Slot Machines News

Thanks to DaVinci’s Gold Casino for the heads up on this new slot machine.

Pigskin Payout is an upcoming release from Rival Gaming.  I kindof had the news leaked to me a bit early, so the slot won’t be available for play at any of the Rival powered online casinos for a few days.  It is scheduled to go live on December 1st.  The first of December is a Monday, so releasing the Pigskin Payout slot on the same day as Monday Night Football may not be a coincindence.

The slot machine itself is a five reel video style slot game.  The symbols you’ll find on the reels of this slot are right from the football playbook.  You’ll find football players, cheerleaders, a referee, a fan snack tray, and even a stadium.

 

The more powerful symbols include the Cheerleader.  In this slot, she’s WILD, and a Doubling-Wild at that.  Any winning combination that you create by using her will double in value.

The big draw to the Pigskin Payout slot machine, and what helps set it apart from the other 20 Payline video slots that are out there is the Bonus Round.  They call it the “Jackpot Can’t Lose” feature.

When free-spins are triggered, cheerleaders will fill the 1^st and 5^th reels making them completely wild. Every free spin is guaranteed to win, but with two reels completely wild on every spin, it’s even more likely to hit huge 5-icon wins.

So basically, when you finally land the Football Stadium Scatter symbols to unlock the free spins cycle, it is not a matter of hoping to land some winners, it’s a matter of how big they’re going to be

I like the idea of guaranteed rewards built into the free spin cycle of the slot machine.  I also noticed that the “return percentage” for this slot hovers at the 96% mark, at least according to the Davinci’s Gold recap of the machine [Hint: take the $22 free chip from Davinci's Gold and try the slot there.]

Another interesting twist listed on the slot description mentions that the sounds of the slot machine change completely during the Free Spins Cycle, so you can really tell that you’re in a bonus round, and not just spinning away as usual.  That’s a touch that I think will be neat.

Coins and Paylines:  I already mentioned that there are 20 paylines on the machine.  players can wager up to 10 coins on each of the paylines.  You’ll need to wager t least one coin on a payline for it to be active.

Coin sizes can vary, starting at one penny ($.01) per coin and going as high as $.25 - probably depending on the casino.

Overall: I like video slots, but I’m still a pretty simple person.  The 96% return percentage does it for me.  The guaranteed Win Bonus Round certainly doesn’t hurt.  The $22 free from Davinci’s Gold seals the deal. 

It’s worth a try when it comes online!

hey, don’t look at me, that’s what they’re calling the big Thanksgiving Slots Tournament taking place at English Harbour and Superslots.

Nov. 16th - Nov. 30th - $100,000 Slots Tournament

Well, the votes must be in. Players had a chance to choose which slot machine they wanted this tournament to be played on by voting earlier in the month.  I know that I cast my ballot.

Players chose the Reel Deal slot machine as the game they’d like to play for the course of the tournament.  Here are the numbers on the event:

Start Date: November 16th, 2008

Ends: November 30th at midnight

so, the tournament is currently underway!

There is a guaranteed $100,000 prize pool - which is HUGE.  This is not a freeroll, so there’s an entry fee to get into the tournament.  Each player involved is paying a $10 entry fee. 

I have the tournament lobby open right now, and there are some interesting things going on.  Right now, there’s a total of 554 players in the tournament.  The “Giant Thanksgiving Turkey” tournament pays the top 3,875 places. Yep - 3,875 places.

So, everyone so far has paid $10, but they’re all getting their money back in prize money.  And so are the next several thousand contestants!!

So, even though it’s not really a freeroll, it sure acts like one!

The gameplay is simple.  Everyone starts with a $500 balance on the Reel Deal slot machine.  Play until you lose it, or rack up as many credits as you want.

If you lose your 500 credits, you are temporarily knocked out of the tournament.  But, you can “rebuy”, which means for another $10 you can have another 500 credits and try again.  So it’s not as though one bad run on a cold machine dooms you to failure in the event.

If you decide you’d like to enter, there are still machines open at either English Harbour or SuperSlots.

There is some news today from the Slotland front.  In case you haven’t heard of Slotland, they’ve been around forever, and they are a casino that makes their own games - so if you see it at Slotland, you won’t see it anywhere else.

They also set the machines to pay out at 98%, so I keep my eye on them.  Anyway, they plan on launching a new slot machinein the near future - the MegaSpin game.

The only information I was able to pick up was that it should be out sometime in the next week - so look for a review of the MegaSpin game from Slotland to be coming, oh, sometime within the next week

In the meantime, the casino-wide progressive jackpot has reached the $81,900 mark.  With any luck it won’t be hit before they release the new MegaSpin machine, so I’ll have a chance at a nice holiday bonus.

I was wandering around English Harbour for a bit this afternoon at lunchtime because they’re going tobe having that big Thanksgiving Slots Tournament.

I’m not surprised when I find out that they have a few new slot machines, so I added the $5 Million Touchdown slot, and spent a little time testing it out. 

