Empire Action Casino Game
While they may not offer up the fast-paced action of a slot machine or the strategic challenge of blackjack or video poker, bingo games have still become a major part of the offerings at most online casinos. These games take the familiar rules of a game that just about everyone has played at some point in their lives and turn it into a quick, simple game that can instantly award some big prizes – usually with a little twist or two to keep things a bit more interesting for players.
Empire Action is a perfect example of this sort of gameplay. Players are mostly asked to simply sit back and watch the play unfold, collecting prizes if they’re lucky enough to make winning patterns on their cards. But with the potential to win big prizes and an optional side game that opens up even more opportunities, there’s enough here to make every drawing exciting.
Big Prizes in the Big Apple
Empire Action is a bingo-style random drawing game that was created by Spin Games for online casino play. The title refers to New York – known as the Empire State – and you can see a little bit of related theming, with the New York City skyline appearing in the background.
In each round of play, you’ll be given four bingo cards that are laid out in a three-by-five grid. In total, each card has 15 numbers on it. Unlike many games, there’s no real pattern to the numbers: any spot on a card can hold any number, making this a truly random assortment. All numbers from 1-90 are in play, randomly assigned to your tickets.
Before each round, you’ll have the ability to decide how much you want to play for on each ticket. The overall cost of playing will be four times this amount, of course, since you’ll need to pay for all of your cards. There is also an optional feature that you can turn on for 10x the price of your per-card bet, but we’ll talk more about this bonus in a little bit.
Once you’ve decided how much you want to play for, it’s time to hit the play button (which conveniently tells you exactly how much the total cost of the next game will be). Once you do so, you’ll see a series of balls fall into the middle of the screen, each one containing a number. If these balls match spots on your tickets, they will be marked off accordingly. In total, 30 balls will be drawn, after which the game will end.
At this point, you’ll receive prizes based on what patterns are marked off on your tickets. The game screen displayed the eight basic patterns that can score wins. The potential options, along with their payouts (compared to the per-ticket price you’ve paid), include some patterns that aren’t the easiest to explain in words, but we’ll try to give you an idea of what you’re looking for. The payout chart looks like this:
- Cardinal Directions (4 Spots: top/bottom of middle column, left/right of middle row): 2x
- One Line: 4x
- Bent Line: 8x
- Arrow (Up or Down): 15x
- Any Two Lines: 40x
- Full Card: 500x
Bonus Feature Adds More Winning Options
As we mentioned earlier, there is an optional bet known as the “feature” that you can make at the start of any game of Empire Action. This extra wager doesn’t really change the gameplay at all, but it instead provides more ways to win big payouts.
If you pay this extra fee (once again, this costs 10x the price of a single card), then you’ll open up another 7 winning combinations that pay out quite well. Here’s a look at what you can win in this feature, with wins again compared to the per-ticket bet:
- Small Four Corners: 10x
- Small X: 25x
- Small X Plus Two Corners: 50x
- Table Plus Two Corners: 75x
- Inverted Table Plus Two Corners: 75x
- Small X Plus Four Corners: 500x
Winning in a New York Minute
Empire Action is a fairly typical example of the classic bingo-based games seen at many online casinos, and a fairly basic one at that. There are no decisions to be made and no strategies to consider, so players are mostly sitting back passively and watching the results play out on their own.
That may not be a very exciting prospect for most players, but this game does have one big advantage: it resolves very quickly, making it a fine choice if you want to place some bets and win or lose in a matter of seconds. That, combined with the ability to win some truly enormous prizes on a lucky draw make this a decent if unremarkable specialty game that may be worth a look if you’re pining for some quick gambling between your times playing other games.
