Crazy Time Live Casino Game - A Guide for Australian Players

Crazy Time is a live casino game show created by Evolution Gaming in 2020 that became a massive hit. As I mentioned earlier, it also served as the inspiration to similar live casino game shows, with the most popular being Money Time by Pragmatic Play, which shares many similarities with Crazy Time.

The game combines a giant wheel of fortune with 54 segments, divided into instant-win prizes and bonus game segments that activate one of the 4 bonus games: Coin Flip, Cash Hunt, Pachinko, and Crazy Time Bonus Round.

The game is hosted by a live presenter, and the entire format, including the presenter’s outfit, the look of the studio, and even the phrases that the presenter uses during the game, feels more like a TV game show than a traditional casino game.

What made Crazy Time stand out from earlier wheel games like Dream Catcher was the addition of bonus features and random multipliers, which provide potential payouts of up to $500,000.

Although there are many features, Crazy Time is actually rather easy to understand. Admittedly, I find Money Time even easier to play because the font is bigger and the bonus games are equally intuitive.

In fact, if you’re planning to play Money Time instead, you can use this section as a guide for that game as well, since the gameplay is virtually identical.

Unlike games like online poker or blackjack, you don’t have to learn any strategies, and all you need to do is place your bet before the game begins, and that’s it. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to play Crazy Time:

When you open Crazy Time, the first thing you’ll notice is the giant wheel that’s right behind the presenter. The wheel contains 54 segments in total, divided between number segments and bonus game segments. Before each spin, the presenter gives players a short betting window of about 25-30 seconds to place their wagers.

You can bet on the number segments (1, 2, 5, and 10) or on one of the four bonus games: Coin Flip, Cash Hunt, Pachinko, and Crazy Time. Most casinos allow bets starting at around $0.10-$0.20 per segment, although the exact limits vary by casino.

As I said, however, since you can’t play Crazy Time from Australia, you’ll likely be playing Money Time instead. The wheel layout is almost identical and contains:

• 23 x Number 1 segments
• 11 x Number 2 segments
• 7 x Number 5 segments
• 4 x Number 10 segments
• 4 x Coin Flip (Crazy Time) / Cash Roll (Money Time) segments
• 2 x Cash Hunt (Crazy Time) / Coin Rush (Money Time) segments
• 2 x Pachinko (Crazy Time) / Bank Heist (Money Time) segments
• 1 x Crazy Time (Crazy Time) / Money Time (Money Time) segment

As you can see, the majority of the wheel is occupied by lower-paying number segments, with almost half of the wheel being 1 segment, which indicates a multiplier of 1x. In other words, you only get your money back.

There’s another feature worth mentioning here: random multipliers. Before each spin, the game assigns a random multiplier to one of the segments on the wheel. These multipliers range from 2x to 50x, and if the wheel lands on the selected segment, the multiplier is applied to the normal payout.

You can bet on each segment type and spread your bets however you like. For example, if your budget is A$10 per round, you can bet A$5 on the 1 segment, and spread out the other A$5 to the bonus segments or the number 10 segment.

Once betting closes, no more wagers can be placed. This is also when the game randomly assigns a multiplier to one of the wheel segments. This happens after the betting window closes, which is important because it means players can’t adjust their bets based on which section gets a multiplier.

After that, the presenter spins the wheel. The wheel usually spins for around 5-6 seconds before slowing down and revealing the result.

If the wheel lands on a number segment, the round ends immediately and winning bets are paid out. If it lands on one of the bonus game segments, things get a bit more interesting.

Players who placed a bet on that bonus game are taken into the bonus round, while players who don’t have a bet on that bonus game… well… they can sit and watch. This is why I mentioned that I prefer to have all the bonus rounds covered with a small bet.

The bonus rounds themselves are RNG-based, meaning the final outcome is determined by the game’s random number generator rather than the presenter’s actions. The presenter is there to host the action and reveal the results, but the actual bonus game outcomes are generated randomly in both Crazy Time and Money Time.

If the wheel lands on a number segment you’ve backed, your winnings are paid instantly according to the payout odds:

• 1 pays 1:1
• 2 pays 2:1
• 5 pays 5:1
• 10 pays 10:1

If a random multiplier was attached to the winning segment, that multiplier is applied as well. For example, if the 10 segment receives a 25x multiplier and the wheel lands on it, the payout becomes 250:1 instead of the usual 10:1. So, the maximum payout in the base game is 500x.

