Barb’s Best Bet: Celebrate The Season With Jingle Spin And Big Wins
It’s getting to feel a lot like Christmas. But along with all of the excitement that the holiday season and anticipation of the big day offer, there’s the stress of planning and preparing for the holiday–shopping, decorating, baking, mailing cards and gifts–you name it.
So how about another activity that will also get you into the Christmas spirit in a big way but is fun, rewarding, and completely stress-free? Barb’s Best Bet is to play the slot game Jingle Spin!
Jingle Spin is NetEnt’s special Christmas spin on the slot game Egg-O-Matic
Have you ever played the NetEnt slot game called Egg-O-Matic? To the right of the reels, there’s a pressure cooker operated by a rooster that randomly dispenses special eggs onto a conveyor belt over the reel farthest the right where the space isn’t already occupied by another egg.
You win the prize that the egg contains when a wild symbol randomly appears on the same reel as the egg. Otherwise, the egg will move along the conveyor belt one reel to the left. This will keep happening until either the player wins the prize or immediately after the spin where the egg is above reel 1, after which the egg disappears. On any given spin, the number of eggs positioned over the reels can range from 0 to 5.
As ridiculous the above may sound, the Egg-O-Matic egg dispenser is not only wildly entertaining (literally) but is a big factor in this game’s 96.48 percent return to player (RTP).
This year, just in time for the holiday season, NetEnt has released Jingle Spin, a Christmas-themed version of this delightful game. There’s not a rooster or egg in sight. But Santa’s chief elf is in the house instead to spin a special wheel, with his five helper elves all lined up at the top of the reels. They’re ready on cue to deliver the special bauble they are holding straight to you.
Jingle Spin basics
Jingle Spin is a new video slot from NetEnt consisting of five reels, three rows, and 20 fixed paylines. In other words, the basic layout is no different from that of hundreds of other slots. What makes this slot unique is the prize wheel to the right of the game window that makes this thrilling slot two games in one.
Every time you make a bet to spin the reels, and on free spins, too, the wheel also spins. Either spin or both can produce a win. You never know what surprise is in store for you next–it might even be a mega-size win!
Special features include a wild symbol, which substitutes for all other symbols and the above-mentioned Bauble Wheel, The two of them together can make you a big winner by gifting you often with extra coin wins, spreading wilds, or free spins.
Jingle Spin does not include a scatter symbol or bonus symbol. There is no progressive jackpot either. But with so much else going on and so many other ways to win, you’ll hardly notice.
What makes the slot game Jingle Spin Barb’s Best Bet of the holiday season
As a NJ online casino player, you can choose from hundreds of slots. In fact, Golden Nugget Online Casino alone, which continues to lead the pack and set new revenue records month after month, currently offers 636 slots and counting.
Having that many slots to choose from is great. But your time and bankroll are precious, so simply picking any random game is not a good idea. That’s where Barb’s Best Bets come in. I put a lot of time and effort into deciding which slots make the cut. I can’t promise you will win playing these games. But besides finding them highly entertaining to play, I can promise that you will get great bang for your buck. That’s because you will be playing some of the best slots that NJ online casinos have to offer. That said, here are the reasons why I selected Jingle Spin as my latest Best Bet.
Christmas theme
Although you can play any online slot game anytime you wish, I think you will agree with me that playing a game with a timely theme adds to the enjoyment. That’s one reason why last December I chose the NetEnt game Secrets of Christmas as my Best Bet and why this year I chose Jingle Spin.
There’s a Christmas tree topped with a star to the left of the reels, while the reels themselves are set inside a window with patches of ice and filled with Christmas tree symbols.
If seeing the brightly decorated Christmas boxes on the reels being filled with gifts being delivered by Santa’s elves doesn’t make you feel like a child again and embrace the magic of the season, I don’t know what will.
Special features galore
This game is packed with special features like a wild symbol, spreading wilds, and free spins. An upbeat soundtrack and brightly colored symbols of the season create a festive mood without distracting you from the nonstop action taking place on the screen.
Wide enough betting range to appeal to most players
The minimum bet per spin is only 20 cents, while the maximum is $200.
Created by NetEnt, a name you can trust
It is no coincidence that many of the slots designated as Barb’s Best Bets come from NetEnt. And if you have been playing NJ online slots for a while, I wouldn’t be surprised if some of your favorite games are from NetEnt as well.
What makes NetEnt slots consistently superior is that they utilize the latest in cutting edge online slot technology while remaining steadfast in their commitment to quality. This translates into games that are not only highly entertaining but give you an excellent chance to win.
