Play Arabian Nights for Free

While the majority of gambling slots are produced by dedicated software providers, others are made on a proprietary basis, often by the online casino itself. With proprietary slots, the quality of the gameplay can vary massively. So too can the quality of the graphics and bonus games.

The Arabian Nights video slot looks and feels like a game knocked out in super-quick time for an individual casino. The game loads instantly through a web browser, and even an older Internet Explorer was able to handle the Flash-powered software. But the overall feel while playing Arabian Nights is of a clunky slot in need of some TLC.

It's certainly possible that the online slot was intended for a non-English gaming site. The pay table has some interesting spelling mistakes ("simbol" instead of "symbol"), but some prizes are still listed in US dollars.

As for gameplay, the free Arabian Nights slot machine is about as standard as it gets. Symbols sit on a set of 3x5 reels and there are 20 adjustable paylines to choose from. Coins begin at just 0.05, but a max bet of 0.50 (10.00 per spin on all 20 paylines) is manageable for low-limit players. A simple autoplay function doesn't let the player program a set number of spins. Instead, you will have to manually start and stop the autoplay when you’ve had enough.

In terms of symbols, this Middle East-themed slot boasts lots of familiar icons from the Aladdin tale. The scimitar is a traditional Middle Eastern sword and is the lowest payer. It awards 20 to 50 coins if you land three to five of a kind. Slightly better are the pots and bowls (30 to 70 coins) and blue diamonds (40 to 80 coins).

The high-limit payouts are reserved for the camel (50 to 110 coins), the palace (70 to 150 coins), and the magic carpet (80 to 160 coins for three to five of a kind). Of course, the pride of place is reserved for the genie's lamp. This pays a top prize worth 200 coins if you land five of a kind. Finally, look out for the Fez hat. Although the slot makers have slightly mixed up their Arabian cultural references (the Fez is from North Africa), it can help you complete winning symbols as the game's wild.

The range of payouts is fairly high overall, which suggests that the Arabian Nights slot has high volatility. In practice, we found ourselves hitting some nice three-of-a-kind wins to earn at least 20x our line bet. That's a pretty decent return, even at the low stakes.

The blue genie scatter symbols are responsible for triggering the slot's bonus game. Three genies anywhere on the reels will activate a cool prize wheel feature. Hit the spin button and the prize wheel will rotate, coming to a stop on a cash prize. Real cash prizes range from 0 to 1000.00. We managed to trigger the feature a few times, but we only won prizes in the region of 20.00 to 30.00.

If you prefer real money online slots with free spins bonuses, you're in luck. Three free spins scatters on the reels in any position will trigger the feature. We only managed to win four free spins, which is a bit mean. However, the feature does seem to activate fairly regularly, making it one of the best bonus features we have found in terms of volatility.

If you are a fan of genies, treasure, and magic carpets, there are plenty of alternative Arabian slots to seek out at online casinos. Let's keep things simple and focus on a slot that shares the Arabian Nights name. NetEnt's popular Arabian Nights jackpot slot is a great game to play for real money. The game only has 10 paylines, but it boasts a progressive jackpot that can be triggered by landing five genie wilds on an active win line. As well as the wild jackpot, Arabian Nights has a special scatter that can trigger 15 free spins if you land three anywhere on the screen.

Speaking of proprietary games, 888's Millionaire Genie is one of the best examples of what can happen when software developers do their own thing. Developed through its own Random Logic software department, Millionaire Genie is a 15-payline slot with lovely graphics and a free spins bonus. The slot features wilds and sticky wilds, but the biggest attraction is the Genie's Palace bonus game. Players are granted two wishes by the genie – a multiplier and a real cash prize. A massive progressive jackpot can be awarded at random during this bonus, and it often reaches 1,000,000.00.

As proprietary games go, Arabian Nights is one of the best ones we have found. It's certainly high on variance, but the flat payout structure will appeal to a lot of gamblers. Despite only having four free spins to win in the bonus feature, the game triggered fairly regularly for us.

You can find some good proprietary slots and games at safe online casinos. In terms of "home-made" slots, Arabian Nights is one of the better titles around. Take a trip to the historical Middle East and give the slot a try. If you are bored of the big bonus payouts of NetEnt's rival Arabian Nights slot, then this could be the game for you.