Play'n GO · 2016 · Independent review
Book of Dead Slot Review: RTP, Free Spins and Free Demo
Our score: 8.0/10
Quick verdict: Book of Dead is a simple 10-line slot built around one big idea: free spins with an expanding symbol. It's high volatility with a 5,000x cap. The catch is the RTP: casinos can run it anywhere from 96.21% down to 84.18%, so check the version before you play.
By Emmanuel Reyes
Updated
How we review
- RTP
- 96.21%Lower versions exist, down to 84.18%
- Volatility
- HighFree spins about 1 in 170–200 spins
- Max win
- 5,000x$500 at a $0.10 bet
- Paylines
- 105 reels × 3 rows
What's in this review
Where to play the Book of Dead slot
These casinos hold Curaçao licenses and don't accept players from the UK or the US. Before you sign up, check that the casino accepts players from your country and that gambling online is legal where you live. Then open the game's info screen and confirm the RTP version: our RTP guide explains why it matters.
Not paid placements: we have no commercial partners. How we are funded. 18+.
1win
License Curaçao Book of Dead Book of Dead and the Rich Wilde series (lobby checked by our team) Offshore casino. Not licensed in the UK or the US; check the license in the site footer and whether your country is accepted before you sign up.
Melbet
License Curaçao Book of Dead Book of Dead and the Rich Wilde series (lobby checked by our team) Offshore casino. Not licensed in the UK or the US; check the license in the site footer before you sign up.
Stake
License Curaçao Book of Dead Book of Dead and the Rich Wilde series (lobby checked by our team) Operator Medium Rare N.V. Crypto casino. Not available in the UK or the US; check whether it accepts players from your country.
What is Book of Dead?
Book of Dead is an Egyptian adventure slot from Play'n GO, released on . Its full name is Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead. You play on a 5x3 grid with 10 paylines, and almost everything interesting happens in one feature: 10 free spins with a randomly chosen expanding symbol.
The hero is Rich Wilde, Play'n GO's treasure hunter in a fedora. Book of Dead was his third game, after Aztec Idols and Pearls of India. It's the one that turned him into a franchise: Play'n GO has released close to twenty Wilde games since, and in 2026 it still calls Book of Dead the title that "commands the biggest stage in regulated markets".
The base game is plain on purpose. Wins come from matching symbols left to right, one symbol is both Wild and Scatter, and there's an optional gamble after a win. No cascades, no multipliers, no bonus buy. That simplicity is a big part of why so many players start here.
Book of Dead on mobile
The game is built in HTML5 and runs in mobile browsers on iOS and Android. There's no official Book of Dead app, so you don't need to download anything: open the game at a licensed casino in your browser.
Book of Dead at a glance
| Provider | Play'n GO |
|---|---|
| Release date | |
| Grid | 5 reels × 3 rows |
| Paylines | 10, left to right; you can play fewer |
| RTP | 96.21% (also 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25%, 84.18%) |
| Volatility | High |
| Free spins | About 1 in 170–200 spins (trackers) |
| Hit frequency | Not published by Play'n GO |
| Max win | 5,000x the bet (250,000 coins) |
| Bet range | $0.10–$50 with 10 lines at most casinos |
| Bonus buy | No |
| Gamble feature | Yes, where allowed |
Release date from Play'n GO. Lines, paytable and max win checked in the game's own rules screens. RTP and volatility cross-checked against 15+ reviews. Bet limits depend on the casino and the market: in the UK the cap is £5 per spin.
How to play Book of Dead
There's no skill involved: every spin is decided by the RNG, a random number generator that testing labs certify for licensed casinos. What you control is the bet, the number of lines and how long you play.
Set your bet
Pick a coin value and the number of coins per line. The bet in coins is coins × lines: 5 coins on 10 lines is 50 coins, or $1 at a $0.02 coin. With all 10 lines, a spin costs $0.10 to $50 at most casinos. In the UK the limit is £5, or £2 if you're 18 to 24.
