Skill-Based Slots Online

SlotsThe casino industry is one of the most highly regulated markets in the world, with countless laws dictating precisely what can and can’t be done in casinos, slots, blackjack, roulette, and of course – our own forte, online casino (as well as online bingo, online poker, online betting and all the other online gambling ventures that involve real money). Honestly, it’s really not hard to see why all of these laws and regulations were put into place – I mean, if I’m going to essentially be putting a coin into a machine that may either steal it or spit out two coins, I’d very much want for there to be some pretty strict rules in place to ensure that the machine actually has a very real chance of spitting out coins and isn’t just a glorified thief. With that in mind, regulations are great… But some of them don’t exactly make a whole lot of sense. One of the more infamous rules, at least as far as online slots is concerned, is that gambling must be an entirely luck-based venture – any gambling activity that prioritizes skill over luck isn’t allowed in the casino, with a special exception being made for poker (which doesn’t really count as a casino game, since you don’t play against the casino). It’s a ridiculously idiotic law not just because there are already games that rely on both luck AND skill being played in casinos (you go ahead and tell me blackjack isn’t at least partially a skill-based game), but also because it has MAJORLY hurt slots, which are forced to recycle the same luck-based bonus games over and over again.

But it looks like, against all odds, the law may actually be on its way out, as several states in the US, like Nevada (of course) and New Jersey already repealed it – with the latter having just placed its very first skill-based slots in several physical locations mere days ago. In addition, New York and Pennsylvania are also currently considering repealing the law, which means that, within a year, 4 out of the 22 states in which gambling is legal will have skill-based slots in them, which isn’t a lot by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s something. And considering the fact that the US’ next president just so happens to own a chain of casinos, I’ve got a feeling that a lot more states might want to jump in on the whole “legalizing skill-based slots” game. But enough about the US, what about the UK and the rest of Europe? That’s what really matters to us, right? Well, sadly, so far there’s really no concrete plans to legalize skill-based slots. As far as I could find out, the suggestion has been brought up several times, but was never discussed in any serious capacity.

So, can we ever expect to find skill-based slots in our friendly neighborhood online casinos? I’d say not any time soon, but I’m optimistic that it’s bound to happen at some point – it’s not an idea that people are just going to drop. And besides, online casinos are constantly looking for new hooks and gimmicks in order to attract new audiences to them. First we got live casino, which bridged the gap between physical and online casino, then we got mobile, which allowed you to play slots on your phone… Some people have speculated that the next big gimmick is going to be VR, which makes sense if online casinos figure out how to run their software properly on cheap VR headsets like the Samsung Gear, but afterwards, who’s to say skill-based games won’t be the next draw designed to entice a whole new generation? As soon as the legal hurdles are clear, we can expect to see skill-based slots in our online casinos within a year. It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when.

My Top 3 Movie Themed Slots

Movie Themed SlotsWhen it comes to playing online slots, one of my favourite themes is movies. Along with the thrill and excitement you get from spinning to win, you also get the added entertainment of being immersed into a setting that you are familiar with. What’s more, they often contain some of the most cutting edge graphics and sounds you will find in online slots, as well as some huge jackpots. There’s no shortage of branded slots available to play online right now. In fact, all of the major game developers in the industry have created so many games based on popular TV shows and films, that you are completely spoilt for choice. Yet in my opinion, there are some that far outshine others. Here is a rundown of my favourite film themed slots:

Ghostbusters

Based on the classic 1984 Hollywood blockbuster, the Ghostbusters slot transports you back to your childhood. Yet don’t be concerned about the age of the film, IGT have created a slick and updated game, with superb graphics worthy of the most recent Hollywood release. The game includes all the famous faces from the film, along with the iconic theme tune. The irrepressible Slimer provides a running commentary as you play, which will keep you chuckling away as you spin. The 30 reel slot is jam packed full of lucrative features, with wilds, multipliers and 2 bonus games included. Plus, there are 4 different mystery features which can be triggered at random after any spin, providing the opportunity to win big prizes.

