Slot News: Gator Hunters 2, Wicked Grin and Brazil's U-turn

Hacksaw Gaming's Wicked Grin slot on a laptop screen, with a grinning cartoon skeleton mascot beside reels of coins and multipliers

Gator Hunters 2 goes live, and is maxed within five days

The biggest slots story of the week is Nolimit City's Gator Hunters 2, which reached all of the studio's partner casinos on 6 October after a week of exclusive early access that began on 29 September. It is a six-reel, five-row scatter-pays game with a 96.00% top RTP, an 18.28% hit frequency and a 30,000x maximum win.

Nolimit City publishes the odds of reaching that cap as 1 in 17 million and calls the cap Natural Selection: once a round's total passes 30,000x, it ends and pays exactly that. Its features are a randomly placed Fire Zone that upgrades special symbols, Eaters that clear a symbol type and turn wild, and Revolvers with 11 bullet tiers running from 2x to 3,000x. Where bonus buys are legal, the Bullet Juicer costs 390x the bet.

Players did not wait long to test those odds. The streamer FrankDimes hit the full 30,000x on a $0.40 bet on 11 October, five days into the general release, a result we covered in this week's streamer wins roundup. For readers it is a useful reminder that a published max-win probability describes the game, not the next session: rare outcomes appear quickly when thousands of people play a launch-week slot.

Gator Hunters 2 slot artwork from Nolimit City

Hacksaw releases two horror slots in three days

Hacksaw Gaming released Demonic Dolls on 6 October and Wicked Grin on 8 October, both rated 3 out of 5 for volatility and both capped at 10,000x. That follows Le Vampire at the start of the month and keeps the studio's Halloween slate unusually busy.

Demonic Dolls is a cluster-pays game built on Wild Rattle symbols with additive multipliers. When two Wild Rattles of the same size join a win, they merge into a larger Colossal Wild Rattle carrying the combined multiplier, and respins continue while merges keep happening. Three, four or five scatters open its three free spins modes, the top one, Playtime Is Over, guaranteeing two Wild Rattles a spin.

Wicked Grin is an all-scatter game where Wicked Grin symbols that land on the bottom row expand and turn a reel into coins or multipliers. Its two bonuses, Stash N Stack and Coin Craze, award 5 to 30 free spins each, and Diamond Coins can reveal up to 500x.

The detail worth knowing is the RTP list. Hacksaw publishes four settings for each game: 96.26%, 94.19%, 92.24% and 86.21% for Demonic Dolls, and 96.27%, 94.32%, 92.28% and 86.28% for Wicked Grin. The casino chooses which one you play, which is why our guide to slot RTP versions recommends checking the figure inside the game's rules before spinning.

Big Bass gets a Halloween 1000 edition

Pragmatic Play released Big Bass Halloween Splash 1000 on 12 October, putting Count Dracula in the fisherman's seat of its best-known franchise. Pragmatic lists the RTP at 96.50%, and OLBG's release listing gives medium volatility, 10p to £5 stakes in the UK and a 20,000x maximum win.

The new mechanic is a pumpkin pick before the bonus. Players choose one of six pumpkins to reveal up to five modifiers, such as extra fishermen wilds, extra money symbols, extra spins, a start at the second multiplier level or a better chance of random features. Pumpkins can also land on reel five during free spins and add upgrades for the rest of the round.

The retrigger ladder is familiar: every fourth fisherman adds 10 free spins and lifts the win multiplier to 2x, then 3x, then 10x. Sharon McHugh, Pragmatic Play's director of public relations, described the game as putting "a supercharged spooky spin" on the fishing series. Fishermen wilds collect fish money symbols, which Pragmatic lists at values of up to 1,000x the bet.

Big Bass Halloween Splash 1000 slot artwork from Pragmatic Play

Brazil: Stake's reprieve is overturned after two days

Brazil's online gambling ban held firm this week after a short-lived exception. A São Paulo federal judge gave Stake temporary protection from Provisional Measure 1,394 on 8 October, and its site and app came back online that day. On 10 October the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region overturned the injunction on an emergency appeal from the Attorney General's Office, and Stake went dark again.

Players' money was the other moving part. Under the government's schedule, operators reported each customer's remaining balance on 7 and 8 October and had to credit it to their registered bank accounts between 9 and 14 October. The 85 licensed operators will not get back the R$2.55 billion, about US$490 million, they paid for licences, and industry groups have asked the Supreme Court to suspend the measure.

