What happens when you spin Starburst
Two things make this game behave differently from an ordinary line-pays pokie. Combinations count from either end of the reel set, so a run of matching symbols starting on the right pays exactly like one starting on the left. And the only special symbol is a wild, which cannot appear on the outside reels.
When that wild lands it expands to cover its entire reel, stays frozen there, and the game awards a re-spin with the rest of the reels moving around it. If another wild arrives on the re-spin, it expands and locks too, and you get another one. The chain runs on while new wilds keep landing and stops the moment one does not. Every win that forms during the chain pays, from both directions, with the locked reels counted in.
There is no scatter to collect, no bonus wheel, no ante and nothing to buy. The whole design is wild, lock, re-spin, repeat. That is why sessions feel busy rather than tense: small wins land often because a combination can start from either side, and a chain resolves in seconds instead of in a separate round you wait a long time to reach.
Australian search traffic for this title still uses the overseas word "slot", which is why you will see it written that way almost everywhere. On a pub floor and on this site the machine is a pokie. The game is identical either way.
| Studio | NetEnt |
|---|---|
| Type | Pays from both ends of the reel set. No free spins round, no progressive jackpot |
| The one feature | Expanding wild, locked in place for a re-spin, chained while new wilds land |
| Published return | Not printed on this page. The build in the lobby you open carries its own figure in the information panel, and builds differ |
| Volatility | The structure pays small and often rather than rarely and large. No studio rating is quoted here |
| Stake range | In the paytable of your build, per spin, from the smallest bet it allows to the largest |
| Bonus free spins | Welcome spins are tied to named titles. Offers in the table below name Collapsed Castle, 3 Royal Coins and Lucky Streak 1000, not this one |
Compare the casinos and their bonus terms
Bonus size, wagering multiple, minimum deposit and payout terms, with the operator's full published conditions under every row.
Bonus terms
Offer placeholder. Bonus amount, wagering, minimum deposit and eligibility are to be confirmed with the operator before publishing. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 125% bonus up to €1,000 + 100 free spins | 40x wagering on bonus & free-spin winnings | Bonus valid 7 days | Free spins credited over 4 days | First deposit only | T&Cs apply.
Bonus terms
18+ | New customers only | Bonus code BLISS | Min. deposit €20 | 120% bonus up to €500 + 125 free spins | 40x wagering within 14 days | T&Cs apply.
- #4
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 1st dep: 100% up to €500 + 100 FS | 2nd dep: 75% up to €2,000 + 75 FS | 3rd dep: 50% up to €2,000 + 75 FS | 4th dep: 25% up to €3,500 + 50 FS | 5th dep: 50% up to €2,000 + 100 FS | 40x-50x wagering on bonus & FS winnings | Bonus and free spins valid 3 days | Max withdrawal 5x deposit | First 5 deposits only | T&Cs apply.
- #5
Bonus terms
New customers only | Min. deposit €20 | 100% bonus on the first deposit up to €600 + 125 free spins (25 free spins daily over 5 days) | Wager the bonus within 7 days | T&Cs apply | 18+ | Gambling can be addictive.
- #6
Bonus terms
Welcome bonus 280% up to €3,200 + 800 free spins. Bonus winnings are subject to wagering and are capped at €500. The bonus expires after 5 days if the wagering is not met. One bonus per person. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
- #7
Bonus terms
New customers only | Min. deposit €250 | Deposit bonus 100% up to €5,000 + 100 free spins on Collapsed Castle (€0.20 per spin) | Free spins credited in 2 packs of 50 every 24 hours | Bonus wagering x25 (free-spin winnings x25) | Wagering to be met within 14 days | Bonus can be reactivated after 7 days | Bonus is not withdrawable until fully wagered | Bonus T&Cs apply.
- #8
Bonus terms
18+ | New users | Welcome pack across 3 deposits: 100%/80%/60% bonus, up to €2,500 in total + 300 free spins | Min. deposit €20 | 45x wagering | Max bonus bet €5 | Activate within 48 hours, valid 5 days | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #9
Bonus terms
18+ | New customers only | 100% deposit bonus up to €200 | Min. deposit €20 | 40x wagering | Max bet €5 | Bonus valid 10 days | Max withdrawal 10x the bonus amount | T&Cs apply | Gambling can be addictive.
- #10
Bonus terms
18+ | New players | Min. first deposit €20 (CAD/AUD: 15) | Bonus code FIRST | 100% bonus up to €1,000 + 100 free spins | 40x wagering on bonus & free-spin winnings | Max bonus withdrawal equals the bonus amount received | Max bet €5 while wagering | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #11
Bonus terms
Welcome bonus: 100% up to €1,250 on the first deposit (min. €20). The bonus must be wagered 30x with real money and is valid for 14 days. One redemption per player. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
- #12
Bonus terms
18+ | All deposits | Min. deposit €50 | Privilege Wheel: up to €700 bonus or 50 free spins on 3 Royal Coins / Lucky Streak 1000 | 30x wagering | Max withdrawal from free spins €300 | The prize must be activated with a min. €50 deposit | T&Cs apply | BeGambleAware.org
- #13
Bonus terms
Min. deposit €20 | 1st dep: 100% up to €1,000 + 200 FS | 2nd dep: 100% up to €200 + 50 FS | 35x wagering on deposit & bonus | 40x wagering on free-spin winnings | Bonus must be activated within 7 days | Wagering to be met within 10 days | Max withdrawal 6x the bonus amount | First 2 deposits only | T&Cs apply.
