Treasure Island is a live entertainment gameshow produced by Pragmatic Play. It is themed around Robert Louis Stevenson’s well-loved novel.
Throughout the game, particularly in the Bonus Rounds, we’re introduced to some of Treasure Island’s famous characters, Long John Silver, Captain Flint and Billy Bones.
The game uses a 54-segment big wheel containing Instant Win prizes and four Bonus rounds. A multiplier selected at the start of each spin can boost payouts.
Pragmatic initially launched Treasure Island in November 2023. In my original review, I said it was too complicated and failed to build tension due to an overuse of RNG.
This revised version of Treasure Island removed parts of the game that didn’t work and now follows the successful gameshow formula Evolution introduced with Crazy Time.
In this review, I will explain how to play Treasure Island Live and how each bonus round works, highlighting some quirks you might miss.
I’m also going to discuss playing and betting strategies for Treasure Island.
Treasure Island Live is a more volatile game in this new format. The big wins come in the Bonus Rounds, with the maximum possible multiplier being 20,000x on Loot and Treasure Bonus Rounds. The maximum payout is £$€500,000.
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If you’re familiar with live entertainment game shows, you’ll understand how the ones with big wheels work. Treasure Island is no different, so here’s a quick breakdown of the game and what you can expect. The rest of this review goes into more detail and tackles things like Strategies and finding ways to win.
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It took me a while to capture all four bonus rounds, but I did it in two playing sessions. I got all but Captain Flint’s Treasure in about 50 game rounds, but it took another 50 to get the final one.
In this video review, I explain how to play and show each of the bonus rounds in full, explaining how to play each one. Hopefully, it will help you when you come to play Treasure Island.
Treasure Island is really easy to play. You need to get your head around the sequence in the game and the quirks that aren’t obvious.
In this section, I’ll explain each phase of the game in detail so you can understand how to play Treasure Island.
There are twelve seconds of betting time, enough time to place your bets if you know what you want.
There are four Number bets and Four bonus rounds. A Bet All function will place a bet on all positions using the coin value you selected.
Otherwise, click or dab the position where you want to bet.
On average, a bonus round will hit every six-game rounds. John Silvers Loot will hit more times, with Bens Lost Marbles and Billy Bones Map following, with Captains Flints Treasure being the most elusive.
Remember: The Booster will boost one of the segments in each game with a multiplier, making the number bets more appealing.
Segment on Wheel | Number of Segments |
---|---|
Number 1 | 18 |
Number 2 | 15 |
Number 5 | 8 |
Number 10 | 4 |
John Silver’s Loot | 4 |
Ben’s Lost Marbles | 2 |
Billy Bones’ Map | 2 |
Captain Flint’s Treasure | 1 |
Let’s take a more detailed look at the Treasure Island Wheel.
The wheel contains 54 segments. Forty-five segments contain numbers, and Nine contain Bonus Rounds.
Each of these segments has a payout equivalent to the number. So, Number One pays 1:1, and Number Ten pays 10:1.
There’s an 83.33% chance the result will be a number, with Number One being the most frequent at 33.33%.
The nine segments containing the Bonus rounds give a 16.66% chance of one of the four bonus rounds occurring.
The Booster feature spins a two-column slot. The first column contains a symbol from the wheel, and the second column contains a multiplier value.
The following values can be assigned to the symbols.
A multiplier is always assigned each game round, unlike in Crazy Time, where the Top Slot is often missed.
When the betting time has closed, the booster picks the multiplier, and the presenter spins the wheel.
The result is either a Number or a Bonus Round. Players with active bets on a winning number receive a payout, and those with a winning Bonus round bet join the bonus rounds. Everyone else gets to watch!
Treasure Island has four bonus rounds: Ben’s Lost Marbles, John Silver’s Loot, Billy Bones’ Map and Captain Flint’s Treasure.
These bonus rounds take a little while to run. Some are entirely automated, while a couple require some form of player interaction, although if you fail to act, the game will pick for you!
Let’s go through each of them.
Ben’s Lost Marbles is a mini-game bonus round based on a Pachinko/Pinball/Bagatelle-style machine.
Marbles are dropped from the top and can be caught by pockets within the machine with multiplier values attached: the more marbles collected, the bigger the payout.
The game is all RNG, apart from a dice roll at the start to select the number of marbles to drop.
The Bonus round goes like this:
This bonus appears twice on the wheel, giving a 3.70% chance of the wheel stopping on it.
The payouts range from 4x through to 10,000x.
Ben’s Lost Marbles has an RTP of 96.54% to 96.55%.
John Sivers Loot is a bonus game that draws balls from a bingo-style machine. For every Green ball drawn, the payout multiplier increases. If a red ball is drawn, the game ends, and you receive the payout for the last successful ball or at least 5x.
This bonus round does not require player interaction, so sit back and watch the game unfold as the presenter comments on its progress.
Up to 15 Balls can be drawn from the machine.
The game pays between 5x and 20,000x.
Four sections on the wheel contain this bonus round, giving it a 7.40% chance of hitting in any game round.
John Silvers Loot has an RTP of 96.554% to 96.55%.
