Life can be wild and unpredictable, but that doesn’t stop humans trying to get some kind of insight into what’s to come. We’ve been searching for ways to see into the future for thousands of years. Just think of the Greeks trekking to the Oracle at Delphi. Fortune telling comes in many forms and whilst we may not be able to speak to the accuracy of tarot cards of crystal balls, we can tell you that they make intriguing, often atmospheric additions to slots. We predict you’ll enjoy reading about all the different takes. Click here to read more.
One Theme, Many Designs
Slots with the same theme tend to have similar imagery, but that doesn’t make them the same kind of slot by any means. The theme doesn’t say anything about the number of reels, or the ways to win. It doesn’t decide if the slot has free spins or multipliers or expanding wilds or any other kind of feature. Even the aspects that are technically the same, such as the recurring presence of crystal balls in fortune telling slots, can be turned into something different through the use of graphics, tone and atmosphere. Is it a bright and humorous slot, or a dark and moody take? The options are limitless.
For fortune telling slots, the recurrent imagery includes the items used for fortune telling, like crystal balls and tarot cards, and the people who tell the fortunes, usually mysterious women with long skirts and lots of jewellery. Settings tend towards the dark and mystical, whether in a forest or a tent. You may also see the symbols of associated themes, like four-leaf clovers and rabbits’ feet for luck, or potions and spell books like you might find in a more broadly magic-themed slot. It’s a world that relies heavily on superstition and the fantastical, with doses of reality few and far between.
Fortune and Fortune Telling Around the World
You can find fortune tellers and symbols of good fortune all over the globe, which means there are lots of different ways to depict them. For instance, Tiki Fortune, a slot developed by JVL, uses the imagery of tiki masks, which have their origins in Polynesian culture. You might think of tiki as an exotic way to decorate a bar, but for the Māori, Tiki was the first man, and representations of him have huge religious significance.
In the case of this slot, the fact it has “fortune” in its name doesn’t necessarily mean it features a fortune teller, or is about predicting the future. It just means that the tiki symbols are meant to represent luck and wealth. When you’re looking for fortune telling slots, it’s important to distinguish between clairvoyance and the kind of good luck that earns you a fortune. This is the sort of fortune that you often see referenced in Asian-themed slots.
Gaze into the Ball
If we’re talking about the most typical depictions of fortune telling, then the crystal ball must be one of the most common features. An obvious example is Magic Ball from 3 Oaks. It’s right there in the name, and in those titular crystal balls with their swirling animations. Not only does this slot have an enigmatic woman in a headscarf offering to tell your fortune, it’s full of mystical imagery like bottles of mysterious elixir, the ancient Celtic symbol known as the triquetra (a representation of unity used in some forms of paganism as an emblem of the Triple Goddess) and the kind of wise old owl who often overlooks these kinds of settings.
Magic Ball probably isn’t the most original take on fortune telling, or magic more generally, and it only has 10 paylines, but the free spins come with expanding symbols to give your game a bit of an extra boost.
By the Light of the Moon
Fortune telling tends to be a lot more atmospheric when it takes place at night, especially under the ethereal glow of the moon. It’s one of the sky’s more mystical figures, steeped in folklore. Plus the typical crystal ball associated with fortune telling looks a little like the moon with its silvery colour and orblike shape. That means the design of Lucky Lady Moon Megaways isn’t really a surprise. From the title to the promotion image to the game itself, BGaming is playing with many of the most familiar, and popular, aspects of fortune telling.
Lucky Lady Moon Megaways is one of those slots that counts its ways to win in the hundreds of thousands (200,704, to be precise) and that has the always welcome feature combination of free spins with multipliers. It also takes place in a mystical purple world with drifting sparks of light, where the symbols include such lucky and valuable symbols as four-leaf clovers, ladybirds, gold coins and diamonds.
Avoiding Stereotypes
One worry some people may have when it comes to slots that feature fortune telling is the potential for stereotypes, some of them harmful. In the real world, fortune telling is often associated with travellers, particularly the Romani, a population that often faces discrimination and persecution. It is possible to design fortune telling slots that don’t play into stereotypes, or subverts them in interesting ways, but it is something to be aware of when exploring this kind of slot.
A title that may make you wary about potential stereotypes and insensitivity is Madame Voodoo, which comes to us from the appropriately named Wizard Games. Voodoo in reality is a collection of beliefs found in different forms through the Caribbean, Latin America and parts of the USA: a blend of traditional West African spirituality with Western religions like Christianity and some aspects of indigenous practice. Voodoo in fiction is devil worship, animal sacrifice and the setting of a horror movie.
Madame Voodoo is unusual in format, played on a 5x5 layout and with 3,125 ways to win, but it’s probably not going to bring better understanding of Voodoo as a real religion. We’re in a dark and eerie swamp, perhaps in Louisiana, and the imagery is full of candles, skulls and creepy dolls just waiting to be stabbed with a needle. It’s vivid and atmospheric, and the voodoo doll can transform and travel across the reels during free spins for a most thematically appropriate feature. Whether the titular Madame Voodoo, with her magic and her fortune telling, can be considered more than a stereotype, is another matter.