Scatter Pays Slots: How Pay Anywhere Wins Work
In a Pay Anywhere slot, matching symbols can be scattered across the screen and still make a win. They don’t have to sit on a payline, join up as a cluster or appear on reels next to each other. The game counts how many qualify.
In Gates of Olympus, one of the most popular slots in the UK, eight matching regular symbols anywhere on the grid can pay. Its Scatter symbols are a different matter: four of them trigger Free Spins.
What are Scatter Pays slots?
With Pay Anywhere, the game counts matching paying symbols wherever they appear. They can be on different rows and separated by other symbols. The only question is whether enough of the same symbol are on screen to reach that game’s paytable.
Gates of Olympus uses a 6×5 screen, where eight or more matching regular symbols can make a Pay Anywhere win. Nothing needs to line up. The arrangement would look quite different from a win in Cluster Pays, where symbols have to connect, or Ways to Win, where matching symbols count across consecutive reels.
Is Scatter Pays the same thing?
For regular symbols, yes. It’s the same count-anywhere rule, and developers just call it different things: Scatter Pays, Scatter Pay or symbols pay anywhere. I use Pay Anywhere on this site.
Thor’s Rage 2 is a good example. Red Tiger calls its system Scatter Pay, and eight or more matching symbols of the same type count wherever they appear. The name doesn’t mean every win comes from Scatter symbols. It’s just how Red Tiger describes its regular symbols paying anywhere.
How does a Pay Anywhere win work?
Sweet Bonanza, another big UK favourite and one I know well, works the same way. Eight or more matching regular symbols anywhere on its 6×5 grid qualify, even if they’re nowhere near one another.
In the illustration, eight matching 7 symbols meet the example threshold, while seven A symbols fall short. There are also two Scatters on the screen, but they’re separate from the regular-symbol count.
Pick any two games in the Face-Off to compare how they count their wins.
Compare scatter pays and pay-anywhere rules
Choose two games to see when matching symbols count anywhere on the reels.
At a glance
| Gates of Olympus | Sweet Bonanza | |
|---|---|---|
| How symbols pay | Eight or more matching regular symbols pay by their total count anywhere on the screen. They do not need to connect or follow a line. | Eight or more matching regular symbols are counted across the whole grid, regardless of their positions or whether they touch. |
| Grid | 6 × 5 grid. | 6 × 5 grid. |
Explore the anywhere-pay rules
Some games pay for matching regular symbols counted anywhere on the grid. Others use a similar count only in a specific feature, such as the Hotspot transformation in Vikings Video Slot. Ordinary Scatter-trigger awards are not automatically the same system.
Gates of Olympus
Anywhere-pay rulePay AnywhereBase game and features
- How symbols pay
- Eight or more matching regular symbols anywhere on the screen qualify for a count-based award. Line patterns and symbol adjacency are not required.
- Grid
- 6 reels × 5 rows.
- After a count-based win
- Winning regular symbols are removed and the Tumble Feature can continue the sequence.
Sources: GLI UK Certification 2021; Spain rules document; Sweden rules document; UK rules document
Sweet Bonanza
Anywhere-pay rulePay AnywhereBase game and features
- How symbols pay
- Eight or more regular symbols of the same type anywhere on the screen form a Pay Anywhere win; they do not need to follow fixed lines or touch one another.
- Grid
- 6 reels × 5 rows.
- After a count-based win
- Winning symbols are removed and replaced during a Tumble sequence.
Sources: Current In-Game Rules Screenshots; Pragmatic Play Game Overview PDF
How many matching symbols do you need?
There isn’t one number for every Pay Anywhere game. Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza and Thor’s Rage 2 all use eight as the minimum for their regular-symbol awards. That makes eight common in this small group, not a rule for the whole payout system.
Gates of Olympus also splits its regular-symbol awards into count bands: 8 or 9, 10 or 11, and 12 to 30 matching symbols. King Frog Feast pays anywhere too, but my sources don’t give its minimum, so I’ve left it out rather than guess.
| Game | How regular wins pay | Minimum | Scatter or feature note |
|---|---|---|---|
 Gates of Olympus |
Pay Anywhere | 8 | Four Scatters trigger Free Spins |
 Sweet Bonanza |
Pay Anywhere | 8 | Winning symbols can start a Tumble |
 Thor’s Rage 2 |
Pay Anywhere (Red Tiger calls it Scatter Pay) | 8 | None |
 King Frog Feast |
Pay Anywhere | Not stated in my sources | None |
 Vikings Video Slot |
Ways (betways) | None | Hotspot: transformed Viking symbols counted by Scatter Pays |
Pay Anywhere and Scatter symbols are not the same thing
A Scatter symbol is a particular symbol with its own payout or feature trigger. Pay Anywhere is the main way qualifying regular symbols are counted. You can have one without the other.
Gates of Olympus shows both rules in one game. Regular matching symbols pay by their total count wherever they land. Four or more Scatter symbols, meanwhile, trigger Free Spins. The symbols can be spread across the screen in both cases, but that doesn’t make the rules identical.
It works the other way round too. A line game can have a Scatter that pays anywhere without becoming a Pay Anywhere game, and there are examples in the Fixed Paylines guide.
Can Scatter Pays apply only during a feature?
Yes, and Vikings Video Slot is a good example. Its usual payouts use betways, NetEnt’s name for Ways, but a Hotspot transformation can change the treatment of particular Viking symbols. The transformed symbols are then counted using Scatter Pays, wherever they appear.
Once the Hotspot evaluation is over, the betways rules apply again unless that feature is triggered once more. So a game can use Scatter Pays for a moment without being a Pay Anywhere game.
Pay Anywhere vs other payout systems
With Pay Anywhere, eight matching symbols can sit in opposite corners of the screen and still count together. Every other system cares where they are.
| Payout system | What qualifies? |
|---|---|
| Pay Anywhere / Scatter Pays | Enough qualifying matching symbols anywhere in view, with no line, cluster or consecutive-reel requirement. Special symbols such as Scatters can have their own rules. |
| Cluster Pays | Matching symbols make a connected group that meets the game’s cluster rule. |
| Ways to Win | Matching symbols form combinations on consecutive reels, without a set line. |
| Fixed Paylines | Matching symbols land on the positions of a predefined line path. |
What about Cascading Reels?
Pay Anywhere decides what makes a win. A cascade decides what happens afterwards. They’re often found together, but one doesn’t require the other.
In Sweet Bonanza, a qualifying Pay Anywhere win can start a Tumble. The winning symbols disappear, others move down and new ones take their place. That process is separate from the rule that counted the matching symbols in the first place. Cascading Reels can work with other payout systems too.
Scatter Pays FAQ
Do Scatter symbols always pay cash?
Not necessarily. Each game sets what its Scatters do: pay, trigger a feature or both. In Gates of Olympus, four or more trigger Free Spins.
Does Pay Anywhere mean a game pays more often?
The payout system alone can’t tell you that. Its symbol thresholds don’t establish RTP, volatility or how frequently wins occur. If you want RTP figures, Gates of Olympus and Sweet Bonanza are both in my RTP study, which compares what UK casinos show for them.
Sources reviewed
I checked these games against their own rules, developer game sheets, certification material and game pages. Some evidence is only available in-game or through authenticated sources; the public links identify the games.
Habanero
NetEnt
Pragmatic Play
Red Tiger
Where this guide comes from
I check each game’s own rules to see which symbols are counted, how many are needed and whether the rule applies throughout play or only during a feature. Where the source doesn’t give a number, I don’t fill it in. Read the full research methodology