Book of Dead Slot Review

Quick verdict

Book of Dead is the slot that made Rich Wilde famous and became one of the defining “book” slots. Play’n GO released it on 14 January 2016, and a decade on it still delivers one of the purest thrills in online slots. Ten free spins start, a random symbol is chosen to expand across whole reels, and you hold your breath. If that symbol is Rich Wilde himself and he fills the screen, you’re looking at the 5,000x max win.

Play it if you like:

• Classic 5x3, 10-payline slots with one big feature
• High-stakes anticipation every time free spins start
• Simple rules you can learn in one spin

Skip it if you want constant action or a bonus buy. The base game is modest, the volatility is high, and free spins can take a while.

Our score: 4/5 durians, Premium. It’s a true classic, as long as you play the 96.21% version.

How to play Book of Dead

1. Set your bet. Use the bet controls to choose your total stake. Limits vary between casinos and currencies, so check the bet menu at your MYR, SGD or PHP casino.
2. Spin the 5x3 reels. Wins pay on 10 paylines for matching symbols from the leftmost reel.
3. Hunt the Books. 3 or more Book symbols anywhere trigger free spins, which is where Book of Dead’s big wins come from.

Symbols and paytable highlights

The low tier is made up of the card royals: 10, J, Q, K and A. The premium tier features Egyptian gods, with Osiris near the top and Rich Wilde above everything. A 5-of-a-kind line of Rich Wilde pays 500x your total bet, so a full screen of him across all 10 lines is how the 5,000x cap is reached.

The Book symbol is the key to everything. It’s the wild (substituting for every other symbol), the scatter (paying anywhere and triggering free spins), and the gateway to the expanding symbol feature. Open the paytable in-game for exact values at your stake.

Bonus features, step by step

Free spins with an expanding symbol

1. Land 3 or more Books anywhere to win 10 free spins.
2. Before the spins start, one regular symbol is chosen at random as the special expanding symbol for the whole round.
3. During free spins, when that symbol lands and can form a win, it expands to cover all three positions on its reel.
4. Expanded reels can combine into huge wins across all 10 lines.
5. Landing more Books during the round retriggers 10 more free spins.

Which symbol gets picked shapes the whole bonus. A 10 or J can still pay nicely when it fills several reels, but Osiris or Rich Wilde is the jackpot draw.

Gamble feature

After any regular win you can gamble: guess the colour of a face-down card to double the win, or the suit to quadruple it. Guess wrong and you lose that win. It’s optional and pure luck. Use it on small hits if you enjoy it, and never on a big bonus payout.

Free spins and bonus buy

There’s no bonus buy in Book of Dead. Every free spins round has to be earned with 3 or more Books. The upside is that your cost per spin is always just your stake, and every triggered bonus feels earned. The free spins table is simple: 10 spins to start, plus 10 more on each retrigger.

RTP and volatility, explained plainly

This is the part every Book of Dead player needs to read. The default RTP is 96.21%, which is solid. But Play’n GO also supplies 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% and 84.18% versions, and casinos choose which one to run. At 84.18%, the long-run cost of playing is more than four times what it is at 96.21% (15.82 vs 3.79 lost per 100 staked, on average). Always open the game’s info screen and check the RTP line before you play. Our RTP and RNG guide explains why this matters so much.

Volatility is high. The base game pays modestly, free spins can be slow to arrive, and the bonus itself ranges from a dud to a screen-filling monster. Budget for a few hundred spins rather than going big: 300 spins at 0.20 is 60. Our slot volatility guide explains why session size matters.

Max win: how 5,000x is reached

The cap is 5,000x your total bet, so 5,000 at a 1.00 stake. The classic route is free spins with Rich Wilde as the expanding symbol. When he lands on all five reels and expands, every one of the 10 paylines shows five Rich Wildes. That’s 500x per line, times 10 lines, which equals 5,000x. Osiris as the expander can also produce big results, just with a lower ceiling.

Mobile play

Book of Dead runs in HTML5 on Android and iOS, in mobile browsers and casino apps. The 5x3 layout is perfect for phone screens, the controls are simple, and the gamble feature works on mobile too.

If you like this, try these

• Big Bass Bonanza: another 5x3, 10-line favourite where free spins do the heavy lifting.
• Gates of Olympus: if you love Book of Dead’s all-or-nothing bonus feel, try Zeus’s multipliers.
• Sweet Bonanza: modern tumbles with up to 100x bombs in free spins.
• Sugar Rush 1000: for when 5,000x isn’t enough and you want a 25,000x cap.

Where to play Book of Dead in Malaysia, Singapore & the Philippines

Book of Dead is a Play’n GO game, so look for it at casinos we review that carry Play’n GO. These four list Play’n GO in their libraries. Lobbies differ by market, so search for Book of Dead before you deposit.

Most important check: open the paytable and confirm the 96.21% RTP. With four lower versions in circulation, this one check matters more than any bonus. Also read your welcome bonus’s max-bet rule, and Philippine players should note that GCash and Maya links to gambling sites have been restricted since August 2025.

21+ only. Check your local laws and set limits before you play. Our responsible gambling page has support links.

Final verdict

Book of Dead is a decade old and still one of the most exciting slots you can play. The rules are simple, the expanding-symbol free spins create real drama, and the 5,000x Rich Wilde screen is one of the great sights in online slots. The catch is that you must find a casino running the 96.21% version, because the lower settings make a big difference over time. Do that, set a sensible budget, and enjoy the adventure. Try the demo first to see how the expanding symbol works.