Whether a feature round can extend itself changes the mathematics more than the initial spin count does, and the answer usually occupies one clause in a rules panel that most players read past on their way to the trigger condition.
What a retrigger does to the distribution
It adds a tail. A fifteen-spin round with no retrigger has a bounded maximum; the same round with unlimited retriggers has no ceiling except the game’s stated maximum win, and the possibility of extension shifts a meaningful portion of the return into rare long rounds.
The consequence is that two games with identical spin counts and identical return percentages can have very different variance profiles based solely on this clause. The one permitting retriggers will pay less on a typical feature entry and more on an exceptional one.
The three common arrangements
No retrigger at all, which bounds the round cleanly. Retrigger on the same condition that entered the feature, usually awarding the same number of spins again. Or retrigger on a reduced condition — two scatters instead of three — which makes extension considerably more likely and is worth spotting.
Finding the clause
Reading the feature section of The Dog House free demo rather than the summary line answers it in under a minute, and the sentence to look for mentions additional spins being awarded during the round. Where no such sentence exists, the round does not extend, and the absence is as informative as the presence.
Some panels state a maximum, capping retriggers at a total spin count or a number of extensions. That cap is the figure that actually bounds the tail, and it converts an apparently unlimited mechanic into a bounded one.
- Look for the sentence awarding spins during the feature
- Note whether the retrigger condition is easier than the entry one
- Check for a stated cap on total spins or extensions
- Establish whether accumulated state carries into extended spins
- Read the absence of the clause as a bounded round
The interaction with sticky mechanics
Where a feature accumulates something across its spins — sticky symbols, a rising multiplier, a collection meter — a retrigger that preserves the accumulated state is a fundamentally different mechanic from one that resets it. The rules will say, and the difference determines whether a long round compounds or merely lasts.
Why designers restrict it
Because an unlimited retrigger on a generous condition creates a tail the model has to pay for elsewhere, usually by making the base game thinner. Every extension possibility is funded by ordinary rounds, and a designer choosing to permit them is making a deliberate variance decision rather than being generous.
How to weigh it
As part of the same reading that establishes spin count and trigger requirement. Those three figures together describe the feature’s rhythm completely, and none of them requires playing to discover. A player who knows all three knows what the game does; one who knows only the spin count knows the least informative of them.
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