We are searching for golden nuggets in today's 1849 Gold Bonanza slot review. Created by Armadillo Studio and set during the California gold rush of 1848–1855, 1849 Gold Bonanza whisks you to a dusty small village in quest of rich golden nuggets. Among the vibrant mix of people you will meet are grizzled miners equipped with shovels and pickaxes ready to search for their fortune. The 1849 Gold Bonanza game boasts a 10,000x maximum prize, an RTP of 95.99%, and a medium-high volatility rating. Will you strike gold with this slot? Read on to learn more.
1849 Gold Bonanza was released in 2024, and has a standard 5x3 video slot configuration. Winning combinations are also formed in the traditional manner with three or more matching symbols required across an active payline starting from the leftmost reel required.
There are 20 paylines used in the 1849 Gold Bonanza slot, and these are fixed, meaning that for players getting started is as simple as loading the game on their preferred device and using the bet selector to set their wager before clicking spin. Wagers start at 20p per spin (1p per line) up to £100 per spin (£5.00 per line).
The game has a default RTP of 95.99% pretty much exactly the market average. There is also an alternative math model of 94%, so make sure you are playing at a site that uses the optimal RTP before wagering. The slot game is played at medium-to-high volatility and has a hit rate of 20.58% meaning a winning combination on average should turn up every 5 spins or so. The game has a top prize of 10,000x the total stake amount which is most likely achieved via the multipliers on offer during the free spins bonus round.
The following highly-rated online casinos all feature the 1849 Gold Bonanza slot in their games’ lobbies. Check more of our best UK online slot sites here:
Players of the 1849 Gold Bonanza travel back to the California Gold Rush, a time marked by daring explorers looking to strike it rich and discover enormous wealth lying just under the surface of the earth. 1849 was the peak of the gold rush and these entrepreneurs were known as ‘forty-niners’. The setting for this slot seems to be an old west town where such entrepreneurs would have stayed. The game has high-quality graphics and a charming cartoon style.
The music used in the game suits the theme but is not overbearing. Most notably, when the slot first loads, players can choose whether they want the game to play with sounds on or off which is handy for those with audio sensitivities and for gaming on the go.
The low-paying symbols in the slot are the standard playing card symbols, while the premium symbols are represented by the towns colourful cast of residents. There are special symbols too, but these will be covered later in this review.
The full paytable for the 1849 Gold Bonanza slot is as follows:
The prospectors of 1849 would have loved the convenience offered by smart devices (a phone torch surely has to beat flickering candle light!), and as the 1849 Gold Bonanza slot was created using HTML5 technology it can be enjoyed on all devices including mobile ones operating Android, iOS, and Windows. The game can be played directly from any browser or mobile casino app without the need for additional downloads.
The 1849 Gold Bonanza slot has a selection of bonus features including a free spins bonus with additional meter feature and a feature revolving around golden nuggets.
Landing 3, 4, or 5 Scatter symbols during the base game grants the player 10, 15, or 20 free spins respectively. Above the reels a metre of empty whisky glasses appears. Every Wild symbol that settles on the reels fills a whisky glass. Filling up whisky glasses increases free spins and a game multiplier:
Golden Nugget icons provide cash prizes both during the base game and the free spins. Should at least one Wild symbol and at least one Golden Nugget symbol land on the reels on the same spin, each Wild symbol gathers each Golden Nuggets value and awards them to the player.
Each Golden Nugget's cash reward range during the base game can range from 2 to 500 times stake.
The cash prize payout range during the free spins relies on the number of whiskies gathered; as the win multiplier achieved will increase the original range of 2 to 500x to up to 40 to 10,000 times stake if the 20x multiplier is reached. Should a multiplier reach 3x 5x or 20x during the free spins, the scatter cash rewards on the reels also pre-multiply in addition to any line wins.
Non-UK players can take advantage of the bonus buy feature to fast track access to the free spins bonus round. This costs 80x the total bet amount.
The 1849 Gold Bonanza slot machine is a strong effort from a growing developer. Armadillo Studios has presented players with their own take on the Gold Rush/Wild West theme. The style is vibrant and engaging, and the game has been designed to be user friendly for players on all devices.
The payout potential for the game is good though nothing out of the ordinary. The combination of the golden nugget and wild collect feature in both the base game and the free spins round, as well as the whisky glass filling mechanic during free spins is great as both an experiential and thematic addition.
Overall, the 1849 Gold Bonanza slot is a great game from a growing development team, and if you are a fan of the genre, you will certainly be entertained. For these reasons I give the 1849 Gold Bonanza slot a rating of 7/10.
Rating: 7.0
Here are some of the most common questions we get asked about 1849 Gold Bonanza.