Money Pipe

Money Pipe Overview

Money Pipe is a video slot from Mancala Gaming, released on 30 August 2023. It is set on an oil field, with pumpjacks and derricks on the horizon, and plays on a 5x3 grid with 20 paylines. SlotCatalog lists a 95% RTP, medium volatility, a maximum win of 5,082x the bet and stakes from 0.20 to 18. The heart of the game is a respin bonus with value-carrying barrels and four fixed jackpots, and the bonus can be bought directly.

Note that there is an older, unrelated slot of the same name from CT Gaming (2020, 40 lines). This review covers the Mancala game.

Four Jackpots on the Pipeline

Four signs hang above the reels, each with a small construction-helmet icon. At a stake of 100 per spin they read:

• MINI: 2.5K – 2,500, or 25x the bet
• MINOR: 10K – 100x
• MAJOR: 25K – 250x
• GRAND: 100K – 1,000x

Each sign also carries a small label from x2 to x5 in front of the jackpot name. The game does not explain the labels on the screens we saw, so we simply note them. The jackpot values are tied to the stake, so they stay the same multiple at every bet.

The Symbols

The low symbols are metallic card royals – we saw a cyan J and a red A – and the higher symbols belong to the oil field, with stacked money bundles among them. The special symbols are the barrels: black oil barrels and golden barrel stacks, some of which carry cash values printed on them. On one base game spin we could see barrels worth 300 and 200 sitting on the reels next to a paying line.

Base Game Wins

We played the demo at 100 per spin. Three examples from our session:

• A spin full of cyan Js paid 650.00 – 6.5x the bet.
• Payline 18 paid 400.00 for red As framed in fire – 4x, as the message line at the bottom of the screen confirmed.
• A BIG WIN of 2,600.00 – 26x – arrived with flames shooting out of two pipes that frame the win screen.

The win screens are a nice piece of theming: the amount appears between two industrial pipes with fire coming out of them.

The Bonus Buy

The Buy Bonus sign sits on the left of the reels. The dialog shows the total cost and the bet per spin, with plus and minus buttons to adjust the stake. At 100 per spin the bonus cost 4,000.00 – 40x the bet. The balance confirms the purchase: 16,000.00 before, 12,000.00 after.

The Respin Bonus

The feature opens with a message in hazard-tape style: “Congratulations! You have won 3 RESPINS”. SlotCatalog lists it as a Hold and Win feature with bonus symbols and fixed jackpots: the barrels are the bonus symbols, and a counter above the reels adds up the values collected during the round.

Our round filled most of the grid with barrels. The golden stacks carried values such as 400 and 100, the counter at the top showed 3,000.00 while the round was still running, and the feature finished on a SUPER WIN of 3,600.00 – 36x the bet.

Was the Buy Worth It?

Against the 4,000 price the round returned 90% of its cost – close, but still a small loss. The jackpots are what change the maths: the Major at 250x or the Grand at 1,000x would turn a bought round into a large profit, and the 5,082x maximum on SlotCatalog shows that the game can go far beyond the Grand when everything lines up.

The Key Numbers

• Release: 30 August 2023
• Grid: 5x3, 20 paylines
• RTP: 95% (SlotCatalog)
• Volatility: medium (SlotCatalog)
• Maximum win: 5,082x (SlotCatalog)
• Bets: 0.20 to 18
• Bonus buy: 40x the bet
• Jackpots: 25x / 100x / 250x / 1,000x

SlotCatalog’s feature list also includes stacked symbols and wilds with multipliers, which we did not see in action in our session.

More From Mancala

Mancala likes to pair a simple base game with one strong bonus. Coin Craze PowerUp builds its bonus around coins in the same way Money Pipe uses barrels, Code of Fortune is another of the studio’s feature-led slots, and Monkey King: Path of Treasure, released two weeks after Money Pipe, swaps the respins for free spins with a multiplier.

Graphics and Sound

The reels are set into a steel frame on a purple-and-orange oil field at dusk, with derricks and cranes in silhouette. The MONEY PIPE logo is painted in bright industrial colours and topped by a flashing warning light, and during the bonus the frame glows orange as the barrels land. The bottom bar shows the balance, the total bet, a message line and the winnings, in Mancala’s usual layout.

Who It Is For

Money Pipe suits players who like a Hold and Win bonus with a clear set of jackpots and a simple base game. The medium volatility keeps the pace reasonable, the 40x bonus buy is on the cheaper side for this kind of feature, and the four jackpots from 25x to 1,000x give every respin round a visible target.

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