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Picking a Casino for Online Blackjack

Online BlackjackOkay, okay, yes, I know – we typically only cover slots here. It’s what we do! We’re the Slot News Publication, after all, so what the hell are we doing talking about blackjack?! Well, the thing is, blackjack has recently seen a sudden and, honestly, quite unexpected resurgence in popularity among gambling players. I have no idea why that is, maybe somebody somewhere won a gigantic payout from online blackjack that I never heard about or something, but honestly, it doesn’t matter. What matters is that, for whatever reason, a metric ton of gamblers who, until recently, only dabbled casually in slots, have started to experiment with card games. That’s who this post was meant for – amateurs who are only used to playing slots and really know very little about other games, but still have a healthy interest in trying blackjack. If you’re not among them, feel free to click away now. There will be plenty more articles about slots in the near future, I promise! If you are, however… Keep reading!

So, the big question remains, namely, how do you pick an online casino that you can use to scratch that blackjack itch? There’s two ways you can go about it. First, there’s the lazy and convenient way, which involves just sticking with what you know and playing blackjack in the same casino where you also play your slots. Keep in mind, there’s nothing wrong with being lazy, and I have no idea why the word has such negative connotations (in fact, Bill Gates was quite fond of his lazy employees). In many cases, the lazy way is actually more convenient, since it allows you to just do what you actually want to do – play online blackjack for real money – without caring much about the specifics. And let’s be honest here, guys, most online blackjack games out there aren’t that different from each other. If you don’t want to get super serious about online blackjack, or just want to dip your toes into it before you jump, the lazy approach is just fine for you!

The second option involves actually doing a lot of work before you can dive into it. You need to research various online casinos while specifically paying attention to their online blackjack components, and of course, that takes time. Why is this better than the lazy approach, you ask? Well, it’s because some casinos are better than others in certain aspects – Casino A might provide hundreds of slots with awesome RTPs, but their live blackjack service might be absolutely dreadful, while Casino B might specialize in blackjack, but provide only a handful of slots. It’s the reason why most hardcore online gamblers often have registrations in more than one online casino. And, as an added extra, you’d also get a pretty nice deposit bonus as a new member which you can spend on blackjack alone. Thankfully, places like @blackjacksites.info have already done a LOT of research for you and are able to provide you with options you can choose from, but in case you want to do your own work, you should generally be looking for live casino services (number of rooms, quality of connection, limits, etc), number of blackjack variations, blackjack RTP (it should be somewhere in the casino certification – the higher the percentage, the better) and, of course, how big the bonus is (casinos with deposit bonus that’s exclusive for blackjack are preferred). So, with that said, go and have some fun playing online blackjack!

How To Select A License To Adapt Into A Slot

Roll the diceToday we’re going to be doing something a little bit different from our usual bouts of news reporting and slot strategies outlining! Instead, I’d like to delve a little bit into more creative waters and address not the people who are playing the slots, but those that are making them – companies such as PlayTech, Microgaming, NetEnt and others (though I hope that even players will be interested by what I have to say). Consider this an open letter and a helpful guide, from a concerned citizen. First of all, I love your work, seriously! You guys are the best! But for every great decision and awesome slot you make, there’s at least one that I don’t particularly agree with. If you play real money slots online, you’d notice that the most popular ones are ALWAYS, without fail, licensed. NetEnt has their AWESOME “South Park” slots, Microgaming has their “Jurassic Park”, Playtech has their “Avengers” and the rest of their amazing Marvel slots… Overall, at their best, their licensed properties are amazingly creative and hit all the right marks, which in turns results in profits and popularity.

But then there’s the licensed slots that aren’t exactly going to be a surefire hit, to the point where one has to wonder whose idea they were. Playtech, for example, recently announced that they would be making slots based on the 2011 “Green Lantern movie and the 1966 “Batman” TV show starring Adam West, which certainly made me scratch my head. I mean, “Green Lantern” was a massive flop, scoring a 26% approval rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes (coincidentally, the exact same score as the recently release “Suicide Squad”, which further proves that DC are literally unable to make good movies that aren’t directed by Chris Nolan – and even then there’s a 33% chance of failure). I’m fairly confident in saying that NO ONE wants a slot based on that abomination. Same goes for the 60s “Batman” – while not bad for what it is, it’s just way too goofy and campy for today’s audiences which are used to a more series, brooding Batman. But the worst offender has to be Microgaming, who won this solely by virtue of making a slot based on “Bridesmaids”. “BRIDESMAIDS”! WHO ASKED FOR THIS?!

