Giro Games 
The Slot Game Design Document: A Template That Fits on Twelve Pages
Generic GDD templates were written for RPGs. A slot needs maths targets, a symbol paytable, feature rules and a certification list — here is the structure…
Blog
Blog
Studio news about our releases on Stake, and long-form articles on slot design, math, history and regulation.
The Machine That Was Never Called a Slot: Naming Gambling Around the World
Coin swallower, penny grave, one-armed bandit, little fruits, little tiger. What each language chose to call the slot machine reveals what that culture thinks the machine…
Sea Story: How a Fish Arcade Game Shook a Government
In 2006 South Korea discovered that its arcade halls had become a nationwide gambling economy built on gift certificates. The Sea Story affair reached the presidential…
The Tiger That Ate Brazil
A single 3x3 slot became so dominant in Brazil that its nickname entered the national language. The story of the tigrinho is the clearest case study…
Why Everyone in the Post-Soviet World Calls Slots “Gaminators”
Across the former Soviet Union, an entire generation learned one word for slot machines: gaminator. It was a product name — a single Austrian cabinet that…
Medal Games: Japan’s Slot Machines Where Winning Buys You Nothing
In Japanese arcades, whole floors are given over to slot and pusher machines played with metal medals that cannot be exchanged for anything. Millions of people…
The Kugishi: Japan’s Craftsmen Who Tuned Machines With a Hammer
Before software controlled everything, a pachinko machine’s payout was set by the angle of hundreds of brass nails — adjusted nightly by a specialist craftsman with…
Fun Games: The German Machines That Were Legally Not Gambling
For years German arcades ran machines that paid nothing but points, played at extraordinary speed, and were classified as amusement rather than gambling. In 2005 the…
The Risk Ladder: Germany’s Gamble Feature as National Ritual
Ask a German player about slots and the word that comes back is Risikoleiter — the climbing risk ladder where you double or lose everything. It…
Why There Is No Casino in Paris
France has hundreds of casinos and none in its capital. A 19th-century law kept gambling at a distance from Paris, and slot machines were illegal in…
Sixty Years Illegal, Then Everywhere: The Spanish Tragaperras
Spain banned gambling in 1924 and kept the ban through the Franco era. When the machines were legalised after the transition to democracy, they arrived in…
The Casino of Europe Closes Its Hernas
Czechia once had gambling halls on seemingly every corner — the herna, a bar-and-slot hybrid that became a national fixture. Municipal bans have made most of…
Twenty Thousand Machines, Thirty Days: Hungary’s Overnight Ban
In autumn 2012 Hungary banned slot machines outside casinos with almost no transition period. Thousands of venues closed within weeks, and the resulting disputes reached the…
Measuring the Distance to a School: Italy’s Distanziometro
Italian regions regulate slot machines with a ruler. The distanziometro sets a minimum distance between gaming venues and schools, churches and clinics — and it has…
The University That Runs on Slot Machines
Iceland has no private casinos. It does have gaming machines — and a large share of them belong to the University of Iceland, whose lottery has…
Sugar Space is live on Stake: three-star Stake Engine rating and a Recommended Slots listing
Sugar Space went live on Stake on 25 August 2026 as an Only-on-Stake exclusive — 96.00% RTP, high volatility, 5,000x max win, the maximum three-star Stake…
A Slot Machine Called Jack: How Sweden Put Gambling in Every Pub
Jack Vegas is a brand, not a game — the state-run machine network that stood in Swedish restaurants and bars for decades. Its story runs from…
Slot Machines Next to the Milk: Finland’s Supermarket Gambling Era
For decades Finland put gaming machines in grocery stores, kiosks and petrol stations — thousands of them, in ordinary daily spaces. Then the country decided to…
Norway Switched Off Every Slot Machine in the Country. Then Measured What Happened
In 2007 Norway removed all privately operated slot machines nationwide, then reintroduced state terminals with mandatory player cards. Researchers got a natural experiment almost no other…
Setting 1 to 6: The Japanese Slot Machine With a Dial Inside
Every pachislot cabinet in Japan contains a physical setting from 1 to 6 that the hall chooses each morning. The same machine can be a losing…