Barb’s Best Bet: Reel In The Chinese New Year With Red Fortune Online Casino Slots
Friday, February 5, 2019, marked the start of another Chinese New Year, in this case, the Year of the Pig. But that was just one day in the two weeks long fun-filled celebration continuing through Tuesday, February 19.
So there’s still plenty of time to participate. And for online casino NJ slot players like you, there’s no better way than to have Lady Luck rain down on you playing a winning online slot game like Red Fortune.
The NJ gambling websites include many Asian themed games. Therefore, finding one of the best NJ casino mobile games to tell you about here wasn’t easy.
I even considered paying special homage to the Year of the Pig when I came across several slot games with attention-getting titles that happened to feature pigs.
But as any reader of Barb’s Best Bets knows, it takes a lot more than just a catchy title to make the cut. Ultimately, I decided on a game called Red Fortune.
Besides being a perfect choice for the Chinese New Year, I think it’s a game that any slot player would enjoy anytime. I also think it can be lucky for you.
What makes Red Fortune a Best Bet
I chose this game over several other Asian themed slots I was considering based on a combination of factors, I was looking for a theme and symbols that would be relatable and content and a bet range that would be suitable for a wide range of players. Of course, superior graphics and appropriate sound effects were important as well.
In addition, the game had to be sufficiently entertaining to sustain interest for a prolonged period of time, but also offer a sufficiently high rate of return to allow a good chance to win with little risk of depleting one’s bankroll. Fortunately for you, I was able to check off all of these boxes for Red Fortune.
Powered by Konami Gaming
Red Fortune is a video slot from Konami Gaming, Inc. consisting of five reels, three rows, and 30 fixed paylines.
While the name Konami may not be as familiar to you as some of the other major slot game providers on NJ gambling websites like NetEnt, NextGen Gaming, and IGT, it is a highly regarded manufacturer of top quality slots. Komani Gaming, Inc. is a Las Vegas-based subsidiary of Konami Holdings Corporation, founded in Japan in 1973.
Fun to play
As you might expect, given the name of this slot, the background for the reels is entirely red. The color red, which in Chinese culture signifies good luck, is also the perfect choice for Chinese New Year.
It’s traditional at that time for Chinese homes to have red lanterns posted outside to ward off bad luck. Another tradition is to hand out red envelopes filled with money to children.
Red Fortune doesn’t include any red lanterns or red envelopes among its symbols, but it doesn’t need to with all the money you can win doing no more than spinning the reels–if luck is on your side.
Giant size symbols in vivid colors like gold, orange, and green will keep your eyes riveted to the screen. And every time one or two coveted scatter symbols show up, the roaring crescendo of the soundtrack will have you on pins and needles waiting to see if the all-important third one also lands.
You need a minimum of three to activate the potentially lucrative free spins feature. Much more often than not, you won’t get it, but sooner or later you will.
And that’s when you’re in for a real treat, listening to celebratory music while watching the money roll in, and maybe retriggering more free spins.
Red Fortune lacks the bells and whistles and interactive features of some slot games, but even with its relative simplicity, it is never boring.
Accepts a wide range of bets
Red Fortune can accommodate bettors at almost any level with a variety of online casino NJ bonuses. The minimum bet is only 30 cents per spin, and the maximum is $75 per spin.
Since the number of paylines is fixed at 30, reducing the size of your bet by reducing the number of paylines in play is not an option. All 30 paylines are working for you on every spin, which is actually a good thing because it gives you many chances to win.
However, Red Fortune gives you a lot of flexibility in the size of your bet otherwise.
For starters, you can select any of the following five coin sizes: 1 cent, 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, or 50 cents.
Then pick the number of coins from 1 to 5 that you want to bet per line. This line bet multiplied by 30 is the amount you are betting per spin.
Using this formula, here are the minimum and maximum bets per spin for each coin size:
- 1 cent: The minimum bet is 30 cents and the maximum is $1.50
- 5 cents: The minimum bet is $1.50 and the maximum is $7.50
- 10 cents: The minimum bet is $3 and the maximum bet is $15.
- 25 cents: The minimum bet is $7.50 and the maximum is $37.50
- 50 cents: The minimum bet is $15 and the maximum bet is $75.
Outstanding return to player (RTP)
Regardless of what size bettor you are, there’s no way to know when you start playing whether or not you will have good luck from the outset. Also, once you find a slot that you enjoy playing, you want reasonable assurance that your session won’t be cut short abruptly due to depleting all your funds.
The best way to protect yourself is to check the return to player at online casinos in NJ (RTP) of the slot you want to play beforehand and then select only those games where the RTP is well above average.
Obviously, doing so won’t guarantee you will win, but it will improve your chances, and even if you don’t win, probably keep your losses at a reasonable, affordable level.
