Giro Games 
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…
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Articles
Long-form articles on how slot games are made: math and PAR sheets, art and symbol design, sound, certification, Stake Engine and machine history.
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…
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…
€12.50 an Hour: Belgium Regulates the Speed of Losing
Belgian café gaming machines are governed by a metric almost no other country uses: the average hourly loss. Two machines per bar, €12.50 per hour, €500…
The Physics Institute That Approves Slot Machines: Germany’s PTB Pipeline
In Germany, cash gaming machines are type-approved by the Physikalisch-Technische Bundesanstalt — the same national institute that keeps the country’s atomic clocks. Here is how the…
Rainbow Means Jackpot: The Color Grammar of Japanese Machines
Japanese pachinko and pachislot machines speak to players in a strict color code — white, blue, yellow, green, red, gold, rainbow. It is the most sophisticated…
The Dutch Three-Machine Rule: Where a Slot Legally Stops Being a Slot
Dutch law splits every gaming cabinet into three species: kansspelautomaat, behendigheidsautomaat and kermisautomaat. The line between them decides whether a machine is gambling at all.
Slots That Owe You Money: Inside Italy’s Cycle-Based AWP Machines
Italian bar slots don’t use pure RNG math. Comma 6a AWP machines run on a legal payout cycle: at least 75% must come back within 140,000…
Stake Originals and Exclusive Slots Explained
Stake originals are the games Stake built itself — Plinko, Mines, Dice, Crash and the rest of the in-house family. Stake exclusive slots are something different:…
Best Stake Games in 2026: Slots & Originals Picked by a Game Studio
Updated: August 2026. The best stake games list below is written from an unusual seat: we are Giro Games, a slot studio whose games are live…
Slot Machine Themes: The Complete Guide (From a Studio That Builds Them)
Slot machine themes are the first thing a player sees and the last thing they remember. Before anyone checks RTP or volatility, they pick a mood:…
What casino operators should look for in a slot game provider
A practical checklist for casino operators choosing a B2B slot game provider: original IP, proven RTP math, post-launch support and exclusives.
How an original slot game is made: from GDD to release
How a slot game is made at Giro Games: GDD, math and simulation, art and animation, development and post-launch updates.