Mines is a fast instant game found in many casino lobbies. Before each round the game hides your chosen number of mines under the 25 tiles of a 5x5 grid. Tap tiles to uncover safe squares, watch the multiplier rise, and press Cash Out before you hit a mine. The rules take minutes to learn; the tension comes from deciding when to stop. This guide covers the rules and the screen step by step. Tactics are in our guide to Mines strategies.
Step 1: set up a round
Choose your stake. Use the plus and minus buttons or the keypad next to the bet field. The stake stays fixed until the round ends.
Choose the number of mines. Most versions allow 1 to 24. Treat it as a difficulty setting:
| Mines | Risk | Multipliers | Chance first tile is safe |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 3 | Low | Modest | 96% to 88% |
| 4 to 7 | Medium | Balanced | 84% to 72% |
| 8 or more | High | Large and volatile | 68% or less |
Read the payout table. Once you set the mine count, the game shows the multiplier for each safe tile in a row. It tells you exactly what you would collect if you cashed out after any tap, so check it before you start.
Start the round. Press Play or Start. The game locks your stake and mine count, places the mines at random and opens the grid. You can only change the stake and mine count between rounds.
Mines treats the grid as a closed set. The game hides the mines before the first tap, and it does not move them while the round is open. A safe tile stays face up. The remaining hidden tiles keep the same mines, so the next tap is drawn from a smaller set.
The mine count is the difficulty control. One mine leaves 24 safe tiles on a 25-tile grid, which is why the payout table shows a first-tap safety near 96%. Three mines leave 22 safe tiles, which is the 22 in 25 figure in the summary above. Each extra mine removes one safe tile from that starting set and lifts the multiplier the table prints for the same number of reveals.
The stake stays locked for the whole round. Changing the stake or the mine count is possible only after the round ends, either by cash out or by a mine. That lock is why the payout table is worth reading before Play: the multipliers on screen are the ones that round will pay.
Why the mine count changes the round
The mine count decides how many tiles are safe before the grid runs out of gems. With one mine, 24 of the 25 tiles are safe, so most early taps land on a gem. With 24 mines, only one tile is safe, and the round is over almost at once. Every setting between those ends changes two things together: how often a round survives the next tap, and how much the multiplier climbs for each safe tile.
Each reveal removes one tile from the hidden set. The mines stay where they are, so the chance that the next tap is safe is the number of safe tiles still hidden divided by the number of tiles still hidden. With few mines that ratio stays high for many taps. With many mines it falls quickly after the first two or three reveals.
Think of the mine count as a difficulty setting. Low counts give longer rounds with small steps. High counts give short rounds with large steps and frequent busts. Neither setting is better in general. The right count depends on how many safe taps you expect to make before you cash out, and that target should be set before you press Play.
How to read the payout table before Play
The payout table lists one multiplier for each safe reveal. Each row shows what the stake returns if you cash out at that point, so the table answers the first question most players ask: what is this round worth after two gems, after five, after ten?
Look at the size of each step. Small steps mean each extra gem adds little, so the round pays for patience only slowly. Large steps mean each gem adds a lot, and the round is worth more the longer it runs. The steps change with the mine count, so two tables for different counts tell different stories even on the same 5x5 grid.
Compare the table with your target. If your target is a row the table reaches after three gems, you know how many safe taps the round needs before it pays what you planned. If the target sits past the last row the game can reach, the round cannot pay it, however lucky the taps are.
Step 2: play the round
Tap a tile. It flips to show a gem (safe) or a mine. The multiplier and the potential payout above the grid update at once.
Watch the multiplier climb. With 3 mines a common progression is 1.14x after one safe tile, 1.30x after two, 1.49x after three, 1.72x after four and 2.00x after five. The figures always match the payout table.
Cash out or continue. After any safe tile the Cash Out button becomes active; on a phone it usually sits under the grid. Press it to end the round and collect the payout shown. Tap another tile to chase a higher multiplier, but each safe tile you take out leaves the mines a bigger share of what is left.
How a round ends:
- You cash out: your balance goes up by stake × multiplier, and a Play Again button appears.
- You hit a mine: the tile explodes, your stake is lost and the grid resets for the next round.