Red Fortune has a published RTP of 96.09 percent. This figure places it among the top group of slots on NJ gambling websites.
Red Fortune does not offer a progressive jackpot. So this is not a slot you would play in the hope of winning a life-changing amount of money.
Instead, your rewards come in the form of frequent payouts of varying amounts. Because winning combinations occur frequently, even when your bankroll takes a dip, you are unlikely to fall so far behind that you can’t bounce back.
By contrast, progressive jackpot games tend to have a lower RTP and less frequent payouts.
However, I also need to caution you that the Red Fortune is listed as having medium-high volatility. This means that significant swings–either up or down–are definitely in the realm of possibility.
Therefore, if you are a small stakes player and/or playing with a limited bankroll, a good strategy would be to scale down a little from your usual bet size. If you find yourself considerably ahead, you can always increase your bet later.
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Which online casinos in NJ offer Red Fortune?
You can play Red Fortune on your computer or, if you prefer, on your smartphone or tablet. The game is optimized for play on currently used iOS and Android mobile devices.
You can access Red Fortune on any of the following NJ gambling websites:
- Borgata
- Caesars
- Golden Nugget
- Hard Rock
- Mohegan Sun
- Ocean Online
- BetMGM
- PlaySugarHouse
- Resorts
Red Fortune symbols
Winning combinations occur in the usual manner, by getting three or more matching symbols across a payline starting with the reel farthest to the left. Wild symbols can help to form additional winning combinations by substituting for the needed regular symbol.
Regular symbols
The higher paying regular symbols include golden statues, lucky coins, money trees, oranges, and pink dragon fruit. The playing cards 9 through Ace, each in a different color, comprise the lower paying regular symbols.
Special symbols
Stacked, wild, and scatter symbols are also added to the mix to make the game more exciting and provide more ways to win.
Action stacked symbols
On each reel there are several adjacent positions that can be randomly replaced with like symbols (but not the wild or scatter symbol) before the spin takes place, thereby increasing the likelihood of a payout.
The stacked symbols also come with a 2x, 3x, or 5x payout multiplier.
Wild symbol
The wild symbol in the Red Fortune slot game consists of gold color Chinese characters. This symbol is capable of substituting for any other symbol except the free spins scatter symbol to help form winning combinations.
However, it can only appear on reels 3, 4, and 5. Therefore, in order to get a payout, like symbols must appear in the reels to the left of the wild symbol(s)
Most of the time when a wild symbol shows up, it will be a normal wild symbol. But during the Free Game Feature (see below) a 2x or 3x wild symbol will appear instead. When it does, the payout on any resulting winning combinations is multiplied by 2 or 3, respectively
Scatter symbol
The Yin Yang symbol serves as the game’s scatter symbol. If 3, 4, or 5 of these symbols simultaneously land anywhere on the reels, it triggers 8, 12, or 25 free spins, respectively.
Free Game Feature
Red Fortune only has one special bonus feature and this is it. As mentioned above, the way to trigger these 8, 12, or 25 free spins is to have 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols land on the same spin during the base game
During the free spins, if 2, 3, 4, or 5 scatter symbols show up again, you are awarded 5, 8, 12, or 25 more free spins, respectively.
Unlike during the base game, where you have the option to increase or decrease your bet size before any spin, during the Free Game Feature, all bets are for the same amount as on the spin that triggered it. However, any wild symbols that show up and produce winning combinations automatically come with a 2x or 3x multiplier.
If you’re lucky, you could be spinning for free and winning for a long time.
How I fared playing Red Fortune
I tried this game in demo mode, first for $7.50 per spin and afterwards for $15 per spin. My results for my two sessions with the smaller hypothetical stake weren’t bad, but far from spectacular.
One session produced a small loss and the other a small win. However, when I doubled the stakes to $15 per spin, that’s when fortune really smiled down on me.
Another surprise was that my big wins were not just in the Free Game Feature, as might be expected, but also in the base game with the help of some very well timed wild symbols. Multiple spins during the base game paid out over $100 and one $15 spin paid out $471!
Then in the Free Game, I not only won five extra spins twice, but kept getting 2x and 3x win multipliers. When the free spins finally ended, an avalanche of gold coins filled the screen. I had won over $700!
Barb’s Best Bet: Celebrate Chinese New Year playing Red Fortune–and these other three outstanding slots, too!
I think you will enjoy giving Red Fortune a try. If you can afford to play for more than minimum stakes, I would recommend doing so to increase your chance for a sizable payday. But most importantly, choose a betting level you feel comfortable with that’s within your budget.
In addition, in keeping with the Chinese New Year theme, this is as good a time as any to try your luck on three other outstanding slots: Lucky Tree, 88 Fortunes, and Fu Dao Le.
They were my online casino NJ trio of Best Bets a year ago to celebrate the Year of the Dog. You can read my review of those slots here.