Keep all 10 lines on
The Lines buttons let you switch some of the 10 lines off. Don't: the expanding symbol only pays on active lines, so fewer lines means a weaker bonus for the same risk.
Match from the left
Line wins pay left to right from reel 1. The four premium symbols pay for 2 in a row. A, K, Q, J and 10 need at least 3.
Let the Tomb help
The Tomb symbol, which many reviews call the Book, is Wild and Scatter at once. It replaces any symbol on a line and pays on its own anywhere on the reels.
Land 3 Tombs
Three or more Tomb scatters anywhere reveal the book and trigger 10 free spins. One random symbol becomes the expanding symbol for the whole round.
Gamble, or don't
After a base-game win you can risk it on a card guess: color doubles it, suit quadruples it. Collecting is always an option.
Symbols and paytable
Rich Wilde is the top symbol: five on a line pay 5,000x the line bet, which is 500x your total bet with 10 lines. Next come the Pharaoh, then Anubis and Horus, the falcon-headed god. These four premiums also pay for just two in a row.
The low end is the five card ranks. A and K pay up to 15x the total bet for five, and Q, J and 10 pay up to 10x. They look small, but they matter more than you'd think: in the free spins any of them can become the expanding symbol.
The Tomb: Wild and Scatter
Most reviews call this symbol the Book, but the game's rules screen calls it the Tomb Scatter: a golden shrine that reveals the book when the free spins start. It replaces every other symbol to complete line wins. It also pays as a Scatter anywhere on the screen: 2x your total bet for 3, 20x for 4 and 200x for 5. The rules confirm that scatter wins are multiplied by the total bet and added to any line wins in the same spin. Three or more also start the free spins.
The in-game paytable shows pictures only, without names. We use the names most reviews use. Some sites call the Pharaoh "Osiris" and Horus "Falcon". The values below match the game's own paytable.
| Symbol | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 Rich Wilde | 1x | 10x | 100x | 500x |
 Pharaoh | 0.5x | 4x | 40x | 200x |
 Anubis | 0.5x | 3x | 10x | 75x |
 Horus | 0.5x | 3x | 10x | 75x |
  A, K | – | 0.5x | 4x | 15x |
   Q, J, 10 | – | 0.5x | 2.5x | 10x |
 Tomb (Scatter, anywhere) | – | 2x | 20x | 200x |
The Tomb as Wild: two A and two Tombs pay as four A, 40 × 5 coins per line = 200 coins.
The game lists line wins per line bet (Rich Wilde: 5,000 for five); we divided by 10 lines to show them against your total bet. At a $1 bet, five Rich Wildes on a line pay $500. Only the highest win per line is paid.
Free spins and the expanding symbol
Three or more Tomb scatters trigger 10 free spins. First the scatter win is paid. Then the game picks one ordinary symbol at random to be the special expanding symbol for the whole round. That pick decides most of what the bonus can pay.
How the expansion works
Normal wins are paid first on every free spin. Then, if the special symbol has landed on enough reels to win, it expands to fill each of those reels from top to bottom. The expanded reels pay on all 10 lines.
Two details make this feature special. The reels don't have to be next to each other: reels 1, 3 and 5 count. And the payout uses every active line, so three expanded reels pay the 3-of-a-kind value ten times over.
Retriggers
Land 3 or more scatters during the free spins and you get 10 more. The special symbol stays the same for the extra spins, and the rules don't set a limit on retriggers.
Worked example. The special symbol is Anubis, and it lands on reels 1, 3 and 5. Each reel expands, and the three Anubis reels pay 3x your bet on each of the 10 lines: 30x in one spin. That's $3 at a $0.10 bet or $30 at $1.
If the special symbol had been Rich Wilde on the same reels, the same spin would pay 100x: $10 at $0.10 or $100 at $1.
| Special symbol | 2 reels | 3 reels | 4 reels | 5 reels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rich Wilde | 10x | 100x | 1,000x | 5,000x |
| Pharaoh | 5x | 40x | 400x | 2,000x |
| Anubis, Horus | 5x | 30x | 100x | 750x |
| A, K | – | 5x | 40x | 150x |
| Q, J, 10 | – | 5x | 25x | 100x |
Our calculation from the paytable: line value × 10 lines. Ordinary line wins in the same spin are paid on top.
