RTP note: The 96.12% figure applies to the game with the Hot Hot Super Respin feature active. BigWinBoard specifically notes WMS did not disclose the overall base-game RTP separately, suggesting the full-feature RTP is the only published figure. Verify in-game.
Quick Stats
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Provider | WMS (Williams Interactive / Light & Wonder) |
| Game Type | Video Slot |
| RTP | 96.12% (Hot Hot Respin included; overall base-game RTP not separately disclosed) |
| Volatility | Medium-High |
| Reels / Rows | 5 × 4 |
| Paylines | 50 Fixed |
| Min Bet | $0.40 per spin |
| Max Bet | $500.00 per spin |
| Max Win | ~250x stake (standard); higher via Hot Hot full-screen scenario |
| Release | 2013 (land-based origin) |
| Features | Hearts of Venice Logo Wild (reels 2–5), Heart Bonus Mystery Symbol (all reels), Hot Hot Super Respin (reel 1 full stack → 2 respins + heart reveals), Free Spins (10 spins, extra wilds/hearts, Bonus Guarantee, retrigger) |
| Scatter | Lovers Silhouette — reels 1, 3, and 5 only (Blackspins incorrectly states 1, 2, 3) |
| Theme | Venice / Romance |
| Platform | Desktop & Mobile |
What Is Hearts of Venice?
Hearts of Venice is WMS transporting one of their land-based cabinet hits to the online world, and the heritage shows — in the best and most honest senses. The waltz-inspired soundtrack, the physical-reel spacing aesthetic, and the name card pops on wins all feel like a casino floor experience rendered in HTML. The Venetian setting leans into the city’s romantic clichés with commitment: a beautiful lady, a gondolier, canal bridges, lanterns, a winged lion, roses — every symbol earns its place thematically.
The game’s two structural features complement each other. The Heart Bonus symbol acts as a mystery reveal — any Heart landing on any reel transforms into another symbol at the end of the round, potentially completing winning combinations. When reel 1 stacks completely with Hearts, it escalates into the Hot Hot Super Respin, holding that full reel and any other Hearts or Wilds in place for two respins before revealing a consistent symbol across all Heart positions simultaneously. The Free Spins round separately offers a Bonus Guarantee floor — if the feature pays less than 10x your total bet, WMS tops you up. That guarantee is a rare player protection mechanic not commonly found in competing titles.
WMS (Williams Interactive) was founded in 1994 and released their first slot in 1996. They are one of the pioneers of physical casino slot technology and one of the most recognisable names in land-based gaming. The studio is now part of Scientific Games / Light & Wonder. Their online slots often carry the signature sounds and rhythm of their physical machines.
Who this is for: NZ players who enjoy land-based-style pokies with a romantic Venetian theme, appreciate the Hot Hot Super Respin mystery-reveal mechanic, and value the Free Spins Bonus Guarantee as a downside protection feature.
Who this is not for: Players who need a contemporary-feeling high-feature slot or a large published max win. Hearts of Venice is a 2013 title with a deliberately restrained feature set — its appeal is its character and consistency, not mechanical complexity.
RTP and Volatility
Hearts of Venice carries an RTP of 96.12%, confirmed across Blackspins, SlotsTemple, BigWinBoard, and AboutSlots. BigWinBoard notes this figure applies with the Hot Hot Super Respin side bet activated — WMS did not separately disclose the base-game-only RTP, which is unusual and worth noting. At 96.12%, the house edge is 3.88%.
Volatility is described as medium-to-high across multiple independent sources (SlotsTemple, SlotsTemple, BigWinBoard, AboutSlots), even though the Blackspins listing says Medium. The medium-to-high designation reflects the Hot Hot Super Respin’s front-loaded win potential — most base-game spins produce modest wins, with the Hot Hot and Free Spins events delivering the session’s large payouts.
At $0.40 minimum stake, a $40 session covers 100 spins. At $1.00, $100 covers the same window. The Bonus Guarantee means no Free Spins session is a complete wash.
Do this: Calculate your Bonus Guarantee threshold before loading the game. At your chosen stake, 10x your total bet = your guaranteed minimum Free Spins payout. At $2.00 per spin, the guarantee is $20.00. Knowing this floor value helps calibrate session expectations for the free games.
Betting Range
Hearts of Venice accepts bets from $0.40 to $500.00 per spin. All 50 paylines are fixed and always active. The game uses a coin denomination structure — at $0.40 minimum, the per-line cost works out to $0.008 per payline; at $500 maximum, it’s $10.00 per payline.
The line win pay structure is important: per the Blackspins rules, “all line wins are multiplied by your total bet, divided by 40” — meaning payouts are calculated as if there were 40 base paylines and scaled to your total bet. This is an internal mathematical structure; as a player, the total bet shown is what matters for session budgeting.
