Happy & Prosperous at a glance
| Place in the series | Original four |
|---|---|
| Approved in the ACT as Dragon Link | 29 March 2018 |
| Free games | The royals come off the reels in free games, and any scatter win during the feature adds 3 more free games. |
| Awards | Top Performing Premium Game and Top Performing Proprietary Branded Game, EKG Slot Awards (per Aristocrat) |
| In Australia now | On Aristocrat's MarsX cabinet, second in its Australian Dragon Link bank |
| Victorian approvals | Happy & Prosperous Dragon Link 2024 (17 December 2024); a 2026 version (20 August 2026) |
| Shared by all ten | Maker, jackpots, lines, denominations, volatility and return: what every Dragon Link game shares |
Free games without the royals
Aristocrat's description of the feature: in free games, "royals are removed. An extra 3 free games can be won with any scatter win during the feature."
Royals are the card symbols — 9, 10, J, Q and K on the Dragon Link screens — that fill most reel positions and pay the least. Take them out and every position on the reels belongs to a picture symbol, a scatter or an orb. Two things follow. Wins that do land in free games are built from the better-paying symbols, and scatters have a way to keep the feature running, because each scatter win adds three more games.
What Aristocrat doesn't publish online is how many free games you start with or how the pays are set; the help screen on the machine has both.
Hold & Spin and the jackpots
Happy & Prosperous runs the Dragon Link feature like every other title: the orb starts Hold & Spin, orbs lock, and — by player and review accounts — you get three respins that reset with each new orb, with the Grand for filling all 15 spots. Each orb pays a credit prize or a jackpot.
The panel shows Grand, Major, Minor and Mini. The Grand is "a linked progressive" shared by a bank; the ACT approved the game as "1 Link + 1 iSAP", one linked progressive and one inside the machine. Where the Grand starts is the venue's call: $10,000 at Club Burleigh, rising to a maximum of $23,500. More on the four jackpots and how to play.
The awards
Aristocrat's 2026 press material says Happy & Prosperous was "named Top Performing Premium Game and Top Performing Proprietary Branded Game in the EKG Slot Awards". Performance awards rank games by how they do on casino floors, not by what they pay back to players. A popular game isn't a looser one.
Happy & Prosperous in Australia
It's the second cabinet in Aristocrat's Australian MarsX image for Dragon Link. The ACT approved it on 29 March 2018 with the other original titles, and Victoria approved "Happy & Prosperous Dragon Link 2024" on 17 December 2024 and a 2026 version on 20 August 2026. In the United States it's one of four themes on the $1 Million Dragon Link.
Twelve venues confirm Dragon Link on their own sites; they're on Dragon Link in Australia.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Free games with no low-paying royals.
- Scatter wins during the feature add 3 more free games.
- Current in Australia on MarsX and re-approved in Victoria in 2026.
Cons
- No published return to player.
- Starting free-game count not published online.
- Awards measure what a game earns venues, not what it returns.
My verdict
If you like free games that feel like they're going somewhere, Happy & Prosperous is my pick of the original four: no royals, and a retrigger you can actually see coming. It's no more generous than its siblings on paper — nobody publishes that — so set the budget first, then see where it runs.
