Book of Dead Slot Review
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Book of Dead is sold at five different returns, from 96.21 percent down to 84.18. Here is how to tell which build your casino installed before you stake anything.
Book of Dead is sold to casinos at five different returns, from 96.21 percent down to 84.18 percent. That is a gap of 12.03 percentage points on the same game, with the same artwork and the same name. I score it 7 out of 10, and the version you open matters more than anything else on this page.
This is a Play’n GO slot from January 2016, on five reels and three rows with ten paylines you can switch down to one. The Book symbol is both wild and scatter. Three of them start ten free spins, and before those spins begin the game picks one ordinary symbol at random and promotes it to an expanding symbol for the round.
Below is what each of the five versions costs you in euros, how to tell which one you are on, and the one number the studio does not publish. I should also correct something. This site previously listed 94.25 percent as the return for this game. That is the second setting, not the headline, and the table below is the fix.
Book of Dead at a Glance
There is no public math sheet for this game. Everything below was cross checked against three independent databases, and where they contradict each other I have said so in the row.
| What it is | The figure |
|---|---|
| Return to player | 96.21% as the default setting, with four lower versions down to 84.18% |
| Studio and year | Play’n GO, released 14 January 2016, though one database prints 2014 |
| Grid | Five reels, three rows, ten paylines that can be reduced to one |
| Stake range | 10p to 100 outside the UK, capped at 5 inside it |
| Maximum win | 5,000x your stake, also quoted as 250,000 coins and 500,000 pounds |
| Volatility | High on two databases and Very High on a third |
| Free spins | Ten, from three Book symbols anywhere, with one random expanding symbol |
| Retriggers | Yes, three more Books during the round award another ten |
| Gamble feature | Double or quadruple any win by calling a card colour or suit |
| Hit frequency | Not published |
| Free spin frequency | Not published |
| Bonus buy | None. The studio never added one to this title |
How to read this. The first row carries the whole page. A single headline figure for this game is misleading, because four cheaper versions of it are in circulation and nothing on the tile tells you which one you have opened.
The Score, and What Went Into It
Casinos on this site are scored on four published criteria and so are games, on four of their own. Each is marked out of ten and the average is rounded to a whole number, with a half rounding up. Where a studio publishes nothing a criterion can be built from, I leave it unscored and average the rest. The bands are published in my scoring method.
| Criterion | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Return to player | 8 / 10 | 96.21 percent as the default setting sits clearly above the ninety six line. The band reads the published figure, which is why the four lower versions are punished in the row below instead |
| Cost of reaching the feature | 10 / 10 | No bonus buy in any market and no level that unlocks on a counter. Three Books on a paid spin is the whole requirement |
| Volatility honesty | 2 / 10 | No hit frequency, no free spin frequency, no odds on the ceiling, no weighting for the expanding symbol draw, and five return versions the studio does not advertise |
| Session survivability | Not scored | The band needs a published free spin frequency. There is none |
| Overall | 7 / 10 | Average of the three that could be scored, rounded |
How to read this. Eight, ten and two make twenty. Divided by three that is 6.67, which publishes as seven. The parts are printed so you can redo it.
The two is the harshest disclosure mark I have given a game that is otherwise this good. A slot that defaults to 96.21 percent, charges nothing to reach its feature and runs a clean ten line grid deserves better than a two, and it would get better if the studio published one page of math and a list of the five builds.
Until it does, the honest summary is this. Book of Dead at 96.21 percent is one of the fairest slots in wide circulation. Book of Dead at 84.18 percent is one of the most expensive. Both are called Book of Dead and only the paytable screen will tell you which one you are sitting at.
Five Book of Dead Versions, and a Twelve Point Gap
Play’n GO ships this game to operators in five configurations. The casino picks one. You are not told which, the artwork is identical, the paytable looks the same, and the difference between the best and the worst is 12.03 percentage points.
| Version | House edge | Cost per 100 staked | What it is |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96.21% | 3.79% | 3.79 | The default, and a genuinely fair slot |
| 94.25% | 5.75% | 5.75 | The figure this site used to print, and many still do |
| 91.25% | 8.75% | 8.75 | Worse than most jackpot slots, with no jackpot |
| 87.25% | 12.75% | 12.75 | Approaching the cost of a bad roulette bet |
| 84.18% | 15.82% | 15.82 | Four times the house edge of the default version |
How to read this. Compare the top and bottom rows as a price rather than a percentage. On a thousand euros of turnover the default version expects to take 37.90 from you and the cheapest version expects to take 158.20. Same game, same session, same screen.