If the wheel lands on a bonus game and you’ve placed a bet on it, you’ll automatically enter the corresponding bonus round. This is where the biggest wins can occur, and the max win in Crazy Time is 20,000x the bet. Money Time offers an even higher maximum win of up to 29,000x.

This might be controversial, but if I had access to both games today, I’d probably choose Money Time.

Don’t get me wrong, Crazy Time deserves all the credit for popularising the entire wheel-based game show category. Without it, games like Money Time probably wouldn’t exist. But after spending plenty of time on both, I think Pragmatic Play has improved on several aspects of Evolution’s formula.

I find Money Time easier to follow because the interface is a bit more beginner-friendly, and the bonus rounds are easier to understand for new players.

I also prefer it that the wheel has numbers instead of colours, because in Crazy Time, you need to know the payout of each colour, while in Money Time, the numbers represent the multipliers, so if you’re placing a bet on 2, for example, you immediately know that 2 means a 2x multiplier.

Regarding the bonus games, I’d say they are equal, with the slight advantage going to Money Time because the max multipliers are a bit higher. Mathematically, the two are very similar too, so the differences are very minimal.

Of course, if you’re a long-time Crazy Time fan, you’ll probably stick with the original. But for Australian players, the decision is easy anyway: Crazy Time isn’t available, while Money Time is widely available at many online casinos.

Crazy Time has an RTP ranging from 94.41% to 96.08%, depending on the betting option and game version offered by the casino. That’s comparable to many online pokies, although lower than games such as blackjack, roulette, and some Crash games.

The game’s volatility largely depends on how you play. For example, if you only bet on bonus rounds, especially the Crazy Time bonus itself, the volatility becomes very high due to how rarely those segments appear. Vice versa, if you only bet on the lower-paying segments, the volatility is much lower, but so is the max win potential.

For comparison, Money Time offers a theoretical RTP of 96.51%, which means that it has a slight edge over Crazy Time.

To get a feel for how Crazy Time actually plays, I ran a simple 100-round test using a bankroll of A$500.

For every spin, I placed A$5 on the 1 segment and A$1 on each of the four bonus rounds, bringing my total stake to A$9 per round. This is more or less the same betting approach I mentioned earlier because it keeps me involved in every bonus game while still covering the most common segment on the wheel.

Obviously, you can bet more or less than this, but I think that Crazy Time (and Pragmatic Play’s Money Time) are not suited for absolute low rollers because the wheel often lands on the 1 segment, so if you’re playing with absolute pennies and keep this low volatility approach, your bankroll will hardly move.

As expected, the bonus rounds didn’t appear very often. That’s simply the nature of the wheel when there are only nine bonus segments out of 54. What surprised me more was how frequently the multipliers landed on the 1 segment, though.

Most weren’t huge, but they were enough to cover my wager and occasionally turn what would have been a break-even result into a decent win. For example, I hit a 25x multiplier on the 1 segment a few times, which meant that I even turned some profit.

During my test, I also triggered several bonus rounds. Expectedly, Coin Flip appears the most often, but the larger bonus games were much rarer, and unfortunately, I never hit the Crazy Time bonus. I completed my 100-round test with a total loss of around A$90.

I also went on to test Money Time for a few rounds, and as I suspected, the two games are very similar. The gameplay feels very much the same, so I can say that at the moment, Money Time is a great alternative to Crazy Time for Australian players.

The real question isn’t whether Crazy Time is worth playing. It’s a fun game, and if you enjoy TV-style game shows, there’s a good chance you’ll enjoy Crazy Time, too.

The problem is that Crazy Time isn’t currently available at online casinos that accept Australian players. Fortunately, that’s not a huge issue because Money Time by Pragmatic Play offers a very similar experience, with a nearly identical wheel format, fun bonus rounds, and even a slightly higher RTP.

So, if you’re looking for the closest thing to Crazy Time in Australia today, Money Time is the game I’d recommend. It’s been one of the most popular live casino game shows for a reason, and in some ways, I actually prefer it over Crazy Time.