Hold and Win is the most copied slot mechanic of the last few years, and Citobet lists 245 games that use it. The idea is simple: coin symbols land, they stay where they are, and you get extra spins to land more of them. The payout is whatever is written on the coins you managed to lock.
How a round works
The shape is the same in almost every version.
- You need a trigger, usually six coin symbols anywhere on the reels in one spin.
- The round starts. The coins you have are locked in place, and the rest of the grid spins again.
- Every new coin locks too, and usually resets your remaining respins to three.
- When the respins run out, you are paid the total of the locked coins. Fill the whole grid and most games pay a grand prize on top.
The numbers on each coin are not decoration, they are the payout in multiples of your stake. That is why the mechanic feels different from a free spins round: you can see your win building up on the screen instead of waiting for a multiplier at the end.
Each game states its own rules in the information panel, and the trigger count, the number of respins and the grand prize differ from title to title.
What Citobet has
245 games with the mechanic, spread across the studios that use it most:
- 1 Spin 4 Win, 45 titles, the largest set on the site.
- Barbara Bang, 27.
- Endorphina, 26.
- Ruby Play, 25.
- Pragmatic Play and BGaming, 22 each.
- Hacksaw Gaming, 16.
- TaDa Gaming, 14.
You will spot them by the name. Hold and Win, Hold & Win, Hold and Spinner and Win Spins all describe the same family, and titles like Cash The Gold Hold And Win, 3 Coin Towers and 3 Cursed Chests: Hold & Win are typical of it.
The numbers behind the mechanic
Of the 243 Hold and Win games that publish a return to player figure, the median is 96.26%, the lowest is 92.34% and the highest is 97.75%. So the mechanic sits close to the slot average rather than above it.
Volatility is where it stands out: 105 of them are rated high and 50 medium to high, against 5 rated low. That matches how the games behave. The base game is quiet because most of the money is inside the respin round, so the dry stretches are long and the good rounds are big.
Where the money actually is
In a Hold and Win game, the base game is a delivery system for the trigger. If you never hit six coins, you never see the part of the maths that pays. That has one practical consequence: the stake you choose has to let you play long enough to reach a trigger. At a stake that gives you thirty spins, the likely result is thirty spins and no round.
The guide to slot volatility has the arithmetic, with the catalogue numbers.
What it is not
It is not a jackpot. None of these 245 games carries a progressive jackpot, and the grand prize for filling the grid is a fixed multiple of the stake written in the paytable. It is also not a bonus buy, although many of these games offer one separately, and paying for the trigger does not change the game's return to player.
Try it for free first
237 of the 245 run in demo mode. Hold and Win is worth trying with play money precisely because the base game feels flat until the round hits, and knowing that in advance changes how you set your stake.
Bonuses on these games
Casino games contribute 100% toward a wagering requirement, slots included, unless a promotion limits the bonus to specific games or studios. That is term 1.22 of the Bonus Terms and Conditions, and the guide to wagering requirements works through it with numbers. Current offers are on the promotions page.
Where to find them
The whole catalogue is browsable studio by studio on the game providers page, and the search box in the lobby finds a title by name. The studios listed above are the shortest path: at 1 Spin 4 Win, 45 of 182 games use the mechanic.
The number to trust is the one in the game
The figures in this guide come from our catalogue, and a studio can change them when it updates a title or ships it at a different setting. Whatever you read here, open the game's own information panel before you spin. The RTP, the paytable and the rules shown there are the ones that apply to the round you are playing.
Play responsibly
High volatility means long runs with nothing, then a burst, and a mechanic that shows your win building up is designed to keep you watching. Set the budget before you spin and use the tools on the responsible gambling page.