I had no idea why a five million dollar touchdown, butin looking at the paytable it says if you land five scatters while playing max paylines and max coins, the payout is $5 million.  i’m still digesting that.  you can change the coin size from a penny to a ten spot, and there’s no mention on the paytable about having to play max coin size - just max coins. 

all right, see, a little digging goes a long way.  you can only wager one coin per payline - unlike some other video slots - so they must mean max coin size.  still, i think i’ll test out the casino support team and pose a question to them on this.  see if they still stay on their toes.

they’re dancing at the moment - so on to the gameplay until they get back to me.

The slot has 20 Different Paylines, but, with coin sizes that drop down to a penny, you can take a spin with all of the paylines active for  total cost of $.20.  that’s within any slot player’s budget.

cranking the coin size up to the max of $10 per coin changes things completely.  that’s a $200 spin.  ahh - the response from the CS team is that indeed, you have to be playing $10 coin size to have a chance at the $5,000,000 prize. 

hehe, no $5,000,000 winners will be in my future then - but i wish the best to anyone who has the bankroll to play in pursuit of the big one!

many of the symbols have to land with at least three of them in a row in order to create a winning combo, so even with 20 paylines, you can run through a string of non-winners.  the good news is that there’s a WILD symbol on the reels as well helping to complete paylines.  Oddly, that’s the referee symbol.

the two big chances to rack up credits come from the Bonus Game and the Free Spins sessions.

Bonus Game - the bonus game is unlocked by landing a pair of target symbols that have “Bonus” written right across them.  they’re easy enough to spot when the land.

the game itself is a pick’em game where you work through a pyramid of options.  you start in the middle of the field, and choose a player from a row of 8, revealing a prize amount (or the fumble sign, which ends the bonus game).  if you don’t fumble, you move on to the next row where there is one player less.

try to move down the field as far as you can, racking up credits along the way.

Free Spins - if you’re lucky enough to land 3 or more scatters you’ll unlock the free spins round. 

there are 15 free spins in a round, and they can be “retriggered” - so you can hit more free spins during a free spin session.  add to that the fact that all winners are tripled during a free spins session, and you can gather up the credits.

The super sized slot tournament hailed as the WORLD SERIES OF SLOTS has come to a close.  And, there are some very happy people. 

Here is a recap of who won, and how much.  ahem, as an aside, my name is absent from the following

——–$500,000 World Series of Slots ———
        CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNERS!
 
$200,000 Grand Final - November 7th-10th
1st place Edward G. (VIP…55) $100,000
2nd place Juwarseh P. (Asr…22) $25,000
3rd place Virginia C. (Vajr…55) $10,000
4th place Dorena S. (Vajr…10) $5,000

$100,000 Semi-Final - October 2nd-4th
1st place Petteri V. (tchr…07) $50,000
2nd place Paula J. (Asr…85) $10,000
3rd place Andreas H. (Vajr…04) $5,000

$25,000 Weekly Final $10,000 Winners
Martha H. (Vajr…20)  Simon V. (Vajr…18)
Chiara M. (Asr…62)  Denny C. (Vajr…61)
Mary B. (Vajr…02) Brian H. (Vajr…80)
Afan O. (Vajr…24)  Barbara D. (Vajr…47)

Not that I wanted to write a sensational headline, but . . . I don’t want to understate it either. 

I LOVE Microgaming casinos.  They’ve been making slot machines and have been kindof the “standard bearer” in my eyes for quite some time.  Others do interesting things, and there are some things you can find at other casinos that you won’t be able too find at a Microgaming.  But, I still use Microgaming as a measuring stick when it comes to grading online slots.

Now, if you’re an American and you don’t already have an account at a Microgaming casino, you won’t be able to open one.  They have decided against allowing any NEW REAL MONEY PLAYERS from the U.S. at their casinos. 

So, to any American who will never be able to play a Microgaming slot for real money, my condolences.  They make some really good slot machines.

The flip side of this is that if you’re an american and already have an account at a Microgaming casino, you’re fine.  They aren’t kicking anyone out, they just aren’t accepting new players.

I’m not at all sure what they’ve decided to do about players who have signed up and spent time playing the slots for free as guests of the casino.  I do not know if they’ll be allowed to make deposits and become real money players, or if they’ll be relegated to “playing for fun” forever.

Either way, the news is sad for a lot of people who haven’t opened an account because now, it’s no longer an opportunity.  I’m sure things can change in the future, but this isn’t a decision that a company that powers so many online casinos makes lightly, so I’m not counting on anything changing in the near future.

No, not for the president of the U.S. - that time has already passed.  It’s time for players at English Harbour, Superslots, and V.I.P. Slots to vote for the slot machine that they want to play on during the big upcoming Thanksgiving Slots tournament they’ll be having!

When I logged into E.H. tonight that was the welcome pop-up at the casino - and I decided since I’ve already honed my voting skills, sure, I’ll cast a ballot.