Here is how to find out which one you have. Open the game at your casino, open the information or paytable screen, and read the return figure printed inside it. That number is the version you are playing and it is the only reliable source. A review quoting one figure, including this one, is telling you about a build you may not have been given.
If the screen shows 84.18 or 87.25, close it. There is no feature, no jackpot and no bonus that compensates for paying four times the house edge, and the same game is available elsewhere at 96.21.
What the Book of Dead Expanding Symbol Really Does
Three Book symbols anywhere on the reels start ten free spins. Before the first of those spins, the game picks one ordinary symbol at random and makes it special for the whole round. That choice decides almost everything about what the round is worth.
A special symbol expands to fill its entire reel whenever a win is possible, and it pays without needing to sit on consecutive reels in the usual way. Land the explorer as your special symbol and a round can run into hundreds of times your stake. Land the ten or the jack and the same ten spins will often return less than they cost.
| If the game picks | What that round tends to be worth | Why |
|---|---|---|
| The explorer | The round people post about | The top symbol on the paytable, and expanded it covers a whole reel |
| Osiris or the pharaoh | A strong round | Upper paytable symbols, where a filled reel is worth having |
| The scarab or the bird | A respectable round | Middle of the paytable, and expansion still helps |
| Ace or king | Usually a small round | Low value symbols even when they fill a reel |
| Ten or jack | Often a loss | The cheapest symbols in the game, expanded |
How to read this. Nobody publishes the weighting of that random choice. If every symbol were equally likely you would draw a top three symbol about a third of the time, but equal weighting is an assumption and I have no way to confirm it. Treat the table as a description of outcomes, not as odds.
That single random draw is why two players can describe this game completely differently. They are not disagreeing about luck in the ordinary sense. They have been handed different games for the duration of the round.
What the Book of Dead 5,000x Cap Is Worth at Each Version
The ceiling is 5,000 times your stake and it does not change with the return setting. What changes is how much you pay for the chance to chase it.
| Your stake | 5,000x in cash | Cost per 100 staked at 96.21% | Cost per 100 staked at 84.18% |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0.10 | 500 | 3.79 | 15.82 |
| 0.50 | 2,500 | 3.79 | 15.82 |
| 1.00 | 5,000 | 3.79 | 15.82 |
| 10.00 | 50,000 | 3.79 | 15.82 |
| 100.00 | 500,000 | 3.79 | 15.82 |
How to read this. The last two columns do not move, because the house edge is a share of turnover rather than a function of stake size. The prize is identical on every version. The price of the ticket is not, and that asymmetry is the argument of this review.
Nobody publishes the odds of reaching 5,000x. The studio does not, the databases do not, and the figure circulates in three forms, as 5,000x, as 250,000 coins and as 500,000 pounds, which describe the same ceiling at different stake sizes.
Fifty Euros Across the Five Book of Dead Settings
At the ten cent minimum, fifty euros buys 500 spins. That is a real session and enough for the free spins to arrive more than once. What the session costs you depends entirely on which build your casino has switched on.
| Version | Expected loss on 50 staked | On 500 staked | On 1,000 staked |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96.21% | 1.90 | 18.95 | 37.90 |
| 94.25% | 2.88 | 28.75 | 57.50 |
| 91.25% | 4.38 | 43.75 | 87.50 |
| 87.25% | 6.38 | 63.75 | 127.50 |
| 84.18% | 7.91 | 79.10 | 158.20 |
How to read this. Staked is not the same as deposited. A fifty euro balance that wins and gets replayed can turn over several hundred euros in an evening, which is how a player reaches the middle columns without ever putting that much in. These are long run expectations and no single session will match them.
Look at the first and last rows on the thousand euro column. The difference is 120.30 euros, for the same screen, the same symbols and the same free spins. That is what checking the paytable before you spin is worth in money.
Book of Dead Has No Bonus Buy, and Why People Keep Searching for One
People search for a Book of Dead bonus buy often enough that I should answer it directly. There is not one. Play’n GO never added a feature buy to this title, in any market, and no amount of hunting through casino lobbies will produce it.
