About a week ago I was talking to a casino-playing friend of mine about slots. It was just a typical discussion – are they fair, considering they require no skill; should there be skill involved (bringing up the legislation that passed earlier this year which would allow arcade games to be implemented into slots); are 25 line slots better than 40 line ones, etc. As I said, just the standard discussion that almost everyone has when talking about online slots. Eventually, we moved onto talking about the best online slots, and, among the standard ones you’d typically hear of such as “South Park”, “Gonzo’s Quest” and the Marvel slots, she also mentioned “Millionaire Genie”, which I happened to find kind of odd. I mean, entire articles have been written about Marvel slots, their progressive jackpots and all that, but I’ve never encountered anything about “Millionaire Genie”, which I never considered weird, considering that it’s a slot exclusive to just one casino, and as such wouldn’t get as much exposure. Half-curious, I spoke to another friend of mine, directly asking about his top 5 slots, and once again, “Millionaire Genie” was right there. And then it popped again. And a fourth time. By the time I asked a fifth friend, I already knew what the answer would be. And yes, I do know a lot of people who play online casino. Is that weird? It’s probably a little weird.

Very curious about this, I decided to start doing my research, looking up a lot of “Millionaire Genie” reviews like this one and just trying to solve the mystery of the Genie. For all intents and purposes, it’s a very, very standard slot. It doesn’t have any licensed characters, or minigames that make it any more fun to play than other slots, hell, even its progressive jackpot isn’t that big (at the moment it’s just over £1 million, but I’ve seen it fall as low as half a million). And yet it kept popping up online among the best online slots there are. List after list put it in their top 5 or top 10 despite how utterly unremarkable I found it. What was going on here? Were my standards just too high? Or maybe I was just looking at this whole situation from a wrong angle? I have to admit – this question did keep me awake one evening, which might indicate that I probably don’t have any real problems to worry about. And then, all of a sudden, I got it while being in the place where all the greatest ideas humanity has known were born – on the loo.

They say that anything, and anyone, can look good with the proper marketing. While “Millionaire Genie” is a perfectly adequate slot in its own right, it was elevated to “Top 5” status purely by the way in which it is presented. Let’s take a look at the evidence, shall we? First of all, it’s important to note that while “Millionaire Genie” is, indeed, exclusive to a certain casino, that casino is 888, one of the biggest online casinos in the UK that give even industry giants such as William Hill a run for their money. And not only that – it is THE 888 slot, the one that always appears on the first page of its “Slots” menu, with its lucrative jackpot immediately catching the eye of any new gamblers stumbling upon the site for the first time. Not only that – the Genie himself is at the forefront of all slot-related images on the site, with his blue face grazing both the image representing slots on the main menu and the main picture that greets you inside said menu. He’s immediately recognizable as a character, subtly (but not too subtly) directing slot fans towards his own game.

But it goes even deeper than that – it’s not just visual cues that direct new gamblers towards the “Millionaire Genie” slot. What if I told you that something as essential as the “welcome bonus” system was designed not only to give new gamblers a chance to try out the slots, but also to specifically guide them towards the Genie? When you sign up and make your first deposit at 888, you get an £88 bonus as well as a 100% match on the deposit, which, on average, should give you roughly £150 of spending money for your first casino endeavour. But you most likely won’t be able to make any money off their bonus amount, as the full amount needs to be wagered at least 30 times (40 if you deposited through Neteller) before you’re able to withdraw your winnings… And let’s be honest, there’s a 99% chance that you won’t have anything of the bonus left long before you even come close to 30 wagers. As such, the bonus amount is just for fun, to allow you to try out the various games of the casino before you decide to deposit for real. However, there is one way in which you can make a big buck just through your bonus, and that is if you hit the jackpot, in which case you get to keep all of it. This fact isn’t hidden from you at all, and there’s a good reason for that – to direct gamblers straight towards “Millionaire Genie”, which might not necessarily be the slot with the highest jackpot on the site (though it often is), but is most definitely the most high-profile one, and the one most newcomers who want to get rich quickly would go to.

888 is already and extremely popular site, and thanks to its clever design which subtly directs you towards this one, particular slot more than the others, “Millionaire Genie” became one of the most popular slots out there despite being rather average in objective quality. For a lot of people this was their first online slot, and your first everything always stays with you. 888 knew that, and as such they selected this one particular slot and became determined to make it your first, gently nudging it towards the top spot alongside all other classic favourites. You might call that “manipulation”, but I wouldn’t go that far. As I said, it’s just some very, very clever design, and, as the charts prove, it turned out to be a resounding success!