This is why the free spins feel so different from one round to the next. With Q, J or 10 as the special symbol, even a perfect round tops out at 100x per spin. With Rich Wilde, five expanded reels pay the full 5,000x. Same trigger, very different ceilings. More on what to expect in our Book of Dead free spins guide.
Three Tomb scatters land: 10 free spins.
The book picks the special symbol, here Q.
Free spin 7 of 10: Q expands over reels 2 to 5 and pays on all 10 lines.
Free spin 8 of 10: Q on reels 1, 2 and 5. The WIN box shows the running total of the round.
Try Book of DeadFree demo or real money at a casino. 18+
The gamble feature
After a win in the base game you can press Gamble instead of collecting. A face-down card appears. Guess its color and your win doubles. Guess its suit and it quadruples. A wrong guess loses the whole amount. The screen states the odds itself: "Color (50% Chance) or Suit (25% Chance)", and adds that previous actions don't influence the result. A strip of previous cards shows what came up before. Reviews say you can gamble up to five times in a row, and you can collect at any point.
The math is neutral. Color is a 50% chance at 2x and suit is a 25% chance at 4x, so the average return of a guess is exactly what you staked. Gambling doesn't lower the RTP and doesn't raise it. It only makes your results swing harder.
Reviews disagree on the gamble limit: some quote 2,500 coins, others 500x the bet. Book of Dead's gamble screen doesn't show the limit. In Amulet of Dead, the same kind of screen says "Gamble up to 5X or 2500 coins". The feature also isn't offered in every market.
Use the gamble only with money you're happy to lose twice. It's no trick for beating the slot, and chasing a lost gamble with another one is a classic way to blow a budget.
A 25-coin win: 50 coins if you guess the color, 100 if you guess the suit.
Book of Dead RTP, volatility and max win
RTP: 96.21%, if your casino runs it
RTP (return to player) is the share of all money bet that a slot pays back over millions of spins. At 96.21%, every $100 wagered returns $96.21 in theory. Your own session can land far above or below that: RTP is a long-run average, not a forecast.
Book of Dead comes in five versions, and the casino picks one: 96.21%, 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% or 84.18%. The game looks identical in every version. Only the payout percentage changes, by up to $12 per $100 wagered. Some data sites even run the 94.25% version in their own demos.
To check yours, open the game's info or rules screen at the casino. It states the theoretical RTP of the version you're playing. Our Book of Dead RTP guide explains it step by step.
Volatility: high
Play'n GO doesn't publish hit frequency or bonus frequency. Player-data trackers put the free spins at about 1 in 170 to 200 spins (AboutSlots: 1 in 174, Slot Tracker: 1 in 192). That's roughly $17 to $20 wagered between bonuses at a $0.10 bet. Long gaps well beyond that are normal.
Max win: 5,000x
The Book of Dead max win is 5,000x your total bet: $500 at $0.10, $5,000 at $1. The rules screen puts it in coins: "Win up to 250000 coins", which is 5,000 times the 50-coin bet with 5 coins on 10 lines. It takes Rich Wilde as the special symbol, expanded across all five reels in one free spin. Data sites estimate the odds at about 1 in 2.7 million spins. Treat it as the ceiling, not a goal. See how the 5,000x max win works.
| Version | Back per $100 wagered, in theory |
|---|---|
| 96.21% | $96.21 |
| 94.25% | $94.25 |
| 91.25% | $91.25 |
| 87.25% | $87.25 |
| 84.18% | $84.18 |
Bars start at 80% so the differences are visible. RTP versions as listed by SlotCatalog, BigWinBoard, OLBG, AboutSlots and AskGamblers. Some sites write 84.17%; all five we checked list 84.18%.
