Last updated: 11-07-2026
Search "Book of Ra" and you'll find at least five different versions of the same pokie floating around — original, Deluxe, Magic, Symbol Select, Temple of Gold. Each one pays back a slightly different amount, and most reviews treat them as interchangeable. They're not. Before you load whichever version Fair Go is running, here's what the differences actually mean for your bankroll.
What is Book of Ra, and how does the bonus round work?
Book of Ra is a Novomatic (Greentube) video pokie built around a single mechanic: the Book symbol, which acts as both wild and scatter. Land three or more Books and you trigger 10 free spins. One symbol is then randomly selected to become an expanding symbol for the whole bonus round — every time it appears, it fills the entire reel. That's the entire tension of the game: which symbol gets picked determines whether the free spins pay small or pay big.
The base game runs on a classic 5-reel, 9-payline layout (10 paylines on the Deluxe version), betting from A$0.09 up to A$45 per spin on the original, or up to A$150 on the Symbol Select variant. A Gamble feature is available after any win, letting you double it on a coin-flip-style side bet — worth knowing it pushes your overall loss rate up if used often.
Which version are you actually playing? RTP by variant
This is the detail that gets buried. The original Book of Ra runs 94.26% RTP — well under the 96% average you'd expect from a modern Australian online pokie. The Magic variant improves that slightly to 95.03%. Temple of Gold goes further, up to 96%. Symbol Select sits at the low end, 94%. Same book mechanic, same 5,000x max win on most versions — but a real gap in long-run return depending on which one is loaded.
| Version | RTP | Volatility | Max win | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book of Ra (original) | 94.26% | High | 5,000x | Lowest RTP of the main versions |
| Book of Ra Deluxe | 95.1% | High | 5,000x | 10 paylines vs 9 on the original |
| Book of Ra Magic | 95.03% | Medium | 5,000x | Smoother variance than the original |
| Book of Ra Symbol Select | 94% | High | 5,000x | Lets you pick the expanding symbol; lowest RTP |
| Book of Ra Temple of Gold | 96% | Medium | Not published | Best RTP of the five versions |
Author's tip from Mitchell Harris, Casino Reviewer & Online Gambling Researcher: "Check the paytable info screen before your first spin — it'll name the exact version you're on. If Temple of Gold or Magic is available alongside the original, the RTP gap is worth the two minutes it takes to check."
Free spins and the expanding symbol — why 94.26% is the trade-off
The reason Book of Ra's RTP sits lower than a lot of modern pokies isn't a flaw — it's the cost of the mechanic. Three or more Book scatters trigger 10 free spins, retriggerable, with one symbol chosen at random to expand across the reels for the duration. If that symbol happens to be a high-value one, the round can pay significantly. If it's a low-value symbol, the free spins round can underwhelm. Free spins land roughly every 200–400 base spins depending on version and luck, which is a long gap by modern pokie standards — this is a high-volatility game built for patience, not frequent small wins.
The Gamble feature sitting after every win is worth treating carefully. It's a straightforward double-or-nothing, and while it can turn a small win into a bigger one, using it repeatedly compounds against you over a session. Novomatic built it as an optional extra, not a strategy.
Base game symbols and paytable — what pays outside the bonus
Before the Book symbol ever triggers a bonus round, the base game runs on a fairly traditional Egyptian-themed paytable: an explorer character, a scarab, an eagle, and a run of playing-card symbols (Ace through Nine or Ten depending on version) filling out the lower end. It's a simple structure compared to modern cluster-pays or Megaways titles — 9 or 10 fixed paylines, left-to-right wins, no cascading reels. That simplicity is part of the appeal for players who find newer mechanics overwhelming, but it also means most of your base-game spins outside the bonus will be small, incremental wins rather than anything dramatic.
The Book symbol carries the weight of the entire game. It substitutes for every other symbol as a wild in the base game, and landing three or more anywhere on the reels — not on a specific payline — is what triggers the bonus. That "anywhere on the reels" detail matters: unlike scatter symbols in some other pokies that need to land on specific reels, Book of Ra's scatter can appear in any position across the 5x3 grid.
The expanding symbol — probability and what it means for your spin
Once the bonus round starts, the game randomly selects one symbol from the paytable to become the expanding symbol for all 10 free spins. This is the single biggest swing factor in the entire game. If the explorer or scarab (the higher-value symbols) gets chosen, a screen full of that symbol during a retrigger can produce a genuinely large win relative to your stake. If a low-paying card symbol gets picked instead, the same free spins round might barely return your trigger cost.
There's no way to influence which symbol gets selected — it's a random draw built into the bonus trigger, which is part of why Book of Ra carries high volatility despite a fairly modest headline max win of 5,000x. You're not just waiting for the bonus to trigger; you're then waiting to see which symbol you got.
The Gamble feature — what it actually costs you
After any winning spin, Book of Ra offers a Gamble option: a straightforward coin-flip on a card colour, doubling your win if you guess right and losing it entirely if you don't. It's mathematically close to a 50/50 proposition minus the house's edge, which makes it tempting to use every time — but repeated use compounds against your session balance faster than most players expect. Using it once on a decent win is a reasonable, contained risk. Using it as a habit on every small win effectively adds a second house edge on top of the base game's 94–96% RTP, depending on version.
If you're playing to preserve bankroll across a longer session, skipping the Gamble feature entirely and banking smaller wins as they come is the more conservative approach — and given how long the gaps between free spins bonuses can run, preserving your base stake matters more here than on lower-volatility titles.
Mobile play and session pacing
Book of Ra runs on mobile browsers without a dedicated download, and the interface scales down cleanly given the classic 5-reel layout doesn't need much screen real estate compared to newer, more animation-heavy titles. Spin speed is fixed rather than adjustable, which keeps sessions at a steady, predictable pace — useful if you're trying to track how many spins you've put through without a stopwatch.
Given the long average gap between bonus triggers — roughly every 200 to 400 base spins — it's worth setting a session budget in terms of spins rather than time. A A$0.50 average stake across 300 spins is A$150 in turnover before you'd typically expect to see a bonus round at all, regardless of which version is running.
Worth remembering too: Book of Ra's fixed 9 or 10 payline structure means every spin costs the same regardless of how the reels land, unlike adjustable-payline pokies where you can reduce your stake by playing fewer lines. Factor the full per-spin cost into your session budget rather than assuming you can scale down mid-session.
Book of Ra vs Book of Dead — same genre, different math
Book of Ra effectively created the "book slot" category, and Play'n GO's Book of Dead is the best-known competitor built on the same idea: expanding symbol, high volatility, Egyptian theme. The core difference for Aussie players comes down to RTP and bet range — Book of Dead typically runs closer to 96% and offers a wider low-stake entry point. If Fair Go's Book of Ra is running the original 94.26% version, it's worth knowing a higher-RTP alternative in the same genre exists, even if the theme and mechanic feel almost identical.
Bankroll-wise, treat any Book of Ra version as a high-volatility game — session length matters more than bet size here. Fair Go's account settings include deposit limits and self-exclusion if you want a hard stop built in, and players must be 18+ to play.
Want to see the rest of Fair Go's pokie range? Head to pokies, or start from the homepage. Already got an account? Jump to login. Unsure what "volatility" or "scatter symbol" actually means? The glossary explains it in plain terms.
