Archive for May, 2009

When SlotoCash burst onto the scene in 2007, many industry experts asked if there was place for yet another slots-focused online casino. SlotoCash has proven that there is by filling a tidy little niche and offering online players a great site to visit for quality Rival powered casino games.

Described as a “breath of fresh air” in the online gambling industry, the casino is owned and operated by Trenan Ltd, a Cypriot-based firm whose parent company, Deckmedia N.V., is incorporated in Curacao and is fully licensed by the Central Government of the Netherlands Antilles.

Software and Games

Players have come to expect a lot from the top quality Rival Gaming software company and they are not disappointed when they play at one of the newer online casino in the industry to carry this company’s software and games.

True to its name, SlotoCash Casino leans towards slots entertainment and it comes as no surprise that Rival shines through with its slots portfolio. There are many different game offerings, ranging from unique games created especially for this site such as SLOTO and Wheel of Cash; to classic slot games such as Fruit Slot and Flea Market and to video slot games such as Atomic Age and Reel Party.

Of course, Rival Gaming’s greatest contribution to the slots industry to date has been the innovative, award-winning iSlots series – a collection of interactive slot games with an enthralling story line, superb features and extra-generous jackpots.

There are 65 games in total offered by the casino, many of them non-slot related such as an excellent selection of video poker games and traditional card and table games such as American and European Roulette, Three Card Poker and Let it Ride.

Bonuses and Promotions

SlotoCash Casino offers a diverse range of bonuses and promotions to make their players feel extra welcome at the site. These range from a three tier first-time deposit bonus to free games bonuses, alternative payment method bonuses and refer-a-friend rewards.

In addition to these regular promotions, the casino also runs a lucrative loyalty program in the form of Club Sloto – a privilege club that offers extra comp points, monthly reload bonuses, cash back on monthly losses, quick withdrawals and that personal touch in the form of birthday and holiday gifts.

Payment and Payouts

Simplicity and security are two important elements that SlotoCash Casino has managed to incorporate into its banking system offered to players. The site accepts payment in all currencies, although accounts are tracked in US Dollars and payouts are converted at the current exchange rate.

There are a wide number of deposit methods available at the casino, ranging from credit cards to electronic banking methods and internet payment processors. There’s also guaranteed fast payouts, depending on the withdrawal method chosen by the player. There is a sufficient choice of deposit and withdrawal systems to ensure that everyone on this site finds a method that they are comfortable with.

Security

SlotoCash Casino goes to great lengths to ensure that players enjoy a gambling environment that is both safe and secure. Using industry standard security protocols including 128 bit, SSL data encryption technology, SlotoCash manages to ensure that all transactions are well protected.

This site has a zero-tolerance policy with regard to fraud and makes no secret of the fact that any player caught cheating or engaging in any fraudulent activity whatsoever will have his or her account terminated and funds forfeited.

The casino’s Random Number Generator is independently audited and certified and the site operates under a full gambling license issued by the Netherlands Antilles. The site also carries a built in game and financial history so that players can view their playing history at any stage.

Support

SlotoCash has compiled an excellent Frequently Asked Questions page for its players where most information can be found. However, for players wishing to contact the site directly, there are various options. Support can be contacted by phone from various locations around the world (some of them toll-free), as well as by email (several departments) and postal address.

SlotoCash Casino

SlotoCash has managed to do in a short while what many other online casinos do not manage in a decade. It attracts a large number of players looking for quality slots and casino gaming, with the extra pampering that clearly comes for a team dedicated to its customers’ satisfaction. The standard of quality shines through in many aspects such as customer support and site security, and it is easy to understand why SlotoCash Casino continues to receive top marks by industry analysts.

This information was accurate when it was written but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all information directly with the casino.

Launched in 1999, Wild Jack Casino carries with it an air of class and sophistication that could only be expected from a site that belongs to the prestigious Jackpot Factory Group. Wild Jack Casino, working off the Microgaming platform, focuses on card and table games, although it has a good offering of other favorite casino games as well. The site carries the industry watchdog group, eCOGRA’s ‘Play it Safe’ seal and is licensed by the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. To ensure a top level of fairness, Wild Jack Casino has its percentage payouts regularly reviewed by independent auditors.

Software

The industry-leading Microgaming Viper software allows Wild Jack Casino to offer its players a realistic and certainly one of the most graphically rich gambling experiences on the internet. Players can choose to download over 300 games from Microgaming’s full suite, or select the instant-play Flash version that offers around 130 games. As can be expected from Microgaming, the software is fully featured and top of the range.

