Big Ben is the Aristocrat London-themed pokie that hit cabinet floors in 2003 and reached online lobbies in October 2015. We are reviewing the Aristocrat slot — not the landmark, not its other London titles, and not British-themed slots from other studios.
The hook we anchor on is a discrete-step bonus most reviews bury in a feature list. Big Ben on reels 1 and 5 in the same spin opens the chime feature; the bell rings 1 to 12 random times, and the peak at 12 chimes pays 500× line bet.
How Big Ben Plays
The grid is 5 reels by 3 rows with 25 adjustable paylines reading left to right from reel one. There is no Reel Power, no Megaways, no scatter-pays-anyway twist beyond the Big Ben symbol — this is a fixed-line classic by design.
Coin denominations sit between $0.01 and $0.20 per line on the standard build, with the full 25-line stake from $0.25 to $5 per spin. The five-reel slots format reads cleanly even at maximum bet.
The base game runs at medium volatility. Wild-touched wins land at workable frequency, the scatter appears on reel 1 or 5 fairly often but rarely both at once, and the gamble feature offers a color-or-suit double after each winning spin.
The Big Ben Feature Chime Mechanic
The Big Ben Feature only opens when the Big Ben symbol lands on reels 1 and 5 in the same spin. The middle three reels do not need to participate — the alignment is a two-reel handshake that gates the entire bonus.
Once triggered, the bell chimes 1 to 12 random times. Each chime corresponds to a multiplier value from a 12-step distribution rather than a continuous range, and the animation rings through every chime so we feel the value building.
The multiplier scales from 2× line bet at the bottom of the chime range up to 500× at the top. Twelve chimes is the rare peak event — the spin that turns a session into a memory.
Discrete-step bonuses are uncommon in the Aristocrat catalogue — most run on continuous multipliers or escalating wild density. The chime ladder is closer to a hold-and-spin in spirit, compressed into a single bell-ringing animation, and that structural quirk is why a 2003 cabinet still earns shelf time among bonus round games.
Free Spins & Scatter Logic
The Big Ben symbol carries a second function alongside the chime trigger: standalone scatter prizes. The award scales with scatter count rather than reel position:
- 2 scatters → 2× total bet
- 3 scatters → 5× total bet
- 4 scatters → 25× total bet
- 5 scatters → 1000× total bet
Three or more scatters also trigger the free-spin bonus. The standard online build awards 15, 20, or 25 free spins for 3, 4, or 5 scatters; some operator builds use a 10/15/20 schedule, so the exact count varies by deployment.
All free-spin wins are doubled by a 2× multiplier. A wild on a winning payline inherits both layers — wild 2× combined with free-spin 2× yields a 4× peak. The round is retriggerable: another three or more scatters add another batch on the same multiplier.
Symbols & Paytable Shape
The premium tiles are the British iconography recognised since the 2003 cabinet release. The Queen’s Guard is the wild, Big Ben is the scatter, and the high-value rank holds the Old Tavern, double-decker bus, Royal Crown, and Union Jack flag.
The low tiles are the standard 9, 10, J, Q, K, A poker icons — clean design but almost no session value, mostly filler between the chime triggers that matter.
The paytable is sharply lopsided toward the wild line: five Queen’s Guard wilds pay 2,400× line bet with a steep fall-off across rank. The wider Aristocrat games catalogue reuses this shape across legacy ports, but the chime mechanic is specific here.
Verdict
Big Ben is a focused slot from a designer who picked one mechanic and committed. The 95.55% RTP sits between the modern 96% midpoint and the legacy 94% floor, the gamble feature is standard, and the graphics are visibly 2003.
The reason the slot stays in casino libraries is the chime feature — the 12-chime peak is rare but it carries the bonus round. For players hunting heritage Las Vegas-style slots with one strong British hook, this is a workable choice; modern bonus-round chasers should look elsewhere.
