Hacksaw Gaming vs Nolimit City

Hacksaw Gaming vs Nolimit City: the short answer

Pick Hacksaw if you want high-volatility slots with ceilings you can picture, usually 10,000x to 20,000x, and RTPs a touch above 96%. Pick Nolimit City if you accept that most sessions will end in a slow drain for the remote chance of a six-figure multiplier. Neither studio's games change the basic deal of a slot: the RTP is a long-run average, so over many spins you should expect to lose a small slice of everything you stake.

The two studios also differ in style. Hacksaw builds a lot of its catalogue around duels, multiplier wilds and bonus rounds you can describe in a sentence. Nolimit City is known for its 'x' mechanics, such as xWays, xNudge, xSplit and xBomb, and for dark, satirical themes. Both sit in our slot providers hub, and this page sets them side by side on the numbers that affect your wallet.

Who owns Hacksaw Gaming and Nolimit City

Hacksaw Gaming launched in September 2018 and is headquartered in Malta. Its parent, Hacksaw AB, has been listed on Nasdaq Stockholm under the ticker HACK since 25 June 2025, and the group chief executive is Christoffer Källberg. The company says its catalogue runs to more than 250 games, and it makes scratchcards and instant-win titles as well as slots. It holds a Gambling Commission licence, reference 000-054059, which you can confirm on the Gambling Commission public register (opens in a new tab).

Nolimit City was co-founded by Jonas Tegman and has its registered office in St Julian's, Malta. Evolution (opens in a new tab), the live casino giant, announced its deal to buy the studio in June 2022, worth up to €340m: €200m up front and €140m in earn-outs. That makes Nolimit City a sister brand of NetEnt and Red Tiger inside the same group, and of the Evolution live casino business. Our Nolimit City studio page and Hacksaw Gaming studio page cover each one in more depth.

Ownership tells you who stands behind a studio, not how a game pays. What matters at the reels is the RTP version the casino runs, the volatility and the stake you choose.

Hacksaw Gaming vs Nolimit City RTP: the figures side by side

On default settings the two studios are closer than their reputations suggest. Across the games below, Hacksaw's published RTPs range from 96.18% to 96.48%, and Nolimit City's from 96.01% to 96.13%. A gap of about 0.3 percentage points means that for every £100 you stake, the average long-run cost is around 30p higher on a typical Nolimit title. That's real, but small next to the swings either studio's volatility produces.

Read the individual reviews for layouts and features: Wanted Dead or a Wild, Chaos Crew 2, Le Bandit, Mental, San Quentin xWays and Tombstone RIP.

Lower RTP versions: the bigger difference

The headline figure isn't always the one you get. Several games from both studios come in more than one RTP setting, and the casino chooses which to run. Hacksaw's 2 Wild 2 Die has published versions at 96.25%, 94.15%, 92.14% and 88.25%. Nolimit City's San Quentin 2: Death Row comes at 96.13%, 94.03% and 92.11%. The spread inside one game dwarfs the gap between the two studios.

Volatility labels: 'High' at Hacksaw, 'Extreme' and 'Insane' at Nolimit

Volatility describes how unevenly a slot pays its RTP back. A low-volatility game returns money in frequent small amounts; a high-volatility one holds most of its RTP back for rare large hits. Two games with the same 96% RTP can feel completely different over a £20 session.

Nolimit City uses labels beyond 'High': Mental, San Quentin xWays and Fire in the Hole xBomb are rated Extreme, and Folsom Prison, Tombstone RIP and Tombstone Slaughter are rated Insane. Hacksaw's own labels in our sample are Medium or High, sometimes shown on a five-point scale (Chaos Crew 2 is 5 of 5, RIP City 3 of 5). There's no regulator-defined scale, so one studio's 'High' isn't directly comparable with another's 'Extreme'. Treat the label as the studio's own warning about how bumpy the ride is.

The maths behind the warning is simple. Your expected loss grows in step with the number of spins, but the spread of possible results grows far faster on a high-volatility game. In practice that means long runs of small or no wins are normal on both studios' top-end games, and a single session tells you almost nothing about the RTP.

Max win compared: 10,000x ceilings against 500,000x headlines

A max win is the most a game can pay on a single spin or feature, shown as a multiple of the stake. It's a ceiling, not a target: the studios don't publish how often the top prize lands, and on games like these it's far rarer than anything you'd see in a normal session.

Here's the trade-off. A slot that can pay 500,000x has to fund that possibility from somewhere, and with an RTP just over 96% it does so by paying less in ordinary spins. That's why Nolimit City's biggest games tend to feel harsher in the base game than Hacksaw's. If a big ceiling is the main reason you pick a game, set your budget assuming you'll never see it.

Signature mechanics: DuelReels against xWays, xNudge, xSplit and xBomb

Both studios brand their mechanics, and the names turn up across many titles. Here's what the main ones do, based on the studios' game announcements.