For slot suppliers, the effect is that one of the fastest-growing regulated markets for online casino content is closed for now. Justice Luiz Fux is reviewing the constitutional challenge, but a ruling is not expected until after the presidential runoff on 25 October, and Congress has 120 days from 25 September to approve, amend or drop the measure.

Rank's Grosvenor casinos agree a £5m Gambling Commission settlement

Three Rank Group companies, Grosvenor Casinos Limited, Grosvenor Casinos (GC) Limited and Gaming Group Limited, will pay £5 million for anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures, the Gambling Commission announced on 7 October. The money goes to the Government's Consolidated Fund, and the operators must commission a third-party audit of their controls.

The case involves land-based casinos rather than online slots, but the failings are the kind every British operator is judged on. The Commission found no safer gambling interaction with one customer during a period in which they lost £50,000, no record of interactions with another who won about £260,000 and then lost about £250,000 in 12 days, and a returning self-excluded customer who was not approached until they had lost £25,000. It also found AML policies that had not been updated for the 2020 changes to the Money Laundering Regulations.

Just Slots signs its first big deal under its Malta licence

Studio Just Slots agreed a content deal with Wildz Group on 13 October, putting its original games in front of eight of the group's casino brands, including Wildz Casino, Blingi and Spinz. The first titles named are Sugar Heaven, Dynamo's Show and Shogun Skylord.

It is the studio's first major partnership since it gained a Malta Gaming Authority B2B licence the month before, which lets it supply operators under Maltese regulation. Sven de Waard, head of casino at Wildz Group, called Just Slots "one of the most entertaining providers in the industry". For players, it means a smaller studio's games appearing in a wider set of lobbies over the coming weeks.

What to watch next week

Nolimit City's Six Feet Under: listed for 20 October, a 6x6 horror slot with up to 46,656 ways, a 96.05% RTP, extreme volatility and a 30,000x maximum, according to OLBG's release table.
Sweet Bonanza Pop: Pragmatic Play's next sweets title, reported for 20 October with multipliers up to 1,000x, three fixed jackpots and a 25,000x top win.
Brazil: the presidential runoff on 25 October is the date the courts and Congress appear to be waiting for. Watch for any Supreme Court move on the ban and for further operator lawsuits over the licence fees.
Hacksaw's Halloween run: after Le Vampire, Demonic Dolls and Wicked Grin, three horror releases in eight days is a heavy slate even for October; watch which of them operators push hardest in their Halloween lobbies.

Slot releases are entertainment products, not investments, and online gambling is for adults aged 18 and over. If you play, set limits first; free, confidential support is available from BeGambleAware.

Sources

FAQs

When was Gator Hunters 2 released?

Gator Hunters 2 was released to all Nolimit City partner casinos on 6 October 2026, after an exclusive early access period that began on 29 September. It has a 96.00% top RTP, an 18.28% hit frequency and a 30,000x maximum win, which Nolimit City says has a 1 in 17 million chance of being reached.

What is the RTP of Wicked Grin?

Hacksaw Gaming publishes four RTP settings for Wicked Grin: 96.27%, 94.32%, 92.28% and 86.28%. The casino decides which version it offers, so the figure can differ between sites. Check the RTP shown in the game's own rules or information screen before you play. The slot was released on 8 October 2026 with a 10,000x maximum win.

What is the max win on Big Bass Halloween Splash 1000?

OLBG's release listing gives Big Bass Halloween Splash 1000 a 20,000x maximum win, with medium volatility and stakes from 10p to £5 in the UK. Pragmatic Play's own page lists a 96.50% RTP and money symbols worth up to 1,000x but does not state the cap. The game was released on 12 October 2026.

Is Stake available in Brazil?

No. Stake briefly returned in Brazil on 8 October 2026 after a São Paulo federal judge granted it temporary protection from the online gambling ban, but the Federal Regional Court of the 3rd Region overturned that injunction on 10 October and its site and app went offline again. The Supreme Court is not expected to rule on the wider ban before late October.

Why did Grosvenor casinos pay £5 million?

Three Rank Group operators, including Grosvenor Casinos Limited, agreed to pay £5 million after the Gambling Commission found anti-money laundering and social responsibility failures. These included no safer gambling interaction with a customer who lost £50,000 and a returning self-excluded customer who lost £25,000 before being approached. The settlement was announced on 7 October 2026.

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Slot Industry News: Gator Hunters 2 Lands, Hacksaw Goes Double for Halloween and Stake's Brazil Return Lasts Two Days