I know that slot development is serious and expensive work (especially when licenses are involved), and as a result there’s only so many slots that can be made. That’s why I’ve taken it upon myself to provide a few very quick, very easy steps on how you can select the right license for your slot:

  1. Pick names and brands that are widely recognizable and will catch the eye of people. “Game of Thrones” is a widely recognizable name, and many would play the slot just based on it alone. “Hitman” is not – despite being a successful videogame franchise, both of its movies bombed hard, and right now a casual person on the street wouldn’t know a thing about it.
  2. Pick properties that would appeal to the same demographic that also plays slots. “Jurassic Park” was a great choice, because many of the people who saw it as kids are now old enough to both be nostalgic about it and pay to play slots.
  3. Pick properties that can translate well to the realm of slots. We’re talking a unique visual style, lots of characters, you know it. Technically, you can make a slot out of “Les Miserables”, but it probably wouldn’t be very interesting. Give me a slot based on “Guardians of the Galaxy”, though, and I’d play the hell out of that.

See? It’s just three small, short tips that will hopefully help you pick your licenses just a little bit better. Hopefully this little article of mine will eventually make its way to the computer of someone who actually has some kind of power over what licenses get picked and what don’t, but even if it doesn’t, it was still an interesting exercise in creativity that I hope you found useful!

How To Tell If An Online Slot Is Worth It At A Glance

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Online slots are literally the most popular casino game ever in terms of sheer quantity, with hundreds upon hundreds of them gracing the front page of even the most basic online casino. There’s so many that you could literally be playing a different one every day and you wouldn’t have tried all of them in a year in your average casino! It’s nuts! Unlike blackjack and roulette, which only have a couple of versions with very clear differences between them (protip: French roulette is best roulette), you’d have more luck counting a Yeti’s butt hairs than all the different versions of slots! Sure, you could try playing them all one by one until you found something you like… But ain’t nobody got time for that! So how are we supposed to find the best online slots in the shortest amount of time?

Well, I did some research, and honestly, most advice that sites give is extremely useless. “Check the slot’s RTP” is a common one, which would typically be good advice if it wasn’t for the fact that almost no slots openly display their RTP within them, so unless your casino is one of the few that displays individual RTPs for their games plainly, you’ll need to look that up. Another advice I really love (and by “love” I truly mean “laugh harder at”) is “Play the slot for a while and take a note of your winnings”. I can’t even begin to list all the things wrong with this statement, so let’s just caaaaaaarefully push it as far away from us as possible and focus on things which are actually feasible, alright? Now, listen carefully – I’m going to teach you how to tell if a slot is worth playing at a glance. You can load it, look at it, spend maybe 10-15 seconds on it and then decide if it’s worth a shot. Sounds good? Let’s get started.
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First and foremost – graphics do matter! Slots typically have very tight budgets, so a slot that actually looks great despite that will undoubtedly fare better than ones that look like they were drawn by a kindergartner. If the graphics look terrible to you, you’re better off staying away and finding yourself something else to play. Second – paytable! The paytable (which you can often access by clicking the “Info” button, or its counterpart) gives you plenty of info on the slot – bonus games, extra features, jackpot, etc. The more extra stuff there is, the bigger the paytable. As a result, you should try to aim for slots which have really big tables – slots with one or two pages, or without any at all, are typically not worth your time. And last, but not least, make sure that you’re actually able to play the slot when you start it. What I mean by that is that you should always check the values of the bets that you’re allowed to make on. Some slots have crazy expensive requirements (also known as “high roller”), and others may not quite go as high as you want them to. Make sure the values are satisfactory to you before you play!

Checking those 3 things takes maybe a couple of seconds, once you learn how to do it quickly. If the slot passes the initial tests, then you can look up its RTP online and give it a couple of spins to see how it holds up. If not, the search keeps going!

