• Appendices
• Slots Analysis
• Miscellaneous

• Slots Lobstermania 2
• Lobstermania 2 Slots

Lobstermania 2 is the thrilling classic slot game packed full of exciting features. The Lucky Lobster's Free Spins Bonus can be re-triggered multiple times, up to a maximum of 240 free spins. The Golden Lobster Bonus can award up to 625x your coin size. Catch yourself a huge slots win today! Photo is stock image. Machine may vary in cabinet style or type. Machine will be coinless. We have a large variety of slot machines in stock. We will send you a video of your machine working before shipping. IMPORTANT - If you have any questions please ask via message prior to bidding. Other game titles are available just let me know what game title/theme you are looking for. Machine features. 5-reels, 40-lines, Free Spins, Stacked Wilds, Multipliers, Jackpot Scatter Wins, Lucky Larry’s Buoy Bonus 2, RTP of 96,52%, IGT.

Introduction

In my continued effort to lift the veil of secrecy behind slot machines, I present the following analysis of the IGT game Lucky Larry's Lobstermania. The information regarding the design of this game is taken from the academic paper PAR Sheets, probabilities, and slot machine play: Implications for problem and non-problem gambling by Kevin A. Harrigan and Mike Dixon, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.

The authors of the paper obtained par sheets for the game through the Canadian Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. I applaud the government of Canada for this release. The purpose of this page is to further the analysis of Lobstermania beyond what was presented in the Harrigan and Dixon paper.

It should be noted there are other versions of Lobstermania besides this one. As far as I can tell they differ by small changes to the pay table and details of the bonus round.

Reel Strips

Harrigan and Dixon give the symbol distribution for two Lobstermania par sheets, one for 85.0% and the other for 96.2%. Both are presented below. Notice how the 96.2% version has more high-paying symbols and that any given symbol is distributed more uniformly across the 5 reels. To illustrate that the distribution is more choppy in the 85.0% version, notice that the number of clams per reel on the 85.0% version is 10,8,3,4,7. On the 96.2%, the distribution is 6-6-5-6-6. However, the number of key symbols (wild, scatter and bonus) are the same in both games.

Lobstermania Symbol Distribution — 85.0%

Symbol	Reel 1	Reel 2	Reel 3	Reel 4	Reel 5
Wild	2	2	1	4	2
Logo	4	3	3	3	4
Buoy	3	4	3	8	5
Boat	4	3	4	3	4
Light House	3	4	6	3	7
Tuna	4	3	6	6	6
Clam	10	8	3	4	7
Sea Gull	3	9	4	10	5
Star Fish	10	3	10	7	8
Bonus	2	5	6	0	0
Scatter	2	2	2	2	2
Total	47	46	48	50	50

Lobstermania Symbol Distribution — 96.2%

Symbol	Reel 1	Reel 2	Reel 3	Reel 4	Reel 5
Wild	2	2	1	4	2
Logo	4	4	3	4	4
Buoy	4	4	5	4	5
Boat	6	4	4	4	4
Light House	5	4	6	6	7
Tuna	6	4	5	6	7
Clam	6	6	5	6	6
Sea Gull	5	6	5	6	6
Star Fish	5	5	6	8	7
Bonus	2	5	6	0	0
Scatter	2	2	2	2	2
Total	47	46	48	50	50

Harrigan and Dixon do not indicate the exact reel stripping. However, as long as the scatter symbols are not so close on the same reel that they can appear at the same time, the symbol order does not matter for this game, as well as for most video slots. The following reel stripping is hypothetical, based on the 85.0% version.