Hacksaw Gaming

• DuelReels: when a VS symbol lands as part of a win, it expands to cover the reel and two characters duel; the winner's multiplier applies to that reel. In Eternal Duel (opens in a new tab) (March 2026) the multipliers run from 2x to 100x, and several DuelReels in one win combine.
• StackWays: in Mayan Stackways, matching symbols stack 2 to 10 high on a reel, adding ways on top of the 1,024 base ways.
• Multiplier wilds and bonus tiers: games such as 2 Wild 2 Die use revolver symbols that fire multiplier wilds, leading into two free-spin rounds.

Nolimit City

• xWays: a symbol that reveals two to four matching paytable symbols in its place, adding ways to win on that spin. See our xWays and xNudge guide.
• xNudge: a wild that nudges to fill its reel, adding one to its multiplier for each position it moves.
• xSplit: splits standard symbols on other reels into two, doubling the count of those symbols, as covered in our page on split symbols.
• xBomb: clears all non-winning, non-bonus symbols so the rest drop and new ones fall in, a cascading effect used in Fire in the Hole xBomb.

None of these features changes the RTP you were quoted. They're part of how the game distributes its returns, which is why they appear on games across the whole volatility range.

What a £20 budget looks like on each studio's slots

To compare costs fairly, take a £20 session and three stake levels. The number of spins is your budget divided by the stake, and the average loss per spin is the stake multiplied by the house edge (100% minus RTP). We'll use Wanted Dead or a Wild (96.38%, edge 3.62%) for Hacksaw and Mental (96.08%, edge 3.92%) for Nolimit City.

If you staked the whole £20 once at £1 a spin, the average cost would be about 72p on Wanted Dead and about 78p on Mental. The averages barely differ. What differs is the spread around them: on either game, 20 spins at £1 can easily return nothing, and on an Extreme-rated game that outcome is more common. Spinning 10p stakes stretches the session and smooths the ride a little, but it doesn't change the percentage cost.

Speed matters too. UK rules require at least 2.5 seconds per spin, so at most about 1,440 spins an hour. At a steadier 600 spins an hour, £1 stakes cost about £21.72 an hour on average at 96.38% and about £23.52 at 96.08%. Our cost per hour guide shows how to run this for any game.

UK rules for Hacksaw and Nolimit City slots

Whichever studio made the game, a Gambling Commission-licensed casino must run it within the same rules for British players.

• Stake limits: £5 per spin for players aged 25 and over (from 9 April 2025) and £2 for 18–24s (from 21 May 2025), under the online slots stake limit guidance (opens in a new tab). Our slot stake limits page has the detail.
• Design rules since 31 October 2021: no autoplay, at least 2.5 seconds per spin, no turbo or slam-stop, and no celebrating a return that's lower than or equal to the stake. See game design rules.
• Feature buys: since a Gambling Commission warning in January 2020, feature buy-ins are not offered to British players. If you've seen bonus-buy versions of these games elsewhere, they won't appear at UK-licensed casinos; our feature buy rules page explains why.
• From 17 January 2025: no playing several games at once, and net spend and time played must be shown in real time.

These rules cap how much you can stake per spin, but not how many spins you play. A deposit limit is the most effective way to cap the total.

How to choose between a Hacksaw and a Nolimit City slot

1. Decide your session budget first and treat it as the cost of entertainment, not money you expect back.
2. Open the game's help screen and note the RTP version the casino runs; compare it with the default in our reviews.
3. Check the volatility label. If it says Extreme or Insane, expect long losing runs and size your stake so the budget lasts at least 100 spins.
4. Look at the max win only as context, not as a reason to play.
5. Set a deposit limit and a reality check in your account before you start, using our deposit limits guide.
6. Stop when the budget's gone, and don't top up to win it back.

Verdict: Hacksaw Gaming or Nolimit City for each type of player

In short, Hacksaw is the gentler of two volatile studios, and Nolimit City is the more extreme. Neither offers a better chance of coming out ahead over time; each just shapes the same small edge differently. For more matchups, browse our casino comparisons, including high vs low volatility slots.

Where to play Hacksaw Gaming and Nolimit City slots

Game line-ups change, so check each casino's lobby for the titles above before you sign up. The offers below are slot-focused welcome deals for new customers; 18+ and terms apply.

• Casumo: a 50% bonus up to £100 on a first deposit of at least £20, for new customers who opt in. Wager the bonus 10x within 7 days, with a £5 maximum bet while it's active; game, play and payment restrictions apply.
• 10bet: choose the casino welcome bonus at sign-up and make your first deposit within 7 days for a 100% match up to £25. Wager it 10x on slots within 3 days; maximum bonus winnings are £1,000, and Skrill and Neteller deposits don't qualify.
• Coral: deposit and bet £10 or more on slots to get 100 free spins at 10p each on selected games (accept within 48 hours, use within 7 days, no wagering on winnings). Runs 1 October 2026 to 1 February 2027; Neteller, PayPal, Paysafe, Skrill, prepaid cards and certain debit cards don't qualify.

18+. Every casino game has a built-in house edge, so over time you should expect to lose what you stake. Set a budget before you play and stop when it’s gone: safer gambling tools and support. Free, confidential help: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133.