Online Casinos

Jackpots Heaven - Hmmmm…

A very interesting turn of events around the various gambling forums over the past couple of weeks, which would be amusing if were not so serious. An “online casino” called Jackpots Heaven has reared it’s head out of the notorious Costa Rica jurisdiction. On the face of it, it’s just another online casino, but dig deeper and as many forum posters are pointing out, all is not quite what it seems.

It started with a player on a forum questioning the results of a baccarat session he played there. Now being honest, it’s not uncommon to get unusual runs of luck that look out of place, but one or two other posters decided to take a look at the software to form their own opinions. What they uncovered was interesting to say the least. The first warning sign became apparent when they spotted that the casino website said it was “licenced” by the Lotteries and Gaming Commission in Costa Rica. Aside from the fact that this organisation doesn’t exist, Costa Rica itself doesn’t issue casino licences, which is why it is regarded as a very dodgy jurisdiction for online gambling.  

Online Casinos: Psychology: Reverse Times

Many players who play at online casinos will be familiar with the concept of “reversing” a cashout. This is where you get lucky, cash some money out and a little later decide to reverse it into your account to play with it. The timeframe in which you have this option following a cashout varies from casino to casino and is often referred to as the “Reverse Withdrawal” or “Reverse Pending“.

Not all online casinos implement this feature - it largely depends on the software platform they have licenced as to the policy they adopt. It is not generally a popular feature with players as this poll proves, but there are two sides to every coin and this article examines the psychology behind it, both from the player and the casino’s perspectives.  

Las Vegas Casinos Online in 09?

An interesting report/video (see below) from KLAS this week that suggests that the casinos of Vegas are preparing to look again at online gambling. Of course, we had one false start a few years back, but with the credit crunch taking it’s toll on gambling in Nevada according to a recent report, it’s not really a surprise. What is more surprising is that they didn’t follow this through years ago…the online casino industry has been booming and many see it as recession proof, which from the figures I’ve seen recently, I’d have to go along with.  

Grand Prive Casinos Turn Rogue

A number of online casino players will be familiar with the online casinos Bella Vegas, Casino Grand Bay, Lake Palace, Jupiter Club & Roadhouse Rules, but not many will be aware of the latest shenanigans involving the group. Things are not looking good here!

As if it wasn’t bad enough with the US government pushing all the good casinos out of the US market leaving the path open for all the dodgy rogues and fly-by-nights to take full advantage, now we have a previously respected group pull a stunt that has got them relegated into the rogue pit at the legendary Casinomeister casino watchdog site.

So what did they do to deserve this? Well for some years now  

Online Casinos & The USA

Since the UIGEA law passed in 2006, for many American residents the options for gambling at online casinos seem to be getting more limited by the day. Many top operations pulled out of the US in fear, leaving many shady operators with more exposure to the market - bad news for the US gambling public.

But there is some help at hand. OnlinecasinosUSA.net has a section that allows US residents to select their State and see which of the good casinos will still accept them. The list only deals with the reputable casinos (I know as I was tasked with doing the research!).

Worth checking out if you want to play it safe, but bear in mind that even if a casino will accept your bets, that is no guarantee that online gambling is legal in your State so check your laws before you play.

Here’s the link: Online Casinos By US State

William Hill, CPays and Webroute To Team Up

An interesting development in my inbox this morning. It appears WIlliam Hill casino is ditching the Cryptologic casino platform and moving to Playtech, while at the same time merging with the infamous CPays brand and the lesser known offshoot Webroute Services.

Interesting and probably good too. For those that don’t know, CPays are a very aggressive and generally unpopular online casino operator who manage a few brands. I’ve never liked them myself - they are happy to have spamming affiliates and do whatever it takes to get players and keep them, and complaints are numerous. Whenever I came across a website with their brands on I intuitively knew the affiliate cared more about their commissions than about the players they were trying to inform. They are very closely linked to Playtech and recently, Webroute Services appeared  

Top 10 Online Casinos

As a regular player who has played way more online casinos than I care to mention, I thought it would be a neat idea to put together a list of my Top 10 for UK players. As I live in the UK I feel well qualified enough to justify my choices, so I stuck the full list up at Casino UK. Clearly any list like this is going to be subjective, but at least I can say I have played at them all and know my way around.

Many of the names you will know, but a handful you may not and there are some very good reasons to check them out. I think I might follow this up with a list of 10 casinos not to play! Ooh…controversial!

Incidentally, none of the casinos on the list will take US players.

Aladdins Gold Casino (Was Aladdins Palace)

A new online casino has launched this week. Aladdin’s Gold Casino ( I keep spelling it Alladins Gold d’oh!) is a new RTG (Realtime Gaming) online casino that is  part of the successful Club World Casinos brand. Now personally, I am very wary of new RTG casinos as they have a reputation for being less than strict who licences them, but in this instance, bearing in mind Club World’s good reputation, I think it’s going to be OK.

From what I read, it’s got all the games but is finding it’s feet. Not many players have stumbled across it yet so it’s difficult to know just how it will perform, but  

Ladbrooks? Ladbrookes? Uh-uh…try Ladbrokes!

Looking through some stuff on the web today and it amazed me how many people mis-spell “Ladbrokes”. Apparently last month there were over 60,000 Google searches for “Ladbrookes” and nearly 50,000 for “Ladbrooks”. It made me think how the Internet has changed branding concepts.

I mean back in the day, pre Internet, no-one probably thought twice about naming a brand with a pronunciation that sounded different to the spelling. But these days, potentially it not only allows traffic to bypass you, but also opens the door for competitors to capitalise. Or in Ladbrokes case, affiliates. That said, I notice that ahead of all the mis-spellings when you search on “Ladbrooks” or “Ladbrookes”, the real Ladbrokes still come top. But that’s largely down to Google’s intelligence I guess.

And even more amazingly we recently had the much hyped launch of the “Cuil” search engine (pronounced “cool”). Well I would have thought that, while clearly original, the name “Cuil” is going to miss out on some traffic. Ironic it’s a search engine, and even more ironic than on the day it launched, it didn’t even appear on the first page of it’s own search results.

Anyway, there you go…my thought for the day.

King Neptunes Casino Joins Belle Rock

Just received a mail from a casino I used to play at - King Neptunes - to say that they have been brought under the Belle Rock Entertainment brand banner. King Neptunes was part of the excellent Trident Lounge group but a while back was sold (with Trident Lounge Casino) to Carmen Media. No surprise here bearing in mind carmen own Belle Rock, who in turn manage the Carmen casino brands Jackpot City, Lucky Nugget, Gaming Club and River Belle. Good Microgaming casinos - like Neptunes - with a long and pretty solid history. The only downside is that BR support is pretty slow - it takes me anything up to 12 hours to get a response on a bad day. Otherwise, a pretty positive move.