Lobstermania Symbol Distribution — 85.0% Reel Strips

Symbol	Reel 1	Reel 2	Reel 3	Reel 4	Reel 5
1	Tuna	Clam	Boat	Sea Gull	Clam
2	Star Fish	Buoy	Star Fish	Tuna	Wild
3	Clam	Light House	Clam	Buoy	Boat
4	Light House	Clam	Bonus	Sea Gull	Logo
5	Scatter	Buoy	Light House	Scatter	Buoy
6	Clam	Light House	Boat	Buoy	Star Fish
7	Star Fish	Bonus	Logo	Star Fish	Light House
8	Bonus	Sea Gull	Star Fish	Sea Gull	Tuna
9	Logo	Clam	Bonus	Tuna	Star Fish
10	Scatter	Boat	Light House	Wild	Light House
11	Buoy	Sea Gull	Star Fish	Buoy	Sea Gull
12	Clam	Tuna	Bonus	Tuna	Wild
13	Star Fish	Boat	Tuna	Star Fish	Tuna
14	Buoy	Bonus	Star Fish	Logo	Buoy
15	Clam	Star Fish	Clam	Sea Gull	Boat
16	Star Fish	Sea Gull	Sea Gull	Tuna	Clam
17	Logo	Wild	Star Fish	Wild	Tuna
18	Light House	Bonus	Wild	Logo	Buoy
19	Clam	Sea Gull	Bonus	Light House	Star Fish
20	Wild	Light House	Light House	Buoy	Clam
21	Sea Gull	Logo	Sea Gull	Sea Gull	Scatter
22	Star Fish	Wild	Star Fish	Boat	Buoy
23	Wild	Buoy	Tuna	Clam	Star Fish
24	Bonus	Clam	Clam	Star Fish	Tuna
25	Clam	Bonus	Boat	Light House	Clam
26	Boat	Sea Gull	Tuna	Sea Gull	Buoy
27	Star Fish	Clam	Star Fish	Boat	Boat
28	Tuna	Scatter	Bonus	Clam	Light House
29	Clam	Logo	Tuna	Buoy	Tuna
30	Star Fish	Tuna	Light House	Sea Gull	Logo
31	Tuna	Sea Gull	Star Fish	Boat	Light House
32	Logo	Scatter	Scatter	Light House	Sea Gull
33	Clam	Star Fish	Light House	Star Fish	Clam
34	Star Fish	Clam	Logo	Tuna	Logo
35	Boat	Boat	Sea Gull	Sea Gull	Star Fish
36	Light House	Logo	Star Fish	Buoy	Boat
37	Clam	Sea Gull	Scatter	Star Fish	Light House
38	Star Fish	Clam	Buoy	Clam	Tuna
39	Boat	Bonus	Tuna	Buoy	Sea Gull
40	Tuna	Star Fish	Logo	Sea Gull	Star Fish
41	Buoy	Sea Gull	Bonus	Star Fish	Light House
42	Sea Gull	Buoy	Star Fish	Clam	Clam
43	Logo	Light House	Light House	Logo	Logo
44	Clam	Clam	Sea Gull	Wild	Sea Gull
45	Star Fish	Tuna	Buoy	Buoy	Star Fish
46	Boat	Sea Gull	Boat	Sea Gull	Clam
47	Sea Gull	Tuna	Star Fish	Sea Gull
48	Buoy	Scatter	Light House
49	Tuna	Scatter
50	Wild	Star Fish

The way the game would work would be to choose 5 random numbers, one for each reel, and map each random number to a position on the corresponding reel. For example, for reel 1 the game would draw a number from 1 to 47. For example, suppose this number were mapped to the symbol in the top row. If the random number for reel 1 were 37, then the symbols shown on reel 1 would be a Clam on top row, a Star Fish in the middle row, and a Boat on bottom row.

Pay Table

The next table shows the Lobstermania pay table. All wins must be left aligned. The wild symbol can substitute for any line-pay symbol.

Lobstermania Pay Table

Symbol	5 in a row	4 in a row	3 in a row	2 in a row
Wild	10000	500	100	5
Logo	1000	200	40	2
Buoy	500	100	25
Boat	500	100	25
Light House	500	50	10
Tuna	250	50	10
Clam	200	30	5
Sea Gull	200	30	5
Star Fish	150	30	5

Line Pay Math

There are 47 × 46 × 48 × 50 × 50 = 259,440,000 possible outcomes in Lobstermania. The following table shows how many of these combinations result in each possible win. These figures are the result of a program with five nested loops that tallied the total for each win for each possible combination.

