Pragmatic Play, a leading supplier of content to the online casino industry, has revitalized one of its best games, Gates of Olympus, launching a new version called Gates of Olympus 1000. According to the company, the enhanced title “opens the gates to even greater win potential.”

Gates of Olympus 1000 Metrics

• Rows: 5
• Reels: 6
• Paylines: Symbols pay anywhere on the board
• Volatility: High
• RTP: 96.5% / 95.51% / 94.5%
• Min/Max bet: 0.20/125
• Max Win: 15,000x

Zeus Returns to Make Players Rich

As the title suggests, Gates of Olympus 1000 is another Greek mythology-inspired game, adding to Pragmatic Play’s portfolio of thematic titles. The new game expands on symbols and mechanics players are already familiar with, while allowing players to win even bigger prizes.

When playing Gates of Olympus 1000, players will collect a variety of symbols, including crowns, gems and goblets. Zeus himself serves as a Scatter symbol, allowing players to trigger the bonus game.

Instead of using paylines, the 6×5 slot allows symbols to pay anywhere on the screen, as long as players collect 8 or more of them. In the meantime, Zeus, who stands alongside the reels, can randomly strike his thunderbolt, awarding random multipliers from 2x to 1,000x.

The game also features a tumble mechanic whereby winning symbols would disappear from the reels and get replaced by new symbols, allowing players to potentially score multiple wins per spin.

The New Game Is a Striking Sequel

Collecting four or more of the aforementioned Zeus Scatter symbols will provide players with 15 free spins. During this bonus game, any multiplier that hits on a winning spin is added to the total multiplier, allowing players to win big.

In addition, landing on four more Zeus symbols during the bonus game will retrigger the feature, providing players with a shot at even bigger prizes. Speaking of winning big, the game allows players to win up to 15,000x their bet.

Gates of Olympus 1000 builds on the popularity of an already popular game, leveraging the beloved Greek theme to engage iGaming enthusiasts. For reference, Pragmatic Play’s Greek mythology-themed franchise was recently enhanced with the addition of games such as Wisdom of Athena and Zeus vs Hades – Gods of War.

Pragmatic Play’s chief operating officer, Irina Cornides, commented on the new release, announcing the spectacular return of Zeus in this “striking sequel.”

Gates of Olympus 1000 takes one of Pragmatic Play’s most popular and successful Slots ever and massively boosts its win potential, introducing a mighty 15,000x max win.

Irina Cornides, COO, Pragmatic Play

In other news, Pragmatic Play just released a festive slot called Sugar Rush Xmas.

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Last month, unionized casino workers at Detroit’s three casinos, MGM Grand Detroit, MotorCity Casino and Hollywood Casino at Greektown, launched a strike. The move came at a time when the workers asked for better working conditions, including pay raises, job security and workload reduction. The strike saw 3,700 casino workers, including dealers, housekeepers and other employees protest for more than a month.

On Sunday, November 19, 2023, the strike for Hollywood Casino at Greektown and MotorCity Casino employees ended. At the time, the Detroit Casino Council (DCC), representing the workers, confirmed that the employees of the two casinos had voted and ratified the new contract “with historic wage increases and other gains.”

Despite their decision, MGM Grand Casino employees who voted on the same contract turned it down. As a result, now, more than a week later, the strike for MGM Grand’s casino employees continues. As announced by Click on Detroit, unions confirmed Wednesday that they are “back at the negotiation table” with MGM Grand Casino.

Reportedly, the workers at MGM Grand filed a new proposal to the operator on Wednesday. The union representing them confirmed that the casino is yet to respond to that proposal. Specific details regarding the proposal were not disclosed at the time of writing.

Talks with the Casino Employees on Strike Continue

While negotiations continue, the DCC did not disclose why MGM Grand’s casino employees rejected the initial proposal that was accepted by the workers at the two other Detroit casinos. Instead, the Council explained that there are additional dates scheduled for negotiations and outlined that each casino property voted separately for the proposed five-year gaming contracts.

“Union members at MGM Grand Casino voted to reject the proposed deal and will continue to strike. More bargaining dates will be scheduled. Membership at each casino property voted separately about whether to accept the deal,“

reads a statement released by the Detroit Casino Council

Matt Buckley, MGM Resorts Midwest Group’s president and COO revealed earlier this month that it is disappointing to see MGM Grand’s employees reject the proposal. “This is a very disappointing result, especially considering the historic nature of our offer and the fact that it would immediately and positively benefit our DCC-represented MGM Grand employees and their families,” he explained at the time.

Moreover, Buckley was left baffled by the decision of the employees at MGM Grand, considering that the workers of the two other Detroit casinos voted in favor of the proposal. Speaking about the DCC, he said that even they deemed the gaming contract proposal as “historic” and one that offers good benefits along with an increase in pay for the casino workers.

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Getting the right balance between player freedom and consumer protection arguably remains the holy grail of the gambling industry. I’ve always felt that having what I call a ‘healthy tension’ between regulators and industry is needed to ensure industry continues to raise standards in responsible and safer gambling whilst allowing industry freedoms to innovate and grow sustainably.

This balancing act between sustainable growth and what the economists call the negative externalities of industry affects every industry, not just gambling. As a sector we are still learning about the pathways towards gambling harms and therefore, unsurprisingly, different jurisdictions are exploring different philosophies and approaches to consumer protection.

Here in the UK, player affordability and the single customer view have been key topics in the past two years and approaches and solutions are evolving. Other jurisdictions have taken more one-size-fits-all approaches, with stake limits for online slots (eg Germany), and more player-centric approaches, such as enforcing time and spend limits for each online player session (eg Spain), Striking the balance whilst some jurisdictions have kept monopolies in place (eg Norway), citing consumer protection as the main reason for this approach.

Whilst much attention in recent years has been centred on the iGaming sector, land-based gambling remains a major part of the industry and is embracing these solutions and services. It can be challenging in a land-based environment to innovate, however if the sector is to grow sustainably, it needs to continue to evolve its solutions, particularly leveraging technology further to protect customers.

Regardless of the different approaches, responsible or safer gambling remains a major strategic factor in building regulated and sustainable gambling markets globally. It also highlights the challenges and complexities for multi-national organizations operating in regulated markets as no two jurisdictions are the same.

This complexity, together with the continued pressure to raise standards in consumer protection, has seen considerable investment in safer and responsible gambling capabilities in recent years and there has never before been the range and depth of GAMING professional solutions and services that operators and suppliers can leverage to help ‘raise the bar’.

The ICE conference provides an excellent opportunity for all stakeholders, including legislators, regulators, academics, welfare groups and industry to get together to build strategies for using evidence and technology to strengthen consumer protection. The contributors to this safer gambling supplement are all working hard to develop insights, solutions and services to help the industry better protect players. There are many others and this week is a great opportunity to engage with them and see how you can work together to build a more sustainable industry.

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