Begin with the problem that spoils most conversations at the bar. A reader rings a pub in the Barossa, asks whether they have a particular game, is told yes, drives over, and finds a cabinet carrying that name whose features are not the ones they came for. Nobody lied. Manufacturers release games in families: a successful title spawns versions, sequels, cabinet variants and regional editions that share the brand and differ in the detail that actually matters — how the feature triggers, what the feature does, and which jackpots the machine is attached to.
A name is not a game
So when a title has a suffix, the suffix is not decoration. It is the part that distinguishes one set of rules from another, and a family name on its own identifies roughly what you are looking for in the way that "a Holden" identifies roughly which car. Families built around hold-and-spin mechanics are the clearest case, because the brand is the mechanic and the individual games inside it differ considerably.
There is a second layer. Two cabinets running what is genuinely the same game can still behave differently if they are configured differently, and configuration is a matter between the venue, its gaming supplier and the regulator rather than anything published. That is why this guide describes mechanics and does not promise you what is installed anywhere.
Free spins
The most common feature in the room. A combination of trigger symbols awards a set number of spins that do not take money from the credit meter, usually with something altered during the sequence — extra wilds, a multiplier applied to wins, symbols removed from the reels, or an expanded playing area.
Three details separate versions of the same game. How many spins are awarded, and whether the number scales with how many trigger symbols landed. Whether the sequence can retrigger, extending itself from inside. And what the modification during the sequence actually is, which is the whole value of the feature and the thing paytables describe least clearly. One practical note: a feature in progress generally must finish before a machine will let you cash out, which matters if you are working to a leaving time.
Hold and spin, lock and respin
The mechanic that has dominated Australian gaming rooms for a decade. Special symbols, often cash-value symbols, land and stick in place; you are given a small number of respins of the remaining positions; and every new special symbol that lands both adds itself to the total and resets the respin counter. The sequence ends when the respins run out, or when every position is filled.
It is a tidy design because the tension is visible — you can see how close the grid is to full — and because the player does nothing except press the button, so it reads as suspense rather than decision. Different families attach different things to a filled grid, and some tie the top outcome to a linked jackpot. Two of the better-known families are covered on our Lightning Link and Dragon Link pages.
Wilds, scatters and multipliers
These three words do most of the work on a paytable, and they are frequently mixed up.
| Term | What it does | What changes between versions |
|---|---|---|
| Wild | Substitutes for other symbols to complete a winning combination. | Which symbols it can replace, and whether it appears on all reels. |
| Expanding wild | Fills its whole reel, or a block of positions, once it lands. | Whether it expands always or only during a feature. |
| Scatter | Pays or triggers from anywhere on screen, without needing to sit on a line. | How many are needed, and whether three, four or five give different awards. |
| Multiplier | Multiplies a win, a feature total or a whole sequence. | Where it applies, whether it accumulates, and its size. |
The distinction worth holding on to is between a scatter, which ignores the geometry of the game entirely, and every other symbol, which has to land in the right place. How that geometry works — lines, ways and clusters — is the subject of paylines and ways, and games built on very large numbers of combinations have their own page on the Megaways mechanic.
Gamble steps and bonus wheels
A gamble option, where offered, lets you stake a win just collected on a further event — commonly a red-or-black or a suit choice — with the win doubled or multiplied if you call it and lost if you do not. It is one of the few genuine decisions on a gaming machine, and it is the single fastest way to turn a result into nothing. Whether it exists at all varies by game and by configuration.
Bonus wheels are a different thing: a wheel is spun, usually to allocate a prize or to decide which jackpot level you are playing for, and the outcome is determined the same way every other outcome is determined. Watching the wheel slow down is animation, not a process still being decided, as described on our page about random number generators.
Linked and standalone jackpots
A standalone jackpot belongs to one machine and grows from play on that machine alone. A linked jackpot is shared across a group of machines — sometimes a bank in one room, sometimes a wider arrangement — so it grows from everybody's play and can be won from any machine in the link. The visible sign above a bank of cabinets usually shows the current amounts.
Two things to be clear about. Eligibility can depend on how you are betting, and the conditions are stated on the machine rather than invented by staff — read them before assuming you are in the running. And South Australian law caps the prize a single machine may pay for one spin, as well as the stake it may accept for one spin; both ceilings sit in the Gaming Machines Act 1992, both are the same in every pub and club in the state, and we print neither amount here. Confirm the current figures with Consumer and Business Services SA, not with an article. We publish no jackpot amounts for any venue either, for the same reason: they are not ours to report. The mechanics of linked prizes are set out on our linked jackpot page.
How to ask so the answer is useful
Angaston has two hotels on Murray Street, at numbers 59 and 41, and both list gaming without publishing what is installed. If a specific game is the reason you are driving in — over from Nuriootpa, or down from Eden Valley — the phone call is worth making, and the form of the question decides whether the answer is worth anything.
Give the full title including any suffix, year or edition on the artwork. Say which feature you are after, in the room's own words: the hold-and-spin version, the one with the wheel, the one on the linked sign. Ask whether it is on the floor now rather than whether they have it, because machines get swapped. And accept that a staff member may not know the answer with certainty, which is a fair response rather than an unhelpful one. A family worth knowing by name before you ring, because it has spawned a great many versions, is More Chilli.
Only adults may be in a South Australian gaming area. Features make a game more entertaining; they do not improve the odds, and no feature produces a guaranteed result. If gambling is causing difficulty for you or for someone you know, Gambling Help Online is free and open every hour of the day on 1800 858 858.
What this page does not pin down
The feature descriptions above are general to the mechanics as manufacturers implement them, which is why they are written without attaching a figure to anything. The statutory per-spin stake and prize ceilings are in the Gaming Machines Act 1992, with the current amounts held by Consumer and Business Services SA. Not included, because no citable source exists for it: which games or jackpot links are present at either Angaston venue, any trigger frequency, any jackpot amount, and the configuration of any individual cabinet. Those are questions for the venue on the day. Reviewed 10 October 2026.