Lobstermania Line Pay Combinations

Symbol	5 in a row	4 in a row	3 in a row	2 in a row	Total
Wild	32	704	7,300	212,000	220,036
Logo	5,008	36,256	249,400	2,860,000	3,150,664
Buoy	9,968	59,856	220,400	290,224
Boat	6,204	44,968	313,900	365,072
Light House	13,086	59,122	442,900	515,108
Tuna	16,672	86,520	412,000	515,192
Clam	34,416	156,128	974,400	1,164,944
Sea Gull	26,838	163,142	459,000	648,980
Star Fish	72,440	288,640	1,201,200	1,562,280
Total	184,664	895,336	4,280,500	3,072,000	8,432,500

The next table shows the probability of each possible win. This is the number of winning combinations for that win, shown in the table above, divided by the total number of combinations of 259,440,000. The total in the lower right cell reflects a hit frequency per line (probability of winning anything) of 3.25%.

Lobstermania Line Pay Probabilities

Symbol	5 in a row	4 in a row	3 in a row	2 in a row	Total
Wild	0.00000012	0.00000271	0.00002814	0.00081714	0.00084812
Logo	0.00001930	0.00013975	0.00096130	0.01102374	0.01214409
Buoy	0.00003842	0.00023071	0.00084952	0.00111866
Boat	0.00002391	0.00017333	0.00120991	0.00140715
Light House	0.00005044	0.00022788	0.00170714	0.00198546
Tuna	0.00006426	0.00033349	0.00158804	0.00198578
Clam	0.00013265	0.00060179	0.00375578	0.00449023
Sea Gull	0.00010345	0.00062882	0.00176920	0.00250146
Star Fish	0.00027922	0.00111255	0.00462997	0.00602174
Total	0.00071178	0.00345103	0.01649900	0.01184089	0.03250270

The next table shows the contribution to the return for each possible win. Each cell is the product of the probability, from the table above, and the pay table. The right cell shows a total return from line pays of 55.28%.

Lobstermania Line Pay Probabilities

Symbol	5 in a row	4 in a row	3 in a row	2 in a row	Total
Wild	0.00123343	0.00135677	0.00281375	0.00408572	0.00948967
Logo	0.01930311	0.02794943	0.03845205	0.02204749	0.10775208
Buoy	0.01921061	0.02307123	0.02123805	0.06351989
Boat	0.01195652	0.01733272	0.03024784	0.05953708
Light House	0.02521970	0.01139416	0.01707138	0.05368525
Tuna	0.01606537	0.01667438	0.01588036	0.04862010
Clam	0.02653099	0.01805365	0.01877891	0.06336355
Sea Gull	0.02068918	0.01886471	0.00884598	0.04839986
Star Fish	0.04188252	0.03337650	0.02314986	0.09840888
Total	0.18209143	0.16807354	0.17647818	0.02613321	0.55277636

Scatter Pay

The player gets credit for a 'scatter pay' symbol if it appears anywhere on the screen. Scatter pay wins are based on the total amount bet. The following table shows the number of scatters per reel, total symbols per reel, and the probability of a scatter on that reel, which is 3×(column 2)/(column 3). The reason for multiplying by 3 is there are three visible positions on each reel.

Lobstermania Scatters per Reel

Reel	Scatters	Total Symbols on Reel	Scatter Probability
1	2	47	0.127660
2	2	46	0.130435
3	2	48	0.125000
4	2	50	0.120000
5	2	50	0.120000

The next table shows the probability and contribution to the return for 0 to 5 total scatter symbols. The lower right cell shows that the scatter pay feature returns 10.65% to the return of the game.

Lobstermania Scatter Pay Probabilities and Returns

Scatters	Pays	Probability	Return
5	200	0.000030	0.005994
4	25	0.001054	0.026351
3	5	0.014821	0.074106
2	0	0.104168	0.000000
1	0	0.365929	0.000000
0	0	0.513998	0.000000
Total	1.000000	0.106451

Bonus

The player earns the bonus if he gets the bonus symbol on reels 1, 2 and 3 on any active pay line. The following table shows the probability of getting the bonus symbol on each of the first three reels. The lower right cell shows the probability of activating the bonus on any active pay line is 0.06%, or 1 in 1,730. If the player plays the maximum 15 pay lines, then the bonus probability per spin is 0.87%, or 1 in 115.

