online casinos and slots

The “Online Casinos USA” website has just released a list of 100 or so of the more reputable online casinos categorised into US State listings. I know this because I bloody well spent 3 tedious days putting the spreadsheet together for the website! So I can tell you first-hand that the database contains information such as the software used, a link to each casino and a record of each US State and whether players are accepted or not.

The full list contains most Microgaming casinos, a handful of the safe RTG casinos (it’s a well known fact that many RTG casinos are less than reliable operators) along with Wagerworks and a smattering of Playtech offerings, although the latter two do not currently allow US players at all. The database is divided into pages with State groupings on each page and only includes casinos with decent reputations that are safe to play. It’s a work of art ;-)

An alternative source is the USA Casinos list at the excellent AZOC research website.

June 2008 sees the launch of a brand new Microgaming casino called “Red Flush” offering both download and Flash options, the latter of course making it a suitable Apple Mac casino playable from within any web browser. An additional benefit is that the casino accepts USA players from all but 11 States.

The Microgaming “Viper” platform forms the base for the casino which includes over 350 games. For those not familiar with online casinos using MG software that means you’ll find lots of variations of Blackjack, table Poker games, Roulette and various card games popular in land-based casinos. For slots players there is a huge choice of games…there are more in the download version than in the Flash casino it should be noted, but all the main slots appear in both. 5 Reel bonus slots are the order of the day with many “free spins” slots like Thunderstruck, Hitman, Tombraider 1 and 2 plus Read the rest of this slot article »

Microgaming’s popular but very high variance “Isis” slot has now been transformed into a Flash slot and added to the Flash casino offerings at Intertops, Lucky Nugget, River Belle, All Jackpots and, for UK and European players, the excellent 32Red.

It’s a little slower than the version in the download casino available at the places stated above, but it’s exactly the same game in all other respects. For those players who aren’t familiar with it, be aware that being high variance it is prone to very long bad streaks, but every now and again you can hit mega-big! Once I hit the 5 scatters for 600x Read the rest of this slot article »

Ok…just noticed a Microgaming slot nearly sneak past my radar the other day…Cashapilla. Naff name and another slot with a bit of a cartoon feel to it - can’t say I’m normally a fan of that type of graphic, but it’s slightly better than most to look at. Also, it boasts 100 paylines Now that normally shouts “low variance” at me, and I’m a high-variance type of guy. Give me a risk anyday. 

But I took a look and this slot is not only quite interesting for the points mentioned, but actually quite playable too. In fact at the moment (OK, it won’t last!) Cashapilla is up there as one of my first ports of call. Look…it’ll never be Thunderstruck, but it’s making a nice distraction. It’s a “free spins” slot Read the rest of this slot article »

OK I’ll try and keep this as brief as possible as there is a lot to cover. For those who get bored of reading quickly, scan down for a resumeé of those online casinos who offer the best solution for US residents or view a list of online casinos listed by US State.

But first a bit of background. In October 2006, the US passed the UIGEA, an Act designed not to ban online gambling, but to make it difficult for North American residents to deposit and withdraw. It has had limited success in achieving it’s goals…the banks are not big fans because of the fact they are now responsible for checking every transaction. In a nutshell, the law turned out to do exactly the opposite of what its protractors claimed- to “protect family values“. Clearly designed to capture the votes from the moral crusaders for a presidential campaign that floundered, it’s unfortunately backfired. I’ll explain:

What the law did manage to do was to remove many of the best online casinos Read the rest of this slot article »

Important - US players please note that IGT have implemented code to prevent players from playing their games in free play mode.  The only game available to US residents in free mode is now Cleopatra I.

Players from some other countries (UK included) can play Cleopatra II for real at, Blue Square, Paddy Power, Sky Vegas or Virgin.

IGT’s Cleopatra II slot has now been launched at various Wagerworks casinos (no surprise there as Wagerworks is part-owned by IGT)! The unfortunate anomaly is that while IGT slots are well known to US players, the laws in the USA are such that Wagerworks do not accept players from the US, so playing all these fun slots isn’t an option.

A free play version of Cleopatra II (along with the original Cleopatra slot, Wolf Run and Gems) has been launched on the Online Casinos Vegas website which specialises in providing free play versions of popular Las Vegas slot games. The game is an exact replica of the Vegas slot - high variance but with a great bonus round.

Play Cleopatra II free at the following casinos

Dedicated slots tournaments web portal, Slot Tournaments .net has created a free toolbar for monitoring online freeroll slot tournaments from casinos running the Microgaming tournaments plugin. It’s a neat little tool that (currently) works in Internet Explorer.

Installation is simple - just download a zip file, run the executable therein and it add a small toolbar to IE which shows the next tournament due and the time it starts. It also features a “countdown” which tells you when there is 20 minutes to go, then changes colour when there is 10 minutes to go. This is Read the rest of this slot article »

Well time change I guess and in the past couple of years playing I’ve seen a load more choice in the slots I get to lose my money on online…so I thought it was time I updated my “favourite slots” list! All things are obviously different to everyone so I’ll stop short of saying these are the best online slots - you may disagree. Although I am always right so there ;)

For background purposes, I live in the UK and grew up with pub fruities - this is way before the smoking ban came in but I can’t blame that on switching to online…I put that down to the fact that online you get circa 95% payback! When I went online I was unfamiliar with the Vegas style slots, but it didn’t take long to realise these are so much more Read the rest of this slot article »

Popular Microgaming slot, “Hitman” has been released to the Flash version of several online casinos including Jackpot City and Royal Vegas. Many players will know this slot - it’s proved very popular since it’s arrival in mid-2007 and has arguably the best graphics, sounds and gameplay of any online slot, yet alone those on the Microgaming platform.

For those that have yet to try Hitman, it’s a really cool themed slot game with expanding wilds and three different bonus features, including free spins (18 a 2x). While the graphics on the Flash version are a little slower, and not quite as rich as the version of Hitman in the download version, the gameplay is identical and the general look and feel is the same. Hitman’s appeal, graphics and sounds aside, is in the gameplay. As you’d expect, one of these is a free spins bonus Read the rest of this slot article »

After what seems like an eternity, Wagerworks (IGT) have finally announced the imminent release of the long-antipated “real” version of their Elvis multi-strike slots at Virgin Casino (online, Flash, no download!).

That’s the good news…the bad news is reserved for Americans in that Wagerworks casinos do not allow US players under the current anti-gambling regime in place in the USA. However, for the rest of the world, October 2007 will finally see the introduction of this superb slot, the first in what will hopefully become a full suite of multi-strike games on offer at Wagerworks online casinos.

For those of you who have played the “fun version” at LED Gaming, or who ply your trade on the slots floor at various Las Vegas casinos Read the rest of this slot article »