The Avengers

Playtech provide a wide selection of slots based on Marvel films, and in my opinion, The Avengers blows the others out of the water. The game includes all the heroes from the film, such as the Hulk, Thor, Iron Man and Captain America. Each character boasts their own special bonus round with unique features. There are a wide variety of rewarding specials, such as the Avengers Assemble on Reels feature, which pays a cool 200x your line bet. The slot is visually stunning, with cutting edge graphics that look as if they have been taken straight from the film. The game also features the Marvel mystery progressive jackpot prizes, where one of four prizes can be awarded randomly after any spin.

Jurassic Park

Spielberg’s dino blockbuster comes to life in this Microgaming slot. The graphics are outstanding and capture all the key details from the film perfectly. What’s more, thanks to the innovative parallax scrolling effects, the game is incredibly immersive and draws you right into the action. The slot provides a huge 243 ways to win and it is full of exciting features, such as the T-Rex alert mode. Triggered randomly, this feature sees the terrifying Tyrannosaurs Rex invade the reels, adding 35 extra wilds, providing the chance to stack up plenty of wins. There is also a free spins bonus round, with extra features such as mystery multipliers and running wilds which are unlocked the more times you trigger the bonus. On this page you will find the best casinos to play these real money slots along with many others.

Common Blackjack Mistakes

Blackjack MistakesPretty much every gambler I know plays blackjack. Some play it all the time, others only occasionally, but everyone I know, almost without fail, plays blackjack. The only person I know who gambles, but doesn’t play blackjack, is my old neighbour Karen who’s addicted to online slots and literally nothing else, so I think we can all agree that she’s a bit of a weirdo. Anyway, I’m getting off-track! My point was that so many people play blackjack… And yet the amount of people who play it right is actually pretty low. Now, I’m not saying we should all start counting cards like the kids from “21” – in fact, card counting wouldn’t even work if you play in online casino, such as the ones listed at realmoney-blackjack.com. But that doesn’t mean that there aren’t a few things we could be doing better when playing our favourite casino game. That way, we could stop ourselves from making mistakes like…

1. Standing with 16 vs a face card

You have no idea how often I see this mistake, and it’s one of the worst ones! If you have a 2-card 16 and the dealer has a face card, then you should absolutely hit, always! So many people stand, thinking that they’ll inevitably fail if they hit, and ultimately they all end up losing when the dealer gets practically any of the 32 (!) cards which will result in their victory. Now, it’s important to note that if you hit, getting any of those aforementioned 32 cards or a six (bringing it up to a total of 36 cards) means that you’re pretty screwed yourself, but at least you have a fighting chance. Don’t get me wrong, 16 vs face is a pretty dire situation, but the correct outcome is always to hit in order to at least have a small percentage of winning as opposed to almost none. Now, if you have three or more cards as opposed to just two, then you could consider standing, but that’s another story entirely.

2. Following the Dealer’s Strategy

Now, this advice actually sounds very good on paper – dealers always win, so do as the dealer does and you should always win! Hit on 2-16 and stand on anything above it, that ought to do it, right? Well… Not exactly. Don’t forget that you’re playing first, so if you go over 21, the game is over regardless of the dealer’s cards! The dealer can afford to place himself or herself in a situation where he or she may go bust. You can not.

3. Taking the Insurance

As you know, if the dealer gets a blackjack and you don’t have one (even if you’ve got 21), you lose. To prevent this and minimize your losses you can take an insurance when the dealer has a face card or an ace… But honestly, my advice is to simply not do it, especially not when you’ve got a good hand. Don’t forget that the chances of getting a blackjack are low for both you and the dealer, so there’s no point in wasting money on something that has a very low probability of actually happening.

Who Said Maths Can’t be Fun

It is weird to think that gambling is usually seen as a light and easy activity, not heavy on the mind and exercised by not the smartest bunnies out there. At least that’s the general overall impression. But if you stop for a second and think, most of the games of chance (and even more so the ones that require some skills, like poker) are based on pure mathematics – probabilities, chance, chaos theories – that’s all science and it can be really fascinating if you look into it. So for today’s post I’ve decided to look at maths from a bit of a different angle than the usual boring one and uncover some really interesting things about numbers. Check it out.

