Pokie review · Australia
50 Lions is an Aristocrat five-reel, fifty-line pokie from 2007, and the free-play version runs at a published return of 96.79%. That figure sits well above the 87.5% Aristocrat class pokies are often set to in Australian venues, and this page sets out what the rest of the numbers mean.
Figures checked on 16 October 2026
50 Lions offers a solid published return of 96.79% and a gentle medium-low ride, but its 600x ceiling will not satisfy anyone chasing the multiples modern scatter-pays games advertise.
Paid placement. Paid placement. The operator pays for this position; it does not affect anything measured on this page.
Published figures
96.79%
Long-run average across all spins, online versionMedium-Low
How unevenly the return arrives600x
Multiple of the stakeThe short of it
Return to player is a long-run average taken across millions of spins, not a target for your session. The online figure of 96.79% describes the free-play and real-money version of 50 Lions at that setting; the 87.5% figure describes the same game configured for venue play. Over a hundred spins the two can look identical, because the difference only shows up across a very large number of results.
The practical gap is about nine percentage points of turnover, which is a meaningful amount of money over a long sitting. It is not a reason to expect a profit: even at the higher setting, the house keeps the remainder of every dollar staked across the long run. Treat the figure as a cost-of-play estimate, not an edge.
Aristocrat rates 50 Lions as medium-low volatility, with a maximum win of 600x the stake. Two things follow from that pairing. Wins arrive often enough to keep a session moving, and the top prize is small next to modern scatter-pays releases that advertise thousands of times the bet. If you want a huge multiple, this is not the game for it.
The fifty paylines are the other half of the design. Line games pay on left-to-right combinations along marked lines, so the shape of a win depends on which lines you have active; scatter-pays games do not work that way. At a minimum bet of A$0.01, the coverage cost is low, but covering all fifty lines at a larger stake adds up quickly and is worth checking before you press spin.
Every pokie on the shortlist below is a scatter-pays game, which makes the comparison sharper than a return figure alone. Gates of Olympus, Sweet Bonanza and Big Bamboo all carry high volatility and maximum wins in the thousands of times the stake, while 50 Lions caps at 600x and sits at medium-low. Floating Dragon and Starburst are closer on return but still pay on scatters rather than marked lines.
Return figures across the list are bunched within a narrow band, from 96.79% down to 96.08%, so the real differences are volatility, the size of the top prize and how wins are triggered. Read the ranking notes for what each game's published numbers imply about the sort of session it produces, and remember the partner's terms: a 600% first-deposit bonus with 10% daily cashback on losses, a US$20 minimum deposit and a A$5 maximum bet while a bonus is active.
Compared
The shortlist below ranks comparable pokies by their published return, volatility and maximum win, with 50 Lions included for reference.
Gates of Olympus — a lower return than 50 Lions at 96.5%, but high volatility and a 5,000x maximum win for players who want the bigger swing.
Sweet Bonanza — 96.48% return with medium-high volatility and a 21,100x maximum win, the largest ceiling on the list.
Floating Dragon — 96.35% return, high volatility and a 5,000x maximum win across ten lines rather than fifty.
Big Bamboo — 96.13% return on fifty lines like 50 Lions, but high volatility changes the shape of a session completely.
Starburst — the lowest return here at 96.08%, with ten lines and an 800x maximum win that is closer to 50 Lions in scale.
| 1Gates of Olympus | 96.5% | High | 5,000x | Pragmatic Play |
| 2Sweet Bonanza | 96.48% | Medium-High | 21,100x | Pragmatic Play |
| 3Floating Dragon | 96.35% | High | 5,000x | Pragmatic Play |
| 4Big Bamboo | 96.13% | High | — | Push Gaming |
| 5Starburst | 96.08% | — | 800x | NetEnt |
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FAQ
Yes. The free-play version uses the same reels, paylines and published return of 96.79% as the real-money game at that setting. Only the money changes, so free play is a fair way to learn the line structure.
The venue configuration is published at 87.5%, against 96.79% for the online setting. The game is the same; the return setting is not.
No. The published specifications list no jackpot, and the maximum win is 600x the stake. Anything larger would have to come from the base game.
That depends on the partner's terms rather than the game. The terms allow a maximum bet of A$5 while a bonus is active, with a minimum deposit of US$20 and daily cashback of 10% of losses.