Windy City

Windy City Slot Review

A Chicago street after dark: marquees lit in rows of bulbs, a vintage car nosed up to the kerb, a tall neon sign spelling the city’s name up the side of a brick tower. Windy City’s most interesting feature isn’t on the reels at all. It’s the card duel that follows every win, and its odds shift with every card the Dealer turns over.

Endorphina have kept the machine itself lean: a 5×3 grid with 10 paylines, two features, and a 98.05% RTP that sits comfortably above what most slots return. The studio’s catalogue leans towards these spare classics elsewhere too, in titles like 100 Zombies and Chance Machine 5.

The free spins are modest by modern standards. The gamble is anything but, and on this street it’s the cards that are worth staying out late for.

Symbols and Paylines

Windy City is a five-reel, three-row slot with 10 fixed paylines. Winning combinations need matching symbols on enabled paylines, on adjacent reels from the leftmost, and only the highest win on each line is paid. Wins on different lines are added together.

The fedora-wearing gangster is the wild, substituting for every symbol except the BONUS car, and he’s the richest symbol in the game, paying from just two of a kind. The top four symbols all pay for a pair, which is a small mercy on a ten-line layout, where the royals pay only from three of a kind upwards.

All paytable values below are multiples of the total bet, so a five-of-a-kind flapper at 100x returns 100 times your stake rather than 100 times a single line bet. That distinction matters on a game with ten lines in play, and it’s worth holding in mind when comparing these figures against line-based slots that quote per-line values.

• Wild gangster: 2 pays 1x, 3 pays 10x, 4 pays 100x, 5 pays 500x
• Flapper woman: 2 pays 0.5x, 3 pays 5x, 4 pays 20x, 5 pays 100x
• Gangster with gun: 2 pays 0.5x, 3 pays 2.5x, 4 pays 10x, 5 pays 50x
• Whisky crate: 2 pays 0.5x, 3 pays 1.5x, 4 pays 7.5x, 5 pays 25x
• A, K, Q: 3 pays 1x, 4 pays 4x, 5 pays 15x
• J, 10: 3 pays 0.5x, 4 pays 2x, 5 pays 10x

The premium cast is drawn straight from the era: the flapper and the blue-suited gangster lead the pays, with the whisky crate carrying contraband value beneath them. Card royals fill the lower rungs, which is standard for a ten-line layout. Note the gap between the wild and everything else: five wilds pay 500x, five flappers pay 100x, and a full line of wilds is worth five times the game’s next best result.

Free Games

Three BONUS symbols trigger 10 Free Games. The BONUS is a scatter, so it counts in any position on the reels, though it only appears on reels one, three and five. Landing all three therefore takes something of a precise draw.

The twist is what BONUS does once the round starts: during Free Games it substitutes for all symbols, turning the trigger symbol into a full wild. That puts three extra wild-capable positions into play on the odd-numbered reels for the duration.

Those three reels are exactly where a leftmost-pays game wants wilds, too. With wins counted from the left, a stacked wild on reel one can complete lines for every premium symbol at once, and the wild-capable positions on reels three and five can bridge gaps in the middle and at the far end of a combination.

Free Games run at the same bets and lines as the triggering spin, and the round can be won again while it’s active. The number of spins a retrigger adds isn’t fixed in print, but the mechanism is there whenever another three BONUS symbols land. The base frame and its chasing gold bulbs stay exactly as they were; only the symbols change behaviour.

The Risk Game

After a win, the Risk Game offers a classic card duel: four face-down cards on the table, and you pick one to try to beat the Dealer’s card. Win and your prize doubles, with up to 10 attempts in total. Lose any round and the entire staked amount is gone.

The Joker beats every other card, and the Dealer can never hold one. A draw leaves your winnings unchanged and lets you take another pick. TAKE WIN collects at any point, which matters, because the odds shift with every card the Dealer shows.

The expected return for a Risk Game round depends entirely on the Dealer’s card. If you take the risk regardless of what’s showing, the round averages 84%. Against specific Dealer cards it runs as follows:

• Dealer shows 2: 162% return
• Dealer shows 3: 121% return
• Dealer shows 4: 113% return
• Dealer shows 5: 101% return
• Dealer shows 6, 7 or 8: 100% return
• Dealer shows 9: 92% return
• Dealer shows 10: 78% return
• Dealer shows Jack: 69% return
• Dealer shows Queen: 66% return
• Dealer shows King: 64% return
• Dealer shows Ace: 42% return

That spread is the most interesting maths in the game. Doubling against a 2 or 3 is a genuinely good bet; doubling against an Ace is close to setting fire to the ticket. Everything between those extremes is a reading exercise, and the TAKE WIN button is there for the cards that don’t read well.

Because a drawn card of equal value counts as a push rather than a loss, the low Dealer cards are better than they first appear. Half the deck beats nothing and ties instead, which is why the return against a 2 climbs past 160%.

Our Honest Verdict

Overall Rating: 7.6/10

Windy City plays like a night on a quiet street: ten tidy lines, a strong wild, and long stretches where the bulbs do the entertaining. The reason to sit down at this particular table is the gamble, because it’s one of the few card duels where the right answer genuinely changes with every card the Dealer shows.

Its strength is that Risk Game, which rewards patience and punishes greed in a way most slots never attempt. Its weakness is the free games round: scatters turning wild is a nice idea, but there’s no multiplier and nothing to build towards, so the feature passes without leaving much behind.

This one suits players who enjoy a well-made classic and a gamble worth thinking about between wins. Anyone chasing escalating bonus rounds will find the streets here too calm for their taste.

Windy City FAQs

• What is the RTP of Windy City?

  Windy City runs at 98.05% RTP in its default configuration, well above the industry average.
• How do you trigger the Free Games in Windy City?

  You need three BONUS symbols anywhere on the reels. The BONUS is a scatter, so it counts in any position, but it only lands on reels 1, 3 and 5.
• What do BONUS symbols do during Free Games?

  During Free Games, BONUS symbols substitute for all symbols, effectively acting as extra wilds on reels 1, 3 and 5.
• Can Free Games be retriggered in Windy City?

  Yes. Free Games are played with the same bets and lines as the triggering spin and can be won again during the feature.
• How does the Risk Game work in Windy City?

  After a win you can pick one of four face-down cards to beat the Dealer’s card. Each win doubles your prize, with up to 10 attempts. Losing any round forfeits the staked winnings, and TAKE WIN collects at any point. The Joker beats all cards and the Dealer can never receive one.
• Is the Risk Game in Windy City worth taking?

  It depends on the Dealer’s card. The expected return is 84% if you always take the risk, but it ranges from 162% against a 2 down to 42% against an Ace, so the odds favour doubling against low cards and collecting against high ones.
• What happens if my card matches the Dealer’s in the Risk Game?

  Matching the Dealer’s card is a draw, not a loss. Your winnings stay unchanged and you can take another attempt at doubling.
• When is Windy City released?

  Windy City’s release date is 14 April 2020.