You Think You’re Special? Not as Special as a Deck of Cards

Shuffling cards probabilities

Now you may have heard the bizzare fact that when you shuffle a deck of 52 cards, you will end up with an order that no one else has ever had before. Ever. In history. No kidding. Now, you may think it’s crazy but hear me out. Let’s start with the first card in the shuffled deck – it has 1/52 chance of being a particular card, right? Then the next card behind it has a chance 1/51 of being any of the remaining 51 cards. Then you add another one. And another one. So the odds add up and to save you the calculation – you have 132,600 possible combinations of just the first three cards of any deck. Adding the fourth card takes that up to 6,497,400. So for the total of 52 cards that’s 8.0658X10⁶⁷ (phew! That’s 62 digits of a number. Fancy!). And to put things in perspective, we can’t really assume how many times cards have been shuffled in human history (we exclude the possibility of aliens playing to make life easier), but let’s make the odds obscenely in our favour and say everyone (and by everyone I mean every single person in the history of Earth) has been shuffling decks of cards full time, all life long, still, the number of times is not matching the number of possible combinations. So, if ever you want to feel unique and special – shuffle a deck of cards – it’s the only combination like the one you end up with for all times!

What on Earth Monty?

Crazy logic with chances of getting a winning door

If you haven’t heard of the Monty Hall Problem…well, you’re lucky and I am just about to ruin it for you.
That paradox really bugged me for quite some time. Now, it is said to originate from some American TV show. Imagine you have 3 doors. Behind one of them there’s a prize, the other two hold nothing. You can pick one. Now, logically, your chances to grab the prize are 1/3. So off you go, you take a pick. The TV host (or whatever) then opens one of the remaining 2 doors – it turns out empty. So suddenly, there are just two left, one of which is your choice already and one definitely has a prize behind it. The question is – should you change your choice? Before you go bananas, rest assured there have been quite a few scientists being skeptical and in disbelief about what I am about to say. And it took convincing them with computer models replaying the situation until it is statistically confirmed. So, point is, you do actually have better odds if you change your choice.

Most people (me included) would think that once an empty door is out the way, your chances have increased to 1 in 2 automatically. Wrong. Your door still has the 1/3 chance. It’s the remaining other one that has shifted its chances to 2/3. I know, sounds crazy but it’s true.

The Mandelbrot Set

I am going totally geeky here but hear me out. You know those crazy people that would tell you maths and numbers are beautiful? I know, you wonder how. Well this might just give you an idea and a sort of a sneak peek into the way how scientists see the subject of their interest – we see dry numbers on a screen or a piece of paper. They see this:

You probably wonder what this is. The so called Mandelbrot set is a collection of numbers with the use of a simple formula (z -> z² + c). The crazy video above is a graphical representation of that – it is not created or designed by anyone– it is just those numbers going on forever, visually represented. Life suddenly makes more sense, right?

So there. Now you can go and have a deserved rest, spin some roulette or something, I don’t know, just try not to think of the numbers behind it all, hey!

Introducing the Latest Quickspin Game – Genie’s Touch Slot

As a casino reviewer and news reporter, I have accounts at many if not most British online casinos, but when I play in my personal time, my place of choice is Leo Vegas. The reason for that is that it features the biggest mobile games selection on the market making it the best possible place for casino players like me that prefer to play on the go. Another reason for me liking them so much is that they constantly add new games and at a much faster rate than other casinos. Last time I entered the site, they had over 50 new titles, but the one that immediately caught my eye was the slot game Genie’s Touch – the latest title in the collection of the famous Microgaming-powered software house Quickspin. With the success of the other orient-themed slots such as Genie’s Jackpots, Millionaire Genie and Arabian Nights, I’m sure that this slot will soon be a hit. I would bet on it! This is why I immediately loaded the game and started playing, first for fun, then for real money. Turned out that my hunch was correct – the game is really engaging and has what seem to be very profitable features. Let me tell you more about it detail in the next few paragraphs.

Genie’s Touch Slot Overview – Symbols, Features and Bonus Round

Genie's Touch Slot Feature – A ScreenshotGenie’s Touch is a 5-reel, 20-line slot game that features 10 general symbols and three special ones – the bonus scatter, the magic lamp and the wild which substitutes for all other symbols except for the special ones. The low-paying general symbols are not playing cards, as in most slot games, but differently coloured diamonds, which is refreshing to see. The four other symbols are represented by four characters resembling the ones in the movie Aladdin. The unique feature of the game, called Genie’s Touch, is triggered when you get three magic lamps anywhere on the reels. Then, the three lamps will choose three other symbols on the reel and will replace them with the same symbol to create a bigger winning.

