How Rakin' Bacon plays online: reels, ways, coin wilds and the pig

The original online Rakin’ Bacon! is a five-reel, three-row slot with 243 ways to win, where coin wilds landing on the reels feed a golden pig that can grow or burst into a jackpot pick game. AGS lists bets from 0.88 to 8.80 a spin, although casinos can set different limits, and its four jackpots are fixed amounts rather than progressive meters. The spin-offs change the grid and the bonus: Odyssey and Sahara expand to six rows in free spins, and Jackpots Bonus Wheel is a three-reel game.

Reels, ways and bets

The grid is three rows by five reels. There are no paylines to choose: every spin plays all 243 ways, and AGS calls its ways system PowerXStream, which counts matching symbols on adjacent reels and multiplies the award by the number of matching symbols on each reel. In practice a win needs the same symbol in any row on neighboring reels, not on one fixed line.

AGS’s operator page lists a bet range of 0.88 to 8.80 per spin. Borgata Online’s rules file for the same game states its bets in credits and denominations instead, which is a reminder that each casino configures the bet menu. Open the bet settings in the game to see your casino’s range.

Coin wilds and the golden pig

The wild symbols are gold coins, and the pig on screen reacts to them. AGS says the coin wilds can make the pig grow fatter or even burst, triggering the Jackpot Pick Bonus, and the rules file adds that this bonus can trigger at random whenever a wild lands in the base game. The pick game always pays one of four jackpots: Grand, Major, Minor or Mini.

AGS lists those jackpots as static, so they are fixed prizes built into the game rather than meters fed by other players’ bets. The Rakin’ Bacon bonus features explains the pick game and the free games step by step, including the choice that lets you set your own volatility.

How Odyssey and Sahara differ

Rakin’ Bacon Odyssey and Rakin’ Bacon Sahara share one rule set in Borgata Online’s help files:

• The base game is the same 3x5 grid with 243 ways, paid left to right from the leftmost reel. Wilds appear on reels 2 to 4.
• Three, four or five Bonus symbols on consecutive reels from the left award 10 free spins plus credits.
• In the free spins, a special symbol landing on a reel expands it to six rows for the rest of the bonus, up to 6x5 and 7,776 ways. Special symbols on an already expanded reel add free spins or wilds instead.
• The Jackpot Pick Bonus may follow any base-game wild; you pick from 12 objects until three jackpot icons match.
• Borgata’s files list a total bet of $0.88 to $132.00, much wider than the original’s range.

How Jackpots Bonus Wheel differs

Jackpots Bonus Wheel, which launched with BetMGM in New Jersey and Michigan in August 2025, is the franchise’s first three-reel game. The rules file describes a 3x3 grid with one to nine lines, Seven and Bar symbols, three kinds of wild (3X, 2X and plain) and these features:

• Multiplying wilds. A 3X Wild triples a non-jackpot win and two pay 9x; a 2X Wild doubles it and two pay 4x; one of each pays 6x.
• Wheel Feature. One or more Gold Coin symbols may trigger a single wheel spin with one to five pointers, one for each Gold Coin on the reels.
• Jackpots. Three of the same wild on an active payline win one of the top three jackpot tiers, and a mixed set of three wilds wins the fourth.

AGS and BetMGM say the online game awards one of four in-game jackpots, while the floor version uses tiered progressives. The rules file lists bets of $0.05 to $25 per line, up to $225 a spin.

For the payback of each version, see Rakin’ Bacon RTP and volatility, or go back to the Rakin’ Bacon overview. Casino floor vs online explains why a floor machine of the same name can work differently.