Joker Expand 40 Lines: Wild Expansion, Scatter Pays and Alternatives

Joker Expand 40 Lines uses conditional expanding Jokers on its central reels and two separate cash-paying scatters. Forty fixed lines run across a five-by-four grid. This guide explains how a full wild reel can contribute to several lines, compares the five-line original and separates expansion from stacked symbols and sticky-wild respins. The wider archive includes 40 Joker Staxx, Joker Pro, Joker Jester.

Joker Expand 40 Lines casinos

Play Joker Expand 40 Lines slot game at these top casinos.

Reviewed by Paul Stone
Published: December 2023
Updated: 16 July 2026

How Joker Expand 40 Lines plays

The original paytable puts the expanding Joker on reels two, three and four. It substitutes for ordinary symbols, but not either scatter. It fills the reel if doing so forms a winning combination. That is a condition attached to the expansion, rather than a promise that every Joker will produce a prize. The forty-line game keeps its five-by-four grid for normal play; it does not award a separate free-spin round from the star symbols.

The ordinary symbols are red sevens, watermelons, grapes, pears, plums, lemons, cherries and oranges. The red seven has awards from two matching symbols, whereas the fruit awards begin at three. A gold-coloured star symbol and a Diamond Star have separate scatter pay scales. They are cash-paying symbols, not interchangeable wilds or two halves of one bonus trigger. The joker-themed slots catalogue groups related artwork, while the comparisons below separate expansion, stacks and bonus rounds.

What changes when the Joker expands?

Expansion changes the positions occupied by a wild on the current result. Picture a paying route with matching fruit on the first and third reels, but a Joker on the second reel in a different row. Filling that second reel can bring the wild onto the route and connect the symbols. This is an illustration of substitution, not a prediction of an upcoming spin or an additional prize outside the paytable.

The four rows are positions that a line can pass through. They do not turn forty paylines into every possible route across the grid. A full wild reel can contribute to more than one paying line, but the matching symbols on the other reels still matter. Three expanded central reels do not automatically make all forty lines winners.

An expanding wild also differs from a sticky wild. Expansion describes how much space it covers; sticky describes how long it stays. Joker Pro explicitly holds symbols during respins, as explained below. That rule should not be carried across to Joker Expand simply because both games use a Joker.

Gold and Diamond scatters compared

The operator game description places the gold-coloured star symbol on any reel and the Diamond Star only on reels one, three and five. The original paytable shows Gold awards for three, four or five symbols and a Diamond award for three. The Joker cannot replace a missing star of either type.

The Diamond award is not always larger than the Gold award. In the pictured paytable, three Diamonds pay the same amount as four gold-coloured star symbols, while five gold-coloured star symbols pay five times that amount. Counting the symbols and identifying their type therefore matters. Two Diamonds plus a gold-coloured star symbol are not three matching Diamonds, and the stars do not have to follow a numbered payline to pay.

A cash award in a screenshot needs its selected stake before conversion to a total-stake multiple. Dividing a hypothetical £28 prize by a £2 total stake would give 14x, while the same £28 at a £1 stake would be 28x. This is unit arithmetic, not a claim about the missing stake in the paytable picture. The displayed 140.00 award therefore does not establish either a 140x maximum or the overall transaction cap.

Forty paylines are defined paths

The five-by-four grid has twenty visible squares. Forty paylines are forty routes crossing those squares, not forty independent screens or every possible row combination. At an illustrative £2 total stake across all forty routes, each line carries 5p. A hypothetical twenty-times-line-bet award would be £1, or half the total stake.

The red seven can pay from two matching symbols, whereas the ordinary fruit entries begin at three. Identify the symbol’s minimum count and the route before counting a visible group as a win. The expanded Joker changes coverage on a reel; it does not remove those requirements.

One expansion can help different routes

Imagine cherries on reels one and three completing a defined route through row two of reel two, while the Joker has landed in row four of that middle reel. When expansion completes the qualifying combination, filling reel two supplies a wild in row two as well. The position changed by expansion is the missing link in this example.

