Specs

Symbols & Paytable

Pragmatic Play keeps the base-game paytable bare here. The roster below is the symbol set confirmed across the producer page and reviews. The only published line figure is the top regular symbol at 1.25× for five of a kind. That tells the story: almost none of the money lives in the base reels.

Game rules

Base game

There are 50 fixed paylines paying left to right from the leftmost reel, three or more of a kind. The work here is collection, not winning. Each spin drops blue, pink and green scatters into three crystal-ball pots above the reels, and those pots feed the feature.

• 5 reels by 4 rows, 50 fixed paylines, 3+ of a kind from the leftmost reel.
• Three coloured scatters (blue / pink / green) are collected into three matching crystal-ball pots above the grid each spin.
• Landing scatters can randomly fire the Ghost Respin; landing 4 or more scatters in one spin guarantees the trigger.
• The scatter colours present at trigger decide which modifiers run in the respin: one, two, or all three at once.
• No wilds, no multipliers and no free-spins layer sit in the base game; it exists to fund the respin.

Ghost Respin

This is the whole pokie. It is a hold-and-win round: you start with three respins on the base 5×4 grid, and only sticky money symbols, or blanks, can land. Every fresh money symbol locks in place and resets the counter to three, so the round stays alive while cash keeps dropping.

• Starts with 3 respins on the 5×4 grid; only money symbols and blank cells land.
• Each money symbol that lands sticks in place and resets the respin counter back to 3.
• The round ends when a respin lands with no new money symbol.
• The grid expands one row at a time as you collect 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 money symbols, growing from 5×4 up to a maximum 5×8.
• At the end, the total of all money symbol values is paid out.

Modifiers

The scatter colours that kick off the round decide which of the three modifiers get a run, and yes, they stack. Pull all three pots and they can all fire together. That is the real difference between a plain collection and a round that actually gets moving.

• Upgrade (blue): randomly drops 2×2, 3×3 or 4×4 zones onto the grid, lifting the value of any money symbol that lands inside them.
• Mystery (pink): gives pink money symbols a fixed random value, with prizes reaching up to 5,750× bet.
• Extra (green): throws more money symbols into empty grid spots during the respins.

Ante Bet

The Ante Bet is the patience tax, honestly: pay more per spin and the feature shows up sooner. It does not alter the certified RTP tier the operator is running. It simply buys more frequency.

• 5× stake lets any 3 scatters trigger the Ghost Respin.
• 25× stake lets any 2 scatters trigger it.
• Both push feature frequency higher, mind you, but they cost more per spin and lift the effective top bet to roughly A$12,000.

Bonus buy

The Triple Ghost Respin buy skips the slow base game and sends you straight into a respin round with all three modifiers active at once. It is the most expensive button on the game, and honestly, it can chew through a short session fast.

• 300× total bet buys an instant Ghost Respin with Upgrade, Mystery and Extra all running.
• Available in AU facing offshore casinos; commonly blocked in the UK and restricted in select jurisdictions. Many AU facing casinos also lock the buy while a deposit bonus or wagering requirement is active.

Max-win cap

• 40,000× total bet, paid from the Ghost Respin once all money-symbol values are tallied.
• A single money symbol is capped at 1,250× bet; a Mystery-modifier prize is capped at 5,750× bet. Neither is the game ceiling; the round total is capped at 40,000×.
• The full 40,000× hit works out at roughly 1 in 24,146,808 spins, based on the published math model rather than an observed sample.

Screenshots

The 5×4 base grid mid-pay, with a winning professor line highlighted and the pink collector pot lit above the reels.

Three glowing money symbols land across the reels at once, each carrying a cash value, the fuel for the Ghost Respin hold-and-win collector.

A larger base-game payout, with a money symbol and sticky mystery columns on the reels and ghosts filling all three pots.

