Best Irish Themed Slots [2023]
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Here at CasinoKings HQ, we love to do our research. Our goal: to bring you the truth behind the rumour, the fact behind the fiction, the reality behind the fantasy. So, here’s the question: what is it about Ireland that makes online casino slot developers drool with excitement? When it comes to geographical casino tropes, the Emerald Isle is rivalled only by ancient Egypt and the Wild West. Surf your way to any online casino and you will discover scores of Irish Themed Slots, with names like Rainbow Riches, Pots of Gold, and Lucky Leprechauns.
Best Irish Themed Slots
We want to get to the clover-covered bottom of what makes the Celtic cliché such a desirable genre for gaming. We’ve cogitated. We’ve played the games. We’ve Googled. We’ve even been to the library. All in a bid to put this Irish mystery to bed. We think we have the answer; two answers, in fact.
First: the phrase ‘luck of the Irish’. There are several theories about the origins of the catchphrase. More on this later. Second: leprechauns. These magical, gold-grabbing, rainbow-chasing, pint-sized, redheads are all about getting their tiny little mitts on the hidden pots of plenty. Take some luck, add some gold, and you have the perfect ingredients for an online slot. It’s simple, really.
Join us for a jig on the slots, as we grab some green, both cash and clothing, and get ready for the online casino craic. We’re parking the wokeness, and appropriating Celtic culture, in search of slots with an Irish flavour. Expect pots of gold and rainbows, as we buckle up our shoes and spin for golden glory. Pour that Guinness, and fire up the fiddle, we’re going in to track down the luck of the Irish.
Rainbow Riches
| Developed By | Reels | Paylines | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Light and Wonder | 5 | 20 | 95% |
If online slots were celebrities, Rainbow Riches would be Jack Nicholson; a Hollywood A-lister, who has been around the block many times, but always delivers a solid performance when pressed into action. This is an achingly old school game; a basic five by three grid, 20 adjustable paylines, and some pretty dated graphics. Not surprising, when you consider that this game was first released in 2006, by Barcrest (then Scientific Games, then Light and Wonder).
There is no soundtrack in the base game, just effects and splashes. The low value icons are the card ranks: jack to ace. The other icons are a gold leprechaun wild, the Rainbow Riches logo, a wishing well, pot of gold, and alternate leprechaun. The latter three all trigger icon-related bonus rounds.
This is an iconic online slot, both online and at the casino. On the Light and Wonder slots portfolio page, there are at least 25 different iterations of Rainbow Riches. These include Rainbow Riches Megaways, Power Mix, Reels of Gold, Piles of Cash, Cash Cluster, as well as a scratch card and a Slingo game. The franchise has legs; albeit tiny and wearing little shoes with buckles.
9 Pots Of Gold
| Developed By | Reels | Paylines | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gameburger | 5 | 20 | 96.24% |
Online software creatives Gameburger Studios first hit the scene in 2019. Within a few months, they were signed up as a leading supplier, developing games exclusively, for Microgaming. It’s easy to see why, when you check out their small but perfectly formed portfolio. Top of the list is 9 Pots of Gold. Five reels, and 20 paylines, of emerald green action, with a leading man called Lucky Lad Flynn at the helm. He wears green shades, smokes a gold pipe, wears the finest golden silks, and knows how to party. What’s not to like?
The slot sits on a wallpaper of shamrocks. Icons include clover, lyre, wild mushrooms, a green top hat, assorted 7s, and the eponymous pot of gold. The music is high energy Irish jig-a-lot. It’s a fun game to play, with some real energy and drive.
The pot of gold icon is the game’s USP. It’s a scatter. If you land nine on the reels, you hit the jackpot worth 2,000x. If you hit the Free Spins icon three times, you access the Free Spin Wheel which determines your bonus win: spins and multiplier.
Clearly, the pots of gold concept has been a winner for Gameburger Studios, as they already have at least five pots of gold slots; all using the same multi-scatter format. Without doubt, Lucky Lad Flynn is our favourite leprechaun to date. Check this Irish bad boy out today.
Irish Love
| Developed By | Reels | Paylines | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1×2 Gaming | 5 | 10 | 94% |
Just for a minute, we thought we had discovered an Irish themed slot without a leprechaun. Irish Love? Surely, this must be a game about wild, flame-haired, maidens and burly Irish lads finding love in the shadows of the Wicklow mountains. But no. Irish Love is home to, not one, but two leprechauns: green and blue. The slots sit in a basic 5 x 3 grid, with 10 paylines. The music is a more lilting, loving, Irish theme; a total riff on Molly Malone.
The icons feature the two leprechauns and sexy maidens that have then punching well above their weight. There are also pipes, fiddles, a horseshoe, shoes, and shamrocks. The wild is a rainbow, the scatter a magic mushroom. The bonus is a pot of gold; three of these kicks starts the free spins bonus round.
Irish Love is a slot from independent Brighton-based developers 1x2gaming. It’s fun to play, with an RTP of 94% and mid-level volatility. If you’re seeking romance with a middle-aged, bearded, midget, who can cast spells and has lots of gold, this is the go-to game for you.
Rainbow Jackpots
| Developed By | Reels | Paylines | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Tiger | 5 | 20 | 96.14% |
Spoiler alert: there ain’t no end to that rainbow. Rainbows are reflected and refracted light, an optical illusion that looks different from every angle. Beautiful? yes. Pots of gold? Well… maybe, if you’re playing the Rainbow Jackpots online slot. This is a great game from developers Red Tiger. Five reels, three rows, and 20 paylines, combined with some quirky graphics and spectacular audio, make this an Irish slot worth sharing a beer with. It’s genuinely fun to play.
