50 Lions pokie: play free online and where to play for real money in New Zealand

50 Lions in two minutes

50 Lions is an Aristocrat club pokie from the early 2000s: a five-reel game with 50 paylines, an African savannah theme and a free-games feature that adds an extra wild symbol to the reels for every spin. The number in the title is the line count, and Aristocrat has reused the format in 50 Lions Deluxe and 50 Dragons. The lions are the top symbol and the reason for the game’s following: five on a line is the big result, and the feature exists to make that more likely.

How it plays

The grid is five reels wide with 50 paylines paying left to right. Bets are built from lines played times credits per line; you can play fewer than 50 lines, but the feature is designed around the full set. The credit value is a venue setting, so the cash cost of a full-line spin depends on the denomination your club has chosen — the help screen shows it. Symbols are the lion, a zebra, a giraffe, two tribal women, a savannah landscape, the flower and the ten-to-ace ranks. The lion pays 1,000x the line bet for five, according to the databases we checked. The diamond is the wild and substitutes for everything except the flower, which is the scatter. Aristocrat does not publish a hit frequency.

Bonus features

Free games. The flower scatter only counts on reels one, two and three. Land one on each of those reels at the same time and you are paid a scatter prize and 10 free games. During free games an extra diamond wild is added to reels two, three, four and five, which is the whole point of the feature: the base game’s wild is scarce, and the feature’s is not. The sources we checked agree on the extra wilds; they disagree on whether one more is added on every spin or whether the reels simply carry a heavier wild strip throughout, so we have not stated either.

Retrigger. Three flowers on reels one to three during free games award five more free games. One database says the retrigger can only happen once; others do not mention a limit. Treat five extra games as the realistic ceiling.

Gamble. The club machine carries Aristocrat’s standard double-up on the colour or suit of a card.

There is no pick screen, no multiplier and no jackpot. 50 Lions is a line game with a free-games feature, and everything it does comes from stacked lions meeting extra wilds across 50 lines.

RTP and volatility

There is no single 50 Lions RTP. Aristocrat sells the game to venues with a choice of return settings and the venue picks one. The only fixed number is the legal floor: 85% of turnover in New South Wales under the Gaming Machines Regulation 2019, 85% in Victoria and Queensland, 87% in the ACT and 87.5% in South Australia. Game databases list the online version at 94.71%; that describes a build Aristocrat licenses in regulated markets, not the machine at your club. The help screen on the machine is the only source for the figure that applies to you.

Volatility is high. Fifty lines means a lot of small wins that return less than the bet, and the money is concentrated in the free games, where stacked lions and extra wilds across 50 lines can produce a screen-filling result or ten spins of nothing. Aristocrat publishes no maximum win; the practical ceiling is lions on every line under the extra wilds.

Where to play 50 Lions in Australia and New Zealand

The official 50 Lions is not available at any offshore online casino serving Australia or New Zealand. Aristocrat licenses its online games only in regulated markets — its recent launches have been in US states and Ontario — and no operator taking Australian players holds a licence Aristocrat recognises. Any offshore lobby that shows “50 Lions” is running an unauthorised copy. ThePokies.net, which advertises Aristocrat-branded games to Australians, is flagged by Casino Guru for possibly fake games; our review of that site explains why.

The nearest legitimate game at the casinos we review is Pragmatic Play’s Great Rhino: a savannah-themed line game in which three bonus symbols on reels two, three and four start 10 free spins where every rhino is wild, plus a Super Respin feature with fixed Major (375x) and Grand (500x) prizes. It is 20 lines rather than 50, but the shape — a fixed ten free games made valuable by extra wilds — is the same. The studio lists it at 96.53%. Spin Samurai, Richard Casino, Bizzo and Golden Crown all name Pragmatic Play in the pokies section of their review; none records which RTP build is loaded, so check the info panel. If it is the lions you want rather than the format, Pragmatic Play’s 5 Lions Gold (96.50%) is a 243-way game with a pick-your-free-games screen, closer to 5 Dragons than to this game.

Free demo

Aristocrat does not publish a free-play 50 Lions. The demo pages in search results are unlicensed reproductions and their return has no connection to a club machine. Pragmatic Play publishes an official demo of Great Rhino on its own site, running the default 96.53% build, which is the legitimate way to try a savannah free-games pokie for nothing.

Verdict

50 Lions is a plain 50-line game that does one thing: it makes the free games worth waiting for by loading the reels with wilds. There is nothing to pick and no jackpot to chase, which is either its appeal or its limitation. The return is the venue’s choice and the 94.71% online figure does not apply to a club floor. Australians and New Zealanders cannot play the real game online; Great Rhino is the nearest licensed equivalent with a stated RTP.

FAQ

Is 50 Lions available online in Australia? Not legitimately. Aristocrat licenses it only to regulated markets, and any offshore site offering it to Australians is running a copy.

What is the 50 Lions RTP? Whatever the venue set it to, subject to the state minimum (85% in NSW, Victoria and Queensland). Databases quote 94.71% for the regulated online build.

How do the free games trigger? A flower scatter on each of reels one, two and three at once pays 10 free games with extra diamond wilds on reels two to five; three more flowers add five games.