21 Wilds Slot Review: larger wins possible than real Blackjack

One of the most popular table games meets a set of slot reels on 21 Wilds, a creation from Bovada Gaming. The studio is owned by the Bodog Group that is tasked with developing proprietary games exclusively for its own casino brands, such as Slots.lv, Ignition Casino and Café Casino.

Blackjack derives from a medieval card game called Twenty-One that was first mentioned around the turn of the 17th century. Once it made its way to the United States, it faced an uphill battle to become an equal to the favored poker card games.

To help promote it, gambling house owners would offer bonuses for hitting specific card combinations. One of them was a two-card hand consisting of an Ace of Spades and a black Jack of either suit. They called the hand ‘blackjack,’ and voila, the name was born. Little did they know that the game would advance to become one of the worldwide favorites at casinos everywhere.

21 Wilds Features Blackjack-Inspired Elements

Overview and Design

With 21 Wilds, Bovada Gaming decided to take on the challenge of combining Blackjack with a slot machine.

The game has five reels, three rows, and nine fixed pay lines. Wins are awarded for two to five matching symbols on a line, and both ways from left to right and from right to left, basically doubling your chances to hit a win. However, a five of a kind will not be paid both ways.

Providing the excitement and suspense on the reels are a Winning Multiplier that will increase gradually on consecutive losing spins, a bonus game with an instant cash prize, and a free spins round. The slot does not have a gamble option as on other creations from this studio where you could double your winnings. Making it suitable for low and high rollers alike, the designers set the betting range from $0.09 to $135 per spin.

Open the game to find a typical green Blackjack table in the background of a semi-translucent game window with a metallic frame. Naturally, card royals and suits together with a Blackjack hand feature prominently on the reels while a rock ‘n’ roll soundtrack together with the usual reel and win count noises keep things lively and probably leave some players tip-toeing through their gaming session.

The pay symbols can appear stacked on all reels and include the card royals from 10 through to A at the low end. Line up five on a spin to win 3.33 to 6.67 times your stake, paid both ways. They are followed by the card suits – red hearts, black clubs, red diamonds and black spades. Wins for a single five of a kind range from 6.67 to 11.11 times your bet. A Blackjack hand with Ace and Jack is the top-paying symbol awarding 13.33 times the stake.

21 Wilds has three special symbols that will either help building winning combinations or trigger the bonus features. A sunflower icon marked with Blackjack is the wild symbol, substituting for all regular pay symbols except bonus symbols and scatters. A pile of casino chips acts as the scatter while a golden treasure chest is the bonus symbol.

21 Wilds Win Multiplier

The simple line pays are not that attractive as they peak at just over 13x the stake for hitting five top symbols on a line. This can change quickly though when the Winning Multiplier comes into play. A display on top of the game window will indicate the progress from x2 to x4, x8, and a big x16 multiplier.

The multiplier will double for every two consecutive losing spins. For example, having four non-winning spins in a row will result in a x4 multiplier. The next win to strike will be multiplied by the currently displayed multiplier after which it will reset to the default x1.

21 Wilds Winning Round With 16x Multiplier Active

Worth noting is the fact that progress on the multiplier meter is bet sensitive. Any progress is stored for the current bet size, and changing it will restart the advance. It will keep the accrued multiplier until you return to the same bet size. Hence, it won’t help to wait on a small bet size for the multiplier to increase and then quickly change to a higher bet to potentially benefit from the built-up multiplier.

Nevertheless, this feature can have quite an impact on your winnings. The pay for a five of a kind Blackjack symbols will increase from 13.33x the bet to a huge 213.33x bet with the x16 multiplier. The good news is that it is active in both the main game and in the free spin rounds too.

21 Wilds Bonus Game

The next chance to hit sizable wins comes in the pick-me bonus game. To trigger it, you will need to hit three fortune chest symbols anywhere on the reels in one spin.

The screen will darken, and the three chests will move into the center of the screen. You can make now one pick to reveal an instant cash prize from 5x to 50x your total stake.

Any active multiplier on the meter will not apply to the winnings from the bonus game, which is rather disappointing because it could otherwise have been quite a suspenseful moment in the gameplay to trigger the bonus game on a high multiplier. To make matters worse, any active multiplier will be reset after the bonus game.

21 Wilds Free Spins Feature

The third and final feature on this slot is the free spins round. Landing at least three scatters anywhere on the reels in one spin will award five free spins and a payout of 2x your stake. The free spins can be retriggered indefinitely. There are no extra modifiers available during the feature; however, the Winning Multiplier is active potentially multiplying your wins.

21 Wilds Mobile Play

Considering the fast growth in mobile gaming, it comes as no surprise to see virtually all slot creations being adapted for play on the go. The introduction of the HTML5 format has seen the number rise exponentially as it enables developers to release mobile versions of their games which can be played in portrait and landscape mode on smartphones and tablets.

Bovada Gaming has fully embraced the mobile age, and thus, 21 Wilds is available across all Android- and iOS-powered devices.

21 Wilds on Smartphone

21 Wilds Conclusion

If you are looking to take a break from the Blackjack table, 21 Wilds provides a good chance to still beat the dealer with the help of a set of entertaining slot reels. Plus, you can win more than the usual Blackjack payout on a single spin. We estimate the maximum win in one game round to peak around 300 times your bet when you hit a multi-line win with the maximum x16 multiplier.

While the bonus game triggered rather frequently, we found it pretty hard to get a free spins round in our test runs. It may be just the luck of the moment, but we went occasionally well past 300 spins to hit three scatters at the same time. Nevertheless, 21 Wilds proved to be an entertaining slot that can produce big wins when the right combinations land with a high multiplier.

Where to Play

You can play in fun mode if you want to familiarize yourself first with the pay mechanics before committing your valuable funds to the game. Click below to sample 21 Wilds with a free play chip balance.

Though there are but few online casinos that have 21 Wilds within their real money gaming menus, those operators are among the most reputable in the industry. They each serve varying jurisdictions and offer more or fewer types of gaming based upon market demand. Check out our reviews of the following sites where you can enjoy 21 Wilds:

• Ignition Casino (United States and Australia – poker + casino)
• Bovada (United States – poker + casino + sportsbook)
• Bodog (Latin America, Canada – poker + casino + sportsbook)
• Slots.lv (United States and Canada – casino)
• Cafe Casino (United States – casino)
• Joe Fortune (Australia – casino)