Book of Ra Deluxe is Novomatic’s remake of its 2005 Egyptian classic, online through Greentube since 2008: five reels, 10 lines and an explorer hunting the book through temple vaults. One book symbol is both wild and scatter, and in 10 free games a random symbol expands to fill whole reels and pays on every played line. It returns 95.10%. The free demo below is a similar Egyptian pokie.
Book of Ra Deluxe runs on five reels and three rows with 10 lines that pay left to right, adjustable from one to 10. Stakes are set by the casino; a typical range is 10 cents to about $50 a spin with every line active, or 1 cent to $5 a line. Most sources give the return as 95.10%, a 94.26% build may exist at some casinos, and no official Greentube RTP sheet could be found, so the information screen is the figure that counts. Volatility is rated high by most catalogues and very high by others, and about 30% of spins pay something. The maximum win is disputed: published figures range from 5,000x to 10,035x the total bet.
Book of Ra Deluxe Pokies Characteristics
Wins start on reel 1 and run across consecutive reels. The explorer, pharaoh, Horus statue and scarab pay from two of a kind, the cards from three. The Book of Ra does two jobs: it substitutes for every other symbol on a line, and three or more anywhere pay a scatter win and start the free games. There are no multipliers, no stacked wilds, no bonus buy and no jackpot.
The line count is set in the menu, and autoplay is available but switches the gamble off. Because the books count anywhere, playing fewer lines cuts the stake and the line wins but not the chance of starting the free games.
Wins below are multiples of the total bet with all 10 lines played, for two to five of a kind on the picture symbols and three to five on the rest.
Book wins are paid on top of any line wins and the free games. A line of five explorers is worth 500x, so the 5,000x figure needs all 10 lines paying five explorers at once, which in practice means an expanding explorer covering all five reels in the free games. Multiply any figure by 10 for line bets.
Three or more books anywhere award 10 free games. Before the first spin the book flips its pages and stops on one symbol at random, which becomes the expanding symbol for the round. Whenever it lands on enough reels to make a win, two for the picture symbols and three for the cards, it fills each of those reels and pays on every played line, even when the reels are not next to each other. The expansion is paid after the spin’s normal wins, so one spin can pay twice.
Three or more books during the round add another 10 free games, according to the one source that gives a number, and no cap has been published. There is no multiplier; one catalogue lists 2x, but no other source and no Greentube description supports it. The pick decides the round: a full screen of expanded explorers pays 5,000x the total bet and the pharaoh 2,000x, while the same screen of queens, jacks or 10s pays 100x.
After any win you can gamble it on a face-down card: guess red or black correctly and the win doubles, guess wrong and it is gone, and you can collect at any point. One source caps it at 5,000x the bet, but Novomatic gamble limits are usually set by the operator, and a suit guess for four times the win appears in only one review. On a fair 50/50 card the gamble leaves the long-run return unchanged; it only makes a win bigger or makes it vanish.
At 95.10% the game keeps about 5 cents of every dollar bet over the long run, and the 94.26% build keeps nearly 6. That is on the expensive side for an online pokie. A 30% hit rate means seven spins in ten return nothing, and the smallest wins return only half the stake, so a session is decided by whether the free games arrive and which symbol the book picks.
At 10 cents a spin, $20 buys 200 spins, about 60 of which pay something on average; at $1 a spin it buys 20, barely a sample on a game shaped like this. No source we checked gives the free-games trigger rate; on a game this volatile, long runs without it are normal. If there is an answer to how to win at Book of Ra, it is only that the stake decides how long you last.
The original Book of Ra (2005) was a land-casino hit in Germany before it went online. It has the same book, 10 free games with a random expanding symbol and double-up gamble, but 9 lines and, per one catalogue, a 92.13% return; the Deluxe adds a tenth line online and lifts the return to 95.10%. Most sources date the Deluxe to 11 April 2008, though others list November 2008 or 2015, and Novomatic’s own land-based Deluxe build, MGD1T, lists 9 lines, a difference no source explains.
Book of Ra Deluxe 6 adds a sixth reel. Book of Ra Deluxe Win Ways (Greentube, February 2023) has six reels plus a top reel, 117,649 ways and chain reactions, with 10 free spins plus five per extra scatter; Greentube’s announcement gave no RTP or maximum win. Book of Ra Magic, Deluxe 10, the Jackpot Edition and the land-based IMPERA LINK version are separate games again. In an online lobby, plain Book of Ra Deluxe is the 10-line game reviewed here.
The setting is ancient Egypt seen by an Indiana Jones-style explorer hunting the Book of Ra in temple vaults: a pyramid at sunset in the base game, a dark chamber in the free games. The look is dated, 2008-era Novomatic, and the sound is land-casino style, beeps and cash-register effects, with Egyptian flute and harp music in the free games; at least one reviewer found the sound grating. It runs on desktop, tablets and Android and iOS phones.
There is no evidence that Book of Ra or the Deluxe ever ran on Australian pub, club or casino floors: the ACT approval records checked list neither, and Novomatic is not on the Northern Territory’s approved supplier list. Novomatic’s Australian link is Ainsworth Game Technology, an ASX-listed Sydney pokie maker that is Novomatic-majority-owned; a takeover bid for the remaining shares failed in February 2026, and none of the reporting says Ainsworth sells Book of Ra here. Online, Greentube is described as focused on regulated markets and no restricted-country list could be found, so whether it blocks Australians is not confirmed, and no offshore casino accepting Australians could be confirmed as carrying the game. Availability varies, so the lobby search is the way to check. No official free demo from Novomatic or Greentube could be found.
Book of Ra Deluxe has kept its audience for one reason: the free games turn on a single random pick that decides whether a full screen is worth 100x or 5,000x. It suits players who like plain rules, high volatility and a gamble button, and who can sit through a base game of small card wins. It does not suit anyone after a high return, multipliers, a bonus buy or modern presentation. The one thing to check is the RTP line in the information screen, because the 94.26% build looks identical.
95.10% in most sources. A 94.26% build may exist at some casinos, so check the information screen.
Land three or more books anywhere for 10 free games and a scatter win of 2x, 20x or 200x the total bet. Three or more books in the round add 10 more.
5,000x the total bet on the paytable, from a full screen of expanded explorers, or $250,000 at a $50 stake. Databases quote up to 10,035x, probably because the expansion pays on top of the spin’s normal line wins; Greentube publishes no official figure.
One symbol is picked at random before the free games. When it lands on enough reels to pay, it fills them and pays on every played line, even across reels that are not side by side.
No record of it on Australian pub or club floors was found. Online, no offshore casino accepting Australians could be confirmed as carrying it, so check the lobby search.
The 2005 classic has 9 lines and a 92.13% return per one catalogue; the 2008 Deluxe has 10 lines online and 95.10%, with the same features.
