Monopoly Grand Hotel (Shuffle Master): Review

With more than 80 years behind it as one of the world’s most recognisable and enduring board games, Monopoly is instantly familiar to most people. It has become a fixture of global pop culture, licensed in over 100 countries and produced in nearly 40 languages, so it’s uncommon to meet anyone who hasn’t, at least once, rolled the dice and moved their token past Go.

It’s no surprise that Monopoly resonates with a huge audience, and both the video game space and the iGaming world have made the most of that appeal. Parker Brothers’ blockbuster board game has inspired plenty of slot adaptations, in casinos and online, and more recently Evolution Gaming released Monopoly Live, a brand-new special edition of the popular Dream Catcher wheel.

The newest entry in the Monopoly slot lineup comes via SG Digital partners Shuffle Master and is titled Monopoly Grand Hotel. This 5-reel, 50-payline slot runs smoothly on all devices, with stakes ranging from 25 cents to 200 Euros per spin. It includes a GO feature that can award cash prizes, entry to free spins, or jackpots worth up to 1000x. In the Free Spins round, you can collect up to 240 spins overall, plus a Free Parking Bonus game whenever you land the required symbol.

From a visual standpoint, Monopoly Grand Hotel doesn’t break new ground and, unless you’re a dedicated fan, some entries in the series can start to look quite similar. Still, with gold Rich Uncle Pennybags coins and banknotes in the backdrop and the iconic logo in the top left, the branding is unmistakable. The overall look has a post-war vibe, and the reels feature standard A to J card ranks alongside dice, cruise ships, propeller planes, vintage cars, dogs, and free parking symbols. The dog and parking icons pay the most, with 5 of a kind returning 5 times your stake.

Uncle Pennybags acts as the wild, substituting for all regular symbols except the house, hotel, and GO. The wild can land only on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5. You’ll also see house and hotel symbols, which we’ll cover shortly. Another key icon is the GO symbol, which appears exclusively on the three middle reels.

Monopoly Grand Hotel (Shuffle Master): Features

Landing the GO symbol across the three middle reels activates the GO feature. You receive 1 spin on the GO reel, where rewards can include entry to the Free Spins feature, cash wins from 2x to 20x total stake, and Mini, Minor, Major, or Grand jackpots paying 10, 25, 100, or 1000 times your stake respectively.

You can also start the Free Spins round by hitting 6 or more hotel and/or house symbols. On top of that, you’ll collect the cash values attached to each house and hotel symbol, which can be as high as 25 times your stake per symbol. The amount of free spins awarded depends on how many houses/hotels triggered the bonus, ranging from 6 to 15 free spins. While in the feature, landing 6 or more house/hotel symbols retriggers it, allowing for up to 240 free spins in total.

Next, the combined value of the hotel/house symbols that launched the free spins feature is assigned to the Free Parking Bonus symbol. Whenever it appears on screen, that same total is added to your winnings. For instance, if the houses/hotels totalled 40 times your stake when you triggered the feature, you’ll receive that amount each time the Free Parking Bonus symbol lands.

Monopoly Grand Hotel (Shuffle Master): Verdict

We like a game of Monopoly as much as anyone. That said, Monopoly Grand Hotel can feel a bit limited and may start to drag before long. The look and feel are fairly straightforward, and the gameplay doesn’t bring much in the way of fresh ideas, leaving it with a somewhat dated impression. With medium variance, you shouldn’t expect huge bursts of wins (aside from the Grand jackpot), though the Free Spins game can still build into some solid returns.

Monopoly Grand Hotel is a passable slot with respectable upside, but it leans heavily on the strength of its name. If you’re mainly after a Monopoly-themed slot, Big Event remains the top pick in our view.