Lobstermania Bonus Symbols per Reel

Reel	Bonus Symbols	Total Symbols on Reel	Bonus Probability
1	2	47	0.042553
2	5	46	0.108696
3	6	48	0.125000
Product	0.000578

There are three parts to the bonus game, as follows:

• Number of lobster traps.
• Number of lobsters per trap.
• Size/win of each lobster.

There are three possibilities for the number of lobster traps, 2, 3 and 4, each with equal probability. Thus, the expected number of traps is 3.

There are two possibilities for the number of lobsters per trap, 2 or 3, each with equal probability. Thus, the expected number of lobsters per trap is 2.5.

The prize per lobster can be anywhere from 5 to 250. Each prize has an associated weighting, as shown in the table below. The way the game might work is it would pick an integer from 1 to 322 and map it to a weight according to this table. The bottom right cell shows an average win of 44.02 per lobster.

Lobstermania Bonus — Lobster Wins

Pays	Weight	Probability	Return
5	5	0.015528	0.077640
6	5	0.015528	0.093168
7	5	0.015528	0.108696
8	5	0.015528	0.124224
10	20	0.062112	0.621118
12	10	0.031056	0.372671
15	10	0.031056	0.465839
20	20	0.062112	1.242236
22	20	0.062112	1.366460
25	20	0.062112	1.552795
27	20	0.062112	1.677019
30	19	0.059006	1.770186
35	22	0.068323	2.391304
45	24	0.074534	3.354037
50	19	0.059006	2.950311
55	15	0.046584	2.562112
60	15	0.046584	2.795031
65	15	0.046584	3.027950
70	15	0.046584	3.260870
75	15	0.046584	3.493789
100	10	0.031056	3.105590
150	8	0.024845	3.726708
250	5	0.015528	3.881988
Total	322	1.000000	44.021739

The average win per bonus is (average traps)×(average lobsters per trap)×(average win per lobster) = 3 × 2.5 × 44.021739 = 330.163043.

The expected return for the bonus feature is (bonus probability) × (average win per bonus) = 0.000578168 × 44.021739 = 0.190890.

Summary

The following table summarizes the three ways to win in the game. The bottom right cell shows an expected return of 85.012%. In other words, for every dollar the player bets he can expect to get back 85¢.

Lobstermania Summary

Item	Return
Line Pays	55.278%
Scatter	10.645%
Bonus	19.089%
Total	85.012%

The Harrigan and Dixon paper mentioned they were given par sheets for seven versions of Lobstermania. The available returns were 85.0%, 87.5%, 90.0%, 92.5%, 94.0%, 95.0%, and 96.2%.

More Deconstructions

I have deconstructed lots of slot machines. Here is a list of them:

• Deconstructing Jackpot Party analysis of the video slot machine.
  
• Deconstructing Lion's Share analysis of the classic MGM progressive game.
  
• Deconstructing Cleopatra analysis of the popular IGT game.
  
• Deconstructing Lionfish analysis of the slot game found on many Game Maker machines.
  
• Deconstructing Megabucks.
• Deconstructing the Atkins Diet slot machine.
• Deconstructing Lucky Larry's Lobstermania.
• Deconstructing Hexbreaker.
• Deconstructing Blazing Sevens.
• Deconstructing Hot Roll.

Written by: Michael Shackleford

The original Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania slot proved a massive hit at physical casinos across the US, so it was only a matter of time before developer International Gaming Technologies released a sequel.

IGT has been developing slots for physical and online casinos for nearly 20 years. Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2 is just one of hundreds of slot titles in their collection.
This nautical-themed, 40-payline and five-reel game contains three scaling jackpots and seven different bonus rounds. That’s a lot of content by any developers’ standards.