The confusion is understandable. Most newer book style slots sell entry to their free spins, and several of the studio’s own later titles do. This one predates the practice and was never retrofitted. The only way into the free spins here is three Book symbols on a paid spin.
That absence is worth more to you than it looks and it is why this game scores a perfect ten on one of my four criteria. Nothing in it is locked behind a counter, nothing has to be bought, and the feature is live from your first spin at the minimum stake.
The Rich Wilde Series in Our Library
Book of Dead is the second Rich Wilde game and by far the most played. Six more sit in our library, and they are not reskins. The grids, the mechanics and the ceilings all move, and Tome of Madness is not even a book slot.
| Game | What it is | Free demo |
|---|---|---|
| Book of Dead | The original, five reels, ten lines, expanding symbol free spins | Play it free |
| Rich Wilde and the Tome of Madness | A cascading grid game, not a book slot at all | Play it free |
| Rich Wilde and the Tome of Insanity | The sequel to Tome of Madness, same cascading idea | Play it free |
| Rich Wilde and the Amulet of Dead | A later book slot in the same Egyptian frame | Play it free |
| Rich Wilde and the Tome of Dead | Another book entry, closer to the original formula | Play it free |
| Rich Wilde and the Pearls of Vishnu | Moves the series out of Egypt | Play it free |
| Rich Wilde and the Wandering City | A later entry with a different bonus structure | Play it free |
| Book of Dead Go Collect | A reworked Book of Dead with a collection mechanic | Play it free |
How to read this. I have not listed returns for the sequels, because I have not verified them to the standard I use on this site and because each is likely to ship in several versions as the original does. Read the figure inside whichever one you open, every time.
Four Clauses to Check Before You Play It for Money
The game is the same everywhere. The terms wrapped around it are not, and that is where a session quietly gets more expensive. Four things are worth thirty seconds each.
First, the return printed in the game information panel, every time you open the game at a casino you have not used before. Plenty of slots ship in more than one build, and that panel is the only place the figure you are actually playing is shown.
Second, how the game counts toward wagering, and whether buying a feature voids an active bonus. Slots usually count in full, but feature purchases are excluded under most terms and some casinos cancel the bonus outright for one. The wagering terms are where both of those live.
Third, the maximum stake allowed while a bonus is running. It is commonly five euros a spin, and going over it once is enough for a casino to void everything the bonus produced.
Fourth, the cap on what you may withdraw from bonus winnings. A large maximum win means nothing if the terms stop your payout well below it, and that ceiling is printed in the bonus terms rather than in the game.
What an Hour of Book of Dead Costs
The return figure on its own tells you nothing about what a session costs. What costs you money is the return multiplied by how much you push across the table, and a slot pushes a great deal. Six hundred spins in an hour is an ordinary pace once autoplay is running.
At 96.21 percent the house keeps 3.79 percent of everything staked. Here is what that is worth at three ordinary stakes, using the same model as my cost per hour table.
| Stake per spin | Wagered in an hour | House edge | Cost of the hour |
|---|---|---|---|
| €0.20 | €120 | 3.79% | €4.55 |
| €0.50 | €300 | 3.79% | €11.37 |
| €1.00 | €600 | 3.79% | €22.74 |
Six hundred spins an hour, the house edge applied to everything wagered in that hour. These are averages over a very long run, not a prediction for one session, and the swings in either direction are far larger than the edge.
Play Book of Dead Free
The demo runs on a play money balance with no account and no deposit, and it resets when you reload. Twenty minutes is the right length here, because this game runs long and quiet between free spin rounds and that is the thing worth feeling before you pay for it.
One caveat specific to this title. A demo normally runs at the studio default, so a free round will usually be the 96.21 percent build. The version waiting for you at a casino may not be, which is the whole subject of the next section.
Play the Book of Dead DemoFree play money balance. No account, no deposit, no email address.
Where to Play Book of Dead for Real Money
Twenty five of the 36 casinos I have reviewed record this studio in the supplier list I pulled from their lobby, so the game is easy to find. Seven of those reach seven out of ten, the highest score any casino holds on this site.
| Casino | Score | Full review |
|---|---|---|
| Playfina Casino | 7 / 10 | Read the review |
| National Casino | 7 / 10 | Read the review |
| HellSpin Casino | 7 / 10 | Read the review |
| 20bet Casino | 7 / 10 | Read the review |
| CasinoChan Casino | 7 / 10 | Read the review |
| SlotsGem Casino | 7 / 10 | Read the review |
| Asino Casino | 7 / 10 | Read the review |
How to read this. None of the seven advertises which return version it has switched on, and I would not expect one to. Open the game, open the paytable, read the figure. If it is not 96.21, the same game is available elsewhere and there is no reason to accept a cheaper build.