The graphics are fairly standard. However, a lucky leprechaun occasionally wanders across the screen blasting bonuses from his pipe. Icons are the usual Irish tropes: golden shamrocks, horseshows, and hats. A golden coin is the wild.
Rainbow Jackpots also has a beer bonus. Land three pints of the black stuff and you get to choose an empty glass to fill. Pick wisely and you get a full pint of bonus cash. There are also symbol swaps and free spin bonus rounds to play for. If you land three scatter pots of gold, you win up to five free spins. If the lucky leprechaun awards you the mega free spins, you can win up to 100 extra spins.
Red Tiger is fast becoming one of online gaming’s most exciting developers, with a quality portfolio of slots and games to discover. The real selling point with Rainbow Jackpots is its audio; it is beautifully understated but full of humour. There is one thing missing from this game: any kind of specific Rainbow Jackpot. But – hey – what’s in a name?
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Leprechaun Goes to Hell
| Developed By | Reels | Paylines | RTP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Play N Go | 5 | 25 | 96.54% |
Fed up with shamrocks and chipper leprechauns? Fortunately, developers Play’n Go have decided to put a satanic slant on classic Irish folklore, by sending one of the little people to the eternal abyss of pain aka Hell.
The Leprechaun Goes to Hell online slot dispenses with the Irish jig, replacing it with a splash of death metal, a distant penny whistle, and the occasionally stab of lead guitar. The 5 x 3 grid is set inside a burning chasm. The icons have definitely taken a turn for the dark side, with bone covered hats, vials of green gunk, pentangles, and satanic horseshoes.
There is a leprechaun wild, as well as a new character called Evilene. Hit her three times and you trigger the bonus game: the Infernal Bonus. In this round, the grid reduces to a 3 x 3 and – with every win – the leprechaun stokes the fire. As it heats up, you edge closer to the game’s big jackpots. There is also a free spins bonus round; this is activated when you land the scatter – golden pots – three times.
This online slot was released in 2016 and is it is showing its age. Conceptually, it’s a refreshing take on a trope. The bonus round is also cool… well…. Hot! If you like your leprechauns well done, with a char, and a side order of Satan, this could be the online slot for you.
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Best of the Rest
Rainbow chasers get ready. There’s gold in those pots – and there are lots of pots. Here is just a handful of online slots where green is the colour, the craic is good, and the Emerald Isle is the inspiration.
- Wish Upon a Leprechaun (Blueprint gaming)
- Wild Wild Riches Megaways (Pragmatic Play)
- Slots O’Gold Megaways (Blueprint Gaming)
- Shamrock Miner (Play’n Go)
- Rainbow Wilds (Iron Dog Studios)
- Rainbow Riches Raceday (SG Digital)
- Lucky Cloverland (Endorphina)
- Land of Gold (Playtech)
- Clover Stones (Netgame)
Irish Themed Slots – a Background
Never let reality stand in the way of a good story. Is Ireland lucky? Short answer: no. In fact, its dark history is probably one of the main reasons the phrase ‘luck of the Irish’ came to exist. Are you sitting comfortably? Grab that Guinness and let’s begin…
Why are the Irish perceived as ‘lucky’. First of all: let’s skip through early Irish history. Settlers, Celts, invaders, Normans, wars, English, invaders, Black Death, Kingdom of Ireland, more war, Union with Britain (1801).
Finally, we get to the period in Irish history that plays. From 1845 to 1851, Ireland suffered a catastrophic famine. The population was reduced by one third; a million died and a million emigrated – mainly to the United States and Canada. In fact, half of all immigration, to north America was Irish.
Now, we flip to the U.S. states of California and Sierra Nevada. Here, things were crazy, as more than 300,000 prospectors came in search of gold. Yup: the Gold Rush is in full swing, Irish immigrants are arriving by the bucketload, and it just so happens that they are very good at finding and mining gold.
The Irish earned a reputation for being lucky, when it came to finding gold. It was probably just a case of numbers; most of the miners were Irish. But less successful prospectors damned ‘the luck of the Irish’. After all: who needs brains, if you’ve got an excess of luck? Whatever it’s exact origins, the phrase has stuck – and sticks today. From darkness and famine, an online slot trope was born.
Next: leprechauns. Shoes and buckles, a seven-button green (or red) jacket, a cocked hat, breeches, a red beard, and a penchant for mischief. First referenced in 1604, these pint-sized, mischievous, pixies hide their pots of gold at the end of the rainbow.
The modern interpretation is basically a caricature and a modern invention. It owes more to Lucky – the famous Lucky Charms breakfast cereal mascot – than to traditional Irish folklore.
Take the luck of the Irish add a gold-hungry leprechaun, with his charms and magic, and you have all the ingredients you need for the perfect online slot.
Sights and Sounds
No big surprises here. You can expect the ubiquitous leprechauns-a-plenty. These guys are usually carrying pots of gold. Rainbows are everywhere and lucky four-leaf clover covers the ground. Other icons putting in an appearance include lyres, horseshoes, pints of dark ale, toadstools, buckled shoes, and green hats.
Musically, there is a rich folk heritage to draw on. Expect an Irish jig, some fiddling, the lyra, a Celtic harp, flute, accordion, dulcimer and bouzouki, all accompanied by someone bashing a bodhran; Perfect for an Irish-style online slot.