3Win8, the slot app from 2016

3Win8 launched in April 2016, and the old page sold it to people "tired of SCR888" before sending them to an outside download site. We've dropped that link. What's left is a look at the app itself and the 32 games the old site covered, each on its own page.

The lobby

The home screen is a dark city skyline with a big JACKPOT meter at the top (390,462.09 in our screenshot) and four tiles: Online Games (cards, mahjong and Chinese chess on the artwork), Entertainment City (roulette and a baccarat table), 777 (a slot machine labelled Lucky Slot) and Hot Games (a dragon, a crocodile and a lobster on the artwork). A "Champion Today" strip shows three trophy spots, and your username and balance sit along the bottom. We've blurred the username, the scrolling player line and the pin-up mascot on the right.

The fishing room is a four-seat table. Each seat has a cannon on the edge of the pond, and empty seats show a countdown. Your bet per shot sits in the round badge by your cannon, 0.20 in the screenshot.

The games we cover

Nearly all the pages under this app are slots, and many of them share a frame: a balance box and a scrolling line of player wins at the top, Minor and Major jackpot meters above the reels, and LINES and BET buttons at the bottom. A few worth starting with:

• Great Blue, the ocean slot with an orca wild and a pick-two-shells bonus, and the only 3Win8 page with the red or black gamble screen
• Indian Myth and Emperor Gate, two 50-line games where the wild takes over reel 3 and triples the win
• Penguin Vacation, whose help screen explains its fishing bonus better than most
• Pay Dirt, a gold rush slot with nugget wilds on reels 2 and 4
• Frog Jump, a five-frog race game with odds on each runner
• Big Shark, which is video poker despite the name
• 5 Tiger General, with five ringgit jackpots, one per general

Some titles are the same games you'll find on 918Kiss, Mega888 or ACE333, such as Great Blue, Iceland and Sparta. The full list is on the 3Win8 hub.

How it gets onto a phone

3Win8 isn't in Google Play or the Apple App Store. The old site offered three files from its own server, and all of them are gone.

On Android, the app came as an APK file. To install one, you have to allow "install unknown apps" for your browser or file manager. That setting lets that app install anything, and you have no way to check where an APK came from or what's been changed in it. If you ever do it, switch the permission off again straight after.

On iPhone, the old button used an enterprise install link. That kind of install only works after you go into Settings and trust a developer profile you've never heard of, which gives that profile's apps a level of trust Apple normally reserves for company devices. Apple revokes these profiles regularly, so the app can stop opening without warning.

There was also a Windows program. The same caution applies: an .exe from an unknown source runs with your user's rights.

Before you top up

The weak point with any of these apps is the person holding your money, not the reels. Ask how withdrawals work before you send anything, make a small withdrawal early, and never share your online banking login or TAC. If you still want to try it, ask for a game ID through the partner page and keep the first top-up small.

18+ only. Online gambling is illegal in Malaysia, so if an agent keeps your credit there's nobody to complain to. Our responsible gaming page covers limits and warning signs.