Posts Under ‘gambling’ Category

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the law may actually be on its way out, as several states in the US, like Nevada (of course) and New Jersey already repealed it – with the latter having just placed its very first skill-based slots in several physical locations mere days ago.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.

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!

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!

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!