Treasure Island Live: Our Review, How and Where to Play

The basic premise of Pragmatic Treasure Island is simple and fairly similar to most other casino games with money wheels.

In every round, the presenters will spin the large wheel, which is divided into 54 equal segments. The players’ job is to predict which of these segments the wheel will land on after spinning. Winning bets are determined by a flapper at the top of the wheel, which ends up pointing to one of the segments.

There are two general types of bets in the game – the main bet Gems and the Bonus Rounds. If the flapper lands on one of the Gem segments, all players who placed a bet on the correct Gem win and get an instant one-time lump payout. If the flapper lands on a bonus round, all players who placed a bet on the corresponding bonus bet get to participate in the round. After all of this ends and all of the bets are settled, players can place bets again during a 15-second betting period.

The gems are the simplest form of bet in Treasure Island by Pragmatic, so we’ll start with those.

There are three types of Gems in the game, which correspond to the three main bets – Yellow, Green, and Red. Every type of gem also appears on a different number of wheel segments. For example, Yellow gems appear on more segments than Red gems, which means they’re more likely to win. This also means that Yellow gems tend to have smaller payouts than Red gems.

We say ‘tend to’ because of one of Treasure Island Live’s defining features. The payouts for all three types of gems are selected at random in every round from a range of possible prizes for every gem. You can find the full rundown of possible payments, RTPs, and win probabilities in the paytable below.

• The yellow gem (Topaz) pays between 1x and 10x, and appears on 21 wheel segments
• The green gem (Emerald) pays between 1x and 20x, and appears on 14 segments
• The red gem (Ruby) pays between 3x to 50x but appears on only 8 segments

Furthermore, some segments of the wheel contain two gems. In these cases, the gems are ‘combined’ in a fairly intuitive way.

A segment that contains 2 gems of the same color pays twice the round’s payout for that type of gem. Similarly, a single segment can contain two gems of different colors. In this case, both of the corresponding main bets win.

Although the whole idea of random rewards is sort of unique, the real heart of Treasure Island lies in its bonus rounds. There are six of them – some provide instant payouts, while others have more complex systems and mechanics. We’ll now go through every Treasure Island bonus round and explain how they work.

The Great Scavenger Bonus

The Great Scavenger appears on 4 segments of the wheel, which makes it the least risky bonus bet. It’s also quite straightforward because it simply pays a volatile but sizable prize.

This bonus round is largely tied to the three Gems from the base game. Every type of gem is tied to a mini slot reel, which is typically used to determine the gem’s payout in every round. However, each of these little reels also has a few lights above it – anywhere between 0 and 6.

The Great Scavenger simply multipliers the base value of every gem by the number of lights above it. All three values are then added together and paid out as the prize for the bonus round.

Sometimes, the values of all three gems can randomly increase at the start of this bonus round. This is a fully random event that sometimes increases the payouts for everyone involved, but there’s no way of predicting or influencing it.

Wild Collector Bonus

Similarly, the Wild Collector is a relatively simple quick-fire bonus. It appears on three segments, but tents to pay higher than the Scavenger.

When the flapper lands on a Wild Collector segment, a random section of the wheel is selected. All of the Gems in that section add their values together into one big prize. Anyone with an active Wild Collector bet wins this prize.

The main determining factor for this round comes down to how big the section of the wheel will be. More often than not, the prize will simply include 2 gem segments and a payout of below 10x. However, there is a chance for much bigger parts of the wheel to win, leading to payouts up to 900x. As far as we can tell, it’s possible for the entire wheel to light up, in which case you collect all instances of every type of gem on the wheel.

Ben’s Lost Marbles Bonus

The next bonus round also appears in 3 segments, but it’s also a bit more complex and volatile. The round introduces a big board filled with obstacles and holes – the more old-school among you will recognize it as a Bagatelle board. It’s not a real board, mind you, the image is completely computer-generated and the results are determined by RNG.

Marbles fall down from the top, bounce around the obstacles, and potentially fall into one of the holes Every time they do, a multiplier value is added to the bonus prize. Marbles that fail to fall into a pocket simply roll off the board and are discarded.

There are several layers to determining how big the multiplier values are. There are nine pockets in total. Five of these base their payout from one of the three gems, which is randomly selected at the beginning of the round. Moreover, the gem multipliers are occasionally increased by up to 4x. The remaining four pockets simply get a random multiplier.

Additionally, three dice are rolled at the start of the round to determine the number of dropped marbles. The sum of all dice is the number of buckets that will be dropped. Each die can result in 1, 2, or 3, which means the maximum number of buckets is 9. The first five buckets contain five marbles each, while the last four have 10 marbles each.

John Silver’s Loot Bonus

The next bonus round only appears in two segments. It uses a bingo-style ball machine to determine the payouts for every participating player.

Up to 10 balls are drawn from a drum of 40. Most of the balls are in the colors of the three base game gems – yellow, green, or red. These balls all have a multiplier value which is determined at the start of the bonus round. The machine draws the balls, and all of the collected multipliers are added together and paid out as winnings. The drum contains 10 yellow balls, 10 green balls, and 10 red balls.

However, the balls also appear in a Black variant. Specifically, there are 6 black and yellow balls, 3 black and green balls, and one black and red balls. If the machine draws a black ball, the number of total balls drawn in the bonus round is reduced by 5. However, you still get a multiplier value added to the total from the black ball, depending on the color of the gem on the black ball. For example, a black and yellow ball adds a multiplier based on the yellow gem from the base game (not the value assigned to yellow at the beginning of the round. Yes, it’s confusing. No, we don’t know why Pragmatic chose to do things this way.)

Billy Bone’s Map Bonus

Billy Bone’s Map appears on only two segments but has the potential to provide the maximum payout in Treasure Island Live – 15,450x. It also features a bit of player interaction.

The mini-game takes place on an 8×8 grid that looks like a treasure map. Every position on the grid contains a tile, which starts off hidden. Your job is to pick 5 tiles in 10 seconds – if you don’t, the game will randomly pick them for you. All of the tiles are flipped over, revealing your prize.

A tile may contain one of two things – a gem or a key. The gems are pretty straightforward – every gem pays out the same as it does in the base game during that round. If you don’t find three keys, the gems you picked have their values added together and you win the total. Note that a tile may contain more than one gem. For example, if you pick a tile containing 3 yellow gems, it increases the payout by 3 times the yellow gem’s value.

As far as the keys are concerned, you need to find all 3 keys to open a big prize chest. The big prize is determined at the start of the bonus round by another, smaller wheel. It spins revealing a gem color and a number, which can be 100, 150, 200, and 1,500. The number multiplies the chosen gem value, resulting in a massive prize (that’s very hard to hit.)

Since everyone picks tiles on their own, every participating plater gets a different prize multiplier base on their choices.

Captain Flints Treasure Bonus

Last but not least, we have the elusive Treasure, which only appears on one segment of the wheel. This feature also depends on your choices as a player, which may result in different results for everyone who participates.

Your job is to navigate down a path consisting of 6 levels. On every level, you pick one of several barrels. Once you do, the barrel flips over and reveals the prize for that step.

If you pick a gem, its value is added to your prize and you progress to the next level. Note that most barrels have more than one gem, in which case you multiply the number of revealed gems with the gem’s individual base game value. If you pick a skull, the round ends immediately for you. However, the first two levels do not have skull barrels.