Eight Lanterns: a free 88 Fortunes alternative
Built like 88 Fortunes: 243 ways, a bet level that turns one to five symbols gold, a twelve-coin jackpot pick and free spins. Played with chips that are worth nothing, with the real numbers for every level and a session coach beside the reels.
Grand
8,000
From level 5
Major
1,600
From level 4
Minor
240
From level 3
Mini
80
From level 2
Level 1: 1 gold, 8 coins a spin
No jackpot pick at this level
Play chips
2,000
Bet
8
coin 1
Win
0
Choose how many symbols are gold, then spin. All 243 ways play on every spin.
243 ways. 8 coins at 1 chip a coin. No real money, no prizes, nothing to buy.
Session coach
Last round
Nothing played yet. After each of your spins the coach says what the round cost and what decided it.
Decide the cost before you start
Gambling is entertainment with a price, like a concert ticket. The useful question is not how much you might win but how much the evening is allowed to cost. Pick that number first, and treat reaching it as the end of the session. You can set one below and the coach will hold you to it.
Next bet
8 chips at a 3.9% house edge: an expected cost of 0.3 chips.
- Spins played
- 0
- Chips bet in total
- 0
- Bets raised after a loss
- 0
Where the result came from
- House edge, on average
- 0
- Luck
- 0
- Result
- 0
The report fills in as you play. See how often a slot bankroll busts
Set a session limit
This table is for practice and entertainment only. How to keep gambling safe
What the ways pay
| Symbol | 3 | 4 | 5 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ingotstandard, gold from level 5 | 8 | 24 | 80 |
| Junkstandard, gold from level 4 | 6 | 18 | 60 |
| Turtlestandard, gold from level 3 | 6 | 18 | 60 |
| Cranestandard, gold from level 2 | 5 | 15 | 50 |
| Koigold | 15 | 37 | 90 |
| Ace | 4 | 12 | 40 |
| King | 4 | 12 | 40 |
| Queen | 3 | 9 | 30 |
| Jack | 3 | 9 | 30 |
| Ten | 2 | 6 | 20 |
| Nine | 2 | 6 | 20 |
Chips paid per way at level 1 and a 8 chip spin. A symbol pays when it shows on three or more reels in a row from the left, on any row, and each extra match on a reel multiplies the ways. The dimmer figures are payouts smaller than the bet. The Lantern is wild on reels 2, 3 and 4. Moons on reels 1 to 3 pay 16, on reels 1 to 4 80 and on all five 320, and start ten free spins.
The five levels
| Level | Coins | Return | Top jackpot |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 (selected) | 8 | 96.10% | None |
| 2 | 18 | 96.02% | Mini, 1 in 269 |
| 3 | 38 | 96.00% | Minor, 1 in 1,268 |
| 4 | 68 | 96.13% | Major, 1 in 9,704 |
| 5 | 88 | 96.12% | Grand, 1 in 54,258 |
The jackpots are fixed multiples of the bet, not a growing pool. A pick can start only on a spin that shows a Lantern, and at this level it never does: level 1 has no jackpot. The odds in the last column are per paid spin.
What level 1 costs
- Return to player
- 96.10%
- The machine keeps 3.90%
- Expected cost of a spin
- −0.31
- At a bet of 8
- Spins that pay anything
- 28.5%
- 12.6% pay less than the bet
- Spins that gain chips
- 14.5%
- Free spins on 1 spin in 197
- Return from free spins
- 32%
- Share of everything paid back
- Return from jackpots
- 0%
- No pick at level 1
Counted from the reel strips, the pay table and the pick's published weights, not estimated. See what a return like this does to a bankroll over a session
This session
- Spins
- 0
- Chips staked
- 0
- Net chips
- 0
- Expected at this return
- 0
- Spins that paid
- 0
- Paid less than the bet
- 0
- Free spin rounds
- 0
- Jackpot picks
- 0
The machine lights up for every paying spin. The sixth figure is how many of those left you with fewer chips than before.
Built by Alexander Korsager · last updated October 3, 2026 · corrections
- Ways to win on every spin, with no lines to choose
- 243
- What a spin at level 5 costs against one at level 1
- 11x
- Of the chips bet, kept by the machine at level 5
- 3.88%
- Of the spins that pay at level 5, the share that pay less than they cost
- 54%
01 / 03
What a bet level buys
Eight Lanterns is a free 88 Fortunes alternative: our own slot machine, built to play the way Light & Wonder's 88 Fortunes plays.
