and the Risk Game’s repeated doubling can both push wins past the base paytable’s 1,000x top line on the Wild. For anyone who likes a straightforward, generous classic with a gamble worth thinking about, the return does the persuading on its own. Pack light, take the tour, and mind the Dealer’s ace.
Around The World FAQs
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What is the RTP of Around The World?
Around The World runs at an RTP of 98.03%, well above the industry average for online slots. The Risk Game gamble has its own separate return of 84% if you take the risk on every card regardless of what the Dealer shows. -
How many paylines does Around The World have?
Around The World is a 5-reel, 3-row slot with 9 paylines. All prizes are for combinations of a kind on those lines. -
What is the grid size of Around The World?
The game plays on a 5×3 grid: five reels and three rows, with 9 fixed paylines. -
How do you trigger the Free Games in Around The World?
You need Scatter symbols: three or more of them award 15 Free Games. The feature then runs on the same bets and lines as the spin that triggered it, and landing more Scatters while it plays adds further Free Games. -
What does the Compass symbol do in Around The World?
The Compass appears only on the third reel, and only during Free Games. Each one advances the round’s multiplier to the next value clockwise on the indicator, giving a round that opens at x2 a path up to x5. -
Does the Free Games multiplier change when the round retriggers?
No. Free Games won again during the feature add spins only, and the multiplier chosen before the first spin holds until the round finishes. The Compass symbol is the sole way the multiplier moves. -
How does the Risk Game gamble work in Around The World?
After a win you can pick one of four face-down cards. Beat the Dealer and your win doubles, with up to 10 attempts available. Any lost round forfeits the winnings, while matching the Dealer leaves them untouched for another try. No Joker can ever appear on the Dealer side. TAKE WIN collects and exits. -
Who makes Around The World?
Around The World is made by Endorphina. Its release date is 28 April 2021.
