What are free slots in Canada?
When you load an online slot game, you might notice there are usually two ways to play it:
- You decide on your $ play amount before spinning the reels
- You play for free in demo mode using virtual tokens
You’ll usually be offered freeplay in a demo or practice version of the game. It works just the same as the real thing. The only difference is you will play with demo tokens rather than ‘real’ money. This also means you can’t win any cash, although you can win more demo tokens to help you extend your playing time.
Plenty of online casinos in Canada offer players the chance to try some slots for free. In this guide, we’ll provide you with everything you need to know about playing free slots in Canada, and give you some good reasons for doing so.
How can you access free versions of an online slot?
When you visit an online casino, you’ll normally get the option to choose from real or practice play. Just choose the practice option and you’ll load the game with a set quantity of demo tokens ready to use. You might also see a message on screen confirming that you are in practice mode. That’s it! You can then get underway with a few spins to see what you think of that particular game.
Can you play slots legally in Canada?
There’s no easy answer to this, as it depends on where you live. There are no countrywide rules or regulations pertaining to online gambling. Instead, there are 10 provinces, along with three territories, and you’ll notice that each has its own stance on whether you can play at online casinos, or not. Ontario leads the field by welcoming land-based and online casinos.
Although some Canadian residents choose to use offshore casinos, this isn’t recommended as they aren’t covered by any Canadian laws. The best thing to do is to take a look around the banners of this page. They contain geolocation software, which means that you’ll only see online casino brands that are available in your current location. All of the brands we recommend have hundreds – sometimes thousands – of slot games to play. With that in mind, let’s move on and see what else you should know about free slot games.
Why play free online slots in Canada?
You might wonder why you should play free slots when you could just start with the real thing. We’ve brought together a few of the best reasons to consider.
🎲 You Can Play Without Risk
Some players want entertainment rather than having the chance of winning cash. If you like the fun of slot games without wanting to spend money on them, you should seek out free slots for this purpose.
⏳ They’re Ideal to Pass the Time
When we think of slot games, we tend to think about casinos, with people sitting in front of machines. However, that’s not your only option nowadays. You can access hundreds of slots online for free, enjoy playing them and pass a few spare moments when you need something to do – or a distraction ahead of an appointment.
🎰 You Can Try a Slot Before Playing Any Real Spins
This is one of the main reasons we play free slots in Canada. It’s particularly useful when we find a new slot release, as we can try it to see what it’s really like before we think about using our own cash. Think of it as ‘try before you buy’ if you will.
Four types of free slots you might see in Canada
There are lots of ways you can categorize slot games. You’ll notice a few different formats to choose from, for example. While you won’t win any money when playing for free, you can see how they work. It should help you decide what types of slot games you’d like to play in the future.
3-reel slots
These often have a single payline, so they only require a small amount of demo tokens to play each spin. However, some have a 3 x 3 format that allows for extra paylines with 27 ways to win, which cover all the possible ways you could land a winning line on that format.
We’ve found plenty of
3-reel slots
with classic fruit themes to replicate the earliest fruit machines. You are likely to see bells, bar symbols, and sevens on those reels. More recently, we’ve also come across a few themed three-reel titles revolving around topics as diverse as Thanksgiving and Halloween.
5-reel slots
Five-reel slot games are hugely popular, and you’ll find many offering 10, 20, or even 50 paylines spread across those reels. You’ve got a better chance of finding multiple features included in games of this size. Some five-reel slots have even more ways to win. Here are some examples, showing all possible winning ways across the reel set:
- 243 ways to win for a five-reel, three-row game
- 1,024 winning ways for a five-reel, four-row game
Megaways slots
Megaways are best known for the huge number of ways to win that they feature. In fact, you’ll find up to 117,649 winning ways in some Megaways games. They typically have six reels, and you will usually see between two and seven symbols dropping into place on each reel per spin. This means you get more chances to win per spin, when compared to other slot formats.
Cluster pay slots
Forget about paylines and ways to win here – your task is to find matching blocks of symbols in order to win when playing these games. Some slots ask for five matching symbols, while others require a larger quantity – perhaps eight or more. A lot depends on how big the reels are. You might get a 5 x 5 set or an 8 x 8 set, for example. You can only win when the symbols form clusters horizontally or vertically, not diagonally.
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Key features of Canadian free slots
Innovation is key to producing brilliant slot games. Today, you’ll find everything from
high stakes slots
to penny slots, which are always popular among online casino players. Regardless of the amount you are staking, you’ll see plenty of similarities between them. Here are the main features to look for when comparing games.
A wild symbol can replace most other symbols in a game. It won’t usually replace other special symbols like a bonus symbol or scatter symbol, for example. Some might have multiplier values as well, so if you get a wild in a winning line, you might receive 2x or 3x the typical prize value.
Scatters produce prizes more easily than regular symbols. Usually, you need to line up three or more matching symbols from the leftmost reel across the reels without missing any. However, scatters will deliver a prize wherever they land – and sometimes you only need two. They can also often trigger a bonus round or some free spins.
At their most basic, they provide you with a set number of free spins to play through. However, we have played free spin rounds with a range of different features. For example, some might offer a multiplier for anything you win. Others have progressive rounds of free spins. This means that every trigger reveals a slightly different round of spins to play, perhaps with one or two special features included. We’ve had expanding wilds and giant symbols in some of these.
Bonus rounds tend to reflect the slot theme. For example, you might play a zombie-themed slot where the bonus round takes you through several settings to take out as many zombies as possible. You might alternatively see a pick feature, where you get two or more items and you can choose one to reveal a prize. We’ve had a twist on this too, where we could continue picking items until we revealed a ‘Collect’ message. There’s room for plenty of creativity in this area when you’re looking to play some free slots in Canada.