Start here: Use $0.40 per spin for your first 20 spins to observe how frequently Heart Bonus symbols appear on the reels (they can land on any reel at any time) versus how often reel 1 fills completely with stacked Hearts for the Hot Hot trigger. Understanding the relative frequency of these two events calibrates your patience expectations for the session.
How to Play Hearts of Venice — Step by Step
Base-game spins resolve quickly with the WMS-signature reel-spin jingle. Heart Bonus reveals add a brief animation. Hot Hot Super Respin adds 10–20 seconds. Free Spins add time based on retrigger frequency.
- Set your bet. Use the “+/–” buttons to select a total stake between $0.40 and $500.00. All 50 paylines are included automatically.
- Open the paytable. Click the “?” button (bottom-left) to review all symbol values. The Lady is the top regular symbol; the Wild Logo appears on reels 2–5 only; the Lovers Scatter appears on reels 1, 3, and 5.
- Press spin. Left-to-right combinations on any of the 50 paylines pay from reel 1. The WMS jingle plays as the reels spin.
- Heart Bonus symbols land on any reel. Any Hearts visible at the end of a spin reveal a random symbol — they act as mystery transforms on each standard spin. If the Heart completes a winning combination after revealing, that win pays normally.
- Reel 1 fully stacked with Hearts → Hot Hot Super Respin. All Heart and Wild symbols across the grid lock in place. Two respins play on the remaining unfilled positions. After the respins, all Heart symbols reveal the same random symbol simultaneously. Any winning combinations formed pay out.
- Watch for Lovers Scatter on reels 1, 3, and 5. Three scatters trigger 10 Free Spins.
- During Free Spins: Extra Wild Logo and Heart Bonus symbols are added to the reels. The Hot Hot Super Respin can also trigger during Free Spins. Landing 3+ more Lovers Scatters during Free Spins retriggers 10 additional spins.
- Bonus Guarantee applies at end of Free Spins. If the total payout from Free Spins is less than 10x your total bet, the game automatically pays you 10x your total bet — the floor is guaranteed regardless of actual Free Spins outcomes.
Try this: During your first Hot Hot Super Respin, note which symbol the Hearts reveal. Because all Hearts on the grid reveal the same symbol simultaneously, a reel-1 full stack plus Hearts on two or three additional reels can produce multi-reel combinations of a single revealed symbol — the path to the highest Hot Hot payouts.
Symbols and Paytable
Hearts of Venice uses a Venetian character and icon symbol set with no card royals — every symbol reflects the Venice/romance theme.
Low-value symbols: Gondolier’s hat, rose — the filler symbols. Pay modest amounts for three or more on a payline.
Mid-value symbols (ascending): Lantern, gondola, canal bridge (Rialto Bridge), winged lion of Venice statue — the city’s architectural and cultural icons.
High-value symbols:
- Gondolier — second-highest regular symbol; 150 coins for 5-of-a-kind (plus four other 150-coin combinations per AllOnlineSlots)
- Beautiful Venetian Lady — the game’s top regular symbol; 200 coins for 5-of-a-kind
Hearts of Venice Logo — Wild: Substitutes for all symbols except the Lovers Scatter. Appears on reels 2, 3, 4, and 5 only — not on reel 1. Five Wilds cannot land simultaneously since reel 1 is excluded.
Heart Bonus Mystery Symbol: Can appear on any reel at any time. At the end of each spin, reveals a random symbol (any symbol except Wild and Scatter). Any Heart landing completes its reveal before wins are calculated — Hearts are mystery transforms, not payline symbols in their standard state. Stacked Hearts covering all of reel 1 trigger the Hot Hot Super Respin.
Lovers Silhouette — Scatter: The couple-in-shadow silhouette. Appears on reels 1, 3, and 5 only. Three scatters trigger 10 Free Spins. Pays a scatter win directly on landing.
Watch for: Heart Bonus symbols appearing on reels 2, 3, 4, or 5 while reel 1 also shows Hearts. When reel 1 fills completely, every additional Heart locked on other reels during the respin is one more position that will reveal the same symbol at the end — building the potential for multi-reel symbol coverage simultaneously.
Bonus Features
Heart Bonus Mystery Transform (Base Game)
Active on every spin. Any Heart Bonus symbol landing on the reels transforms into a random symbol — any payline symbol except the Wild and Scatter — at the end of the spin round. This reveal happens before win calculation, so the transformed Heart can contribute to winning combinations based on what it reveals.
Hearts landing on any reel, any row, at any time make every spin a partial mystery — you don’t know what the reel will show until it stops.