Game Selection

As mentioned, players can choose from a rich selection of games that numbers over 300 in total. While the site is best known for its excellent blackjack variants and other card and table games, its slots casino is far from being conventional, and there is truly something for everyone – at whichever level – at Wild Jack Casino.

Card and table games on offer include:

* Blackjack: Classic blackjack, Atlantic City blackjack and Multi hand blackjack

* Baccarat, craps, three card poker, sic bo

* Roulette: American roulette, European roulette and French roulette

The slots collection at Wild Jack Casino includes:

* Classic Slot Machines: 3 and 5 reel

* Bonus online slots

* Progressive jackpot slot machines such as Fruit Fiesta, King Cashalot and Major Millions.

Other games on offer include:

* Specialty games such as Keno and scratch cards

* Video Poker: Forty different variants available

Bonuses and Promotions

Wild Jack offers generous promotions, both to newcomers and seasoned players on its site. New players can enjoy a 100-credit bonus with their first deposit, while return players will benefit from a 10% cash-back on deposits (up to 250 credits) each month. All this translates into 3000 credits each year! In addition, Wild Jack Casino runs a lucrative loyalty program that rewards players with Player Points each time they partake in a real-money game.

Particularly loyal players will love Wild Jack’s VIP Lounge, run by the Jackpot Factory Group. Members of this lounge enjoy exclusive games and promotions and major pampering!

Money Matters

Wild Jack Casino takes all the necessary steps to ensure a safe and convenient banking environment for all players. For one, security is a main priority at this site, and the latest technology is used to ensure the financial and personal privacy of players. Secondly, Wild Jack offers a wide range of banking options to make deposits and withdrawals hassle-free at the site. Players can choose to pay using most major credit cards, electronic means or direct bank transfer, to name just a few.

Wild Jack Casino also uses the innovative ClearPlay Bonus System, an easy-to-use account management system that provides a host of benefits for players. These include a standard set of playthrough requirements for all bonuses on the site, bonus credits transferred in real time and other features to make playing with bonuses as easy as pie.

Customer Support

It is clear that Wild Jack takes the idea of customer support to new levels. Assistance is available through a number of channels. First of all, there is a comprehensive FAQ section that should cover all queries that players may have. In addition, there are innumerable articles that cover every aspect of gaming, including game histories, rules and strategies. The site’s professional support team is available 24/7 through toll-free telephone or email, and can be contacted for all types of questions.

Wild Jack Casino

Wild Jack Casino has been around since the online gambling industry was in diapers and its experience and professionalism shines through. This site offers the perfect solution to players seeking a reputable casino, with the backing of a solid company, good software, a wide game variety and top-notch customer support.

This information was accurate when it was written but can change without notice. Please be sure to confirm all information directly with the casino.

One of the best ways of foreseeing the future is to understand the human nature. Our needs, hopes, problems and dreams are often the basis for our future making. The nature of the human being is one of the most important ingredients in a complicated gambling business. Each of the parties – a casino and a gambler, long to win money from each other. And the growing strain will determine the future of the game.

Blackjack before 1962:

Before publication of the classic book “Beat The Dealer” by Edward O. Thorp in 1962 no single player had ever suspected of such a thing as the Basic Strategy. Everyone used one’s own mixture of superstitions concerning the way in which one or the other hand had to play. Plus, some experience gained while playing at home in the kitchen. Excluding a small number of professional card-players who intuitively presupposed that their overbalance would be more if there were more bowers left in a pack, practically none won in blackjack. Naturally, casinos felt quite comfortable under such conditions. Till 1962 blackjack was not very popular, though percentagewise the profit rate was exclusively high.

The next decade: from 1962 till 1972:

After publication of the book by Thorp the situation changed radically. When the book mounted the peak of sales, became a bestseller, and the professor Thorp became an internationally famous personality, casinos were terrified that thus everyone could learn the system of Thorp and would start beating casinos winning huge amounts of money.

The results of this panic are well-known. The majority of casinos cardinally changed the blackjack rules creating even a larger overbalance in comparison with the previous set of rules. These introductions were effective a few weeks only as the majority of casinos’ clients simply refused to play a game with such bad rules. Subordinating to the law of supply and demand casinos had to quickly restore traditional rules for all. After this gamblers started immediately to play again, more than that in considerably larger quantities.

The popularity of Thorp’s book played into the hands of casinos. Blackjack started to attract crowds of people who thought they could “beat a dealer” only after they had read one book.