Exceptionally high Return to Player (RTP)
The huge number of games in the NetEnt collection, representing a wide variety of themes, with new offerings like Jingle Spin being continually developed, assures NJ slot players, whatever their personal tastes and preferences may be, there’s something for everyone. But one important feature that remains constant for all NetEnt slots is an exceptionally high RTP. Every NetEnt slot has at an RTP of at least 96 percent, which is also the minimum RTP I look for in deciding if the game is a potential Best Bet. Jingle Spin has an RTP of 96.48 percent (just like Egg-O-Matic, the game it was patterned after).
Of course, after any given session, the amount of money you end up with compared to what you started out with might vary considerably from the theoretical 96.48 percent rate of return in either direction. But over the long run, you are far better off playing slots with a high RTP than those with an average or below average RTP.
The game’s medium volatility is another attractive feature. On the one hand, wins aren’t so few and far between that players face a strong possibility of depleting their bankroll. On the other hand, the variance is just enough to keep the action exciting.
Which NJ online casinos offer Jingle Spin?
Even though NetEnt didn’t even release Jingle Spin until Nov. 29, 2019, finding a place to play it in New Jersey should be easy. Many NJ gambling websites grabbed it right away so that you can spin and win to your heart’s content at the time of year that this slot game is especially intended for–the Christmas holiday season.
You can play Jingle Spin online or on your mobile device at any of the following NJ online casinos:
Jingle Spin symbols
Regular symbols
Jingle Spin includes 10 regular pay symbols, The higher paying symbols consist of various Christmas tree decorations–pinecones, reindeer, bells, oranges with a cinnamon stick, and red and gold baubles.
The lower paying symbols are the playing cards 10 through Ace.
Winning combinations are formed in the usual manner. You need three or more like symbols to line up on adjacent reels horizontally or diagonally starting with the reel farthest to the left.
The payout for five matching symbols in a row ranges from 2.5X your bet 50X your bet if you’re lucky enough to get five red and gold baubles in a row.
Wild symbol
A Christmas gift box with a red bow is the game’s wild symbol. As such, it substitutes for all other symbols and helps to form or add to winning combinations.
But in this game, the wild symbol has an even bigger function. Each time a spin of the Bauble Wheel sends a prize-containing bauble over to the reels, it creates added excitement as you wait with bated breath for what you hope will be a big win.
I don’t want to burst your bubble (or bauble), but you only win when a wild symbol lands on the same reel where the bauble is located. The little elf holding the bauble at the top of the reel then sends it down, and with great fanfare, the gift box is opened and the prize becomes yours! Otherwise, the bauble is worthless—at least on that spin. But the good news is you have up to four more chances to win the prize inside the bauble since with each successive spin, it moves one position to the left.
See the section below on the Jingle Spin Christmas Bauble Wheel for more about the different types of bauble prizes you can win from the spin of the wheel with the help of the wild symbol.
Jingle Spin Christmas Bauble Wheel
Progressive jackpot games attract lots of play because they appeal to every slot player’s dream of a big payday. But the problem is that while chasing after that elusive big jackpot, something has got to give. Much more often than not, it is the rate of other winning combinations.
What Jingle Spin offers instead and keeps the frequency of wins high is a Christmas Bauble Wheel loaded with surprise prizes for Santa’s elves to hand out.
The Jingle Spin Bauble Wheel gives you so many different extra ways to win, it will make your head spin. Each time you spin the reels, the wheel to the right of the reels is spun too. Some of the slots on the wheel are blank (the house has to win sometimes). But whenever the wheel lands on a bauble containing money or another prize, the bauble flies over the top of reel 5.
If a wild symbol shows up on that reel simultaneously, the prize is yours. If not, you still have four more chances to win that prize. The bauble keeps moving one reel to the left with each subsequent spin you take until either a wild symbol shows up on the same reel or the bauble travels unsuccessfully across all five reels and then drops off.
Oh well. Better luck next time. And there will be plenty of next times because with every spin you take, you get a new opportunity for another prize from the spin of the wheel.
On the other hand, you will often have baubles at the top of multiple reels at the same time. As long as a wild symbol shows up simultaneously on at least one of those reels, the elf will release the bauble and place the prize in your gift box.
Types of prizes generated by the wheel
The wins generated by the spin of the wheel are independent of whether or not your own spins produce winning combinations.
The spaces on the wheel contain four different types of colored baubles, as follows:
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Yellow Coin Win Bauble
If a wild symbol lands on the same reel, this bauble will award you with a coin win. The amount can range anywhere from a measly 2.5X your bet up to a thrilling 125X your bet.
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Red Spreading Wild Bauble
If a wild symbol lands on the same reel, the Spreading Wild Bauble will turn all of the symbols adjacent and diagonal to the wild symbol into wild symbols, too, thereby creating more possibilities for winning combinations.
