Articles

Update 25th Oct 2011: The first casino to use the new Nuworks software is Buzzluck Casino, operated by Club World Casinos. The slots are actually made by Realtime Gaming and not too dissimilar to their other games, so ignore the speculative “Microgaming” comment in the original article below ;)

—————————————–

Word has arrived that from next week (24th October 2011) there will be a new casino software provider on the block called NuWorks. Although details are sketchy right now, I have heard that the new NuWorks slots are very decent too - in fact my source likened them to Microgaming in look and feel.

And the great news is that the software will be available at at least 2 reputable online casinos (that I know of) that take American players! *

With Realtime Gaming (RTG), Rival, BetOnSoft and Top Game (and of those, personally I only have confidence in RTG) the only software options available to US players it will be interesting to see what the new offering provides. From what I have heard, the NuWorks casino software has been manufactured by a name that is already known and trusted within the industry too so at the moment, it bodes well.

If you bookmark this page, as soon as I have access to the NuWorks slots I will add some more information on both the games and the casinos that have them available.

* That doesn’t mean that processing options will be any better though!

This article identifies a number of Playtech casinos that have a zero reverse pending time and process cashouts quickly. 

Introduction:

I love Playtech games, especially their slots: they’ve come on in leaps and bounds since Gladiator arrived in 2009. But the Israeli-based Playtech do have a rather money-focused approach and one of the downsides is the ludicrous 96hr “Reverse Pending” period the software comes with as a default setting. It puts me off many Playtech casinos. I want to be treated properly - when I cash out I want my money promptly.

For those that don’t know what a “Reverse Period” is I’ll explain briefly: it is a period of time between you cashing out and the casino processing your withdrawal whereupon the money you withdrew is still accessible for you to “reverse” and play with. The benefits of you doing that as far as a casino is concerned are obvious of course. Most players hate it with a passion, me among them. Read the rest of this entry »

An update to WMS coming online: The Jackpot Party casino launched earlier this year and now boasts nearly 30 slot games including Palace Of Riches, Bruce Lee, Zeus, Star Trek and the Wizard Of Oz but as expected, is not currently available to US Players. In fact (as at Feb 2012) Jackpot Party is still only available to UK players.

The video above gives a quick overview of the Jackpot Party casino itself and I have also created a dedicated WMS Sots website with info and videos for the bulk of the games available along with a detailed review of Jackpot Party casino having played there myself for the past 3 months or so (and yes, it’s very good!).

I also noticed recently at the newly opened Aspers Casino in Stratford that WMS have some of their games there. Most of them I didn’t recognise although they had the Jackpot Party slot machine itself and one game that is online: Crystal Forest. I spoke to WMS last week and apparently they have new multi-game cabinets coming in mid-2012 which should extend their reach in UK land-based casinos all being well.

Soon after coming online with a number of their slot games, the Aussie-based Aristocrat slot machine manufacturer has decided that Aussie players will be blocked from 22nd June 2011 due to the grey legislation and impending changes in the laws regarding Aussie online gambling. US players are already blocked but that’s nothing unusual right now and may change in 2012 the way things are headed anyway.

Bit of a shame that if you reside down-under but the few Aristocrat games that are online (Queen Of The Nile 2, Where’s The Gold, Red Baron and more) will still be available to Europeans and players in New Zealand via the Bet365 Games website.

I will update this article if things change again.

Footnote, November 2011: Although the online versions of Aristocrat slot machines remain blocked to customers in Australia and the USA as I write, there are a few games such as Choy Sun Doa, Queen Of The Nile 2 and the popular Where’s The Gold available to play in fun-mode on the Games & Slot Machines website and it would appear that no country blocks are in place presently.

August 2011 (Article Update): Rank rebranded G casino as “Grosvenor casino”

March 2011: The Rank Group (PLC) run a number of online gambling sites including Mecca Bingo, Blue Square and Grosvenor Casino, the online front for the land-based Grosvenor casinos in the UK. Until recently, Grosvenor Casino has focused on IGT and Novomatic games in their Instant Play casino but now they have added a download casino using Playtech software and with a £20 introductory bonus.

Although Grosvenor Casino restrict certain countries from signing up (the USA, France and Germany being among them), being part of the Rank Group means the casino comes with a stellar reputation. I have signed up from here in the UK and so far, so good. I have been playing their Instant Casino for some years - games like Cleopatra, Book Of Ra, Lucky ladys Charm, Dolphins Pearl and Cleopatra 2 are present and among my favourite games and just recently I downloaded their Playtech casino as the Playtech slots Great Blue and Rome & Glory are also favorites of mine. Read the rest of this entry »

You might be intererested in a new search engine dedicated to online casino slots that recently launched. The Slotseek slot games search engine looks and feels similar to some of the everyday search engines we use except it searches a database of over 500 online casino slot games and returns a mixture of videos and online casinos that carry the game you search for.

The Slotseek database currently holds slot games from IGT (formerly known as Wagerworks), Novomatic, Barcrest, WMS, Microgaming, Playtech and RTG with Net Entertainment and Rival slots planned to be added in 2011. It also searches the Slotjunkies video slots site for videos of the slot games and displays matches.

The search engine will return partial matches and make suggestions for alternative slot games when an exact match isn’t found in the database. It also provides an “index” page containing direct links to all the slot games in the Slotseek database for fast access.

Check it out at www.Slotseek.com

This article is primarily aimed at inexperienced online casino slots players although those of you who have already played online might still find something of interest. It basically goes into detail on the fairness of online casino slot games along with the expected returns (RTP) and explains how you know which online casinos have which slots.

The Casino Software

The first thing I should point out is that the majority of good, safe online casinos licence their software from one of 4 recognised and very reputable software providers: Playtech, Microgaming, Wagerworks (IGT) and Realtime Gaming. You will often see references online to “Microgaming casinos” or “Playtech slots” for example which is primarily because the suite of games supplied by each provider is available at many casinos. Read the rest of this entry »

A brief update to this article (June 2011) is now available.

Some exciting news regarding new online slots arriving in Q4 2010: WMS, the well-known land-based slot game manufacturer best known for their Jackpot Party progressive game and who also produce games such as the Zeus slot, Palace of Riches, Wizard of Oz and the amazing Adaptive gaming slots Star Trek and Lord Of The Rings are about to launch an online casino and bring some of these games to the online community.

In Q4 2010, WMS launch a new online casino featuring Zeus (the original - Zeus II will follow probably in 2011 I’m told), Palace of Riches II, Enchanted Dragon, and Samurai Master among other games. They will also have some video poker games alongside traditional casino games and are expected to expand their slots offering as time goes on by bringing onboard some of those familiar WMS slots that you will probably have seen in Las Vegas.

Read the rest of this entry »

With the situation in the USA regards online gambling grey bordering on murky, it’s important for US online casino players to be able to get a reliable list of just which online casinos are safe, reputable places to play.

The “A-Z of Online Casinos” website has a dedicated USA Casinos section which provides information in list form for all the top, safe casino operators who take US players. You can filter and sort the lists, highlight and lowlight and save your lists for future reference. Use it and abuse it!

Read the rest of this entry »

For players that are new to online casinos and have a Facebook account, you might be interested in my new online casino guide that I recently launched there.

The intention of the casino guide is to point online casino players and prospective players at resources that will help them make decisions about where to play. It provides educational resurces, strategy guides, game videos and much more and ONLY deals with safe, reputable online casinos.

Players can interact with the articles: add comments, take part in discussions or simply read.

Check out the online casino guide at:

http://www.facebook.com/online.casino.guide