Since its launch, Stake Plinko has emerged as one of the most popular Stake Originals on the platform. Inspired by the mechanical arcade game pachinko and made famous by ‘The Price is Right’, the game Plinko has a simple concept and is easy to pick up play. At the same time, it is highly adaptable, as can be customised to match the player’s needs and risk vs. reward preferences. With the right settings, there is the potential for huge prizes.
Over the years, online casino games have continually evolved, especially as casinos try to replicate the brick and mortar experience. Yet, it appears there is an enduring appeal to the simplicity of games like Stake Plinko, where players can easily wager their preferred amount and see the outcome of their bet quickly.
In this article, we will take a closer look at Stake Plinko, explore why it has become one of the most popular Stake Originals and offer a beginner’s guide so you can get started right away.
What is Stake Plinko?
Stake Plinko is an online casino game, where players drop a ball from the top of a pyramid made up of pins. These pins are represented on the screen by white dots and will eventually divert the ball into one of the multiplier slots at the bottom. These multiplier slots represent your winnings, based on your betting amount.
For example, if you bet 2 Bitcoins and your ball lands in the 9x multiplier, you’d have 18 Bitcoins in winnings. The calculation for this would be: 2 x 9 = 18. However, if your ball lands in the 0.2x multiplier instead, you’d end up with 0.4 Bitcoins, because the calculation would be 2 x 0.2 = 0.4. In the second example, you end up with less money than you started with, whereas in the first example, you end up with more than you started with.
You can choose to play with a single ball or multiple balls, but you select the stake for each ball. The simplicity and ease of the game makes it a faster option than alternatives like Stake Mines, which is inspired by Minesweeper.
The History of Plinko
The origins of Stake Plinko can be traced back to Japan and the popular mechanical arcade game, pachinko. Most pachinko machines feature pins, a ball and small cups, which the player hopes the ball will fall into to receive a prize. In Japan, these machines emerged in the 1920s and grew in popularity after the Second World War. One of the reasons for their popularity was that they offered low-stakes gambling and a legal loophole, circumventing a ban on gambling for cash.
During the 1980s, a similar game appeared on the TV show ‘The Price is Right’ in the United States. This game, called Plinko, saw contestants place a chip on a peg board, so that it would eventually fall into one of nine prize slots at the bottom of the board. This can be viewed as the more immediate inspiration for Stake Plinko.
After the launch of the Stake online casino, Stake Plinko became one of the platform’s most popular original games. This has remained the case over several years since.
What Makes Stake Plinko a Popular Casino Game?
There are a number of factors that have helped to turn Stake Plinko into a popular online casino game, including its simplicity, flexibility and the potential for high rewards. Here, we explore some of the biggest reasons for its success:
1. Customisation
A major reason why Stake Plinko has become one of the most popular Stake Originals Games is because it provides players with significant scope for customisation. As a player, you can tailor the game to match the level of risk and reward you prefer by choosing between high, medium and low risk.
This setting affects the multiplier slots at the bottom of the game board. With a low risk game, there is a reduced possibility of losing money, but the maximum reward possible is also lower. With a high risk game, there is an increased risk of losing money, but the maximum prize is significantly higher.
You also have the ability to choose the number of rows of pins on the board, ranging from eight at the lowest end and 16 at the higher end. This impacts the total number of multiplier slots at the bottom of the board, with more slots meaning a higher maximum prize. Therefore, the absolute maximum prize for Stake Plinko can only be earned by selecting a high risk game with a total of 16 rows of pins on the board, which unlocks the 1K multiplier.
2. Design Simplicity
Another reason for Stake Plinko’s popularity is the low barrier of entry provided by its game design. Plinko is both visually and mechanically simple, drawing inspiration from pachinko machines and the famous adaptation featured on ‘The Price is Right’. This simplicity means the game is easy to understand and get started with.
For online casino games, simplicity can help to avoid situations where players feel overwhelmed or intimidated by game rules. It can also result in games that are quicker to play, meaning you can squeeze a game in even if you only have a few moments to spare and you can fit more games into a single session.
The simplicity also means Stake Plinko is a genuinely mobile-friendly online casino game.
3. Unpredictability
At its core, Stake Plinko is a game of chance and this makes it unpredictable. In the end, this is what keeps players coming back for more, day after day. Every time you drop a ball from the top of the board, it faces an uncertain future as it makes its way down to the bottom, and there is the potential for it to either win or lose you money.
Stake Plinko is not a game you can master, as it is not a skill-based game. Instead, it is a game that appeals to players who genuinely want the feeling of testing their luck and letting fate decide. This unpredictability and the anticipation and thrill it provides is especially pronounced when playing on the high risk setting.