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Green Free Spins Bauble
If a wild symbol lands on the same reel, the Free Spins Bauble will activate the number of free spins displayed on the bauble, which can range from 7 to 50.
Just before the free spins start, four baubles are placed at the top of the reels, and a fifth one is added just after the spin. During all subsequent free spins, a new bauble is placed at the top of the reel farthest to the right.
Another important feature of the free spins round is that unlike in the main game, where several spaces on the Bauble Wheel are blanks, during the free spins, all of the positions contain a bauble. This assures you that a new bauble will appear on the reels for every free spin.
Furthermore, during the free spins the higher value Coin Win Baubles and Spreading Wild Baubles appear on the wheel more often, improving your chances for a huge win. By the way, the free spins can be retriggered if during the free spins, a green bauble lands on top of the same reel as a wild symbol again.
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Rainbow Colored Surprise Bauble
This bauble is a surprise. It could be any of the other three types.
How I fared playing Jingle Spin
Prior to recommending any slot game as a Best Bet on New Jersey Gambling Websites, I play it a few times in demo mode. I don’t necessarily have to win, but I have to enjoy playing and feel I am getting a good run for my money. Here is what happened.
Session 1: $4 per spin, +$29
My results at this betting level were hardly spectacular. But I did finish my session with a small profit. One lucky spin which resulted in 32 free spins (20 initially plus 12 more that I retriggered) did the trick. Prior to the start of the free spins, I was down $225. The 32 spins took a long time, but I won $243 in the process and finished $29 ahead.
Session 3: $200 per spin (maximum bet), + $23,900
I don’t have the kind of bankroll to support this level of play with real money, but as long as I was playing for fun, I decided why not. I also wanted to see if my hunch was right that to win big in this game, you have to be bet big, and was it ever.
Obviously, making bets of this size is not for the faint-hearted. My starting hypothetical bankroll of $5,000 had dwindled to only $2,000 before my luck turned around. That put me about $100 ahead, and I would have ended my session then, except that the incredible happened. I don’t recall exactly what symbols landed on the reels except that were a lot of wild symbols. First, the screen read “Big Win,” then it changed to “Mega Win,” and finally to “Super Mega Win!” I had won $12,800!. But I wasn’t finished because I had also triggered 10 free spins, which gave me another $10,000 in winnings!
Session 4: $4 per spin, + $253
Back to reality. Since I doubt that many players can afford to bet $200 per spin, I decided to give the game another try with hypothetical $4 bets. This time I fared better. Even at my lowest point, I was never more than $100 down. I got a lot of small wins and two larger wins, one $92 and another $54, which is quite respectable in the base game for this bet size. I soon found myself $107 ahead, so it was decision time. Do I quit and pocket my winnings or do I keep playing and hope I trigger the free spins? I opted for the latter. Although I gave most of my winnings from the base game back, my decision to keep playing paid off. I triggered 20 free spins and ended my session $253 ahead.
The bottom line
Even though three sessions only provide a small sample of play to go by, I came away with two conclusions. The first is that while you can bet as little as 20 cents per spin, don’t expect to win much. Even at the $4 bet level, a substantial win is unlikely.
It pays to bet big–if you can afford it
The problem is that you might not trigger the potentially lucrative free spins round for a long time, if at all, and in the meantime, most of your wins in the base game might be so small that they don’t even cover your bet size. If you are betting small amounts, even the higher payouts aren’t great. These results lead me to believe that this is the type of game where you need to bet big to win big.
An adequate bankroll is essential
The second conclusion that I came to is regardless of what your bet size is, being adequately bankrolled is a must. Some experts recommend a bankroll of 200-250X your bet size for three hours of play. I recommend limiting playing sessions to no more than 75 minutes and starting out with at least 75X your bet per spin unless your bet size is large, in which case 50X your bet size should suffice.
What often happens in this game, and it can be very frustrating, are wild symbols landing on reels where there are no baubles or baubles making their way across the reels with no wild symbol landing on the same reel. Either way, you win nothing.
That’s why an adequate bankroll, patience, and sensing when it’s time to quit are all important. As long as you possess these qualities, I recommend that you give Jingle Spin a try. This game will definitely put you in the holiday spirit, and with good luck and good money management, winning big is definitely possible. Alternatively, you can play the game for fun as I did, and it won’t cost you a cent.
THE STATS
- Five reels, 20 fixed paylines
- Bets: 20 cents to $200
- RTP: 96.48 percent
- Maximum payout: $250,000
MORE INFO
- Christmas theme
- Wild symbol
- Bauble Wheel awarding coin wins, expanding wilds, and free spins