A gem is only a marker that the tile was safe. It does not store a separate prize. The prize is always the stake multiplied by the step shown in the payout table for the number of gems you have opened.
With 3 mines, the table on many versions steps through about 1.14x, 1.30x, 1.49x, 1.72x and 2.00x across the first five safe tiles. Those steps are an example of the climb, not a promise that every casino prints the same ladder. If the table on your screen differs, the on-screen table is the one that pays.
Cash Out pays the amount shown at that moment and closes the round. Continuing does not add the earlier step on top of a new one. The next multiplier replaces the current one. A mine after that pays nothing for the gems already opened in the round.
What happens after a bust
A bust ends the round and takes the stake. The gems opened before the mine do not pay anything, because a payout only exists while Cash Out is available. That is why the decision to cash out is made after every safe tile, not at the end of the grid.
A bust also clears the grid. The next round places new mines, so a run of busts reflects the choices made about tiles and stakes, not a debt the game owes you. Raising the stake after a bust is a common way a short losing run becomes a large one. It increases the loss on the next round without changing that round's odds.
Step 3: the screen around the grid
- Result banner: shows Win with the multiplier you collected, or Bust if you hit a mine.
- Balance: your account total stays visible in the casino bar, so you can follow wins and losses without leaving the game.
- Round history: many versions list your last 10 to 20 rounds with time, stake and result. Use it to check payouts.
- Sound and animation: safe tiles chime and mines explode. You can mute them in settings without changing the game.
The result banner is a receipt for the round you just finished. A Win line names the multiplier you collected. A Bust line means the last tile was a mine and the stake is gone. The banner does not change the next round's mine positions.
Round history is a log, usually the last 10 to 20 rounds, with time, stake and result. Use it to check that a cash-out matched the multiplier you saw. It is not a forecast. Because each round places mines again, a run of busts does not make the next first tap safer, and a run of wins does not make it riskier.
Key points to remember
- The mine count sets the difficulty. Fewer mines give a calmer game with smaller multipliers; more mines raise both.
- Revealed tiles stay open. A safe tile never turns back, so each one leaves fewer tiles to choose from, with the same number of mines among them.
- Cashing out is part of the game. When to press it is the one real decision in each round.
- Rounds are independent. A random number generator places the mines each round; one round has no effect on the next. Many versions are provably fair, so you can check the placement afterwards. Read whether Mines games are really provably fair.
Provable fairness, where a version offers it, lets you check the mine placement after the round using the seed the game publishes. The check confirms that the mines were fixed before you tapped. It does not tell you where they sat while the tiles were still hidden.
Mines has a published return and house edge in our records. Both are long-run figures for the whole game, not the chance that the next tile is safe. Tile odds follow the mines you chose and the tiles still hidden. Release date, volatility and bet limits vary by casino, so treat the bet field on the site you are using as the limit that applies.
Common mistakes new players make
Most early losses come from the same few habits, and each one shows up in the round history.
- Raising the stake after a bust. The next round has the same odds as the last one, but the loss is larger. Keep the stake fixed for the whole session.
- Chasing a multiplier past the target. The table keeps climbing, so each extra tap feels as if it should pay. Every tap risks the whole stake, and the target written before Play is the only reason to keep going.
- Choosing a high mine count for faster wins. Big steps are attractive, but they come with few safe tiles. At 20 mines only 5 of the 25 tiles are safe, so most rounds end on the first or second tap.
- Ignoring the payout table. Cash Out pays the figure on screen at that moment. A player who has not read the table is guessing what the round is worth.
Use the round history to check each habit. If the same mistake appears in several rounds, change one rule at a time so you can see which change helped.
Games similar to Mines
If you like the way Mines lets you set your own risk, try crash games, Plinko and Dice. Coinflip and Limbo use different formats with the same fast, provably fair design.
Play for fun, with limits
Mines is entertainment. A round can take seconds on a phone, so set a spending limit, take regular breaks and stop when it stops being fun. If you feel you are losing control, use the casino's self-exclusion tools or get help through our responsible gaming page.
A Mines session can run through dozens of rounds in a few minutes, and the next round starts as soon as the last one ends. Set your loss limit and session time before you open the game, and check the balance against those numbers after each bust. If the round history shows the same mistake again, stop and return to the limits you wrote down.
