It’s no secret Razor Shark from Push Gaming is a massively volatile slot – one that is more than happy to savage the unwary, not unlike its namesake. It can also, as it turns out, be quite generous when it wants to be. On release, Razor Shark was Push Gaming’s highest paying slot, but the impressive advertised 50,000x max win has turned out to be something of a coy understatement.
One Swedish player has smashed through that barrier while betting 50 kr (approx 5€) a spin at Swedish casino Snabbare. The video clip starts with three bonus symbols triggering a round of free spins. During the bonus, when Mystery Stacks are nudged, they increase a win multiplier by +1, and as long as Stacks are in view, free spins keep on rolling. Mystery Stacks go on to reveal pay symbols or Golden Shark symbols.
The bonus builds up an x14 multiplier without paying out a penny in winnings, then… the feeding frenzy begins. The clip gets ludicrous when Golden Shark symbols land and one reveals a 2,500x Bet Multiplier in conjunction with an x33 win multiplier. What happens next is one of the longest count ups you’ve ever seen.
The lucky player in question pulls off a cool 4,273,000 kr payout, or around €410k. Not a bad haul at all. The eye-watering win of 85,000x has left many scratching their heads wondering how it could be possible.
So what’s the explanation? Rogue coding? A glitch in the Matrix? It comes down to probabilities, testing, and the sheer abstract nature of numbers. Developers do their best to see what their games are capable of, but simulations clearly aren’t an exact science. Active Bigwinboard commentator “VismundCygnus” succinctly explains:
“Just guessing here, but I think they simply made the slot they wanted to and when operators asked what the max win was they spat out 50,000x since that’s what they saw in their simulations. There are a lot of slots out there without a cap like that, but the chance of hitting something beyond XXXXX gets so ridiculously small they simply state a max win of simulations. In Money Train 2, they definitely had to put the cap in there since the mechanics of the slot would otherwise easily go far above it, making the RTP much higher.”
If you’ve seen the Money Train 2 clips it’s impossible not to agree. The game is still cruising in third gear when the governor kicks in to shut everything down before the operator loses the shirt off their back. So while slots are meticulously run through untold billions of simulated spins to generate their numbers, developers don’t always witness everything their games can do.
While blowing past state win caps is unusual, it’s not unheard of, and we’ve seen similar things happen before. Case in point is the $42k win pulled off on Big Time Gaming’s volatile beast Lil’ Devil. Pumping in 40p bets, another lucky punter seemingly clocked the game resulting in a win of over 100,000x the stake – more than double Lil’ Devil‘s stated maximum.
It seems without out a robust win cap in place, there is no telling what some games might produce. Another interesting slot is Wheel of Wonders, also from Push Gaming. In the game notes, the max win there is noted as ‘infinite’. As has been pointed out above, while this might be the case theoretically, in reality, it’s far more likely to hit down to earth numbers. Then again, after seeing Razor Shark shrug off its limitations, there may one or two operators eyeing the games in their range with slightly more concern.