Hot Hot Super Respin
Trigger: Reel 1 fully covered with stacked Heart Bonus symbols.
When the entire first reel stacks with Hearts, the feature locks that reel in place and awards two respins. During the respins, reel 1 stays fixed and any Wilds or additional Heart symbols that land on reels 2–5 also lock. After the two respins, all Heart symbols — on reel 1 and any locked positions on other reels — simultaneously reveal the same random symbol. Wins from the revealed-symbol configuration are then calculated across all 50 paylines.
Because all Hearts reveal identically, a reel 1 full stack (4 Hearts = 4 positions) plus Hearts on two or three additional reels can produce a four- or five-reel run of the same revealed symbol across multiple paylines. This is the game’s highest potential single-feature payout event. The Hot Hot Super Respin can also trigger during Free Spins.
Free Spins with Bonus Guarantee
Trigger: 3 Lovers Scatter symbols on reels 1, 3, and 5 simultaneously.
Awards 10 Free Spins. During the feature, extra Wild Logo and Heart Bonus symbols are added to the reel set — increasing the probability of Hot Hot Super Respin triggers during the bonus.
Bonus Guarantee: If the total payout from the entire Free Spins session falls below 10x your total bet, the game automatically pays 10x your total bet at the conclusion of the feature. This floor protection is rare in WMS’s broader catalogue and is a genuine player-friendly mechanic.
Retrigger: Landing 3+ Lovers Scatters during Free Spins adds 10 more spins to the remaining count. No published cap on retriggers — potentially unlimited retriggering.
Design and Theme
Venice provides one of the most naturally romantic settings in online slots — the canal backdrop, the golden lamplight, the architectural silhouettes against a purple-tinged sky. WMS renders this with a warmth that feels genuinely affectionate toward the setting rather than touristic. The Venetian Lady symbol is the visual centrepiece — a graceful, detailed illustration — with the Gondolier and winged lion rounding out the character-driven paytable.
The soundtrack is a gentle waltz — appropriate for the piazza environment and unobtrusive across extended sessions. Win celebrations and feature triggers use the classic WMS sound design inherited from their physical cabinet lineage: recognisable, crisp, and slightly nostalgic for players who’ve encountered WMS titles in land-based venues.
The 5×4 grid is spacious; the 50 fixed paylines create a dense win network without visual clutter. HTML5 build — confirmed as functional on iOS, Android, tablet, and desktop.
Is Hearts of Venice Worth Playing?
Pros:
- RTP of 96.12% is above the 96% benchmark — competitive for a medium-to-high volatility land-based-origin title
- Bonus Guarantee (minimum 10x total bet from Free Spins) is a genuine downside protection mechanic not commonly offered — no Free Spins session ends empty
- Hot Hot Super Respin creates a satisfying escalating respin sequence where each locked Heart on additional reels increases the simultaneous reveal coverage
- Heart Bonus mystery transforms on every spin add base-game variety without requiring a separate trigger
- Wide bet range ($0.40–$500) accommodates casual and high-roller sessions equally
- WMS (Light & Wonder) is one of the most established and trusted names in slot development; land-based heritage ensures proven game math
Cons:
- Scatter reel positions listed incorrectly on Blackspins (says reels 1/2/3 — actual is 1/3/5); verify in-game
- Overall base-game RTP without the Hot Hot feature active not separately disclosed — the 96.12% is the full-feature figure
- 2013 vintage shows in the visual style compared to post-2020 releases — competent but dated
- Medium-to-high volatility (not purely medium as Blackspins header states) means extended base-game quiet periods are normal
- Standard maximum win (~250x from normal play) is modest; the high-ceiling scenario requires Hot Hot full-screen simultaneously revealing a high-value symbol
- Free Spins retrigger delivers additional wilds and hearts but no multiplier — bonus extensions build via extra wild coverage, not direct multiplier stacking
Bottom line: Hearts of Venice is a well-crafted, affectionately themed WMS classic with two complementary features, a rare Bonus Guarantee on Free Spins, and the Hot Hot Super Respin’s satisfying simultaneous-reveal mechanic. The 2013 vintage is its age, not its limitation — the math model and bonus structure hold up. Verify the scatter reel positions in-game before playing (they’re on reels 1, 3, and 5, not 1, 2, 3 as listed here), and accept that the medium-to-high volatility label is more accurate than the Blackspins header’s “medium.”
Responsible Gambling
Hearts of Venice uses a certified random number generator (RNG). All reel outcomes, Heart Bonus symbol reveals, Wild positions, Hot Hot Super Respin symbol selections, and scatter positions are fully random and independent between spins. The 96.12% RTP applies across millions of spins — individual sessions will deviate. Set a session budget before playing, and contact your local responsible gambling support service if gambling causes concern.