Five reels, three rows and 243 ways to win. A bet level that makes one to five of the premium symbols gold, at 8, 18, 38, 68 and 88 coins a spin. A wild on the three middle reels that can open a pick of twelve coins for one of four jackpots. And 10 free spins, on reels with the low symbols taken off, when the scatter lands on the first three reels. If you came looking for a free game like 88 Fortunes, this is that mechanic. The name, the lantern festival, the symbols, the sound, the reel strips and the pay table are ours.
| Level | Koi | Crane | Turtle | Junk | Ingot | Coins |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Gold | Standard | Standard | Standard | Standard | 8 |
| 2 | Gold | Gold | Standard | Standard | Standard | 18 |
| 3 | Gold | Gold | Gold | Standard | Standard | 38 |
| 4 | Gold | Gold | Gold | Gold | Standard | 68 |
| 5 | Gold | Gold | Gold | Gold | Gold | 88 |
A filled mark is a gold symbol, paid from its gold row. An empty one still pays, from its much smaller standard row. The coins are what one spin costs at that level.
What is different from 88 Fortunes, and from any real machine, is everything a real machine leaves out.
Every level here has its return counted from reel strips that are printed in the code this page runs: 96.00% to 96.13% across the five levels, so the machine keeps 3.87% to 4.00%. About 29% of spins pay something, and at level 5 54% of those pay less than the spin cost. The odds of each jackpot are printed per level, the Grand included: about 1 paid spin in 54,258 at level 5, and not on offer below it.
| Jackpot | Pays | Paid spins |
|---|---|---|
| Grand | 1,000x | 1 in 54,258 |
| Major | 200x | 1 in 8,139 |
| Minor | 30x | 1 in 814 |
| Mini | 10x | 1 in 209 |
Fixed multiples of the bet, not pools that grow. Level 1 has no jackpot, and the Grand is on offer at level 5 only.
The bet level is the one decision this machine offers, and it is worth seeing clearly.
Level 5 costs 11 times what level 1 costs on every spin. The share the machine keeps is about the same at every level, so the cost of an hour goes up by the same factor. What the higher levels add is gold on more symbols and access to jackpots whose odds are long. There is no decision here to get better at. What this page is for is entertainment, and seeing what this kind of machine does with a bet.
- Level 131
8 coins a spin, 3.90% kept
- Level 272
18 coins a spin, 3.98% kept
- Level 3152
38 coins a spin, 4.00% kept
- Level 4263
68 coins a spin, 3.87% kept
- Level 5342
88 coins a spin, 3.88% kept
The machine keeps 3.87% to 4.00% at every level, so what a session costs follows the coins bet and nothing else.
02 / 03
Rules at this table
| Level | Coins a spin | Gold symbols | Jackpots | Pick starts | Return |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Level 1 | 8 | 1 | None | Never | 96.10% |
| Level 2 | 18 | 2 | Mini | 1 spin in 269 | 96.02% |
| Level 3 | 38 | 3 | Mini, Minor | 1 spin in 254 | 96.00% |
| Level 4 | 68 | 4 | Mini, Minor, Major | 1 spin in 194 | 96.13% |
| Level 5 | 88 | 5 | Mini, Minor, Major, Grand | 1 spin in 163 | 96.12% |
The return barely moves between levels. The coins a spin costs, and so the cost of an hour, do.
- Five reels, three rows and 243 ways. There are no lines: a symbol pays when it shows on three, four or five reels in a row starting from reel 1, on any row.
- Every way of taking one matching position from each reel is paid. A symbol showing once on reel 1, twice on reel 2 and twice on reel 3 pays its three-reel prize four times.
- The bet level sets how many premium symbols are gold: one at level 1, all five at level 5, always in the order Koi, Crane, Turtle, Junk and Ingot. A spin costs 8, 18, 38, 68 or 88 coins by level, and a coin is worth 1, 2 or 5 chips, so a spin costs from 8 to 440 chips.
- A gold premium pays from its gold row of the pay table. A premium that is not gold at the level played still pays, from its much smaller standard row: three reels of Junk pay 6 coins a way standard and 165 gold. The 6 low symbols pay the same at every level, down to 2 coins a way for three reels of Nine.
- The Lantern is wild. It lands on reels 2, 3 and 4 only and stands in for every paying symbol, but not for the Moon.
- From level 2 up, a spin that shows a Lantern can start the jackpot pick. The chance is 1 in 86 at level 2, 1 in 81 at level 3, 1 in 62 at level 4 and 1 in 52 at level 5. Level 1 has no pick and no jackpot.
- The pick shows 12 coins face down, shared evenly between the jackpots the level can win: level 2 the Mini, level 3 the Mini and Minor, level 4 those and the Major, level 5 all four. You turn coins until three match and that jackpot is paid. The jackpot is drawn the moment the pick starts, along with the order the coins will show in. Turning a coin reveals the next face in that order whichever coin it is.
- The jackpots are fixed prizes, as multiples of the bet: Mini 10, Minor 30, Major 200 and Grand 1,000. They are not progressive and do not grow.
