Play'n GO also ships 94.25%, 91.25%, 87.25% and 84.18% builds of this game; the paytable inside the game shows which one the casino runs.
WHAT IT IS
Book of Dead in short
Book of Dead is Play'n GO's 2016 line slot, 5 reels, 3 rows, 10 lines, with the explorer Rich Wilde on the reels and a golden book that is both wild and scatter. It is a close copy of Novomatic's Book of Ra, and it is the version most Canadian lobbies carry, usually in the first row.
People search for it because it is on nearly every free spins offer and because the free spins round is a lottery with one rule: a symbol is picked at random before the round, and if that symbol is Rich Wilde and the reels fill with him, the round pays the 5,000x cap. The base game is dry and the volatility is at the top of the studio's scale. Ten years on, people still play it for that one outcome.
HOW IT PLAYS
Base game and symbols
Ten lines, left to right, and you can play fewer, though nobody should. Card ranks pay small, the scarab and the statue pay more, the pharaoh and Rich Wilde pay the most. The book fills in for any symbol and also counts as the scatter, so three anywhere pay a scatter win and start the feature.
There is nothing else. No multipliers, no tumbles, no respins. Spins are fast, most of them return nothing, and a C$50 balance at C$0.50 a spin can go without a feature for the whole session. That is what very high volatility means on a 10 line game: the base game exists to get you to the books.
After any win the gamble button appears. Guess the colour of a face-down card to double the win, or the suit to quadruple it, up to five times in a row, with the total capped at 500x your stake. It is a coin flip with the house's cap on top, and most casino bonus terms either exclude the gamble or ignore it. The same terms cap the stake at about C$5 to C$7 a spin. There is no bonus buy, so that rule does not apply here.
Features
Book symbol is both wild and scatter
Free spins: 3 or more books give 10 spins with one randomly chosen expanding symbol
The expanding symbol pays as a scatter, so it does not need adjacent reels
Retrigger: 3 or more books inside the round add 10 spins
Gamble: guess card colour to double or suit to quadruple, up to 5 times, capped at 500x
No bonus buy
THE FEATURE
Bonus round
Three or more books anywhere give 10 free spins. Before the first spin, one ordinary symbol is chosen at random as the expanding symbol. When it lands during the round it grows to cover its reel, and it pays as a scatter, so three expanded reels pay even if they are reels 1, 3 and 5. Three or more books inside the round add 10 more spins and the expanding symbol stays the same. A full screen of expanded Rich Wilde is the 5,000x result; a full screen of expanded tens is 100x.
A dead bonus is 10 spins with a queen as the expanding symbol and the queen landing on two reels, once. You walk out with a few times your stake. That is the normal result, and it is why the game feels like a scratch card with a long base game attached.
OUR TAKE
Should you play Book of Dead?
Play it if a casino's free spins offer lists it, if you want the classic 10 line feel, or if you like a bonus where a single random pick decides the whole round. Skip it for bonus wagering from a small deposit; the base game pays too rarely to grind through 30x or 40x. Legacy of Dead is the same studio's later version with more expanding symbols and a higher RTP, and Book of Ra Deluxe is the original this game was built on.
WHERE TO PLAY
Book of Dead at Canadian casinos
Sites on our list that carry Play'n GO games.
6 of 15
These casinos named Play'n GO on their provider list or in their lobby when we checked, so Book of Dead should be in the search box. Lobbies change; type the name before you deposit. Rank is our overall ranking.
8.6/10
#1 · Biggest CAD welcome pack
Rolling Slots
Biggest Canadian-dollar pack on our list, but it takes four deposits and the cashier is a mystery until you register.
WELCOME OFFER310% up to C$5,800+ 800 Free Spins
Good
Interac, Skrill and crypto with a C$20 minimum; Skrill and Bitcoin payouts in 0 to 2 days
3,000+ games including 200+ live tables, weekly reloads and 10% cashback
casino.guru Safety Index 9.4, fair terms, no unresolved complaints
Watch out
Withdrawals capped at C$750 a day and about C$15,000 a month
45x wagering on the welcome bonus, 7 days to clear it, table games count 0%
Trustpilot 2.4/5: payout waits of days to weeks and KYC taking around 5 days
01What is the best expanding symbol in Book of Dead?
Rich Wilde. A full screen of him pays 5,000x your stake, which is the game's cap. The pharaoh and the statue are the next tiers. A card rank as the expanding symbol limits a full screen to about 100x, so the random pick at the start of the round decides most of what you can win.
02Can I play Book of Dead with a casino bonus in Canada?
Yes, and it is one of the most common games on free spins offers. Keep the stake under the casino's cap, usually C$5 to C$7 a spin, and check whether the gamble feature is excluded. There is no bonus buy. The RTP build matters more here: a 91.25% version is a big cut from 96.21%.
03Is Book of Dead the same as Book of Ra?
Nearly. Play'n GO built it on the Novomatic design: 5 reels, 10 lines, a book that is wild and scatter, 10 free spins with a random expanding symbol. Rich Wilde is the top symbol, a full screen of him pays 5,000x, and it is the version most online casinos in Canada carry.
RTP, max win and release date checked against olbg.com, playngo.com in October 2026. Casinos can run a different RTP build; the game's own info page shows the one you are on.
CANADIAN CASINOS, CHECKED BY HAND
