Where's the Gold
pokies

By Callum Barwick · checked 28 Sep 2026 · 5 min read

Maker

Aristocrat

Reels and lines

5 reels, 3 rows, 1 to 25 lines (online version)

Scatter

Dynamite: pays anywhere, 2, 10 or 50 × total bet

Feature

3+ Dynamite, pick a character: up to 10 free games and up to 3 gold wilds

Top line win

5 prospectors: 1,000 × bet per line

Return

Aristocrat listed 94% to 97% for the online game; venue machines per their configuration

Volatility

Medium, per Aristocrat's online showroom

Name registered

Trademark filed 19 June 2003 (IP Australia 958300)

Checked

28 September 2026

How Where’s the Gold plays

Where’s the Gold is an Aristocrat pokie set in a gold rush: a bearded prospector, mine entrances, covered wagons, picks and shovels, and bundles of Dynamite. The classic game, in the online version Aristocrat released through NYX, lets you “Play 1 to 25 lines” on five reels of three rows [1].

The rules are the standard Aristocrat set, spelled out in the game’s own help [1]:

• Line wins start on the leftmost reel and pay left to right on consecutive reels.
• Line wins are multiplied by your bet per line; Dynamite wins by your total bet.
• Only the highest win on each line pays, and wins on different lines add up.
• Only lines you play can win, except Dynamite, which pays anywhere.
• “Malfunction voids all pays and plays.”

Aristocrat’s own online showroom described it as the “globally successful game that combines a player’s choice second screen feature with the chance to win more WILD symbols”, with a “Medium” volatility [3]. The name itself is older than any online version: Aristocrat filed the WHERE’S THE GOLD trademark in Australia on 19 June 2003 [4].

The Dynamite feature and the character pick

Three, four or five scattered Dynamite start “the Where’s The Gold FEATURE” [1]. They pay first, 2, 10 or 50 times your total bet [2], then the game asks you to pick a character.

Under each character is a window. Nuggets in that window are free games; symbols in it turn gold on the reels for the whole feature, and “GOLD SYMBOLS are WILD and substitute for all symbols except scattered DYNAMITE”. You can “WIN up to 10 Free Games and up to 3 wild gold symbols”, the feature can retrigger, and the free games play at the same bet and lines as the spin that triggered them [1].

Step by step, with the differences in the newer versions: the free spins feature. Who the characters are, and why their names differ from site to site: the characters.

What the symbols pay

The prospector is the top symbol: 1,000 times your bet per line for five, 200 for four, 100 for three and 4 for two. MINE pays 500, 150, 80 and 2. The wagon and the pick and shovel pay 300, 100 and 50 each, and the cards run from A at 150 down to J at 100 for five of a kind [2].

Two details matter more than the headline number. The prospector and MINE pay from two of a kind; everything else needs three. And five Dynamite pay 50 times your total bet, not your line bet, which is why a Dynamite spin on 25 lines can outpay a full line of wagons. The whole table, with dollar amounts worked out at three bet sizes, is on the paytable page.

The return: what Aristocrat has published

Aristocrat’s online showroom listed Where’s the Gold at a return of “94% - 97%” [3]. It’s a range because the game was offered in several configurations, and the same range sat against every game in that list. The help file of the online version gives no figure at all.

On a venue floor the return is set by the machine’s approved configuration, and the law sets a floor under it. In Victoria, pubs and clubs must return at least 85% of what’s bet across the venue over a year [14]. The other states’ minimums, and what “return” can and can’t tell you about one evening, are on the RTP and volatility guide.

Four games carry the name

If Aristocrat’s Australian website confuses you, that’s because its Where’s the Gold page is a different game: the Jackpot Carnival Deluxe version, released in April 2024, with “a hammer” to “raise the prizes” and a clown feature [5]. The name now covers four Aristocrat games:

1. The classic, the prospector game described on this page.
2. Cash Express Luxury Line: Where’s the Gold, which keeps the pick, “1 character from 5 options”, with 3 to 10 free games and one to three symbols, in 50, 25 or 5-line configurations in NSW and the ACT [6].
3. Where’s The Gold? Jackpots, released in the US and Europe in 2023.
4. Jackpot Carnival Deluxe: Where’s the Gold, for Australian and New Zealand venues.

How to tell them apart on a floor: the Aristocrat page.

Where the machine still stands

Four venues name Where’s the Gold on their own websites as of 28 September 2026:

• Crown Perth (WA): “Play an exciting Free Game & Jackpot Feature!” [7]. Crown’s approved rules list the game as “Where’s the Gold (Aristocrat Variations 01 - 07, 99)”, and no bet on the main gaming floor may exceed $10 [8].
• The Star Gold Coast (QLD): the Cash Express Luxury Line on the main gaming floor “with three classic titles… Where’s the Gold, Queen of the Nile, 50 Lions” [9].
• Angle Vale Tavern (SA) and Portside Tavern, Port Pirie (SA), which list it among their machines.

In Victoria, the regulator’s approval records show seven approvals of Where’s the Gold games between 2022 and 2025, all Cash Express Luxury Line and Jackpot Carnival Deluxe versions [10]. Bet limits by state and each venue’s own wording are on where the machine still stands.

Playing it free

There’s no Where’s the Gold app of its own, but two free social casino apps name it in their Australian App Store listings: Heart of Vegas (“Feel the rush with Where’s the Gold”) and Cashman Casino [11]. Both are rated 18+ and pay only coins. A demo of the old online version also still runs. Where each one is, and what free play can’t show you: free play and the app page.

Playing it online for money

Aristocrat took the classic online in 2013, naming Where’s The Gold among its first games “optimized for online play” for regulated European markets [12]. In Australia, online casinos are not licensed, and offering online pokies to Australians is prohibited under the Interactive Gambling Act 2001; the law targets the providers, not players [13]. What that means before you deposit anywhere, and the three tests we’ll run before any casino appears here: playing Where’s the Gold online.

Tips that hold up

No cheat changes a spin. What you control is the cost: lines times bet per line. Play the lines you want the feature to pay on, because the free games inherit them; remember that Dynamite pays on any line count; and set your stop before you start. The full list, with the myths that don’t hold up: cheats and tips.