Game manufacturer:	IGT
Number of paylines:	40
Game theme:	Nautical, Animals
RTP:	92.84 – 96.52%
Reels:	5
Min/Max bet:	$0.50 - $300 a spin
Progressive jackpot:	No
Regular jackpots:	Yes
Maximum standard win:	$40,000
Maximum jackpot win:	$250,000
Free spins:	5

Themes & visuals

Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2 is themed around lobster fishing. All the icons fit this idea well, and they include:

• The Lobstermania Logo
• Nautical buoys
• A fishing boat
• A lighthouse

The remaining symbols are made up by the standard slot icons in the Lobstermania font, including K, Q, J, 9, and 10.

The bonus reels feature all the same symbols, except that the colors are changed to appear as if they were in the nighttime.

There are some decent animations on the main reels for pulling winning lines, but the main visual appeal here is in the bonus games.

All of them are incredibly well animated, will full visual actions such as a fisherman pulling bonus lobster traps out of the sea.

The music is not bad on the main reels, but the surf-rock stylings get repetitive after any more than a few dozen spins.

However, in the bonus round, extra lyrics are added to the song, giving some much-needed diversity. For a standard, unlicensed, slot Lucky Larry Lobstermania 2’s soundtrack is of very high quality.

There are a nice number of voice lines in the bonus games as well – enough to keep them from repeating in any one play session.

Betting options & paying combinations

Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2 has 40 lines. However, IGT added another 20’s worth to your maximum bet in exchange for all the extra features on offer.

This means bets start at a minimum of $0.01 per line, or $0.60 per spin. The top-level bets are $5 per line, or $300 a spin.

This is a top-level bet limit and as high as you’ll find on almost any slot game. High-rolling players should be very satisfied with what Lucky Larry offers.

Penny slots players might be disappointed though as the non-adjustable lines mean the minimum bet is fairly high.

There is also an auto spins feature on this title. Although, as with most IGT slots, it isn’t as customizable as those you’ll find on some other titles.

Players can only choose between 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 spins. There’s no option to end on a big win or a certain level of loss, or any options at all other than the base number of spins.

Lastly, we have the overall return to player (or RTP) of Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2 – which is 92.84 to 96.52%.

This makes for a reasonable level of variance, but not a great RTP on the lower end.

What about the jackpots?

Lucky Larry offers three scaling jackpots. This means they go up as your maximum bet does.

The jackpots are:

• The Light Trap Jackpot – 2500 x your per line bet
• The Full Trap Jackpot – 10,000 x your per line bet
• The Motherlode Jackpot – 50,000 x your per line bet

This means the smallest jackpot prize available is $2500, and the biggest is $250,000.

Any symbol can become a jackpot symbol if the jackpot border is added to it. Pull three to unlock the Light Trap jackpot and four for the Full Trap.

Slots Lobstermania 2

All five jackpot symbols are needed to win the top level prize.

$250,000 is not a bad jackpot by any means, but it can’t stand up to the big money progressive jackpots offered by competitor developers like Microgaming or NetEnt.

Still, you won’t be complaining if you win it.

Additional features & bonus rounds

Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2 contains seven different pick‘em and free-spins-based bonus rounds, two kinds of Wild, a bunch of different scatters, extra multipliers on random base reel symbols and stacked Wilds.

That’s a strong range of features for any slot. When it comes to the list of extras, Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2 reaches the standard of many of IGT’s feature-packed big-money licensed pop-culture titles.

Wild Symbols

There are two Wild symbols here. Both operate as standard Wilds, in that they substitute for any other symbol if it will create a winning payline – except the jackpot icon.

One of them is a blue Lobster Mania logo and the other is an Orange version. They work in the same way, except the Orange version pays more.

In this case, the top prize is for pulling five of the Orange Wilds – this will pay out 8000x your per line bet. That’s a maximum of $40,000.

Not bad for a Wild prize on a main reel spin.

Scatter

There are three scatter symbols on Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2:

• Jackpot symbols
• Bonus Lucky Larry
• Lucky Larry Bonus at Night (in the free spins round)

Jackpot symbols can occur on top of any other symbol. Pull three or more of them to win the relevant scaling jackpot, as described above.

Bonus Lucky Larry activates the bonus round. Just pull three of them, on any position of the reels, and you’ll enter the Bonus pick phase.

