From Rags to Riches. How Rainbow Riches Has Thrived in Online Casinos
You may have already heard of the famous slot game Rainbow Riches. It is a well-known slot machine games based around an Irish theme which started in land-based casinos. The game is incredibly popular, and this is down to two main factors 1—It’s appealing yet straightforward user interface, and 2—the many bonus features on offer.
The game features vivid background features, including all the colours of the rainbow. The gameplay is also very user friendly, with all symbols explained clearly to assist players. Add to this the Irish theme and multiple fruit style features, and it’s easy to see why, in terms of slots, this is considered one of the best games out there.
The game is packed with bonus features, enabling players to win large amounts of money. As players complete different slot levels, they can experience big payouts thanks to wild symbols. The welcome offers by Rainbow Riches are also pretty enticing!
Since its Launch in 2006, Rainbow Riches has Only Risen in Popularity
Launching back in 2006, Rainbow Riches quickly became a hit in social clubs, pubs and bars all over the UK. It also became available online as its very own Rainbow Riches Casino. When it was sold to Scientific Games from Barcrest Gaming in 2011, it benefited greatly and is now considered one of the most successful slot franchises in the history of gaming.
Its online creation was a particularly good move, considering that fruit and quiz machines are falling out of fashion here in the UK. Then, of course, there are other changes to venues themselves which don’t favour fruit machines very much at all.
Some pubs are becoming more upmarket, with no place for slot machines anymore, while others are becoming more family-friendly, or increasingly centered around food, favouring space for tables and chairs over a fruit machine. There is also the case of a number of pubs having no option but to close down.
Although all of this is terrible news for the fruit and games machine, thankfully, there is still a place for users and fans to play their beloved games – online.
By being accessible online, Rainbow Riches can be enjoyed at your own convenience.
Versions of Rainbow Riches you can play online today
One of the main reasons Rainbow Riches has become so popular is due to the different versions available for players to choose from, including:
Rainbow Riches. This is the original game and is a great place to start your journey if you’re new to Rainbow Riches. Believe it or not, there’s even a chance to earn a good amount of cash thanks to the ‘road to riches’ and ‘wishing well’ features where you can make 500 times your total stake by matching up to three symbols.
Rainbow Riches: Drops of Gold. In this version, players use one of two types of symbol: a silver or gold pot. If three symbols are visible, a player can trigger free spins to achieve a potential ‘drops of gold’ bonus in free or ‘big bet’ games. With the ‘drops of gold’ bonus, several symbols feed to a ‘drop zone’. If the 5th wheel contains a gold symbol at the end of a spin or a double-height symbol, all pots fall to their position on the reel beneath. Players can choose from 20, 30 or 50 as their stake size and as this gets higher, more features become available.
Rainbow Riches: Fortune Favours. There are two main features of the Fortune Favours game. The first is the ‘magic fairy’ bonus, where many different symbols transform into replicas, where players have additional chances to create winning combos. Then there’s the ‘big bet’ game section where players can play four individual reels, and depending on their stake size, the chances of winning increases.
Rainbow Riches: Free Spins. In Free Spins, there are loads of different types of spins available for players. There’s also a free spins bonus which is a ‘wild card’ that can award free spins. It can be triggered more than once, with a maximum of 999 spins available. In other words, players have a big opportunity to increase their balance.
Rainbow Riches Megaways. Just like Free Spins, Megaways is just another way that players can boost their earnings. In fact, there are 117,649 different ways to play. The cascade feature enables a player to achieve any combination of winning symbols. At the same time, there’s also a ‘super gem bonus’ which activates a bonus when a super gem is displayed on screen. The free-spinning bonus offers 12 free spins if one pot symbol is achieved, or another five for each symbol added.
Rainbow Riches: Pick ‘n Mix. Players have a chance to boost their earnings by as much as 500 times as long as they land some roads to riches symbols on their reels. The ‘pots of gold’ feature also does this, between bronze, silver and gold pots. The free spins bonus can enable up to thirty free spins whereas the magic toadstool bonus allows players to earn 500 times their total if they manage to match up to five toadstool symbols.
Rainbow Riches: Reels of Gold. There are eight different features, allowing cash to be won through various bonus games. Magic wild symbols can be cast using spells, while randomly released butterflies also do this. Other magical symbols are also available, which can boost earnings between two and four times their amount. ‘Near miss’ wins also exist where players can randomly spin their wheels and create winning combos. Matching two ‘free spin’ bonus symbols enables more reels and symbols, which can lead to a free spins gamble.
Due to moving from the traditional slot game in casinos, Rainbow Riches now has many versions online for all players to enjoy.
Was the move to online gaming a lifeline for Rainbow Riches?
Ultimately, Rainbow Riches has grown and become more popular as a result of its online launch. This is because when it was first brought out, it was a machine game based in land-based casinos.
Since being brought online, it has diversified into other versions of the original while retaining its important Irish theme. And, considering that there are around 36.6 million online (remote) gambling customer accounts here in the UK, compared to a mere 148 land-based casinos, it’s clear to see that there’s money to be earned in the online gambling market.
If Rainbow Riches was purely based in pubs and casinos, we’re unsure exactly how it would perform. After all, fruit machines only earn a fraction of what they once did. If changes such as increased stakes and prizes were made to real fruit machines, it’d be interesting to see how more popular they’d become in the future.