How the Wheel of Fortune slot bonus wheels work, version by version

Every online Wheel of Fortune slot pays its main feature through a wheel, but the wheel works differently in each version. In Triple Extreme Spin you pick envelopes that place pointers on three wheels; in On Tour the wheel gains slices as your progress builds across sessions; in Ruby Riches and Hawaiian Getaway the number of live pointers changes; and in Megaways the wheel sets how many ways your free spins start with. The steps below come from the rules files IGT supplies to Borgata Online.

Triple Extreme Spin: envelopes, pointers and three wheels

1. Land three or more Bonus symbols. They appear only on reels 2, 3 and 4.
2. Twelve envelopes appear, and you pick as many as the Bonus symbols that triggered the round. The BetMGM edition’s rules give the example of seven symbols earning seven picks.
3. Each envelope places a pointer on the blue, red or yellow wheel. A wheel holds three pointers at most; a pick for a wheel that is already full pays a fixed amount from the paytable instead.
4. If none of your picks lands on the blue or red wheel, the game awards the center pointer on the red wheel.
5. The wheels spin. Blue and red slices carry credit values; yellow slices carry multipliers.
6. You win the blue and red values under your pointers, plus any fixed amounts from overflow picks, multiplied by the sum of the yellow multipliers under your pointers, times the coin value of the spin that triggered the bonus.

The game’s own description advertises up to seven pointers in the round. Separately, three or more Scatters trigger the Mini Wheel Bonus: each Scatter becomes a small wheel, and the values they stop on are added up and multiplied by the coin value.

On Tour: a wheel that grows with Level Up Plus

Each Bonus scatter in the base game earns one fuel point, and ten points make a fuel tank. Three Bonus scatters on reels 1, 3 and 5 trigger the On Tour Bonus and add one more tank. When the bonus starts, each tank moves the Wheelmobile one stop along a map, and landing on a feature’s stop adds it for good. Then you spin a wheel carrying credit values plus every slice added so far.

Spin to Win is the one place where your choices change the return. Its wheel is evenly weighted, a rejected value is replaced with a 50 slice, and stopping on 50 ends the round. The rules file prints the best play: reject every offer, except that with a 2,000 top award you take a 500 on the fourth or fifth offer, and with a 1,500 top award you take a 500 on the second through fifth offers. All values are multiplied by the coin value.

Ruby Riches and Hawaiian Getaway: more pointers, more prizes

Ruby Riches. The Wheel of Fortune coin on reel 1 and a Treasure Chest on reel 5 start the Wheel Bonus. The game first adds up every coin value on the reels to set the Ca$hLink value. The wheel has seven pointers, and how many are active depends on your bet. Each active pointer pays its slice: a cash prize, the Jackpot, or a 5x, 10x or 20x multiplier on the Ca$hLink value. Several multipliers add together; cash prizes are not multiplied.

Hawaiian Getaway. Six or more Bonus scatters in the base game give one wheel spin with one active pointer. The slice decides the prize: cash, 10 free spins (retriggered by six more scatters, up to 120), a Jackpot Bonus spin for one of five color-coded jackpots, or Pointer Frenzy. Frenzy switches on two to six extra pointers at random and pays everything they hit: cash first, then any Jackpot Bonus, then any free spins.

Megaways: the wheel that sets your ways

1. Three, four, five or six Scatters award 12, 14, 16 or 18 free spins.
2. Each reel starts with four to seven symbols, and the Megaways wheel reveals your starting ways, from 14,000 to 117,649.
3. In free spins only, an Expansion symbol is replaced by two symbols, adding one row to that reel, up to 10.
4. When a reel reaches 10, a Retrigger Wheel adds up to 12 more spins, and a wild on that reel may become a Wild Megastack of ten.

Are the wheel slices equally likely?

Do not judge your chances by slice size. The Ruby Riches rules say the wheel is a graphical animation, not a physical wheel, and that its segments are not equally likely; the Gold Spin Triple Red Hot 7s file says the same. On Tour’s Spin to Win is the exception, stated as evenly weighted. Some states also cap the win on one transaction, and a bonus that reaches the cap ends early.

The bonus is part of each game’s published payback, not extra on top. Compare the figures in RTP and volatility by version, see how each version plays in the base game, or return to the Wheel of Fortune overview.