Big Ben pokies are Aristocrat’s postcard-London game: five reels, 25 lines, a bearskin-hatted Guard as the wild and a clock tower that chimes up to twelve times for a credit prize. Free games pay double, there is no progressive or bonus buy, and the online version returns 95.55%. The free demo below is a similar London-themed pokie you can play with no download.
Big Ben runs on five reels and three rows with 25 lines that pay left to right, adjustable online down to one. The bet range depends on the casino’s build: published figures start at 1 cent a line and run to $2 or $2.50 a line, so a full 25-line spin costs from 25 cents up to $50 or $62.50, while one configuration caps the spin at $5. The online return to player is 95.55%; the land-based venue return is not published. Volatility is listed as medium, although two review sites call the base game low in their text, and no hit frequency is published. The top prize is five Guard wilds on a line, quoted by two sources as 30,000 credits, or $60,000 at a $2 credit value.
Big Ben Pokies Characteristics
Wins run left to right from the leftmost reel, and most symbols need three in a row to pay. The Guard is the wild: it stands in for every symbol except the scatter, pays from two of a kind in its own right, and doubles any line win it completes. The clock tower is the scatter. It pays wherever it lands, starts the free games at three or more, and has a second job on reels 1 and 5 covered below.
There is no progressive jackpot and no bonus buy. One Australian review mentions a red or black gamble, but no other source does; gamble buttons are common on Aristocrat cabinets and often missing online, so do not count on it.
The figures below are multiples of the line stake for two, three, four and five of a kind, or for three to five where only three figures are given, from the one source that prints the full table, which shows the regular symbols as pictures rather than names.
Other sources quote the same combinations 12.5 times higher: 30,000 credits for five Guards, and 2x, 5x, 25x and 1,000x the bet for two to five scatters. Since 12.5 is 25 lines divided by two, this is one paytable in two units rather than two games, but which unit the game displays could not be settled, so treat the in-game paytable as the authority. Taken as printed, the five-Guard top line at 2,400x the line stake is worth 96x a full 25-line bet.
The chime bonus is the game’s signature. Three sources describe the trigger the same way: a Big Ben symbol on reel 1 and another on reel 5 on the same spin. Two others call it a random event when a Big Ben symbol lands, so the outer-reels version is the one to trust. When it fires, a window opens, the bell strikes between one and twelve times, and each strike lifts the prize. The ladder is published only at its ends: one chime pays 2x the line bet, and twelve pay either 40x the line bet or 500x the stake depending on the source, the same 12.5 factor as the paytable. Intermediate values are not published.
Three or more Big Ben scatters anywhere start the free games, and the scatter’s cash pay is awarded on the triggering spin as well. The count is the one point on which the sources disagree outright: three reviews and a forum player report give 15, 20 or 25 games for three, four or five scatters, while two others give 10, 15 or 20. The two builds may differ, but nothing confirms it, so read the feature screen when it starts. Every source agrees on the payoff: all free-game wins are doubled, three or more scatters retrigger the feature at the triggering lines and bet, and no cap is mentioned. Whether the Guard’s x2 stacks with the free-game x2 is not stated anywhere.
At 95.55% the online game keeps about 4.5 cents of every dollar bet over the long run. The land-based return is not published and venue settings vary by state and operator, so the Big Ben pokie machine in your local club could be a different number again.
Medium volatility with a scatter-triggered feature means the base game pays small and often, and most of the money sits in the free games and the chime bonus; forum players complain that the bonus is slow to arrive. At 25 cents a spin, $25 buys 100 spins, enough to see a few Guard-doubled wins and perhaps a chime round, but no guarantee of free games. Playing all 25 lines at a lower line bet is better economy than cutting lines.
Big Ben has no sequels, deluxe editions or linked-jackpot spin-offs. The two versions are the original Mk6 cabinet game and the online port of 15 October 2015. The cabinet’s release year is not published, but Big Ben, Game Program Number 30126911, is listed as a previously approved Mk6 game in the ACT Gaming Machine Approval 2014 (No 13), and one Australian review places it in pubs, clubs and RSLs since the 2000s. The online version launched in Flash and was later rebuilt in HTML5 for desktop, iOS and Android, and reviewers call the mobile build well optimised. One game tracker marked it no longer available in early 2022, and whether the two builds share a free-game count is the open question above.
The setting is a postcard London: Westminster and the clock tower, a red double-decker, a red telephone box, a street lamp, a pub sign, the Union Jack and the Crown, over a street that alternates between day and night. The look is deliberately retro Aristocrat, with solid colours, the classic Aristocrat font and symbols that were not modernised for the online port. There is no background music, only reel clicks, brighter chimes on wins, the bell during the feature and a ding-ding-ding when scatters land. Player comments praise the old-school feel and complain that the reels are clunky and cannot be stopped mid-spin.
In venues, Big Ben is confirmed by the ACT regulator’s 2014 list of approved Mk6 games. Online is a different matter. Aristocrat limits real money online distribution to regulated markets, one review states the game is not available for real money play in Australia or New Zealand, and a game tracker marked it no longer available in 2022. A casino directory lists it at a handful of grey-market operators, several flagged as unconfirmed, and none of the offshore brands that commonly serve Australians could be confirmed to carry it, so a lobby search is the only reliable check. Aristocrat does not publish an official free demo, and because the original build was Flash most third-party pages offering free Big Ben pokies now show the game as unavailable.
Big Ben suits the player who grew up on Mk6 cabinets and wants the same thing in a browser: a doubling wild, a scatter feature and a quirky bonus. It does not suit anyone who wants a published hit frequency, a clear max-win figure or a modern presentation, because the maths is poorly documented and the reels look their age. The one thing to check is the paytable screen in whichever build you open, for both the pay unit and the free-game count, since the published sources agree on neither. At 95.55% online it is a fair game; the land-based return is not published.
95.55% online, which one tracker gives as 95.547%. The land-based cabinet’s return is not published and varies by venue setting.
Land a Big Ben symbol on reel 1 and reel 5 on the same spin, according to the three most specific sources. The bell then chimes one to twelve times, each chime raising the prize.
15, 20 or 25 for three, four or five scatters according to three sources, or 10, 15 or 20 according to two others. All wins are doubled either way, and three or more scatters retrigger the feature.
Five Guard wilds on a line: 30,000 credits by two sources, or $60,000 at a $2 credit value, or 2,400x the line stake by the one full paytable; the figures differ by 12.5 because of the units used.
Not through Aristocrat’s licensed channels, which exclude Australia. It appears in some offshore lobbies, but none of the brands that commonly accept Australians could be confirmed to carry it, so check the lobby before you deposit.
No. The only versions are the land-based Mk6 cabinet game and the online port of 15 October 2015; no sequel or linked-jackpot variant exists.