- A Moon on each of reels 1, 2 and 3 pays 2 times the bet and awards 10 free spins. A Moon on reel 4 as well makes it 10 times the bet, and on all five reels 40 times.
- Free spins are played at the level and coin value of the spin that started them, on reels with the 6 low symbols taken off. The same Moons during free spins pay again and add 10 more, up to 50 free spins in one round. A Lantern during free spins can start the pick.
- No round pays more than 2,500 times its bet. A round that reaches that is paid exactly that and ends.
- The whole round, free spins and picks included, is decided when Spin is pressed. The animation plays it back and cannot change it.
- Autoplay plays 10, 25, 50 or 100 spins at the current level and coin value, which are locked while it runs. It needs a loss limit before it starts, and it stops at that limit, when the spins run out, when the chips no longer cover the bet, or when you stop it. It also stops when a bonus feature begins: a jackpot pick is handed to you to turn the coins, and a round with free spins plays out and then ends the run.
Sound starts on, and the Sound button switches it off.
- Enter
- Spin, or turn the next coin in the pick
FAQ
- Is this slot played for real money?
- No. The table uses play chips that have no value, cannot be bought, and cannot be cashed out or exchanged for anything. If you run out, you are handed another stack for free. There is no account and nothing to download.
- What is the RTP of Eight Lanterns?
- It depends on the bet level, and only slightly: 96.10% at level 1, 96.02% at level 2, 96.00% at level 3, 96.13% at level 4, 96.12% at level 5. That is the share of all chips bet that the machine pays back over every possible result, counted from the reel strips and not sampled. Level 4 keeps the least per chip staked (3.87%) and level 3 the most (4.00%). Level 1 is far the cheapest per spin, because a spin there costs 8 coins and not 88.
- Is a higher bet level better value?
- No. The return is within 0.12 points across all five levels, so each coin bet costs about the same. A higher level costs more coins on every spin: about 342 coins per 100 spins on average at level 5 against 31 at level 1. What it buys is gold pays on more symbols and eligibility for more jackpots, and the jackpots are rare: at level 5, Mini 1 in 209, Minor 1 in 814, Major 1 in 8,139, Grand 1 in 54,258 paid spins.
- Does it matter which coins I turn in the jackpot pick?
- No. The jackpot is drawn when the pick starts, by published weights, and so is the order the coins will show in. The coin you touch shows the next face in that order, so the same jackpot arrives on the same turn whichever coins you choose. The pick is a reveal. At level 5 it ends on the Mini 77.7% of the time and on the Grand 0.3% of the time.
- How often does it pay?
- From 28.5% to 28.7% of spins pay something, depending on the level. At level 5, 15.4% of spins pay less than the bet, which is a net loss that looks like a win, and 13.3% pay more than they cost. At level 1 those figures are 12.6% and 14.5%. Free spins start on about 1 paid spin in 197 at every level.
- Does autoplay change the odds?
- No. Every spin is drawn the same way and the return stays 96.00% to 96.13%, by level. What autoplay changes is speed: more spins fit into an hour, and the cost of an hour is the number of spins times the 3.87% to 4.00% the machine keeps on each. That is why autoplay here will not start without a loss limit.
- Is Eight Lanterns a free alternative to 88 Fortunes?
- Yes. It is built like 88 Fortunes: five reels, three rows, 243 ways, a choice of one to five gold symbols at 8, 18, 38, 68 and 88 coins, a wild on reels 2, 3 and 4 that can open a twelve-coin pick for a Mini, Minor, Major or Grand jackpot, and 10 free spins without the low symbols. It is free, it needs no account, and it is played with chips that have no value. It is not 88 Fortunes itself, which is Light & Wonder's game, and it is not made, licensed or endorsed by Light & Wonder.
- How is it different from 88 Fortunes?
- The mechanic is the same family and everything else is our own: the name, the art, the sound, the reel strips, the pay table and the jackpot odds. So the numbers are different too. Eight Lanterns returns 96.00% to 96.13% depending on the level, and those are this machine's figures only. They say nothing about 88 Fortunes' figures. Its jackpots are progressive in many casinos, and ours are fixed multiples of the bet, because play chips have no pool to grow. The other difference is what sits beside the reels: the exact figures per level, a status line that calls a payout smaller than the bet a loss, and a session coach.
- What is the most a spin can pay?
- 2,500 times the bet. That is a cap on the whole round, and a round reaches it less often than once in 1,000,000,000 rounds at any level. The largest single prize is the Grand at 1,000 times the bet, at level 5 only. A round that pays 100 times the bet or more comes up about once in 1,330 spins at level 5 and once in 1,426 at level 1.