The Lucky Larry Bonus Night symbol you’ll only see during the free spins bonus round. Pulling three or more of one of these gives you an extra five spins extension on your bonus round.

Lastly, you can also get random multipliers on the House, Lighthouse, Boat and Buoy symbols. These can either be 3x or 5x and will multiply any winning lines made with those symbols by that amount.

Bonus Rounds

When you unlock the bonus by pulling three or more Lucky Larry Bonus symbols anywhere on the reels in one spin, you enter the first stage of the round.

Here, you are required to choose between:

• Lucky Lobster’s Free Spins
• Lucky Larry’s Buoy Bonus 2

The Lucky Lobster free spins give you five spins of a bonus reel that’s the same as the main reels but at night – and minus the jackpots.

Pulling three more bonus symbols on a free spin gives you an extra five spins. The maximum amount before the bonus ends is 240 spins.

Free spins are played with the same bet as when the bonus was triggered.

Should you select Lucky Larry’s Buoy Bonus, however, you’ll first get a cash award of between 40x and 95x your coin value. This also multiplied by the amount of other winning lines (if any) you got when you triggered the bonus.

After selecting the Buoy Bonus, you’ll also move to a new screen where you can choose one of three games:

• Brazil
• Australia
• Maine

These are all themed around famous places in the world for lobster fishing.

Each stage gives you six buoys to pick from, and two to four picks.

After you’ve selected four buoys, the animated fisherman will pull up your chosen lobster cages from the sea.

Each cage picked will contain two to four lobsters that give cash prizes of 10x to 575x your line bet.

But that’s not necessarily the end of the bonus there. Pull the Golden Lobster from any of the cages, and you’ll unlock a further bonus round – depending on what stage you picked before.

Lobstermania 2 Slots

• Brazil will unlock the Octopus Bonus
• Australia will unlock the Kangaroo Bonus
• Maine will unlock the Pelican Bonus

Each of these is an animal-based pick em, with every pick rewarding between 200x and 1000x the coin value.

The Kangaroo Bonus has a maximum of 800x, the Octopus 1000x, and the Pelican 625x. Players keep selecting until they reveal another Golden Lobster instead of a cash prize – then the bonus ends.

This round could potentially lead to huge prizes, but any wins are capped at $250,000.

Who is this game ideal for?

Anyone who is partial to feature-packed slots with a lot to experience and a great variety of symbols should enjoy Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2.

Likewise, high-rolling bettors should be pleased with this title.

We imagine the lobster fishing theme has a limited appeal amongst slots fans, but if you do happen to know about or enjoy catching the ancient lobsters as well as slots, you should love this game.

Similar games by IGT

The obvious one here is the original Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania. However, because this sequel is the same but improved in most ways it would be hard for us to recommend the previous title.

For some similarly themed nautical games from this London-based developer, you can try Water Dragons and Ocean Magic.

What’s hot

Massive Range of Features: There’s a veritable smorgasbord of features in Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2. No fewer than five different bonus rounds and a wide variety of other extras make this a stacked title.

Decent Jackpots: $250,000 is no prize to be sniffed at, and this game also offers decent prizes in other areas too.

High Max Bet: $300 per spin should suit high-rolling players nicely and is about as high as you’re going to get online.

What’s Not

Fairly Low RTP: The lower end of this slot’s variable RTP – 92.84% – is just not high enough for the most serious of slots players.

No Line or Auto Spin Customization: Two features that experienced players may miss, and ones we’ll always point out when they’re not available.

Final ratings

• Graphics and design: 4/5 – Lucky Larry’s Lobstermania 2 looks great, with some top-tier animations for the bonus games.
• Sound effects: 3/5 – The backing track is nice to listen to for a bit. It’s good that they switched it up with some added lyrics in the bonus games, but in our opinion, that extra track should play on the main reels, too.
• Jackpot value: 3/5 – $250,000 is no slouch of a prize – although we would have preferred fixed jackpots rather than scaling.
• Replay value: 4/5 – With so many extra features and a decent jackpot, players who enjoy this game’s stylings should find plenty of reasons to come back to Lucky Larry.