Joker Rush PowerPlay Jackpot Slot by Playtech

The purple panel down the left is what separates this from Playtech's other Joker machines. Three network progressives sit stacked on it, Mega, Peak and Mini PowerPlay, shared across the whole PowerPlay Jackpot range and paid in real cash off a random trigger that can fire on any spin. The catch in the free demo is blunt, all three read UNAVAILABLE, so there is nothing to chase for fun money. The base game tops out at 1,000x your bet on its own, and the progressives pile on above that in real play, though their pools drift up and down and never settle on a fixed figure.

The grinning green-eyed Joker in his red-and-gold crown carries most of the game. He substitutes for every symbol, he ties the red 7 as the top payer, and three or more of him anywhere sets off the Free Games. There is no separate scatter, the Joker is the only key in. Three, four or five of them hand out 6, 8 or 12 spins.

Then the freezing starts. Every Wild that lands sticks where it drops and stays put for the rest of the session, so Jokers accumulate across the reels spin after spin. And when a fresh Wild falls on a spot already holding a frozen one, it pays 3 more free games, so a good round keeps feeding itself. Stack Wilds on Wilds often enough and the counter barely moves.

The setting is a high-roller card room in bold red and gold. Deep-crimson walls carry a faint pattern of the four suits, the floor is a glossy red, and the reels sit inside a heavy gold border above it. Symbols keep the old fruit-machine-meets-cards mix, glowing red 7s, gold BAR, BAR BAR and BAR BAR BAR plates, stacked gold ingots, and jewel-cut hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. Want the fruit-and-coins version of the name instead? Joker Rush: Cash Collect is the same branding on a completely different coin-collecting engine. No bonus buy and no ante here, so those Jokers have to turn up on their own.