Rainbow Riches

Rainbow Riches is the slot your uncle played in the pub, and there is a fair chance he still does. Barcrest built it for British pubs and arcades before it went online in May 2009, and the leprechaun, the rainbow and the golden road have barely changed since. Barcrest has changed hands, though: Scientific Games bought it in 2011, and Scientific Games renamed itself Light & Wonder in 2022, which is the name you’ll now see on the franchise.

It is not clever and it does not pretend to be. However, there are a few things worth knowing before you join in, starting with which Rainbow Riches you are actually looking at.

Rainbow Riches Slot: the Basics

Five reels, three rows and 20 paylines, with wins paying left to right. It sits comfortably among the plainest 5 reel slots still in circulation: card ranks at the bottom, a wild, the Rainbow Riches logo, and three scatter symbols that each open a different bonus. There is no free spins round in the original, which surprises people who know the newer versions.

For UK players the stake runs from 20p to £5 a spin, or to £2 if you are 18 to 24. Those ceilings are the Gambling Commission’s, in force since 9 April and 21 May 2025 respectively. Some reviews still quote maximum stakes of £500. You cannot place that on a slot in Britain any more.

The maximum win is 500x your stake, and it lives in the bonus features. Volatility is usually rated medium, with some sources calling it medium to high. In practice that means a base game that ticks along on small line wins while you wait for three of the right scatters.

The three bonus features

Road to Riches. Three or more Road to Riches scatters, the leprechaun, start the feature. You spin a wheel marked one to six, plus Collect, and the leprechaun walks that many steps up a golden road of multipliers. Land on Collect and you take whatever square you are standing on. The top of the road is 500x your stake.

Wishing Well. Three or more Wishing Well scatters and you pick one of them to reveal a multiplier of your stake, somewhere between 2x and 500x. It is a single pick and it is over in seconds. Most of the time the number is small.

Pots of Gold. This one needs a Pots of Gold symbol on each of reels two, three and four at the same time, which is why you’ll see it far less often than the other two. Bronze, silver and gold pots spin around the leprechaun, one is chosen when they stop, and you win what is inside it, from 50x up to 500x your stake.

Rainbow Riches RTP: is it really 95%?

The figure on almost every UK review, and the one we have always quoted, is 95%. That is the published return to player for the original game. It is lower than a lot of newer slots: our own Book of Dead review notes a 96.21% default, for example. So you are paying a little for the nostalgia.

However, 95% is not a guarantee about the game in front of you. Studios supply many slots to casinos in several RTP builds, and the Rainbow Riches family is a good illustration: Pick ’n’ Mix is quoted at 94% on stakes under £1, 96% at £1 or more, and 98% in Premium Play, while Reels of Gold and Fortune Favours are listed with ranges rather than one number. We could not find a published list of alternative builds for the original, which is precisely why you should look rather than trust a review, this one included.

Checking takes ten seconds. Open the game at your casino, tap the menu or information button, and read the rules or help screen. Under the Gambling Commission’s technical standards, that information has to be available before you bet. If it says 95%, you have the standard figure. If it says less, you are paying for the same leprechaun at a worse price. 95% is an average across an enormous number of spins. It says nothing about your next half-hour.

Original or spin-off?

Search for Rainbow Riches at any casino and you will get a dozen games. The original is the one with the five-by-three grid, 20 lines and the three features above. The main relatives worth telling apart:

• Rainbow Riches Pick ’n’ Mix (2016) lets you choose your bonus features from a menu of five before you spin.
• Rainbow Riches Reels of Gold (2016) uses oversized Colossal Reels.
• Rainbow Riches Free Spins (2017) adds the free spins round the original never had.
• Rainbow Riches Megaways (2019) moves to six reels and up to 117,649 ways to win.

They share a leprechaun and not much else. If you came here for the original’s RTP, make sure the game you open is the original.

Is there a Rainbow Riches demo?

Not here. We do not host playable games. Free play is available at UKGC-licensed casinos, and you’ll find they verify your age before opening even the demo. The Gambling Commission has required that since May 2019, and fairly so: a free version of a gambling game is still a gambling game. A demo teaches you the features, not how the paid version will treat you.

Conclusion

Rainbow Riches has lasted because it is easy to understand and its three bonuses each feel different: a walk, a pick and a spin of the pots. It is also old, plain and a touch below many newer slots on return, with a 500x ceiling that will not trouble anyone chasing life-changing numbers.

If you want a simple, familiar slot with three different ways into a bonus, it still does the job. Check that you are playing the original, check the RTP on the information screen, and set a budget you are happy to lose. If you want more going on, the spin-offs exist for exactly that reason.

18+. Gambling should be entertainment, not income. Long term the house wins. Free and confidential help is at BeGambleAware.org.