Whether you can legally gamble for real money on Wild Bounty Showdown online while staying in Australia, the answer is no. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 (Cth) prohibits providers from giving Australians access to online slots. This restriction shapes almost everything else a local reader needs to know regarding this PG Soft game, including several points that typical game reviews omit.
Commonly accepted basics are the same. It's a 2022 Wild West slot featuring cascading wins, Gold Framed Symbols, Wilds, free spins, high volatility, a 96.75% RTP, a 5,000x maximum win and a multiplier that reaches x1,024.
What Australian law does to this game
No lawful real-money offer
Section 15 of the Interactive Gambling Act states that online casino games may not be provided or advertised to individuals physically located in Australia. This applies to both offshore and Australian providers and includes slots and online pokies. The ACMA categorises online slots as illegal services. There isn't any Australian-licensed version of Wild Bounty Showdown to refer you to.
The offence is the provider's
Whoever deliberately offers the prohibited service to Australian customers is the one who commits the Act's offence. ACMA presents the ban as a limitation on gambling providers. Its guidance doesn't state that a player commits that offence by playing.
ACMA does act on the sites, however. It requests that internet service providers block websites found to breach the Act, including those that offer online slot-machine services to Australians.
No stake cap, RTP minimum or feature rules
Online slots can't be licensed here, so Australia doesn't establish any of the rules that modify slot gameplay in other regions:
- Stakes. The €100 listed on PG Soft's sheet is the default maximum from the provider. It isn't an Australian legal limit, because no Australian cap exists.
- RTP. No Australian RTP minimum is in place.
- Spin speed and autoplay. No Australian minimum spin time is required, and no rule prohibits turbo spins or autoplay.
- Bonus buy. No Australian rule bans or limits the feature buy.
- Deposits and losses. No loss or deposit limit for online slots applies.
This doesn't mean the game operates freely. The service isn't allowed to be offered here, so these rules have nothing to regulate.
BetStop doesn't cover it
The national self-exclusion register, BetStop, applies to phone and online wagering that is licensed, but not to casino games. It can't stop you from accessing an offshore slot. Further updates to the Act, which include a more powerful BetStop, begin on 1 January 2027. None of these changes make online slots lawful.
How the game works
The rules listed below are found in PG Soft's game sheet (tested by Gaming Associates and updated 8 July 2025).
Layout and stakes
- Layout. A 3–4–5–5–4–3 row configuration across six reels, which provides 3,600 ways for a base bet of 20.
- Bet sizes. 0.5, 0.1 or 0.01.
- Bet levels. 10 to 1.
- Default range. €0.20 to €100. The stakes and currency offered depend on the operator.
Certain listings describe the layout incorrectly. One mentions 3,000 paylines and three to five reels. The provider's six reels and 3,600 ways are accurate, as these are based on the developer's own specification.
A separate game named Bounty Showdown also appears in searches. It has 10 fixed lines and €0.10–€100 stakes, and none of its specs apply to this one.
Cascades, Gold Frames and the multiplier
New symbols drop in to replace those that win. The multiplier begins at x1 during the base game and doubles following every winning cascade, reaching up to x1,024.
Gold Framed Symbols can appear on reels 3 and 4. Scatters and Wilds can't be framed. If a framed symbol is part of a win, it becomes a Wild after the following cascade. Wilds replace all symbols except Scatters.
Free spins
Landing three Scatters in any position starts 10 free spins. Each extra Scatter adds two more spins. A multiplier of x8 applies to every free spin, doubling after each winning cascade. Free spins can retrigger.
Maximum win versus multiplier cap
These figures represent two separate limits:
- x1,024 serves as the multiplier ceiling.
- 5,000x your bet constitutes the maximum payout. PG Soft lists this as the peak outcome from a simulation of one billion spins.
RTP and volatility
An overall RTP of 96.75% is indicated on the sheet. This is composed of 71.03% from the main game and 25.72% from free spins.
The total hit rate is 29.04%. The figure for free spins is 0.44%, which is approximately one spin in 227.
A cover graphic shows other RTP values ranging from 94% to 100%. The sheet doesn't specify which of these, if any, a particular operator uses. Session volatility is described as high.
Feature Buy, Auto Spin and Turbo
You can purchase the Free Spins Feature via the sheet "at the price displayed in the Feature Buy menu". It has no fixed price, so any specific cost mentioned elsewhere isn't confirmed by them.
Auto Spin can stop automatically when:
- your balance decreases by a specified amount
- your balance increases by a specified amount
- one win is more than a specified amount
Turbo Spin reduces how long the reels spin during the main game.
If you play any slot where it's lawful for you, configuring that loss stop before beginning is a sensible method to stay within your limits.