But the fact remained that casinos’ visitors continued to lose the same amounts of money while playing blackjack as before. Only the number of gamblers increased a hundred times. The majority of those who had read the book simply didn’t understand the way the calculation of tens given in the book worked, and those who got to the bottom didn’t take enough pains so as to master the system of calculation from A to Z. Casinos observed in surprise the incredibly increased profits.

Reedition of the book in 1966 gave a reader a simpler calculation system. Over that period of time a number of books on blackjack were published. The game gathered pace. Casinos were setting more and more tables. Blackjack was becoming the most popular game in casinos having outrun the previous leader craps.

Blackjack of the 70s:

The classic book “Playing Blackjack as a Business” by Lawrence Revere is responsible for further increase in popularity of the game in the 70s to a great extent. Revere published a shortened version of his systems at the beginning of 1969, but by 1972 already thousands of copies of the book were sold out. Revere republished an extended version of the book offering his simple and effective systems of the game which increased blackjack popularity even more.

Also the book “Winning Blackjack” by Stanley Roberts, was in the right place at the right time, in addition the author appeared in a number of radio and TV-shows. Roberts invested a considerable amount of money into advertising of his book making a splash.

Casinos were once again overcome by the fit of paranoia. They started to suspect that the systems developed with the help of research methods could considerably influence their profits. Casinos started to introduce a multi-pack blackjack instead of a one-pack blackjack to struggle against the system game.

At the beginning of the 70s a lot of scientists, mathematicians, university professors and other “intellectuals” started to write books about blackjack. Some of them developed their own cards’ calculation systems. One of the most popular and effective systems – Hi-Opt I, was developed in 1974 with the help of computer programs created by Julian Brown with participation of an anonymous postgraduate of a large Canadian university.

A lot of professional gamblers transferred from the Revere system to the Hi-Opt I system because of the relative simplicity and effectiveness of the latter one. A lot of ordinary gamblers started to use the system together with the basic strategy. These two systems evidently made the biggest impact upon casinos’ profits because of their use by professionals. Roberts’ systems were more often used by amateurs.

Kenneth Uston, teams and Great Horror:

Kenneth Uston noticed sometime at the end of 1976 that he was amazed by the way how effective the simplest systems of Hi-Opt I type could be. In Uston’s book “Big Player“the way how Uston and his companions won together more than a million of dollars playing blackjack is described. Later on his teams transferred from very complicated systems to the simplest of Hi-Opt I type. Uston was thrown out of a few big casinos of Las Vegas, and he filed lawsuit against them for a total amount of 80 million dollars.

With the arrival of Uston the whole new era of blackjack began. Casinos were once again frightened that teams could win huge amounts of money in blackjack. Nearly at once some casinos did away with a one- and two-pack blackjack transferring to 4-, 6- and 8-pack ones. For an average gambler blackjack became too difficult. Plus, casinos started to cut most cards out of play – to two packs. As has been mentioned by Roberts in one of his articles, such practice was at the very least doubtful. By the way, the fact itself of availability of cards which didn’t enter the game caused new kinds of crooked gambling connected with withdrawal and addition of cards.

Casinos up to now change the number of packs and the extent of cutting, and compare levels of profits, thus balancing rules. In any case, rules are extremely difficult for gamblers in the USA, especially beginners.

The nightmare continues:

The funniest thing is that gamblers’ thoughts are not rigid. Uston’s teams were followed by Keith Taft with his pocket computer for blackjack which played better than any profs in the world. The court of Nevada State broke the record of the USA on the quickness of adoption of statute on use of computers in casinos. Up to five years with confiscation in the current situation, though Taft and his advocates were sure of the unconstitutionality of that law.

Forbade the computer? There appeared Tommy Hyland and his most complicated systems of tracking. A new headache for casinos… To worsen the cutting, introduce more packs and make the procedure of riffle even longer. To invent shuffle-machines!

Stanford Wong was the first to outwit these shuffle-machines. The most important thing was to know how they worked. Poor casinos didn’t know what to do. These machines cost rather a lot.

Perhaps new varieties would help? Spanish 21, Super-fan 21, 6:5 blackjack, “Open” blackjack, Blackjack-switch, Pontoon… With every introduction there was one problem: either no one played it at all or profs immediately found the way to beat it. Tournaments? Old Wong created teams especially for tournament struggle. Every new rule was calculated and intensively looked into a week in advance. The development of the Internet caused quick information distribution.

Further on the whole pleiad of gamblers of the contemporary generation came on stage. Wong, Sneider, Anderson, Dogerty, Shlesinger and heaps of people who were occupied with theory and practical aspects of the game. Mathematical models of the game were worked out. Texts on Blackjack were published in scientific reviews.