Billy Bone’s Map has the potential to pay a whopping 12,000:1.
The map has 64 squares in an 8×8 grid, and each square has a multiplier. Three of the squares contain keys, which, if found, can boost the payouts considerably.
After the multipliers and keys are displayed, the squares are scrambled, and the multipliers are hidden from view.
You get to pick five squares, which, when revealed, show a multiplier or key.
If you find one key, 10x is added to the pot. Find two keys, and you’ll get 50x, and if you find all three, you’ll get 1000x.
Your five picks are totalled, giving you your Payout.
This bonus round occupies two segments on the Treasure Island Wheel, giving a 3.70% chance of being hit.
The Payout ranges between 5x and 12,000x.
The RTP for Billy Bones’ Map is 96.51% to 96.54%.
The last of the bonus rounds is Captain Flint’s Treasure.
You effectively have to navigate through 6 levels, picking up multipliers as you go and avoiding the skulls which end your game early.
The game starts with a grid of barrels 7×6. You have to pick one barrel in each level as your path.
Each line of barrels dissolves, showing a multiplier or skull sitting beneath.
If you’ve picked a multiplier, it’s banked, and you move on to the next level. Choosing a skull means the end of the game.
The first two levels have no Skulls, level three has one, and levels 4, 5, and 6 each have three skulls.
Captain Flint’s Treasure occupies one segment on the wheel, giving a 1.85% chance of being picked.
The payouts range from 3x through to 20,000x.
The RTP for Captain Flint’s Treasure is 96.54%.
The theoretical return to player (RTP) for Treasure Island Live ranges between 96.51% and 96.55%.
The RTP is distributed relatively evenly across all the game elements, with no one area standing out as the one where your chances of getting a profit are better.
The game heavily uses RNG as a vehicle for controlling the RTP. Defined parameters will balance the multipliers in the main and bonus rounds, ensuring the game meets its RTP requirements over the long term.
Treasure Island is a reasonably volatile game. You’ll get many bonus rounds, but usually they won’t pay much. However, once the Booster is applied, the payout can reach 20,000x with a following wind! You’ll likely get 10x to 100x wins, with the odd 300x. The 1000x plus wins will occur infrequently.
Segment on Wheel | Number of Segments | Hit Frequency | RTP | Payouts |
---|---|---|---|---|
Number 1 | 18 | 18/54 = 33.33% | 96.55% | 1 – 20:1 |
Number 2 | 15 | 15/54 = 27.77% | 96.54% | 2 – 40:1 |
Number 5 | 8 | 8/54 = 14.81% | 96.54% | 5 – 100:1 |
Number 10 | 4 | 4/54 = 7.41% | 96.55% | 10 – 200:1 |
John Silver’s Loot | 4 | 4/54 = 7.41% | 96.52% – 96.55% | 5 – 20,000:1 |
Ben’s Lost Marbles | 2 | 2/54 = 3.70% | 96.54% – 96.55% | 4 – 10,000:1 |
Billy Bones’ Map | 2 | 2/54 = 3.70% | 96.51% – 96.54% | 5 – 12,000:1 |
Captain Flint’s Treasure | 1 | 1/54 = 1.85% | 96.54% | 6 – 20,000:1 |
Treasure Island comes packed with information and statistics in its results tracker.
You can see a breakdown of the result in two ways:
Statistic and Results Trackers are a great way to see the game’s behaviour. You’d expect to see the long-term results meet the game’s published RTP. The short-term results may be more volatile and show how the game is playing at that particular time.
What’s interesting to me is spotting the bonus rounds that provide a better payout experience. Billy Bone’s Map seems to give good wins consistently.
Be careful when using these statistics to help you bet. The game is just like a slot machine, designed to give lots of small wins and an occasional big win. Spotting that in the statistics is impossible, and having the thought that a big win is due and making bets with that in mind only asks for trouble!
Pragmatics Treasure Island has many betting opportunities and many strategies you can adopt when playing.
You can make the strategies as simple or complicated as you want.
Your primary strategy should not be about winning, although we all want that when playing Treasure Island. Your first thought should be about bankroll management and how long you want to play for.
Treasure Island is effectively like a slot game. You place your bet, the wheel spins, and you get a result. The result may be a win – either more or less than you bet or a total loss. Then there’s the time when you get a bonus round – which can pay less or more than you bet. Sometimes, you’ll get a profit. It’s these profits that help maintain your bankroll!
So you either play the parts of the game where you’re more likely to profit on your wins, but they don’t happen that often. Or you play the parts where you get regular wins, like the numbers, and hope you get the odd boosted multiplier to stop your bankroll from decreasing too much.
You can also play a bit of both to get the best of both worlds or just bet on everything!
Your attitude to risk, how long you’d like to play and the size of your bankroll will determine which ones are right for you.
The statistics from the game results show you which results occur the most and the average payouts – so it’s relatively easy to see which positions win the most and what the likely bet/win ratio will be.
This will tell you that betting just on these options is a losing strategy, as you’ll never make big enough wins to cover your losses.
So don’t follow the statistics blindly; you need to be far more subtle in your betting strategy.