4. High Rewards
To create a truly compelling online casino game and keep players coming back month after month, there needs to be a big reward available and Stake Plinko’s customisable design delivers this for players.
When on the highest risk setting, with the maximum number of rows, you have the potential for your ball to land in a 1K modifier. Hypothetically, this means if you stake 100 Bitcoin on these settings – admittedly a very risky bet – you have the potential to receive 100,000 Bitcoin in return, all from a single drop of your Plinko ball.
5. Competitive Element
On paper, Stake Plinko does not appear to be a particularly competitive game. It is, after all, a single-player game that is based on chance. However, the Stake platform has helped to introduce a competitive element to the game through its use of leaderboards, which highlight some of the best outcomes achieved on the game.
The leaderboard feature draws attention to the biggest wins, which will be bets where the ball landed in the 1K multiplier slot after a high stake bet, as well as lucky wins, such as low stakes that turned into significant winnings by landing in the 1K modifier. This means by playing Plinko regularly, you could see yourself on the leaderboard.
However, if you are a privacy-focused user, using the Stake platform for its anonymity, you can also set your account to the privacy mode and prevent your details from appearing on the leaderboard.
6. Built-In Fairness
One of the factors that has kept Stake Plinko and a variety of other Stake Originals popular is the built-in concept of provable fairness. This is achieved through blockchain technology, which allows for cryptographic hashing and a commitment scheme to be used in tandem. Essentially, this means you can prove that the games you play are fair, genuinely random and have not been manipulated by the casino to produce the outcome it wants.
To provide extra reassurances, this method of provable fairness also allows third parties to verify the fairness and this verification is open sourced, meaning there is transparency throughout the entire process. In general, people are more likely to continue to play games that they know are fair and offer a reasonable prospect of paying out.
How Do You Play Stake Plinko?
If you are a novice online casino user, or a regular Stake online casino player who is looking to play Stake Plinko for the first time, it is important to go into the game with an understanding of what you need to do. In the sections that follow, you can find a breakdown of how to play Plinko on the Stake platform:
1. Signing Up
To begin, you will need to create an account on Stake.com. You can do this by visiting the website and clicking on the ‘Register’ button. Account creation is free. Once you have successfully created your account, log in using your chosen email address or username and your chosen password.
You will need to deposit funds into your account too. Stake is a crypto-friendly online casino, which supports the use of a number of cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Litecoin and Ethereum.
2. Choosing Your Settings
Navigate to Stake Plinko on the platform by going to the ‘Casino’ section, clicking ‘Stake Originals’ on the sidebar and then selecting the game. On the left of the screen, you will be able to select your preferred settings. Here, you can choose the amount you want to bet on the game, the risk level and the number of rows.
Low risk games with fewer rows are less likely to result in losses, but also less likely to earn significant wins. High risk games, with more rows, can provide the highest possible pay out, but they also provide the greatest risk of losing your money. This is a balancing act, but it is recommended to start with low or medium risk.
3. Playing the Game
Once you have your settings the way you want them, you can play by clicking the ‘Bet’ button. Your ball will enter the Plinko board, bounce off the pins, which are the white dots, and then land in a multiplier slot at the bottom. This multiplier will be added to the amount you bet to determine the amount you win or lose.
Beginner’s Guide: Useful Tips and Strategies
For beginners, there are some practical steps that can increase your enjoyment of Stake Plinko, while keeping risks to a minimum. Following these steps will give you the best possible chance of enjoying the game when you first start:
1. Use Manual Mode
Stake Plinko can be played in either ‘Manual’ or ‘Auto’ mode. The ‘Auto’ setting is useful once you start to place multiple bets at once, but new players should stick to the ‘Manual’ setting early on. This will give you the maximum amount of control over your games and help you to appreciate each ball you drop.
2. Keep Bets Small
With any game of luck, it is tempting to over-estimate your chances of success. Try to keep expectations reasonable and your bets small to begin with. If you want to try for big rewards, remember, you can set the game to the maximum risk level and the maximum of 16 rows. Even with a low stake, you can potentially earn major rewards from these settings. However, crucially, with a low stakes bet, you do not risk losing a large amount of money.
3. Set a Firm Budget
As with any online casino game, you should only ever bet what you can afford to lose and the most sensible approach is to treat the money you stake as the price of playing and to assume you will lose. This way any winnings are a bonus. Set a clear budget for the day and for the month and do not exceed this budget under any circumstances. Remember, you should never chase your losses with any online casino game, as you can make your situation worse.
4. Use Fewer Rows
When you first start out with Stake Plinko, you are going to want to see some wins because a series of consecutive losses can be demoralising. For this reason, it may be a good idea to begin with a low number of rows, such as 8, 9 or 10. You can combine this with either low or medium risk settings to get some early wins and a taste for the game.