Playfina takes the link below on the tiebreak I use everywhere, highest terms fairness first, then payouts, then bonus value. The other eighteen casinos carrying this studio score between four and six, and the full list shows where each one loses its points.
Play Book of Dead at PlayfinaAffiliate link. 7 out of 10 in my review, with the best bonus value of the seven. 18+, play responsibly.
FAQ About Book of Dead
What is the RTP of Book of Dead?
96.21 percent at the default setting. That is the honest headline, but it is not the whole answer. The game is also shipped to casinos at 94.25, 91.25, 87.25 and 84.18 percent, and the operator chooses which one you get. Read the figure inside the paytable screen of whichever build you have opened.
How do I check which version of Book of Dead I am playing?
Open the game at your casino, open the information or paytable screen, and find the return figure printed there. It describes the exact build loaded for you. Nothing on the lobby tile, the thumbnail or the game title distinguishes a 96.21 percent Book of Dead from an 84.18 percent one.
What is the maximum win on Book of Dead?
5,000 times your stake, which is 500 euros at the ten cent minimum and 500,000 at the hundred euro maximum. You will also see it quoted as 250,000 coins, which is the same ceiling expressed differently. Nobody publishes the odds of reaching it.
Does Book of Dead have a bonus buy?
No, in any market. The studio never added a feature buy to this title, even though several of its later book slots have one. The only way into the free spins is three Book symbols landing on a paid spin, which is also why this game scores a perfect ten on the cost of reaching its feature.
How do the Book of Dead free spins work?
Three Book symbols anywhere on the reels award ten free spins. Before the round begins the game picks one ordinary symbol at random and promotes it, so that it expands to fill a whole reel when a win is possible. Three more Books during the round add another ten spins.
Why do two players describe Book of Dead so differently?
Because of that random expanding symbol. A round that promotes the explorer behaves nothing like a round that promotes the ten or the jack, and the weighting of that draw has never been published. Two people can play the same game, at the same stake, and be handed two different propositions.
Can I play Book of Dead for free?
Yes, on a play money balance with no account and no deposit. A demo normally runs the studio default, so a free round is usually the 96.21 percent build, which is not necessarily what a casino will give you. You will find it on our Book of Dead demo page.
Why does this review score Book of Dead 7 out of 10?
Three criteria could be scored and one could not. The default return earns eight, the complete absence of gates or purchases earns ten, and disclosure earns two for publishing no hit frequency, no feature frequency and no mention of the five return versions. Twenty divided by three is 6.67, which publishes as seven under my scoring method.
Which casinos have Book of Dead?
Twenty five of the 36 casinos I have scored record this studio in the supplier list taken from their lobbies. Seven reach seven out of ten: Playfina, National Casino, HellSpin, 20bet, CasinoChan, SlotsGem and Asino. The other eighteen score between four and six.
Is Book of Dead worth playing?
At 96.21 percent it is one of the fairest slots in wide circulation, with high volatility and nothing locked behind a purchase. At 84.18 percent it is one of the most expensive games you can sit at, with no jackpot or feature to justify the cost. The answer depends on a number you have to look up before your first spin.
Who Wrote This
Srboljub Simunović
Responsible editor, Casinos.si. Six years reviewing online casinos, based in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
I came to this from finance, so a slot review that tells me a game is thrilling tells me nothing. What I want is every published number in one place, converted into euros, with the missing ones named rather than guessed at.
This page also corrects an error of mine. This site listed 94.25 percent as the return for Book of Dead, which is one of the five builds rather than the headline, and the figure is now right across the site. Every number here was cross checked against three independent databases. I am responsible for everything published on this page. If a figure no longer holds, write to me and I will check it.
18+. Gambling can be addictive. The demo linked on this page is played with play money that has no cash value and cannot be withdrawn. Return to player describes millions of spins and predicts nothing about a single session. No slot can be beaten with strategy, and the result of every spin is independent of the one before it. If gambling has stopped being entertainment, free and confidential help is available in Slovenia through NIJZ.