How this game works
Each reel is a fixed strip of symbols: 51, 53, 53, 53, 51 symbols long from reel 1 to reel 5 on a paid spin, and 31, 32, 32, 32, 31 on a free spin, where the low symbols are gone. A spin picks one stop on each strip with your browser's random number generator, every stop equally likely, and the three symbols from that stop down are what shows. There are 387,229,077 ways the five reels can stop on a paid spin. Whether a Lantern spin starts the pick, and which jackpot it draws, are two more draws against odds printed in the rules above.
The return is counted, not simulated. Every stop combination on the paid reels and on the free reels is priced against the pay table at each level. Free spins are that count repeated, with a Moon run adding more, so the average and the spread of a whole round follow exactly from the one-spin counts. An automated test recounts every published figure, checks the count against the machine's own pricing one combination at a time on a small set of reels, and plays 300,000 seeded rounds of the real engine at three levels to confirm the two agree. The house edge on the common casino bets puts the 3.87% to 4.00% this machine keeps in context.
By level, with the coins a spin costs, the return, and where the return comes from (the paid spin, the free spins, the jackpots):Level 1, 8 coins: 96.10%, of which 68% paid spin, 32% free spins and 0% jackpots. Can win: no jackpot.Level 2, 18 coins: 96.02%, of which 63% paid spin, 33% free spins and 4% jackpots. Can win: Mini.Level 3, 38 coins: 96.00%, of which 61% paid spin, 34% free spins and 6% jackpots. Can win: Mini and Minor.Level 4, 68 coins: 96.13%, of which 58% paid spin, 33% free spins and 10% jackpots. Can win: Mini, Minor and Major.Level 5, 88 coins: 96.12%, of which 58% paid spin, 29% free spins and 13% jackpots. Can win: Mini, Minor, Major and Grand.
Jackpot odds per paid spin, counting the picks that start during free spins:Level 2: a pick 1 in 269. Mini 1 in 269.Level 3: a pick 1 in 254. Mini 1 in 317, Minor 1 in 1,268.Level 4: a pick 1 in 194. Mini 1 in 249, Minor 1 in 970, Major 1 in 9,704.Level 5: a pick 1 in 163. Mini 1 in 209, Minor 1 in 814, Major 1 in 8,139, Grand 1 in 54,258.
Free spins start on 0.51% of paid spins, about 1 in 197, and one trigger runs to 12.9 free spins on average once retriggers are counted. The spread of one round's result has a standard deviation of 5.72 bets at level 1 and 7.39 at level 5, which is the size of the swings around the average: a medium to medium-high volatility machine.
The figures above are counted without the 2,500 times cap, which can only lower a round. The same count puts a proven ceiling on what the cap removes: less than 0.00001 of a percentage point of return at any level, far below the two decimals shown. In the seeded runs no round reached the cap.
The expected figure in the session panel is the share the machine keeps at the level selected multiplied by the chips you have bet on finished spins. The coach's count of spins in the last minute is taken from when you pressed Spin.
Limits
- The reel strips, pay table, pick odds and jackpot values were designed for this page. They are not a copy of 88 Fortunes or of any other real machine, and these figures describe this machine only.
- 88 Fortunes is Light & Wonder's game and its name belongs to its owner. Eight Lanterns is an independent alternative built on the same kind of mechanic. It is not made, licensed or endorsed by Light & Wonder.
- Several rules here are our own choices where a real machine's are not published or differ between versions: what a premium pays when it is not gold, the chance that a wild starts the pick, the jackpot values, what the scatter pays, the limit of 50 free spins in a round and the cap of 2,500 times the bet.
- 88 Fortunes' jackpots are progressive in many casinos. Ours are fixed multiples of the bet. Play chips have no pool for a meter to grow from.
- A real slot is usually shipped in several return settings and the casino chooses one. The same title can keep noticeably more than the figure quoted for it, and a real machine does not print its reel strips.
- The reels are stopped by an ordinary browser random number generator. It is not an audited or certified generator, and nothing here should be read as a test of one.
- Autoplay is here because 88 Fortunes has autoplay. It makes a machine cost more per hour, so it will not start without a loss limit, and the coach prices the pace while it runs. There is no turbo mode: the sources we checked do not show that 88 Fortunes has one.
- Play chips do not feel like money. A long blank run is harder to sit through, and to stop after, with a real stake.
This is a practice game for adults. It has no real-money play and links to none. 88 Fortunes, or any slot played with money, keeps its share of every spin, and no bet level or way of turning coins changes that. On this machine the top level costs 11 times the bottom one on every spin, for a Grand jackpot that lands about once in 54,258 spins.
Gambling can cause serious harm. The National Problem Gambling Helpline is free, confidential and open 24/7, call or text 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738), or chat at ncpgambling.org/chat.
03 / 03
Go deeper
- Slot RTP and volatility simulator What a return and a volatility level do to a bankroll over hundreds of spins.
- Variance simulator Why two sessions at the same expected cost can end in very different places.
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