- #14
Bonus terms
Welcome package: 100% bonus up to €10,000 + 500 free spins, min. deposit €20. Bonus funds and deposits must be wagered 3x before a withdrawal is possible. Check whether your country is accepted before depositing. Full terms apply. 18+. Play responsibly.
- #15
Bonus terms
18+. New customers only. The casino welcome bonus of 100% up to €500 + 50 free spins applies on a successful first deposit after the bonus code is entered. Before any withdrawal a 5x wagering of the deposit is required, counting only sports bets at minimum odds 1.6 and casino bets without minimal or zero risk. Withdrawal limits and further bonus conditions apply under the general terms. 18+. T&Cs apply. Play responsibly.
Why Starburst gets used for clearing wagering, and what that costs
A game that pays small amounts often is the obvious tool for turning over a bonus, because the balance drains slowly rather than in jumps. The trap is the arithmetic of the turnover itself. Take a 40x requirement on a bonus of 200, which is a set of conditions that appears more than once in the table above. That is A$8,000 of turnover to clear, and the stake you choose decides whether it is even possible inside the bonus window.
| Stake per spin | Spins needed | What that means inside a bonus window |
|---|---|---|
| A$0.20 | 40,000 | Out of reach. Bonus windows across the rows above run from 3 to 14 days |
| A$1 | 8,000 | Long but feasible where the window is 14 days and the game counts in full |
| A$5 | 1,600 | Fastest, and level with the maximum-bet cap two offers state. One spin over the cap can void the bonus |
So the stake is a squeeze between two clauses: too small and the turnover cannot be finished before the bonus expires, too large and you breach the cap. Whether spins on this title count toward the turnover at all is set by the game list inside the bonus terms, not by the game. How wagering is calculated shows the same sum for other multiples, and the offers themselves are lined up on the welcome bonus page.
What the published RTP for Starburst tells you and what it does not
Return to player is the share of all stakes a build is designed to return over an enormous number of rounds. At A$1 a spin, 1,000 spins is $1,000 of turnover, and one percentage point of difference between two builds is $10 of modelled cost across it. That is the entire practical content of the number: a comparison of cost per unit of turnover, not a forecast for your session.
NetEnt supplies titles to operators in more than one configuration, which is why no percentage for this game appears here. The symbols, the re-spin and the sound are identical across builds; the figure in the information panel is not. Read it in the lobby you are about to play in, and treat every number quoted elsewhere, including long-standing ones repeated on review sites, as unverified until you have. The arithmetic is set out on what RTP means, and the same problem applied to whole casinos is on the highest RTP pokies page.
- Load the game in the lobby you intend to play in, in demo mode if it is offered.
- Open the
i, rules or paytable panel from the game's own toolbar, not the casino help centre. - Note the return percentage and the minimum and maximum bet per spin. Both belong to the build.
- If bonus money is in play, check the maximum bet while wagering in the operator's terms before you set the stake.
How a Starburst session actually runs
Expect frequent small returns and very few large ones. Most re-spin chains stop after the first wild, which pays something modest and moves on. The memorable sessions are the ones where two or three wilds lock across the middle reels at once with a high symbol filling the gaps, and those are rare by design. Nothing in the pattern of the last hundred spins makes the next chain more likely, which is covered in how pokies work.
Put A$40 through at $0.20 a spin and it is 200 spins, enough for the shape of the game to show itself. The same $40 at $2 a spin is 20 spins, which is not a session, it is a coin toss with extra steps. Neither stake changes the modelled cost of the turnover, but only one of them lets a game this frequent behave the way it is built to.
What works
- Frequent small wins, because combinations count from both ends of the reel set.
- Nothing to learn beyond the wild: no feature list, no side bet, no buy-in.
- A short chain resolves in seconds, so a session can be stopped at any point without leaving a feature half-finished.
- One of the plainest games to read in a lobby: the paytable, the stake range and the return are all on one panel.
What to watch
- A low ceiling on a single spin, since there is no jackpot and no multiplier round.
- Frequent small wins make a long losing stretch feel like a malfunction when it is ordinary variance.
- The published return differs between builds, so a figure you have seen for years may not be yours.
- Its reputation as a wagering game is useless if the bonus terms rate it below full contribution.
Where Australians play Starburst, and what the law says
No operator in the table holds an Australian online-casino licence, because that licence does not exist for online pokies. The Interactive Gambling Act 2001 prohibits the supply of online casino games to a person physically in Australia without one, and it is written at the businesses doing the supplying. There is no provision in it making an offence of placing the bet. A 2017 amendment strengthened enforcement and gave the communications regulator a complaints process and the power to have non-compliant services blocked. The legal page goes through it properly.
According to an industry market brief on the Australian market, about 73% of gambling transactions here run on cards, roughly 50% debit and 23% credit, and about 40% of payments are made on a phone. Deposits favour Visa and Mastercard, withdrawals favour bank transfer, so money goes in faster than it comes out no matter which game you played.
Other titles are reviewed on their own pages: Book of Dead, Megaways pokies and Big Bass Bonanza. The pokies section holds the full list, and if this is your first online session, pokies for beginners is the shorter way in.
Set the stake before the first spin, not after
Open the paytable, read the return and the bet range, then pick a stake you can repeat a few hundred times. That single decision shapes the whole session.
Open the table