Empty the Bank™ slot review

By Pragmatic Play

Empty the Bank™ Basic info

Game provider Pragmatic Play

Release Date 7/2021

RTP 94.48%

Game Technology HTML5

Popularity Low

Min bet $0.20

Max bet $100

Max Win bet x 10000

Gamble Feature Volatility, Min. bet, Supplier, Mobile version, Buy bonus game

Layout 5x4

Devices Support all devices

Configurable Winlines No

Volatility High

Progressive Jackpot No

Will you be choosing a life of crime for a chance to Empty The Bank and live off your riches? Then get ready for the burglary of the century with this 5-reel, 4-column slot with 20 paylines developed by Pragmatic Play and released in time for the summer of 2021.

This game feels and plays like many of the Pragmatic Play games. The design is kind of cheeky and despite being set in the darkest of nights, the slot is vibrant and colourful. This game also comes with an ante feature where you can increase your bet by 0.25x to increase the chance to enter the bonus round. It also has the possibility to buy into the bonus round directly.

Symbols

High-paying symbols take the shape of jewels and money whilst silver card suits are used for the low-paying symbols.

The symbols, from highest to the lowest consist of:

  • The scatter tile will only appear on reels 1, 3 and 5. With 3 scatters the Empty the Bank respin feature is triggered.
  • The Wild tile is our thief protagonist. The wild substitutes for all symbols bar the scatter.
  • The jewelled crown yields 20x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
  • The bag of jewels yields 10x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
  • The gold bar and the stash of cash yield 5x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
  • The gold coins yield 4x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
  • The Ace and King symbols yield 3x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.
  • The Queen and Jack symbols yield 2x with 5-of-a-kind on a payline.

During the base game, you might see the thief run through the reels. When this happens, the next spin will mostly feature high-paying values and wilds.

Features

  • Empty the Bank respins

Hitting 3 scatter symbols will trigger the Empty the Bank respin feature. Here, the base game reels are replaced with a 4×5 grid (which has a chance to increase in size to 6×7). During this feature, only special symbols will be shown on the grid.

At the start of the respin feature, 3 money symbols with a random value will be placed on the grid. Symbols can only land on open positions within the grid. You start with 3 respins but these are present whenever a symbol lands on an open position. The round ends either when the respins end or the grid is full of special symbols.

The special symbols are:

  • The Money symbol can take a random value between 1x and 10x of the total bet.
  • The Alarm awards 1x and will increase the number of respins from 3 to 4.
  • The Walkie Talkie lands with either a 1x or 2x value. It then adds this value to all the symbols in play on every single respin that happens.
  • The Drill will open up the closed safes on reel 1.
  • The Computer will double all money symbols on the screen and also awards 1x.
  • The Hammer will open up the closed safes on reel 7.
  • The Burglar will collect all the money symbols on the grid in one tile freeing it for more symbols to land. The computer and walkie talkie symbols don’t affect the burglar amount.
  • The Ladder opens up row 5 of closed safes, and row 6 when it lands a second time. It also awards 1x to the total win.
  • The Safe Door awards 1x. If 3 of these land on the grid it will open the vault and award the max win of 10,000x.
  • Ante Bet

This game gives the player the possibility to increase the bet by 0.25x for the game to produce more bonus symbols for a chance to enter the Empty the Bank respin feature naturally.

  • Buy Respin Round

For those of us who have little patience, there is a chance to buy straight into the bonus feature. This costs 80x your bet. However, this feature might not be available in some countries.

Conclusion

At first glance, Empty the Bank feels like a Pragmatic Play slot. But enter the bonus round and you find quite an interesting and original mechanic at play. Of course, you will find the signature high variance at play here and there is an RTP of 96.48% on the table. Note that this RTP is slightly reduced to 96.44% when buying in the bonus round.

So this game will feel brutal at times, and rather than emptying the bank, you may see your balance being emptied. However, with such risk, there is also a 10,000x max win reward. This can happen in both the base game and the bonus game. If 3 chests are found in the Empty the Bank respin feature the 10,000x reward is given out and all other features are forfeited.

The bonus itself is very similar to Relax Gaming’s Money Train 2 but it does put a few other things in the mix. The bonus is also highly volatile and when I paid into it I only managed to get my money back 4 times out of the 12. To be fair, on one occasion I won a neat 444x (so the 80x buy-in was well worth it).

Entering the bonus game from the base game can be a little tricky but it isn’t too rare. When I did, I was rewarded with a 230x win. So this game does come with very high volatility and I would advise novice players to get a feel for it by demoing it. Experienced players will no doubt love the rise of BPMs the bonus round will bring with it.

Leticia Miranda

Leticia Miranda

Slot Games Analyst

Leticia Miranda is a former gambling reporter who knows everything about slot games and is happy to share her knowledge. She has covered a broad swath of topics and trends on gambling and is always full of new ideas and energy. Leticia also has a master’s degree in journalism from New York University and is passionate about writing.