Check the RTP at a casinoFree demo or real money at a casino. 18+
Play the Book of Dead demo
The Book of Dead demo is the full game with play money. We don't embed it here: the button takes you to our casino list, where you can open it in free-play mode. In the UK, casinos must check your age before any demo. Demos of the other Rich Wilde games are on our free demos page.
With free spins about once in 170–200 spins, a 100-spin demo session can easily show none. That's normal, and it's useful to see before you bet real money.
Book of Dead and the Rich Wilde series
Book of Dead made Rich Wilde Play'n GO's mascot. The Wilde series now counts 18 games with Rich, his sister Cat Wilde or their uncle Gerard. Play'n GO also runs a separate Egyptian "Dead" series without Rich, led by Legacy of Dead. These are the games we review in full; all of them are on our Rich Wilde slots page. The newest Dead series game is Fate of Dead Blitzways (October 2025): up to 16,807 ways, cascades, sticky Wilds and a 20,000x max win.
- 2016Book of Dead5,000x · RTP 96.21% · the expanding-symbol classic
- 2019Tome of Madness2,000x · RTP 96.59% · cluster pays, Cthulhu
- 2020Legacy of Dead5,000x · RTP 96.58% · same idea, no Rich
- 2020Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead5,000x · RTP 96.29% · Cat's first solo game
- 2021Amulet of Dead5,000x · RTP 96.29% · Thoth Wilds with multipliers
- 2022Cat Wilde and the Lost Chapter10,000x · RTP 96.20% · the Book's missing chapter
- 2022Cat Wilde and the Pyramids of Dead10,000x · RTP 96.20% · three bonus games
- 2024Tome of Insanity5,000x · RTP 96.20% · Portal runes, Yog-Sothoth
- 2025Tome of Dead5,000x · RTP 96.21% · Egyptian cluster pays
- 2026Book of Dead GO Collect10,000x · RTP 96.2% · the 10th-anniversary remake
Maximum RTP of each game; most Play'n GO slots also have lower versions. Release years from Play'n GO's game pages.
Is the original still worth it next to the newer games? If you want the cleanest version of the expanding-symbol idea, yes. If you want more features per spin or a higher ceiling, GO Collect adds a Hold and Spin vault with up to 10,000x, and Legacy of Dead offers the same structure at a higher top RTP.
- Myth
"The free spins are due after a long dry spell."
FactEvery spin is independent. "1 in 192" is an average from player data, and the game doesn't remember your last 500 spins.
- Myth
"There's a gamble trick that beats the slot."
FactA color guess is 50% for 2x, a suit guess is 25% for 4x. Both average out to your stake. No trick, just bigger swings.
- Myth
"Book of Dead is the same at every casino."
FactThe game looks the same, but the RTP can range from 96.21% to 84.18%. Always check the rules screen.
Pros and cons
What we like
- One of the clearest bonus features in slots: you always know what the special symbol can pay
- Expanded reels don't need to be adjacent, so scattered symbols still win big
- A 5,000x ceiling from a simple 10-line game
- Wide bet range: from $0.10 to $50 per spin with all 10 lines at most casinos
- Runs smoothly in any mobile browser
What we don't
- Five RTP versions, and casinos often run a lower one
- High volatility: long stretches with no free spins are normal
- A low-paying special symbol can make a whole bonus feel flat
- Visuals and sound show their age next to newer Wilde games
- Only one feature: no bonus buy, no multipliers, no base-game extras
Slots similar to Book of Dead
These games reuse the Book of Dead formula, or build on it. Each line says what carries over and what changes.
Legacy of Dead
The closest match: 5x3, 10 lines, a Tomb that's Wild and Scatter, and an expanding symbol in the free spins. You get 8 free spins instead of 10, but each retrigger adds another expanding symbol, up to 9. No Rich Wilde, and a higher top RTP of 96.58%.
Book of Dead GO Collect
The 2026 remake keeps the classic free spins and adds Gold Staters that feed a Hold and Spin Treasure Vault with jackpots. The max win doubles to 10,000x.
Rich Wilde and the Amulet of Dead
Rich back in Egypt in 2021. An expanding symbol again, plus Thoth Wilds that carry 2x, 3x or 5x multipliers.