The bonus symbols, on the other hand, appear only on the second, third and fourth reel, and if you get three of them, you’ll receive 10 free spins. During the free spin feature, you’ll get additional lamp symbols to increase your chances for the Genie’s Touch feature. If you do get it, instead of with generic symbols, the Genie will replace the lamps and the three other symbols with wilds to secure you quite the big winnings. That’s definitely the most exciting part of the game.

Genie’s Touch vs. Other Genie Slots

As I already mentioned, the moment I saw Genie’s Touch slot thumbnail, I immediately thought of the two most popular genie-themed games: Millionaire Genie by Dragonfish and Genie Jackpots by Blueprint Gaming. Though they have quite a lot of similarities, such as free spins, bonus rounds and the autospin setting, it’s pretty obvious that Genie’s Touch has the best graphics out of the three. In fact, lately I’ve been noticing a great advancement in the graphic style of all the new games by Quickspin in general. After seeing also other new titles like Illuminous for example, I think that they are giving NetEnt a real run for their money when it comes to the quality of the games.

Anyway, back to the genie slots. As I already mentioned for the most part they are pretty similar, offering pleasant oriental music, useful playing options, big bet range and free spins. Except for the graphics, Genie’s Touch excels above the other ones with its special homonymous feature which in the combination with the free spins gives quite the juicy payouts. The only thing that the Quickspin game lacks compared to the other two games is the progressive jackpot. Oh, well, you cannot have everything, can you?

Who’s Responsible For Gambling Addiction?

Gambling addiction- casino gamesIn the last few years we’ve seen a sharp increase in gambling addiction rates across the globe. Pretty much everywhere online gambling is legal, we’re bound to see spikes in people who become medically diagnosed as addicted. That includes several states in the US, as well as various European countries, each of which has reported a dramatic spike in people with gambling addiction. Some countries, such as the UK, have even begun prescribing pills to gamblers in an attempt to curb their destructive habit. Addiction rates are getting out of control, and we have absolutely no idea how to stop them. Over the years, we’ve at least somewhat curbed cigarette and alcohol addictions (even if the rates still remain painfully high), but we have yet to come up with a plan to stop gamblers from ruining their lives. The question remains – who is responsible?

The obvious answer would, of course, be “the gamblers themselves”. After all, when someone gets addicted to cigarettes they have only themselves to blame, right? Stopping a cigarette addiction is about as easy as just not buying cigarettes anymore, right? Well, with gambling is a bit more complicated than that. Gambling, unlike most other addictions, runs on the Skinner Box principle. The Skinner Box was an experimental device created by B. F. Skinner, who aimed to study human behavior by using rats as test subjects. Imagine a rat being placed in a box with a light and a lever. Whenever the light came on, the rat would receive a painful electric shock. If the rat pushed the lever, though, the shock wouldn’t be administered, and instead they’d receive some food as reward. The rats soon managed to learn the relation between the lever and the light, and at first began pulling the lever only when the light came on. However, soon enough the desire to get the reward overwhelmed the desire for safety, and the rats began pulling the lever even when the light was not on.

The same principle applies to humans, especially in the context of gambling. We all have our reasons for starting to gamble, whether it’s because we need the money or just for fun. However, soon enough our desire to win overwhelms our initial reasoning, and we continue to “pull the lever” even if we no longer need to. The whole “Just one more spin” mentality when playing slots is directly connected to the Skinner Box model. Just like how the rats eventually got addicted to pulling the lever and receiving the food, even if there was no danger of an electric shock or even of starvation, it’s very easy for people to become addicted to gambling even when playing would inevitably hurt them. It’s in our very psychology to become addicted to things which reward us. And while sometimes this can be used for good (like using positive reinforcement in education to get children addicted to studying), it’s more often than not used as a gimmick to hook people. So don’t get hooked, stop when you can, and most importantly, don’t blame people who got addicted to gambling – they’re just following their brain’s programming.

