What we like / What could be better
What we like
- Three genuinely different bonus games in one cabinet, unusual for when it launched
- Instantly recognisable theme and audio that carried it from arcades into online search terms
- Frequent small wins keep a low-stake session moving rather than sitting through long dry spells
- The multi-bonus idea it popularised is easy to find replicated on modern slots we do review
What could be better
- No single official RTP figure exists; venue and platform settings both change it
- Not stocked by any of the platforms in our own coverage
- We haven't verified a dedicated official app or tested payout speed tied to this title ourselves
- Pace can feel slow next to high-volatility modern Megaways-style slots
A Barcrest cabinet built for pubs and arcades, not one bonus but three
Rainbow Riches came out of Barcrest, a studio now folded into Games Global, at a time when most fruit machines offered a single feature round if you were lucky. This one shipped with three, stacked into the same cabinet: Road to Riches, the Wishing Well and Pots of Gold. That's the reason it stuck in people's memory long enough to be searched for by name today rather than by category.
The theme is Irish countryside: leprechauns, pots of gold, rainbows and a wishing well, all rendered in the bright, low-detail style of a machine meant to be read at a glance from across a pub floor. The audio cues (the well's "ding", the coin-drop of Pots of Gold) are arguably as recognisable as the reels themselves.
How the three bonus rounds actually work
Each bonus plays differently, and knowing which one you've triggered changes what you're watching for.
| Bonus round | How it triggers | What happens |
|---|---|---|
| Road to Riches | Landing enough bonus symbols across the reels | You climb a path of cash values, choosing how far to push your luck before banking |
| Wishing Well | A well symbol appearing on specific reels | You pick from wishing-well icons for instant cash prizes |
| Pots of Gold | A separate scatter-style trigger | A wheel or reveal awards one of several pot values, sometimes with a top prize |
Because three different mechanics share one cabinet, a session can feel varied even at low stakes. That's the design idea behind it, and it's also why later online multi-feature slots borrowed the same principle rather than sticking to one bonus game.
Why Rainbow Riches doesn't have one official RTP figure
If you're searching for the RTP of Rainbow Riches expecting a single percentage, there isn't one to quote honestly. The land-based cabinet sits in the pub and arcade machine categories regulated by the Gambling Commission, and the operator running the venue sets the payout percentage within the band the category allows, not the manufacturer.
Online versions of the same title, where they exist, can also differ build to build depending on which platform licenses the game and which settings it ships with. Anyone quoting one exact RTP number for "Rainbow Riches" without saying which build they mean is giving you a number that may not apply to the machine or site in front of you. We haven't tested a specific online build ourselves, so we're not going to invent an average here.
Reels, stakes and pace: what to expect in the cabinet
Visually it's a compact five-symbol-per-reel layout typical of the era, read left to right, with stake levels set low enough that a session lasts. The pace sits on the low to medium side of volatility: small wins and feature triggers come often enough to keep a session moving, rather than long dry spells between one big swing.
That rhythm, frequent small hits plus three chances at a bigger bonus, is closer to a session-length grind than a high-variance chase. It's worth knowing that going in, because it sets different expectations than a modern Megaways-style title built for big, rare spikes.
Who makes Rainbow Riches
Barcrest built the original cabinet and the Rainbow Riches brand. The studio is now part of Games Global, the group that also holds the wider Barcrest and legacy IGT-adjacent slot catalogue used across UK arcades, pubs and, where licensed operators carry it, online lobbies.
Is there a free-play version?
Free or demo play is standard practice across the UK online casino market: operators generally let you spin a slot without staking real money before you decide to deposit. Where an operator carries the Barcrest catalogue, a demo build of Rainbow Riches is the kind of thing you'd expect to find alongside it.
We haven't verified a specific free-play build ourselves, because the title isn't in the libraries of the platforms we cover. If free play matters to you, check the game's own info panel on whichever licensed site you're considering; it will say plainly whether a no-stake mode is available before you sign up.
Is there a dedicated Rainbow Riches app?
There's no standalone app we've confirmed ourselves. The practical route, if you want the game on a phone, is the mobile app or mobile site of a UK-licensed operator that carries the Barcrest catalogue, rather than a separate branded download. Treat any app claiming to be an official Rainbow Riches real-money product with the same checks you'd apply to any casino app: confirm it belongs to a UKGC-licensed operator before you put money anywhere near it.
Playing it online: where the licensed version actually lives
You can play Rainbow Riches online, and it isn't a myth or an app-store knockoff: UK-licensed operators that carry the Barcrest catalogue run digital builds of it. That's a different statement from saying it's on the sites we review. It isn't. None of the platforms in our own coverage list Barcrest, or Games Global's wider back-catalogue, among their software providers as of our latest checks.
So the honest answer for a reader of this site is: if you specifically want Rainbow Riches, look at a UK-licensed operator that stocks the Barcrest range. If you want the same three-bonus feeling on a site we've actually reviewed, the similar titles below are the closer match.
Sizing your stake so the bonus rounds are actually reachable
Bonus symbols on machines like this typically need to land across active paylines, so a stake set too low to cover the full line count can quietly shrink your odds of ever seeing Road to Riches or the Wishing Well. Check the bet levels the machine or online build actually offers rather than assuming a single minimum covers everything.
Keep enough spins in your budget to give three separate feature triggers a real chance to show up rather than judging the game off ten spins. Try any demo mode on offer before staking, purely to get a feel for pace and trigger frequency. None of this changes the odds of any individual spin: every spin on a regulated machine or RNG-based online build is independent, and no staking pattern makes a bonus symbol more likely to land.
A three-bonus mechanic you can already play on our reviewed sites
If what drew you to Rainbow Riches is the idea of several distinct bonus games stacked into one slot rather than a single feature, that design idea didn't stay in arcades. It shows up across a chunk of the modern online slot catalogue, usually as multiple named bonus rounds with their own mechanics rather than one generic free-spins trigger.
The similar titles listed below are pulled from studios and platforms we do cover, so you can try the mechanic in a demo before deciding whether it's worth a real stake.
