9 Pots Of Gold

It might be called 9 Pots of Gold, but green is the dominant colour in this Irish-themed slot by developers Microgaming. There are shamrocks galore in the background and all the symbols on the reels, except the pots of gold and a psychedelic mushroom, are in Ireland's national colour. 

The symbols themselves are a mix of Irish-themed and classic slot symbols. The paytable starts with a BAR, a shamrock, a leprechaun top hat, and a Celtic harp, in that order of value, as the low-paying symbols. Premium symbols are all sevens, a single 7s, double 7s, and triple 7 symbols. The most valuable is the triple 7, which awards a max of 37.5 times the stake for five. But the great thing about these is that any combination of sevens on a payline, for example, a single and two doubles, will award a payout.  

But even with this feast of Irishness on the reels, I couldn't get the sound of tribal drums out of my head as I spun the reels. That's probably because this 5 reel, 3 row, 20 payline slot is a clone of Microgaming's hit 9 Masks of Fire, right down to the Prize Ladder on the left of the grid (more about that later). It also has the same medium-volatility mathematical model, and the betting range is from 0.20 up to 60.00 per spin.

The trippy wild mushroom is also the Wild symbol in this game. It’ll help form wins by replacing other symbols on a payline, and also gives its own payouts for three or more, up to 125 x the bet for 5.  

The key to the Free Spins round is the Scatter, a wheel with Free Spins written on it. This can only land on reels 2, 3, and 4, and three will give a prize of 1 x the bet as well as triggering the bonus round.  

The Pots of Gold are a special Scatter symbol that can lead to potentially big wins in this game, and I'll tell you how below. 

Three or more Scatter symbols land award a spin of the Free Spin Wheel. This is divided into segments marked 10, 12, 15, 20, 25, or 30. The player spins the wheel and is awarded the number of Free Spins it lands on. If the player wins 10 to 20 Free Spins, the round starts with a multiplier of x 2. If they win 25 or 30, the starting multiplier is 3 x. Three Scatters landing in this round retrigger it with the starting number of spins.  

9 Pots of Gold is all about the Pot Pays feature, which awards an instant cash prize for three or more Pot Scatters. The prizes that could be won are worth 1x, 5x, 15x, 40x, 100x, 500x, and 2,000x the stake when 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, or 9 pot symbols land, as you can see in the prize ladder on the left of the grid. Multiplier amounts active in the Free Spins don't apply to these wins.

It's not the most original of casino games, but 9 Pots of Gold still has plenty to offer. The base game is entertaining, with lots of smaller wins thanks to the 7s combining with each other, and the potential wins increase in the Free Spins thanks to the multipliers. But it's the prize ladder climbing to a whopping 2,000 x the bet for landing 9 Pot Scatters that most players will have their eyes on. But parting a leprechaun from their gold is easier said than done, so always set a loss limit, and never gamble with money you can't afford to lose.