Finally, up to the present moment a small number of professionals still win in blackjack. And will win in the future. Some profs transfer to more complicated systems which are plentiful (let’s say, Hi-Opt II was published as far back as 1976). New methods and techniques are being developed.

There is no doubt that it will get still more and more difficult to win in blackjack. However, there difficulties only make gambling wits work harder and harder. Right away new game systems are being worked out in many heads and at many computers of the world.

It is important to understand that gamblers always have a hope. They can change games. They can finally read a textbook on the theory of probability. They can read the same books themselves. They can spend even more money on the newest technologies. However, I assure You, there will always be a way to beat them.

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Blackjack is one of the most popular card games in gambling history. Now you don’t have to go all the way to Las Vegas to play blackjack for fun or real money, because many Internet casinos offer online blackjack. The advantages of playing blackjack online are numerous, and some gamblers enjoy online play even more than live casino play. Here are just some of the advantages of playing blackjack online.

One of the advantages of playing blackjack online is the convenience. You can play online blackjack 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, because that’s when online casinos are open. Whenever you’re ready to play online blackjack, there will be a game waiting for you. You don’t have to leave your house and stand around in a smoky casino waiting for a table to open up. Online blackjack is available right from your home computer, and you will never have to wait for a seat.

Choice of play is another one of the advantages of playing blackjack online. One of the great things about the game of blackjack is that it relies far more on skill than luck. Many reputable Internet casinos will let you play online blackjack for free as often as you like, so you can get plenty of practice in and sharpen your blackjack skills before you start playing for money. You can also play any of the different variations of blackjack when you play at an Internet casino, and shop around for the rules that are the most favorable, such as blackjack tables where the dealer does not have the soft 17 rule, or where the DOA (Double On All) and DAS (Double After Split) rules are in effect. These are just a few of the advantages of playing blackjack online!

When playing, look after a table with happy players and a friendly dealer, in order to enjoy your blackjack game. Also, think positively to keep an emotional balance and to take maximum advantage of your blackjack skills.

The casino blackjack varies, but the most known forms of it are the classic blackjack and the blackjack tournament. The difference between the two is that the first is a game between the player and the dealer and the second one is a game of competing against other players instead of just playing against the house.

Although their increasing popularity in the last years, blackjack tournaments are not so easy and keenly to organize. The main problem is one of the spaces for holding these types of tournaments because it’s hard to reserve tables for a large tournament when most casinos offer only a few blackjack tables.

However, the blackjack is an exciting game no matter if it is played as classic blackjack or tournament or if it is played on land or online.

The object of the classic blackjack is to obtain a blackjack hand in order to beat the dealer. The value of the hand, more exactly the value of the first two cards, must be closer to 21 than that of the dealer, without going over 21. The classic form is at some points inflexible, the players don’t interact between them and they are only playing with the house.

On the other hand, blackjack tournament is a variation in which the players struggle with each other. The object in this case is to collect in the end more chips than the fellows. The most known types of tournament are single table and multi table. The difference consists in the number of the tables involved in the same blackjack game and as a consequence in fact that a player has to compete against all of the players at all of the other tables.

Keep in mind that you are not a winner until your ranking is better relative to the other players. Also, participants in the blackjack tournament usually have a limited time or a predetermined number of hands to play and a certain amount of money to bet.

The tournament implies more action and more hazard as it requires multiple qualifying rounds. You have to learn to put in balance the risk and rewards and take the most suitable decision in order to get full value of every bet. There are people who place small bets constantly to reduce the risk of being eliminate or ruined at the table game. Other players put large bets in their attempt to get reach faster, but they rarely succeed. In the case of a tournament is hard to tell which of these strategies to adopt and also the blackjack basic strategy of counting the cards is not so proper to use.

But there is something else you can do. You can put small bets and observe the opportunities to place large bets. It may happen that most of the players to put small bet and to be a perfect moment for you to make a large bet. It depends how you see the others: if they are timid or daring. And here comes one of the blackjack tips: you can increase the bets in the middle hand if you feel you have chances to win.

So, enjoy a blackjack tournament in live casino or online casino. The tournament on land are usually held in classy resorts which offer services like swimming, sunbathing, massage and other relaxing and entertaining methods.

Online blackjack tournaments are similar to those on land. The difference is they are less competitive, but give to more players the opportunity to win and also not disqualify players at the end of each round of gaming as is the case of casino tournaments.

Choose the suitable form of blackjack for you, relax and have fun!