How Cleopatra plays online: lines, bets, the wild and the Sphinx scatter

The online Cleopatra is a 5-reel, 3-row slot with 20 paylines: you choose a line bet and how many lines to play, and line wins pay from the leftmost reel on the lines you have in play. Cleopatra is the wild and doubles any line win she completes. The Sphinx is a scatter that pays on your total bet wherever it lands, and three or more of them start the free spins.

Lines, line bet and total bet

IGT’s rules file for the standard game gives you two controls: the number of paylines played, up to 20, and the bet per line. Your total bet for a spin is the line bet multiplied by the number of lines in play.

As a hypothetical example, a $0.05 line bet across all 20 lines costs $1.00 a spin, and the same line bet on 10 lines costs $0.50. Minimum and maximum bets are set by each casino, so check the bet panel before you start.

How a line win is paid:

• The symbols must sit on a line you are playing, on consecutive reels starting from the far left reel.
• Only the highest win on each line is paid, multiplied by that line’s bet.
• Wins on different lines are added together.

Playing fewer lines lowers the cost of a spin, with three side effects. A winning combination on a line you are not playing pays nothing. Scatter pays shrink too, because they are multiplied by the total bet. And if the free spins trigger, they play the same number of lines as the spin that started them.

The Cleopatra wild

Cleopatra substitutes for every symbol except the Sphinx scatter. When she stands in to complete a line win, that win is doubled.

The doubling happens once per win. IGT’s rule covers one or more wilds substituting in the same win, so two or three Cleopatras on a winning line still make it 2x, not 4x or 8x. A line made only of Cleopatras is its own paytable award rather than a substitution; your casino’s paytable shows its value in currency.

The Sphinx scatter

The Sphinx appears on all five reels and pays anywhere in view, not along a line. Bally Casino’s game page says Sphinx symbols on two or more reels pay a scatter prize, and more Sphinx pay more.

Three rules govern the scatter pay:

• It is multiplied by the total bet, not the line bet.
• Only the highest scatter win on a spin is paid.
• It is added to any line wins from the same spin.

Three or more Sphinx also trigger the Cleopatra Bonus, covered in the Cleopatra Bonus explained.

Award caps in some states

In some jurisdictions IGT’s rules apply an award cap to any single transaction, whatever the bet size. A transaction includes the spin that triggered the bonus and every free spin that follows. If the cap is reached during the bonus, the bonus ends at once, even if free spins remain. Where a cap applies, the paytable shows the amount.

How do MegaJackpots Cleopatra and CAESARS CLEOPATRA differ?

Both keep the 20-line, Sphinx-bonus structure, but the details change.

MegaJackpots Cleopatra fixes the lines at 20 and uses a MegaJackpots symbol that doubles any line win it completes. Five of them on the center payline win the progressive, and a behind-the-scenes Second Chance draw after each spin that misses can award it too. The chance of the jackpot rises in step with your bet. Progressive jackpots on US online slots explains how these prizes are funded.

CAESARS CLEOPATRA was built by IGT for Caesars Palace Online Casino and announced in August 2023. Caesars described it as familiar gameplay with new bonus features and visuals, but IGT’s release does not list those features, so read the game’s help screen before you play it.

Next steps

The free spins are where the tripling happens: see the Cleopatra Bonus step by step. For what the game returns over time, read Cleopatra’s RTP and volatility, and the Cleopatra overview lists every version and the states where it is legal.