Men vs Women in Gambling

There are some curious differences between how men and women gambleIf you look into the history of gambling, you will quickly notice that initially it was a pleasure reserved mainly for men. Well, just like many others back in the days. Thankfully this is not the case anymore and even more so now – with the internet – casinos, bingo, slots and all sort of fun are available to anyone who loves to tempt their fate every now and then. But do we all play the same? Do we play for the same reason? I was asking myself those questions and so decided to find out. This is what I uncovered in my short study of the topic.
There have been multiple detailed studies held on how gambling habits differ by gender. The main findings suggest that there is in fact a difference between men and women and they can be summarised in the following categories.

Why we play?
Men prefer to play games that more or less can demonstrate some skill – like poker for example or some types of sports betting, where logical thinking and information analysis can be applied. Women on the other hand a lighter in their choices – they are more into games of luck like bingo or slots. All that leads us to think that whilst the strong sex is out there for the win (I was tempted to call it point-proving but let’s not), women are in just for the fun of it in most cases.
How we play?
Men are more likely to spend more but still put more caution and thought. Women would throw themselves easier into risky moves but would withdraw quicker if they are losing. I can’t really make my mind up on what’s better. Women seem to be enjoying more the social side of gambling as well – either playing with friends or getting more involved in chat rooms online. Damn, are we men that boring really? The average spend for men is £94 and drops to £67 for women. As for age – guys are likely to enter a casino for the first time around 33 and ladies at 29 -what a surprise! The weird thing is that in percentage women are still lagging far behind – with 82% of gamblers being men. Time to wake up ladies!
So that’s it – we’ve covered the main differences between the genders. All that said, this is all changing daily and it is an undeniable fact that online gaming is gaining popularity across the board. Hope you enjoyed my post as usual and come back for more soon!

Playing Roulette for a Bountiful Profit

RoulettePlaying roulette, or any other casino game for that matter, can be really rewarding and entertaining. But if you want and expect to make money from that, you have two options: know your game and invest some time to find your own winning strategy or simply use one that is proven to work. But when I say strategy, I don’t mean betting strategies like Martingale or Fibonacci. I mean take the time to explore all the betting options of the roulette game that you prefer. Take for example French Roulette, where the La Partage rule raises the RTP to 98.65%, whereas European Roulette has an RTP of 97.30%. This rule ensures that users who place outside bets hold the advantage, by returning half of their bet back, if the winning number is 0. This is just one example of rules and bets that can help you make a nice profit while also diminishing your losses.

Another thing that you have to remember is that, just like working, gambling also requires resources like time, knowledge and preparation, if you want it to be as profitable as it can be, especially in the long run. This is why you should try to spread your gambling experience throughout the day, instead of playing only late at night after work, when you can be tired and easily distracted. I personally found it’s better for me to play while travelling, for example. Mobile roulette can be played on iPhone, iPad, Android Phone or Tablet, so you won’t have a hard time finding a good app for your device. The best part about mobile gambling is that you can use it both for profit and to take your mind off things in-between business meetings.

Also, make sure you know the house edge for the particular game variation that you choose, because some games have appealing at first sight sidebets or jackpots, but which significantly lower the RTP. Such a variation is Marvel Roulette, which features a special Marvel bonus and four progressive jackpots, but a much lower RTP of 95.73%. When compared to the French Roulette RTP – 98.65%, it is obvious that the Marvel game is more meant for fun and variety, then for making a huge profit, especially if you are a high-roller. High stakes players usually look for the most advantageous variation, which can bring them a solid win, especially in the long run. You can read more on the topic here. And whether you play for high stakes or not, playing roulette can indeed be a very profitable experience, as long as you play your cards right, if I can put it this way. Just make sure that you know all the rules and the betting options that can help you save time and add money to your bankroll. A good example is the Autoplay feature, with the help of which you can just sit back and enjoy the ride. Simply choose your betting pattern and set the number of spins you want to play with the same wager. The feature also includes advanced settings, which you can use to stop the Autoplay at any time, if your win is higher than a certain amount or your balance becomes lower than the set value.

These are just a few pointers and tips on how to up your game and ensure yourself a nice profit from this game. Overall, as long as you have a solid game plan and you stick to it, playing roulette will be really rewarding.