I’ve mentioned before that this game is just like a slot, so I think you need to bet like you would with any slot game.
That means making sure you have a bet on all parts of the game, even if they are small bets. Consider the Total as one bet.
If you think and behave like this, you will participate in all aspects of the game and have a chance of getting a decent payout when they happen. Again, decent wins don’t happen that often, so make sure your total bet is a small proportion of your bankroll.
Treasure Island is a game of Bonus Rounds, so not playing them isn’t an option. The Numbers are an integral part of the game, and while you can ignore them, they are the features that win the most often, so you’ll lose more quickly if you don’t play them.
My betting strategy is quite simple. I make sure that if I win, it covers my total bet.
I place six units on the number 1 – it’s the most common number to win. Then, I place a unit on each bonus round, making my total bet ten units.
If I win Number 1, I win 12 units, so I’m two units in profit. According to the statistics, this will happen 33% of the time, with a bonus round occurring 16.66% of the time. Overall, I expect to win 50% of the time and hope to get some boosted wins. It doesn’t take a genius to see that my bankroll will slowly decrease, but I’m okay with that as I expect to lose. I hope to get a big win before I go bankrupt.
This strategy gives me the most enjoyment and chance to win on the bonus rounds.
Here are a few Tips and Tricks and not quite cheats for Treasure Island. They’re obvious things worth repeating to ensure you get the best out of your playing time.
The best tip I can give you is that no strategy guarantees you will win or makes a win more likely.
This game has been created to deliver an RTP in the range of 96%, which is okay but not great for those seeking good profits. For that, you need to play Blackjack or Craps.
As far as tips go, follow these.
There’s no right or wrong time of the day to play Treasure Island.
Player numbers are the biggest during the evening, but as the game is available worldwide, players are always playing. You can see how many if you look in the lobby as you load the game.
The best time to play is when you have time to sit and enjoy the experience. The dealers are very chatty and always have something to say for themselves, so use the opportunity to chat with them. They’ll like you more for it!
Sadly, there are no cheats or hacks for playing Treasure Island. If there were, the game would soon be removed.
No technology or strategy can give you an advantage, so don’t think there is a way to cheat the game. It’s just not possible.
Free play is not available for Pragmatic Treasure Island. The only way to play is for real money.
There are eight betting positions, with four giving instant wins and four bonus rounds. A 54-segment wheel containing sectors for each betting spot is spun. The segment where the wheel stops is declared the winner. Players with bets on that sector either win an immediate payout or entry to one of the bonus rounds, where the prizes are often greater.
The highest payouts in the game are in Captain Flints Treasure Chest and John Silvers Loot, both of which offer a maximum payout of 20,000:1.
The Captain Flint’s Treasure Bonus round occupies one segment on the 54-segment wheel and will hit about 1.85% of the time or, on average, 1 in 54 spins.
Ben’s Lost Marbles uses a pachinko/pinball-style machine into which marbles are poured. As they work their way down to the bottom they hit pins and multiplier collection points. The total payout is calculated from the number of marbles collected.
The RTP of Treasure Island is between 96.51% and 96.55%.
Ideally, you should bet on every spin and every betting position, as that will ensure you don’t miss the opportunity to get a winning spin. If you’re betting on every position, you will win, but if you don’t gamble every time, you may miss a bonus round that gives a good payout, and you’d kick yourself for that!
It’s a game show with Eight betting positions, four of which are bonus rounds. So you’re never far away from achieving a mega win!
A bonus round should occur on average every six-game rounds. Sometimes, it will be long, and you often get two back-to-back.
You can play Pragmatic Play Treasure Island Live at any Pragmatic Live Casino.
There is no real strategy for playing Treasure Island, regardless of what others may try to have you believe with their systems and strategy guides. The best strategy is to bet small and closely monitor your bankroll. Cover all bet spots for the best chance to win.
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When Treasure Island was first released, I criticised it because it had too many Bonus rounds, a complicated payout structure based on collecting gems, and too much RNG.
This newest incarnation is much better, with almost all parts of the game modified in some way.
The wheel has the same number of segments but with four Numbers and Four Bonus rounds. A booster has been added to give a segment a multiplier on each game round, similar to the Top Slot Feature in Crazy Time and the Super Wheel Game Show by Stakelogic.
The bonus rounds have been tweaked to make them easier to understand. While RNG is still heavily used, some player participation is required, which is a nice touch.
The studio and the presenters continue to be good, and this is by far one of the chattiest games I’ve played.
Comparisons will be drawn with Crazy Time, as it has the same format, albeit using a different theme and bonus rounds, but that’s not bad.
This version will resonate with players better and is an excellent alternative to the Evolutions game.
The game in its current form is more volatile, so I think we’ll see big wins, even if they don’t happen that often. A player’s attitude to risk and bankroll size will determine whether they enjoy the game.
I’m glad Pragmatic had a rethink and had the guts to change it after 12 months. I’m also pleased they tried something different with the original, as that is the only way games can get better: by trying a few different things and seeing how they go.
There is a whole range of wheel-driven games you can play.