These frames are from the base game, where the three collection pots fill and the sticky money symbols land. The Ghost Respin runs at very-high volatility and did not trigger organically during capture, so the expanded 5×8 round is not pictured. The shots above show the collector loop that feeds it. Slot mechanics and symbol set are documented in the Game rules section above; spec parameters in the table at the top.

RTP versions

Pragmatic ships this pokie in three certified RTP tiers, and the operator picks which one they integrate. On AU-facing offshore casinos, that often means the lowest one available.

The slot only landed on 2026-04-23, so no per-operator RTP-version mapping has surfaced yet. Straight up, treat the tier as unknown until your casino states it. The single biggest AU-specific factor is simple: AU-facing offshore casinos frequently run the 94.5% version, and you only learn which one by opening the in-game info panel before you spin.

Mechanic deep-dive

The base game feels dead because it is meant to. Reviewers compare the restraint to Hacksaw and Push Gaming rather than Pragmatic’s own Sweet Bonanza tumble formula, and the maths backs that read: an estimated 80 to 90% of the total return lives inside the Ghost Respin, leaving only a thin 10 to 20% in the base reels.

• Roughly 80-90% of the 96.5% return is locked inside the Ghost Respin; the base game funds entries rather than paying them.
• The natural feature trigger sits at about 1 in 80.83 base spins without the Ante, so a punter can sit through a long dry stretch between rounds.
• A player who bails before triggering a respin is, honestly, banking a base-game-only return of roughly 10-20%; the dead base game is the design here, not some mistake.
• The any-win hit rate of 35.97% looks decent on paper, mind you, but it means little alone because most of those hits are tiny sub-stake line pays.

Volatility distribution

The in-game meter shows 4 of 5 bolts, sure, but once the bonus weight is factored in, the real-world feel lands right up at the very-high end.

• Base hits land often, about 1 in 2.78 spins, but well, they are usually below stake and barely move the bankroll.
• The 40,000× cap and the respin payout spread make this a proper boom-or-bust round. Long flat stretches get smashed apart by rare heavy feature pays.
• The full cap at roughly 1 in 24.1M spins is lottery-tier, honestly. Building a session around landing it is the classic high-vol mistake.
• No large-sample community variance data exists yet, so to be fair, treat the band above as pulled from the spec rather than crowd-sampled results.

Game series

Great Ghosts sits at the high-cap, high-brutality end of the money-collector category. Its closest rivals swap that 40,000× ceiling for an easier ride and a smaller bankroll hit.

FAQ

Q: What is the RTP of Great Ghosts?
A: Short answer, it’s 96.5% on the default tier. Pragmatic also ships 95.5% and 94.5% versions. AU-facing offshore casinos often run the lowest 94.5% one, so check the in-game info panel before throwing in real money.

Q: Why is the base game so dry?
A: Straight up, it’s built that way. Roughly 80 to 90% of the return sits inside the Ghost Respin, so the base reels mainly keep the bonus entries ticking over. A punter who bails early bricks the round and banks only the 10 to 20% base return.

Q: How does the Ghost Respin work?
A: It’s a hold-and-win round. You get 3 respins, only sticky money symbols land, and each new one resets the counter to 3. Collect 8 / 12 / 16 / 20 symbols and the grid expands up to 5×8 before the values are paid out.

Q: Is the 300× Triple Ghost buy worth it?
A: It depends on your bankroll, of course. It hands you all three modifiers instantly, but 300× is a hefty buy and one hit can cook a short session at high stake. The certified buy RTP isn’t published.

Q: Can Australians play Great Ghosts?
A: Yep, AU punters can play it through offshore-licensed casinos that take Australian players. Mind you, Pragmatic Play isn’t licensed under the IGA 2001, so real-money online pokies for AU residents still sit in a grey zone. The free demo runs smoothly under AUD and, honestly, there’s no geo-block getting in the way.

Last updated: 30 Jun 2026
Reviewed by Mark Henderson, Senior Slots Analyst

Demo embed · played in fun-money mode. No real-money play here.