DC Slots By Playtech To Be Released Soon

logo-pullIf you’re even remotely interested in online slots at all, then you’ve certainly heard of the famous Marvel slots. Don’t pretend like you haven’t, I can see straight through you! I mean, come on, “The Avengers” was not only one of the most successful movies of all time, grossing over $1.5 billion at the box office, but it was also one of the most popular and most profitable online slots ever released, in the territories where it was available! Aside from it, there have been over a dozen slots based on Marvel characters like Iron Man, Captain America, Wolverine and more, most of which have actually been really good. What you may not have known is that all of them were developed by Isle of Man-based developed Playtech, who had a long-standing deal with Marvel to develop slots based on its properties (US-based developer Cryptologic also had the license, but Playtech is by far the most prolific and recognizable name in that area, especially in Europe).

Sadly, things just weren’t meant to last. While many of you may not be aware of this fact, Disney has an extremely strict anti-gambling policy, to the point where gambling of any sort is banned on its cruise ships and the corporation is the biggest opponent of gambling being legalized in Florida (where its biggest theme park, Disneyworld, is located). So when Marvel was purchased by Disney in 2009, obviously things weren’t going to last for Playtech. While contracts couldn’t be terminated, Disney simply allowed them to expire, with the aforementioned “The Avengers” being among the last Marvel slots Playtech ever made. For a couple of years, the company was forced to stay away from the world of licensed superhero slots… But earlier this year some developments have allowed it to return.

Just like Disney owns Marvel, their biggest comic book rival, DC, is owned by Warner Bros – except that deal has been going on for a whole lot longer. Warner Bros, unlike their more family-friendly counterpart, has absolutely no qualms about reaping the immense profits from gambling. As such has extended a helpful hand to Playtech by offering to license four of their DC properties to be turned into slot machines, namely the first two “Superman” movies starring Christopher Reeves, the more recent “Man of Steel”, the 2011 mistake known as “Green Lantern”, as well as the 1966 “Batman” TV show with Adam West which you might remember for being extremely hilarious. Honestly, while I’m not a particularly big fan of “Man of Steel”, I do believe that the “Batman” TV show might make for a PERFECT slot, with its beautiful color palette, the huge cast of characters and the inherent silliness… And I guess I’m also quite curious to see how Playtech will honor the legacy of the first two Superman movies, which, way before “The Avengers” or “X-Men”, proved that superheroes can carry a big-budget Hollywood movie on their own.

While there’s no release dates available for this new batch of Playtech slots, the first one is expected to hit sometime within the next few months, and reception and profits from that will likely determine just how quickly the rest get released, and whether other DC movies (like the more recent “Batman V Superman” or the upcoming “Suicide Squad” and “Justice League”) will get their own slots as well. Here’s hoping – if there’s anything “The Avengers” has shown us, it’s that big team-up movies make for excellent slots!

Welcome

slot-machine-2Online slots have changed a considerable amount since their introduction on the market in the mid-1990s. Originally, nobody suspected that such an endeavor could possibly be even remotely financially successful. After all, things like reliable algorithms, lots of computing power, indefinite browser capabilities or even a stable internet connection that didn’t go away when somebody picked up the phone (I can’t be the only one who still has nightmares about dial-up) seemed like amazing future inventions! For a time, it seemed as if the only place where you could play advanced video slot was – where else – the casino. But, just like videogame arcades, once able to provide players with experiences unmatched anywhere else, eventually gave way to home consoles, so, too, did online slots technology soon catch up to its video slot counterpart. Today, in 2016, you can play slots that match or even outshine those found in physical locations. Masterpieces such as “South Park”, “The Avengers”, “Gladiator Jackpot”, “Aliens” and many, many more are currently only available for people who have chosen to spend their evening (or whatever time of day they’ve decided to play during) in front of a computer screen, a phone or a tablet playing online slots rather than going out to a real casino.

We at Slot News Publications are here to celebrate that fact. We’re proud of where online slots are right now, and we’re also extremely curious to see where they go next! As such, we decided to create this blog where we can monitor their development. Here you can find all of the latest online slot news, as well as reviews, strategies, recommendations and other resources. We hope you’ll find our blog informative and entertaining!

-The (small, but dedicated) staff of SNP