The regatta for anyone, two workshops behind a free mooring tag, and each rule set out in full.
Bowfold Regatta is open to everyone: spin it on the home page or on its own page with free play coins. There is no name, email or password to give and nothing to tick.
Tintcard Alcove and Firemouth Kiln ask for a free account, and the form has just four fields: a nickname, an email address, a password and a tick confirming you are 18 or over. It asks for no card, no postal address and no telephone number, since the wharf has nothing to sell. The account serves two purposes: it keeps your coins and progress in place for your return, and it lets us keep the games to adults. One button on your account page deletes it, together with all it contains.
Ottoline creases 100,000 free coins into a new mooring tag, adding whatever the regatta has already paid you on this device. That one balance, level and set of missions travels with you to the alcove and the kiln. The coins are virtual: they cannot be bought, sold, withdrawn or exchanged for anything, and no win has real-world value.
The wharf has no in-app purchases and no page anywhere for payment.
Each workshop has five reels and three rows. Wins are counted from left to right, beginning with the first reel and continuing across adjacent reels along fixed paylines. Your stake is shared evenly among the lines, and paytable values are expressed as multiples of the line bet, with the exception of the scatter, which pays on the total stake. On each line only the highest win is paid.
| Feature in the workshop | Its working | Workshops with it |
|---|---|---|
| Tumbling reels | Winning symbols crumple away, those above settle downwards and new ones are let in from the top. Each further win in the sequence pays more: x1 on the spin itself, then x2, x3, and x5 for every cascade thereafter. | Firemouth Kiln |
| Multiplier rising lock by lock | During free spins the multiplier rises as the round progresses and does not fall back before it finishes. | Bowfold Regatta |
| Folded wilds held for a respin | Should a paid spin pay nothing yet show a wild, each wild is held where it lies and the remainder of the grid is spun again at no charge. | Tintcard Alcove |
| Last-reel respin | Should a paid spin pay nothing yet land two scatters, the fifth reel is turned once more at no charge, in search of the third. | |
| Free spins paying double on the canal | The most straightforward round on the canal: three scatters begin free spins, and each win within them is paid at double. |
Each reel holds a fixed strip of symbols. For every spin, your browser’s random number generator selects an independent position on each strip. Earlier spins have no bearing on later ones, and nothing alters according to your balance or the length of time you have played.
The return, hit frequency and feature frequency of each workshop are measured by running the game’s own code across millions of spins, and are printed in its paytable. They relate to coin play in these free games alone and tell you nothing of any real-money game.
On Creasewater Wharf the towpath is for those aged 18 or over. Each regatta, alcove and kiln runs on virtual coins with no monetary value, which nobody can buy, sell, withdraw or exchange. You will not find a cashier’s hatch, a payment page or a prize of real-world value anywhere along the canal, and a fine afternoon at the regatta does not imply future success at real-money gambling.
For a confidential word about gambling, at no cost: National Gambling Helpline 0808 8020 133, answered every hour of every day · BeGambleAware · GamCare · How Ottoline keeps play sensible