Cat Wilde and the Doom of Dead
Cat Wilde's first solo adventure uses the same Book-style free spins and adds expanding Wild kings.
Our verdict: is Book of Dead worth playing?
Book of Dead: the classic expanding-symbol slot, still worth playing at the right RTP.
Book of Dead has lasted ten years for a reason. The rules fit on one screen, and the free spins create real tension. You know the special symbol from the start, and every Book of Dead free spin is a chance for it to spread across the reels. When Rich Wilde or the Pharaoh is chosen, the round can turn into something special.
The weak points are just as clear. The base game is thin, the volatility is high, and the RTP depends on the casino more than in most slots. It suits players who like simple rules, accept long dry spells and set a firm budget. If you want more going on per spin, try Book of Dead GO Collect or Tome of Madness.
| Bonus feature | 8.5/10 |
|---|---|
| Win potential | 8/10 |
| Gameplay | 8/10 |
| Design and sound | 7.5/10 |
Frequently asked questions
Is Book of Dead worth playing?
Yes, if you enjoy simple rules and high volatility. The free spins with an expanding symbol are one of the most exciting features in classic slots. Play at a casino that runs the 96.21% version, and set a budget: free spins land only about once in 170 to 200 spins.
What is the Book of Dead RTP?
It's 96.21% in the standard version. Casinos can also choose 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% or 84.18%. The game's rules screen shows the version you're playing.
What is the max win on Book of Dead?
It's 5,000x your total bet: $500 at a $0.10 bet and $5,000 at $1. You get it when Rich Wilde is the special symbol and expands across all five reels in the free spins.
How do you trigger the free spins?
Land 3 or more scatter symbols anywhere on the reels. The game calls them Tomb scatters, many players call them Books. You get 10 free spins with one random expanding symbol. Three more scatters during the round add another 10 spins with the same special symbol.
Can you buy the bonus in Book of Dead?
No. Book of Dead has no bonus buy in any market. The only way into the free spins is landing 3 scatters.
Can I play Book of Dead for free?
Yes. Many casinos let you open it in free-play mode with play money. It's the same game and the same math. In the UK, casinos have to verify your age before you can play any demo.
Does Book of Dead work on mobile?
Yes. It's built in HTML5 and runs in mobile browsers on iOS and Android. There's no official app, so avoid downloads that claim to be one.
Is Book of Dead rigged?
No. Licensed casinos must run certified versions of the game, where an RNG decides every spin. The real risks are lower RTP versions and fake copies at unlicensed sites, so play only at casinos licensed where you live.
How we checked the numbers
This Book of Dead review is written by Emmanuel Reyes. We start from the official Play'n GO game page, which gives the release date and how the feature works. We also opened the demo and checked the game's own paytable and rules screens: the paytable, the 10 adjustable lines, the scatter rules and the 250,000-coin cap come from there. Play'n GO doesn't publish the RTP or volatility on its page, so we cross-checked those against more than fifteen independent reviews. They include SlotCatalog, BigWinBoard, OLBG and AboutSlots.
Where sources disagree, we say so. Some list the release as 2014, call the lines fixed (the game's Lines buttons say otherwise), or quote 84.17% for the lowest RTP. We use Play'n GO's date and the figures most sources agree on. Free spins frequency comes from player-data trackers, not from Play'n GO, and we label it that way. Emmanuel reviews each AI-assisted draft before it goes live: see our editorial policy and review method.
Play responsibly
Book of Dead's free spins arrive about once in 170 to 200 spins on average, so a whole session can pass without one. Gambling is entertainment that costs money, not a way to earn it.
- Decide on a budget before you start and stop when it's gone.
- Use deposit limits, time reminders and self-exclusion tools at your casino.
- Never chase losses, with the gamble feature or anything else.
GamCare (UK, 0808 8020 133) · 1-800-MY-RESET (US) · ConnexOntario (1-866-531-2600) · Gambling Therapy (worldwide).
More tools and advice on our responsible gambling page. 18+ only.