Bet365 Games Review: Lucky 88

There are a number of popular Asian-themed slots you can play nowadays and Aristocrat gaming’s Lucky 88 slot, playable right now at bet365 Games is certainly one of them. The game is based primarily on Chinese culture which states that the colour red (which is the predominant colour on the backdrop of the slot) and the number ‘8’ is a lucky number and of course, 88 is doubly lucky as it contains two of the fortune-attracting digits.

What you have here is a 5×3 reel slot set against a red backdrop with Chinese characters embedded into it and a rising sun motif at the top of the screen. There are a total of 25 paylines available to play and you can select the number to have in action (though it is much better to play all possible paylines). Bets start at just £0.25 but you can increase the size of the coin value considerably to offer you a chance to play for up to £50.00 per spin. The general theme of the slot is good fortune and there is a jackpot of 888x your stake to be won.

However, you can increase the prizes on offer in the slot by activating the Extra Choice feature. This costs you a premium of 5 coins per spin, which means the lowest and highest possible spins you can play with this feature increase to £0.30 and £60.00 respectively. With the Extra Choice feature enabled, you get better value choices when you trigger some of the bonus features of the slot which we will take a more detailed look at in the section below.

Key Information

The first decision you need to make is not just the size of your wager but also the number of lines to play and whether to activate the Extra Choice symbol for the five extra coins. In our view, the slot is eminently more enjoyable played with the full number of paylines and the Extra Choice activated as the rewards are significantly better, however for higher rollers, the premium you pay to have these features can be expensive when you are playing for more per spin, so it is a decision that needs to be taken with a great deal of thought.

On the reels there are a selection of playing card low symbols, which run from 9 through to the ace and these offer the lowest payouts in the game ranging from some tiny payouts of just 2 coins (for 2 ‘9’s on the first two reels) up to a maximum of 68 coins for five aces on a payline.  Higher value symbols on the reels (of which there are five) are all symbols that are regarded as bringing good luck in Chinese culture and they include a drum, a pagoda a crane and a rather fierce looking statue.  These higher value symbols offer wins of between 2 coins and 88 coins depending on the number of each symbol on a payline.

These are not the only symbols on the reels however as there is the Wild symbol too and this is the smiling face of the rather snazzily dressed Chinese Emperor. Wild symbols can substitute for all symbols except the scatter symbol (which we will look at shortly) and when they do, they offer a multiplier based on how many Wilds are part of the winning payline and also whether you have the Extra Choice feature activated. The multiplier can be either x2, x3, x5, x8, x18, x 36 or x88 the standard amount depending on the features activated and the number of Wilds that triggered the payout. As you can imagine, landing several Wilds with Extra Choice activated on a win can lead to some significant wins in the base game.

The other symbol to look out for is the paper lantern Scatter symbol. Just two of these anywhere on the reels gives you a 1x your total bet payout, while three gives 2x your bet, four sees you land 8x your bet while land five across the reels and you will hit a massive 188 times your total stake.

However, that is not all this symbol does as three or more landed across the reels and you trigger the Free Spins feature. Here you get to choose whether you want to take the Free Spins feature on offer, or Roll the Lucky Dice instead. It is here that the money invested in the Extra Choice bonus on each spin becomes more valuable as the options available here will be improved if you have this feature activated on the triggering spin.

If you opt for free spins, you have a choice, you can select one of the following options

• 25 free spins with a 5x multiplier (which can be increased to 18x if you land a Wild on a winning payline)
• 15 free spins with an 8x multiplier (which can be raised to 30x if you land a Wild on a winning payline)
• 8 free spins with an 18x multiplier (which can be raised to 88x if you land a Wild on a winning payline)
• 4 free spins with an 88x multiplier

If you Roll The Lucky Dice then you roll the dice and when you land an 8, that eight is held and payouts calculated. If you land an 8, then you get a free respin. You keep rolling the dice until you have used up your three rolls of the dice and all your free respins received from landing an 8. The amount you win is dependent on how many 8’s you roll and where they are showing on the grid.

How to win at the Lucky 88 slot

The key to bigger wins on the Lucky 88 slot is to bite the bullet at the start of the game and play the maximum number of paylines (25) and then also activate the Extra Choice feature. This does mean that the slot is more expensive than it would be without the feature, but the benefits of the feature when you land the Free Spins / Roll the Lucky Dice round are such that you can make your money back, and more, if you get lucky in these rounds.

Once you have done this, then it is pretty much a case of playing the slot to try and trigger the Free Spins bonus game. When you do, my personal preference out of the two features you can select from is to pick the 15 or 8 free spins out of the options available. That’s because the multipliers are greater and the potential rewards from landing a Wild are considerably higher too. I’ve found that these tend to payout better on average than either of the other two free spins options, or the Roll the Lucky Dice bonus feature.

Patience is required however to get the best from the Lucky 88 slot but it is a game that can reward you handsomely at times..