Another route can use a different row of that full wild reel, but still needs qualifying symbols on its other reels. A full central wild reel does not establish a paying combination on all forty routes. Conditional expansion and retained respins are separate rules: Joker Expand changes the current result, while Joker Pro keeps collected wilds across a continuing sequence.

Two star types use different counting rules

The original paytable’s Gold Scatter has awards for three, four and five symbols. Diamond Scatter appears only on reels one, three and five and pays for three. A pair of Diamonds plus one Gold symbol is not a matching three-Diamond group, and the Joker cannot stand in for either scatter.

The captured paytable displays 4.20 for three Gold symbols, 28.00 for four and 140.00 for five, with 28.00 for three Diamonds. These are that screen’s displayed amounts, not universal total-stake multipliers. Five Gold symbols pay five times its three-Diamond amount in the picture. Without the selected stake, that ratio is clearer than assigning a made-up cash-to-bet multiple.

Compare the original, Staxx and respin rules

The five-line Joker Expand reduces the display to three rows and five paying paths while preserving its conditional central-reel expansion. Keeping the same total stake in a five-line and forty-line illustration would allocate eight times as much to each individual line in the five-line game. That arithmetic does not establish that the outcome or paytable probability is the same.

40 Joker Staxx keeps the larger format but arrives at repeated Joker coverage through stacks. Joker Pro instead converts its feature scatters to held wilds and uses its own respin stopping rule. Joker Jester introduces interactive choices. Select the rule you want to retain, coverage, persistence or picking, before using the familiar face as your comparison.

The original forty-line paytable identifies both scatters and the conditional wild. The comparison picture below shows 40 Joker Staxx, whose stacks arrive as groups rather than through the original’s conditional expansion.

Games like Joker Expand 40 Lines

These four alternatives each change a specific part of the game: Joker Jester adds interactive bonus choices, the five-line Joker Expand reduces the grid and line count, Joker Pro holds wilds during respins, and 40 Joker Staxx uses stacked symbols. Their artwork is similar, but their rules are not interchangeable.

Joker Jester has up to twenty selectable lines and two distinct bonus routes. Its game rules put baskets on reels one, two and three for the Juggle Bonus. The jester begins with three eggs; adding more raises the offered prize, while safety levels protect an amount already reached. If an egg drops, the feature ends at the last safety level. There is also a choice to take the current offer.

Barrels on reels three, four and five start a separate picking bonus, ending when a jester is revealed. A random Jester Wild feature can change symbols after a spin and recalculate the result. These choices and transformations give Joker Jester more to follow than Joker Expand’s conditional reel expansion. Its ordinary jester wild excludes the juggling balls, baskets and barrels. The shared character therefore serves a different set of rules, rather than making the two games equivalent.

Joker Expand is the original five-line Playson game. Its grid has five reels and three rows, compared with four rows and forty paylines here. Both use expanding Joker wilds and Gold and Diamond scatters. The smaller original is the closer comparison if you want the same central mechanic with fewer lines to follow.

The five-line paytable rules likewise place the Joker on reels two, three and four, exclude scatters from substitution and make expansion conditional on a winning combination. That shared trigger is a stronger connection than the title alone. It does not mean the cash awards, line-stake calculations or available settings are identical. Use the edition name and line count to distinguish them before comparing a prize. Playson’s original five-line listing is a historical reference; its current site may no longer serve that older page.

Joker Pro uses ten lines on a five-by-three grid. The NetEnt rules start Joker Pro Re-Spins with one or more scatters on reels two, three or four. The outer reels become wild, and the triggering scatters become sticky wilds. A new wild on a central reel stays and awards another respin; no new wild ends the sequence.

The three central positions on reels two, three and four are Hot Spots. Filling all three with wilds awards 1,000x the total bet and ends the feature. NetEnt also caps the combined triggering-spin and respin result at 1,000x. The important comparison is persistence: Joker Pro builds a held pattern across successive respins, whereas Joker Expand changes the coverage of wilds on its current result. Its cap and respin rules belong to Joker Pro, not to every game carrying a Joker name.