You won’t be in line for a chance at a jackpot prize if you play free slots, of course. However, you can see how a jackpot slot works, and whether there are enough other elements in the game to make it worth trying for real later. We’ve noticed that fixed and progressive jackpots are most common, but there are a couple of others you might see too.
| Type of jackpot |
How it works |
| Fixed jackpot |
The jackpot remains at the specified amount |
| Progressive jackpot |
A portion of each spin amount goes into the jackpot, which increases in size the more the game is played |
| Local jackpot |
Local jackpots are attached to one slot game, or one casino |
| Network jackpot |
Network jackpots can involve one slot, or a series of games and is available at multiple casinos |
Five recommended free slots in Canada today
Whether you’re looking for
low volatility slot machines
or something with a high RTP percentage, it’s good to know you can try all kinds of slots for free before deciding which titles to play for real. We’ve shared some of our favorites here.
Starburst – 96.1% RTP
Starburst
-
RTP:
96.09
-
Theme:
Gems & Jewels
-
Volatility:
low
This is a classic, and its simplicity has proven a big hit over the years. You can load five reels here and play over 10 lines in this NetEnt slot, but those lines pay in both directions. You only get one special symbol, and that is the Starburst wild. You will spot it on the middle three reels, and when it appears, it expands to fill that reel. You also then receive a respin of the other reels. This means you can get up to three respins if you land three wilds in a row.
Book of Dead – 96.21% RTP
Book of Dead
-
RTP:
96.21
-
Theme:
Mythology
-
Volatility:
high
You can’t fail to come across plenty of book-themed slot games online today. The complete title for this Play’n Go slot is Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead, and you’ll see similar in the sequels to this game as well. You only get 10 lines across this five-reel slot, but your aim is to find the book. You can use it as a combined wild and scatter, and if you get three or more, you’ll be able to play a set of 10 free spins. You‘re given a randomly chosen symbol that will expand whenever it shows up, which gives you a better chance of snagging some prizes whenever it appears. It won’t take you long to understand how it all works in demo mode.
Sweet Bonanza – 96.48% RTP
Sweet Bonanza
-
RTP:
96.48
-
Theme:
Cute & Adorable
-
Volatility:
low
You’ll find this game among hundreds of others created by the team at Pragmatic Play. You’ll have six reels and five rows in play, and in a twist on the usual cluster pays mechanic, you need to find eight or more matching symbols anywhere to get a prize. Four or more scattered lollipops will provide you with free spins to play, where candy bombs appear displaying multipliers. Those can reach up to 100x apiece. Winning spins also trigger a tumble feature, whereby you can multiply any wins by the end of the tumble by the total multipliers shown at that point.
Cleopatra – 95.02% RTP
Cleopatra
-
RTP:
95.02
-
Theme:
Mythology
-
Volatility:
medium
IGT produced this slot about the famous Egyptian ruler – and it remains one of the best of its kind. It’s simple though – expect five reels, 20 lines, and plenty of colorful symbols. You can use Cleopatra’s eyes as a wild symbol, to replace all the basic symbols but not the scattered Pharaoh. Wild wins are worth 2x the usual amounts. Three Pharaoh icons will provide you with 15 free spins, where you can get 3x the usual prize amounts.
Temple Tumble Megaways – 96.25% RTP
Temple Tumble Megaways
-
RTP:
96.25
-
Theme:
Adventure
-
Volatility:
high
You can find this slot in the Relax Gaming collection. Its 6 x 6 reel format provides a maximum of 46,656 Megaways, indicated on the screen with each spin. It comes with multipliers, extra spins, and stone blocks you must destroy to reach a free spin feature. We found the free slot version invaluable here, as the game was more involved than we expected. Watch out for the wild adventurer, who can land on all reels apart from the first one.
Common questions you might ask about free slots in Canada
You can see by now how much fun it is to play free slots, whether you’re just curious about them, or you’ve got some time to spare it’s worth spinning some reels. We’ve noticed two popular questions people tend to ask about slot games, so let’s answer those here.
1. Do all software providers release free versions of their slot games?
Most do, but we’ve found one or two that don’t seem to. For example, you can generally find free versions of Microgaming, NetEnt and Big Time Gaming slots, but you won’t find many demo versions of jackpot slots.
2. Do I need to sign up to a casino to play demo games?
Not always – although you are more likely to need an account before you can access the games at most Canadian online casinos. You should be able to sign up for free though, giving you a chance to play some free
slots with no deposit
required.
Pros and Cons
Pros and Cons
- Ideal for testing a game
- Play with free virtual tokens
- Try out different slots genres
- Common to find demo versions
Seek out some top free slots in Canada today
You can see that plenty of slot games come with free versions, making it easier for you to figure out whether you enjoy playing them or not. With thousands of slots available, it’s sensible to try out as many different genres and varieties, to find out which you prefer before you start playing for real.
You might want to try some of our recommended slot titles, so look around our on-page banners to find recommended online casinos in your part of Canada, then just click on the link to go to your preferred site. You’ll then find it easy to source some free slots in Canada this way, no matter which province or territory you live in.
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Free slots Canada FAQs
🇨🇦 Can I play free slots in Canada?
There are thousands of games available to play, many of which include a free version you can try to test the game first.
🕹️ Where can I play free slots in Canada?
Some casino sites don’t have free demo slots to play, but you can also find online casinos offering free versions of almost all of their slot games. It’s definitely worth checking this out before signing up if it’s a deal-breaker for you.
🌟 What are the best free slot games you can play?
Some of the biggest and most popular slots you can try for free include Starburst and Book of Dead. You can also experiment with many other titles to find some you personally enjoy, too.
