Gates of Olympus

Open Gates of Olympus and the first thing you notice is what is missing. No lines are drawn across the reels, there is no left to right rule to memorise, and there is no bet per line to divide up. You set a single stake, the storm clouds part, and thirty symbol positions fill at once. Zeus stands beside the grid with a handful of glowing orbs, watching to see whether eight or more matching symbols turn up anywhere on the board.

That format is called pay anywhere, or scatter pays, and Pragmatic Play has turned it into the studio's signature. VegasNow carries the full Pragmatic Play shelf, so once the Olympus setting has you there are relatives one click away in our pokies lobby, Mustang Gold and Chilli Heat among them. This is still the title that draws the biggest crowd on our reels, largely because one paid spin can keep resolving long after you have taken your finger off the button.

Our lobby tags this one high volatility, and the tag is doing real work. The published return to player is 96.50%, which is a long run average taken across an enormous number of spins. It says nothing about your next hour. In practice the game gives you long flat stretches where eight of nothing lands, broken by a tumble chain that arrives with orbs stacked on it. The 5,000x figure in the spec panel is a ceiling, not a target.

• Decide the total you are prepared to lose before you open the game, not three hundred spins into it.
• Count in spins rather than dollars. A stake you can comfortably repeat two hundred times gives the tumble mechanic room to show you what it does.
• Treat the quiet patches as normal, because they are. High volatility is simply the maths holding money back for rarer, heavier drops.

Deposit limits, loss limits and session reminders all sit in your account settings, and our responsible gambling page explains each one. Gambling costs money and nothing on this grid changes that. If a session stops being fun, close it. Our live chat team is on duty around the clock if you want a limit applied straight away.

Every pokie on the site loads in demo mode with play credits, this one included, and it is the sensible first stop if the pay anywhere format is new to you. Watch a few tumble chains, see how the orbs are totalled, and get used to the fact that most spins simply end. Play credits carry no cash value and nothing you collect with them moves to your real balance.

Real money play runs in AUD. Deposits start at A$20 with PayID, POLi or a Visa or Mastercard, or A$10 with a Neosurf voucher, and crypto is there too if you prefer it. VegasNow charges no fee of its own on any of them. The full list sits on our payments page, and payout times are set out under withdrawals. There is one identity check, photo ID plus proof of address, done once before your first payout is released.

First deposit? The welcome package is already attached, with no code to enter and nothing to tick. Your opening deposit is matched 100% up to A$3,000 and brings 100 free spins with it, and two further matches follow at 150% and 200%. Bonus funds carry 35x wagering, pokies such as this one contribute the full 100% toward it, table and live games add 10% or less, and every bet must stay at or under A$7.50 while a bonus is active. You get 30 days. All of it is spelled out on the bonus page.