The choices are:

• The Right Prize
• X Marks the Spot
• The Reel Deal
• Cleopatra’s Pyramid
• The Wheel of Chance

I’ve already played in a Wheel of Chance Tournament, and a Reel Deal one as well.  That being said, I’m not going to try to influence you one way or another - so I’ll keep my vote secret.

The tournament is going to be a $100,000 Thanksgiving Slots Tournament.  As an incentive to cast a ballot, the casino is awarding ten free passes into the tournament for ten lucky voters.

They didn’t really give much more information than that about the upcoming event.  I suppose more details will be out soon though, it’s really not that long until thanksgiving will be upon us!

I came across an offer recently that really caught my eye. It was some sort of casino player insurance where if you lose playing games at the casino, they will give you a percentage of your losses back as a VIP bonus.

That’s not a bad idea, so I did some digging on the net and unearthed the following casino cashback offers . . .

Absolute Slots Casino - Weekly Cashback

Absolute Slots has a VIP club that offers players money back should they lose at the casino. The amount of casino cashback depends on where you are on the “VIP list”. Everyone gets 5% back, but the more you play, the higher that amount goes. The players at the top of the VIP list get 25% cash back from the casino on their losses. That - is insane, it’s just a ton of money back.

Paradise 8 also has a VIP club, with a similar offer. how do you become a VIP at paradise 8? Hehe, make a first deposit of $25 or more and you’re in. That means that almost everyone in the entire casino is a VIP - and that’s not a bad thing.

SlotoCash gives players 5% cashback on their losses. That’s also a part of a VIP program, but at SlotoCash the only thing you really need to do to make enter “Club Sloto” is make a $50 deposit. That’s simple enough.

Online casinos have set up comp points systems from close to the very beginning, and they haven’t been stingy when it comes to rewarding players. A lot of casinos have been letting players cash in their comp points in exchange for money, but that’s not quite what I think of when I think of cashback.

Instead of racking up comp points for play, I’m thinking about bonuses that help cover your losses. Because face it, I can hit a hot machine and play for days, or run into a streak of ice cold machines and rack up the losses pretty quick. I’m happy about having a little something coming back in case I lose. It’s not so much about getting a very little something in exchange for time spent spinning the reels.

Poker players have been enjoying what they call “rakeback” for years now. So, it’s nice to see some form of cash back coming to the online casinos

I like eCogra, and so when they hit me with an email letting me know what they’re up to lately, I think it’s worth passing on. Here is the latest press release that hit my email box . . .

Online gaming and betting: EU private industry leads first ever benchmark study on responsible gaming practices

Brussels, 4 November 2008 - A study carried out by eCOGRA, the leading standards and player protection body in the online gaming industry, reveals that 67% of the consumer facing responsible gaming Standards implemented by the EGBA, the association of European gaming and betting operators, match or even exceed those applied by 10 of Europe’s largest gambling monopolies.

The results show that:

• 43% of the standards applied by the private operators match those of the monopolies;
• 24% exceed those of the monopolies;
• Only 4% of the standards applied by the private sector are deemed to be lower than those of the monopolies;
• The remaining standards could not be benchmarked against those of the monopolies either because of insufficient information (21%) or inapplicability (8%)

In a fast changing online environment, rigorous monitoring of the best existing practices is essential so as to allow a continuous process of updates and improvements. In this context, in May 2008 the EGBA appointed eCOGRA to carry out a study that would benchmark some of Europe’s leading gambling monopolies against the EGBA’s own Standards governing consumer protection, security and social responsibility that it requires all of its members to meet.

EGBA welcomes the results of the study that provides the first ever fact-based and comparative assessment of the practices in place at both private sector operators as well as those of government controlled monopolies.

According to Sigrid Ligné, Secretary General of the EGBA: “This study shows us that there are lessons to be learned by both the monopolies as well as the private sector. However, it also clearly dismisses the argument that private sector companies are failing to provide consumers with similar levels of protection and responsible gaming practices. In fact the evidence shows that it is the private sector that is leading the field in this important area and results are a testament to the major commitment and strong leadership of EGBA operators towards developing a comprehensive and consistent package of responsible gaming practices”.

At a time when responsible gaming is at the heart of political discussions in Europe, eCOGRA’s study gives clear evidence that two thirds of the consumer facing tools and practices in place at the EGBA members offer protections that either match or exceed those offered by the monopolies. It also shows the need for improved transparency as 21% of the Standards could not be benchmarked due to either insufficient information being available on the exact equivalent practices of the monopolies or the fact that they were not accessible.

Sigrid Ligné added: “I am confident that this study will improve the understanding of all stakeholders throughout Europe on the important issue of consumer protection and responsible gaming. From now on, it will provide a valuable reference for those making political decisions about the future of online gaming at EU as well as at a national level”.

Andrew Beveridge, CEO of eCOGRA added: “Self-regulation in the online gaming sector is an important tool and great complement to formal regulation. Legislators should seek to draw upon the considerable and effective efforts made by the private sector and promote similar initiatives throughout the EU”.