Cash Box: Slot Overview

Type “how to make money” into a search engine and you’ll be hit with endless suggestions. It’s obvious people are eager to boost their income, start a side gig for extra spending money, or just get paid. Now picture this: a mystical box that, every time you opened it, was packed with stacks of crisp cash. Totally legal, all yours, whenever you fancied it. Ignoring the mental chaos that unlimited funds might cause, a magic cash box would be pretty great. That brings us to Cash Box from Pragmatic Play. It’s not literally a money-printing box, but it is an unusual slot. With Cash Box, Pragmatic Play has twisted the usual online slot formula to create something that doesn’t blend in. Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Let’s see.

Right away, when Cash Box boots up, you’re shown a grid of vault doors (known as Cash Boxes); some can be open, some shut. They might all start closed, but there’s no need for safecracking expertise here. With each spin, Cash Boxes open randomly to show different prizes. But we’re jumping ahead. First, a quick note on the setting, which, frankly, feels a bit all over the place. Aside from the grid and the three jackpots displayed above it, the background looks like flashing lights, maybe curtains, possibly a stage, and a whole lot of glittering… whatever. It’s as if Cash Box is headlining a strange cabaret or turning up at a fancy film premiere. As mentioned—pretty random.

Cash Box runs on a 5-reel, 3-row grid, but it does not use traditional paylines or win ways to pay out. Instead, each Cash Box can randomly open and display a value inside. These values may be standard prizes worth 0.05x to 50x the total bet, or a Cash Box can reveal Mini, Major, or Grand symbols. Hitting 3 Minis pays 40x the bet, getting 4 Majors on screen pays 500x the bet, and landing 5 Grands on the grid awards 5,000x the bet. For the regular cash values, if at least 3 of any amount are visible, you win the combined total.

Is it just us, or have Pragmatic Play RTP figures been slipping lately? They used to be pleasantly surprising with 96.4%/96.5%+; now they often seem closer to 96%. At 96.02%, Cash Box’s RTP isn’t exactly complaint-worthy, but it’s something that came to mind during the review. The other key metric is volatility, which is high here, and players can choose a bet size of 20 p/c to $/€100 before setting those boxes in motion.

Cash Box: Slot Features

The main additional feature in Cash Box is the free spins bonus. It’s activated by the scatter symbol. If 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols appear on a spin, players receive 10, 15, or 20 free spins, along with a win worth 1x, 5x, or 10x the bet, respectively. During free spins, the rules stay exactly the same as in the base game. Spins are free; that’s it. If 3, 4, or 5 free spins symbols are revealed from the Cash Boxes during the feature, you gain extra 10, 15, or 20 free spins.

Buy Free Spins

If you feel like skipping ahead, paying 100x the bet purchases a triggering spin where 3, 4, or 5 free spins symbols are randomly opened from Cash Boxes. The RTP for the buy option is marginally higher at 96.05%.

Cash Box: Slot Verdict

We may as well be upfront: Cash Box wasn’t among the most entertaining Pragmatic Play slots we’ve covered. Credit where it’s due for attempting something different, but different doesn’t automatically mean better—or even on par with earlier releases. Almost every element of Cash Box felt a little mismatched, from the strange cabaret-style vibe with its pile of Cash Boxes on a stage (or whatever it’s meant to be), to the laid-back jazz lounge soundtrack. It’s like a jazz title and a bank-themed slot were mashed together. Or as if a bunch of unrelated ideas were dumped into one spot and stitched into a single game.

The most understated part of Cash Box might be the gameplay itself. You press spin and rely on Cash Boxes opening to spill out prize values. While the game can retrigger fairly often, the payouts are frequently modest, and collecting multiple 5c prizes (on a €1 stake) doesn’t always feel particularly rewarding. That’s not to say big wins can’t happen, but it does come across as a tougher grind for players. Another momentum-killer is the bonus round, which is about as plain as it gets. Per the rules, there’s nothing in the feature that isn’t already in the base game, which makes it far less appealing and wipes out most of the logic for buying it.

If you’re the type who rips open every window on an Advent Calendar in one go to devour all the chocolate inside, you might get a certain primal satisfaction from Cash Boxes flipping open to reveal prizes. Otherwise, it’s difficult to come up with many strong reasons to suggest Cash Box, as the initial curiosity it sparks tends to fade quickly back to normal—like an upside-down Nike swoosh.