New Titles in the Game Selections of the Biggest Casino Brands

iGamingIf you play regularly at online casinos then you know that if two sites are using the same software providers, their game selections will pretty much be the same. This makes it easier for the players to get bored, as anywhere they look they see the same ol’ titles that they’ve played for years. This is why it’s very important for the every online casino to regularly add new titles to their game selection. This is exactly what some of the biggest sites in the UK do and in this article we will take a look at the newest titles featured on their platforms. The sites that we’ll talk about in this article are 888, William Hill, Leo Vegas and Sky Vegas.

December proved to be the month of the new slot games. I checked all the best casino sites in the UK and all of them had only slot games in their ‘New Games’ categories. The only exception was Sky Vegas which had added one instant win game and one virtual racing game, but all in all only the slot fans can enjoy some fresh titles right now.

So, let’s start with 888. In the past month, the casino has added exactly 10 new slots to their game selection. Most of these slots are developed by Williams Interactive (WMS) while others are developed by 888’s proprietary software house Random Logic. The new WMS slots at the casino are Bier Haus, Amazon Queen, The Wizard of Oz – Ruby Slippers, Kiss: Shout It Out Loud!, Spartacus – Gladiator of Rome and Bruce Lee. Random Logic’s new titles at the casino are Ghost in the Shell, Pirates Millions, Saved by the Bells and Steampunk Nation.

William Hill, on the other hand, has 12 games in the ‘New Games’ category all of which are slots. In the span of the last month William Hill added to their selection the following games: Sinbad’s golden Voyage, Chests of Plenty, Fortunate 5, Nian Nian You Yu, The Riches of Don Quixote, Fortune Jump, Fei Cui Gong Zhu, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Thai Temple, Jackpot Giant, Captain Cannon’s Circus of Cash and Vacation Station Deluxe. All these titles are developed by Playtech.

Leo Vegas is yet another casino that has launched only slot games, but the interesting thing is that this time around most of the new games are themed around Christmas and the upcoming holidays. Flowers Christmas Editions, Fruit Shop Christmas Edition, Happy Holidays, Ring of Slots, Merlin’s Magic, Merry Xmas and Xmas Joker are the new and exclusive holiday slots that you can play at the site. The other new games at the site are the following: Bullseye, Burning Desire, Cashapillar, Chrries Gone Wild, Family Guy, Koi Princess, Rage to Riches, Serenity, Sherlock Holmes, Star Dust and Wizard Gems. Once again the operator proved to be the most dedicated to constantly enriching its game selection.

Last but not least, there’s Sky Vegas. Here you can find 18 new games, 16 out of which are slots. As I already mentioned, one of the games, i.e. Super 6 Instant Win, is an arcade game and then there’s the virtual racing game. The other new titles are slots: Beehive bedlam Reactors, Colossus Fracpot, Imperial Dragon, Jungle Jackpots, Robo Bucks Garage, Sherlock Holmes, Pan for Gold, Adventures Wonderland, Hidden Treasures, Austin Powers, Lobstermania 2, Temple of Fortune, Jewel Strike, The Sky is the Limit, Wild Antics and Word Candy. A pretty neat selection of new titles at a pretty neat site.

Hello, World!

poker gameHi, I’m J.J. and this is my new blog about online casinos. In the past, I’ve collaborated with other online authors helping them create new content for their sites dedicated to all things gambling but this is the first time that I create a site on my own. I decided to do it because I’m a huge fan on casino games and at the same time I’m eager to find out if I can do the whole site creation and maintenance thing by myself. Well, obviously I got a hold of the creation part, we’ll see how it goes with the maintenance.

There’s one more reason which made me decide to make a blog about online casinos. I often read casino and games reviews before I decide to play at a new place or try a new game and I know for a fact that there aren’t that many useful and well-prepared resources that you can trust when making this type of decision. This is due to the fact that most of this type of sites are created with the sole purpose of advertising certain online casinos. Thankfully, though, there are some really nice websites which give you the facts as they are and these are the type of resources I will be recommending here. But back to the topic, the lack of more useful and honest resources was yet another reason to make me embark on this journey. I hope that I will manage to accomplish my goal of helping new casino players by giving them the right tools to help them make the right decisions when playing online. I plan on doing that by providing you with useful, honest and well-research articles about online casinos and casino games in general. Also I hope I get to the point where I can add casino reviews and game reviews, but it’s too early to say if I’ll be able to. One thing I can promise is that I will do my best!