The Tipsy Tourist: Christmas Vacation - Hold and Win Slot Review

The Dominican Republic gets almost a million tourists each December. People escape snowy misery for beach Christmases where Santa wears board shorts, and eggnog comes with tiny umbrellas. ⛱️

Most of them return home sunburned, broke, and vaguely disappointed by how many piña coladas it actually takes to feel festive. 🍸

Which brings us to Gary, the pissed protagonist who, bless him, will keep sinking those drinks with a steely determination that would make Ernest Hemingway proud.

This is The Tipsy Tourist: Christmas Vacation - Hold & Win slot, and it comes from Betsoft Gaming (BSG). 🎰

Gameplay

The Tipsy Tourist: Christmas Vacation - Hold & Win slot runs on a 5x3 grid with 20 paylines. The setting is a snow-encrusted tropical beach (I’d ask for my money back if I were those tourists), and there are Xmas decorations everywhere. Sigh.

The RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.

RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. is 96.06%, and you’re looking at medium/high volatility with a max multiplier of 5,000x and a max win of $400,000. The only currency you can’t bet with is the Japanese yen.

The paytable’s a bit underwhelming if we’re being honest. Low-paying symbols (Cherry Cocktail, Beer, Watermelon Drink, Pineapple Drink) pay between 4x and 7.5x for five-of-a-kind.

The Tourist himself is the top symbol at 250x, followed by his hot wife at 50x, a Purple Starfish at 27.5x, and a Suitcase/Plane Ticket at 17.5x for five matches.

The Wild is a Christmas ornament that lands only on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5. It replaces every symbol except Bonus, Collect, +1 Spin, and Expand symbols.

What’s interesting here is the Stacked Mystery Symbols that can appear on any reel in the base game. They all transform into the same paying symbol when the spin completes, but they’ll never reveal Wilds or bonus triggers.

The game has a hit frequency of 23.87%, meaning you’ll land winning spins roughly once every 4 spins. Not terrible, but combined with those low base pays, it’s gonna chew through your balance if the features don’t show up.

I’m not a huge fan of this game on a mobile device. It’s super busy because of those over-designed symbols, and the colors compete with each other, so the symbols don’t pop out from the reels.

Features

HOLD AND WIN FEATURE:

This is where the money lives. You need 5 or more Bonus symbols plus at least 1 Collect symbol to trigger 9 re-spins.

Bonus symbols are Gold Coins carrying cash values from 0.5x to 50x, or one of four fixed Jackpots: Mini (10x), Minor (30x), Major (100x), or Grand (500x).

Landing any of the Jackpot symbols awards its respective prize, and you don’t need to fill the entire grid to win the Grand Jackpot. Plus, if you land multiple Jackpots, each one will award its prize.

During the feature, only blanks, Bonus symbols, and Collect symbols can land. When a Collect symbol hits, it locks in place and instantly grabs all visible Bonus values before the collected symbols vanish from the grid.

This mechanic is actually clever; it creates space for more Bonus symbols to land on subsequent re-spins, and that means more potential moolah.

Two special modifiers can appear during the round: +1 Spin symbols add an extra re-spin, and Expand symbols stretch the reel they land on by one position upward and grant an additional re-spin. The feature ends when there are no re-spins left.

COOLER BOX BONUS

This feature randomly activates when no Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). game kicks off, and when 1 or more Bonus or Collect symbols appear in the base game.

When it initiates, the game dumps additional Bonus or Collect symbols onto the reels, which can create an immediate Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). trigger.

FEATURE BUY

If waiting to organically trigger the Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). sounds exhausting, you can bypass the grind for 46x your bet. The Feature Buy comes with a slightly lower RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.

RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate. of 96.03% versus the base game’s 96.06%, but we’re talking about a 0.03% difference – that’s basically negligible.

Performance

I tested this game on my phone, tablet, and used two different browsers (Safari and Chrome) – it was all good in the hood.

Maximum Win

The max win is $400,000, the max multiplier is 5,000x, and you can bet from $0.20 to $80.

Conclusion

The Tipsy Tourist: Christmas Vacation - Hold & Win slot is a textbook case of a game that lives or dies by its bonus feature. The base game is aggressively mediocre: low pays and infrequent Mystery Symbol excitement.

The Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). feature, though, has actual teeth. The Collect mechanic that clears symbols to make room for new Bonus is sweet, and the Expand modifiers can genuinely scale payouts if you catch them at the right moment.

Here’s the math problem: With medium/high volatility and a 23.87% hit rate, you’ll have stretches where nothing lands, and when wins do hit, they’re often not substantial enough to rebuild your balance before the next dry spell.

The best strategy for long-term play (in my humble opinion): Base game grinding at minimum bet. The best strategy for short-term play is to use the Buy Bonus.

But I’d argue that the Buy Bonus is a good option even if you’re not a Jackpot hunter. You’re paying a lot less than you probably will to trigger the Hold and WinThis feature plays out on a new screen. Typically, you get 3 re-spins (which could be re-triggered), and the triggering symbols usually stick to the position on which they land. Your objective is to land as many symbols as possible on the grid (you could land blank tiles, too). organically, so if your bankroll can handle it, I say why not?

Slot Details

Game Provider: Betsoft Gaming
Game Type: Video Slots
PaylinesPaylines are preset lines that run across the reels, and when you land matching symbols on them, that will result in a payout. The more paylines, the more ways you can win, but also the higher your bet per spin.: 20
RTPRTP stands for “Return to Player.” The RTP describes the total bet amount that a game returns to players over millions of spins, and that figure is represented by a percentage. Table games, such as Roulette, typically have higher RTPs than many slots.

RTP needs to be considered in conjunction with a game’s volatility rate.: 96.06%
Volatility RateSlot games can have low, medium, high, or extremely high volatility rates (or a combination thereof).

The less volatile the game, the more often it should pay out, but the lower the amount, the less the payout, as this is in keeping with the risk you’re taking. Volatility rate should be considered in conjunction with a game’s RTP.: Medium to High
Bonus Round: Yes
Progressive: No
Free Rounds: Re-spins
Max Multiplier: 5,000x
Max Win: $400,000
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