40 Joker Staxx keeps five reels, four rows and forty fixed lines. Its Playson game sheet describes grouped wild symbols, with the Joker substituting for everything except the scatter. Wins follow lines from the left, only the highest award on each line counts, and simultaneous wins are added. The scatter pays separately from those lines.

The comparison image beneath the information table is this game: its upper-left title reads “40 Joker Staxx”, and several Jokers occupy each of the stacked reels. A stack is a run of repeated symbols arriving together. Joker Expand instead takes a Joker and extends its coverage when the expansion forms a win. Both can leave a reel covered with Jokers, but a similar-looking end result does not establish an identical trigger. Staxx is the useful comparison for retaining the forty-line format while changing how that coverage arrives.

More slots along the lines of Joker Expand 40 Lines

The red background, fruit symbols, sevens and jester make this a traditional fruit-machine design. The theme group below is useful for browsing that appearance; individual games can still use different paylines, scatter awards or bonus rounds.

Joker slots you might enjoy

Joker Expand 40 Lines is a Joker themed slot game. Similar Joker themed slots include Jokerizer, Super Joker, Joker Expand and Inferno Joker.

Joker Expand versions and related Playson games

The five-line original and forty-line edition belong to Playson’s Joker Expand family. The original has three rows and five paying paths; this version has four rows and forty paths. 40 Joker Staxx is a separate stacked-symbol comparison, while Fruits Jokers 100 Lines broadens the fruit format. Their catalogue relationship is useful for navigation, but the subtitle and actual rule screen determine the layout and payout calculation.

Developed by Playson

The studio behind Joker Expand 40 Lines is Playson. It is best known for its Hold & Win slots, a mechanic that runs through much of its catalogue. The Malta-based studio started in 2012 and first showed its games at ICE London in 2014. Hits include Solar Queen and the Buffalo Power Hold & Win series. If Joker Expand 40 Lines is your kind of slot, the Playson slots below are a good place to look next.

Here are some Playson slot games to play, these games are all made by the same producer as Joker Expand 40 Lines, the slots are Book Of Gold Double Chance, Imperial Fruits 100 Lines, Fruits Jokers 100 Lines and Legends Of Cleopatra.

Joker Expand 40 Lines at a glance

The original forty-line rules identify conditional central wilds and two cash-paying scatters. Compare those features with the Staxx illustration below, while treating catalogue ranks and a quoted return as different kinds of information.

Joker Expand 40 Lines slot information last reviewed: July 2026

40 Joker Staxx comparison: stacked Jokers on the reels

Other games with gold-symbol features

Gold in a symbol’s name does not establish a shared feature. Joker Expand’s gold-coloured star symbol pays as a scatter; the broader Golden Symbols catalogue below can include games with other uses for gold symbols. Use each game’s rules to distinguish a cash scatter from a collector, a multiplier or a bonus trigger.

Slot games with Golden Symbols

Other matching slots with Golden Symbols are Leprechauns Magic, Im Feeling Lucky, Arena Of Gold and Charms and Clovers.

Game rules and versions

The original paytable distinguishes Gold, Diamond and Joker roles. Playson is the supplier catalogue route, and the UK Gambling Commission provides separate operator information. Neither a licensing page nor another Joker game’s cap establishes this title’s cash limit. The line-stake and screenshot examples above show how to compare the amounts without inventing a universal maximum.

Joker Expand 40 Lines slot sites FAQs

Joker Expand 40 Lines Pros and Cons

Forty defined routes, conditional expansion and two scatter types give the original its character. It does not retain wilds for respins or grant the free-spin sequences found in some other Joker games.

Pros

• Conditional expanding Jokers give the central reels a clear role
• Expanding Joker wilds and two types of scatter
• Gold and Diamond scatters have distinct pay scales
• Comparable in style to Joker Expand, Joker Pro and Joker Jester

Cons

• No retained-wild respin sequence like Joker Pro’s
• No dedicated free spins round listed
• An overall maximum needs checking in the loaded rules
• A fairly light feature set