Casino Software Reviews

[FairCasinos]

There are various software companies producing casino software. The software is customized in some way and licensed to the online casino owners. The four most popular software companies in terms of total player base are likely to be Microgaming, Playtech, Cryptologic and Boss Media.

You may be wondering what happens if your computer crashes in the middle of a bet. Currently, a computer or internet crash in the middle of a bet doesn't cause you to lose your bet with any of the mentioned software. The game is always restored where you left off when you log back into the casino. In the past, Total Entertainment Inc. and other lesser known software companies such as Radiate did not have this facility but this is now rectified.

Microgaming:

There are several versions of Microgaming software. The latest version known as Viper has 'autoplay' options. The older versions are more suitable for blackjack players due to the lower casino edge of around 0.1% for the single-deck game. The new Viper software no longer has single-deck blackjack.

A no-download Flash version is also usually available but requires a lot more computing power to run well enough. Unless you are still using a computer over five years old, you should be ok.

Common problems:

Although the casino doesn't really use it much, you must have Macromedia Flash installed for Viper to run at all.

Those users running older windows platforms such as Me or 98 will likely encounter resource issues sometimes if a lot of other apps are open or the OS is low on Windows handles (technical term) for other reasons. It may manifest in different ways such as cards not showing (showing blank) or even the wrong cards showing in some cases! Closing other apps should help but it may be necessary to reboot.

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Odds On:

This software is quite low tech but works quite well. It definitely may grow on you. The blackjack edge is very high at over 0.7% but I wouldn't worry too much about this as the edge difference between this and other software in the short term will not be very significant. If you plan to play a lot, I recommend Microgaming single deck if you can find it.

Common problems:

You have to be extra careful with this software when you press a button in your casino game because it doesn't wait for you to let go of the mouse button inside the selection area to activate the selection. This is more serious than it sounds so don't get caught out.

You may have problems starting the software at times. It usually works eventually but may hang sometimes before it really starts. Also it doesn't handle disconnections from the internet well and is likely to hang then too. You will then have to close the program from the task manager 'end task' (press ctrl+alt+delete to do this) and run it again.

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Real Time Gaming (RTG):

This software is extremely fast to play. The download is also very compact. However, many RTG licensees are poor quality and have outstanding player complaints. If you search for RTG inside this forum, you'll see most of the casinos in the dumped section!

Common Problems:

Extremely susceptible to resource leaks suggesting software bugs or poor programming in this area. In older Windows versions you are bound to encounter these problems which manifest as increasingly slow play and erratic mouse movements. Whereas Microgaming's problem in this regard isn't progressive, with RTG it is and the more you play the worse it gets due to these leaks until you have to either restart the software or the operating system.

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Cryptologic/Wagerlogic:

This is quite a hefty download. There are several versions available. Unlike the casino software already mentioned above, there is a multiplayer facility. The software is written by Wagerlogic which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cryptologic.

Intercasino.com is the original casino site utilising this software. It is now one of the most popular casinos and you will often see many players playing there at the multiplayer tables. You can also chat but this often makes you wager more than usual.

I've not had much luck there in recent months but I think it's fair. In newer versions from the last couple of years, there is a 'log viewer' facility which lets you keep a record of all your bets. This including details such as card values. This makes it difficult for cheating to occur because the play logs are easily analysed.

There is also a no-download Java version which works reasonably well.

Common Problems:

Often users have trouble installing but the CD versions can be obtained for free and those are usually easily installed.

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Boss Media:

This software has slicker graphics than the others but hasn't been developed much in the last few years in terms of looks. It has multiplayer support in most versions (there is also a single player version which some licensees have which I presume is cheaper for them to license) but many of the casinos are usually quite empty.

A very annoying problem is that once you place a bet (even in single player mode in current versions) there is a time limit to place decisions (at least in blackjack). This is user definable but by default is only about 30 seconds. This means that if you get distracted with a bet on the table, you will be likely to lose your bet! Cryptologic handles this differently by moving the player to a separate single player table if the player is taking too long in the multiplayer table and there is no real time limit for decisions.

Common Problems:

Similarly to Odds On software, this software often has problems starting up and may hang at times. You will need to 'end task' as described for Odds On.

The software also requires quite a lot of internet ports to operate correctly. Any 'zone alarm' type program could take up too many of these and also it's advisable to close web browser windows not in use.

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Chartwell:

No-download Macromedia Flash software that works reasonably well. They recently released a new version with single-deck blackjack games. I will give more details when I find out about it. I've had a lot of recent experience with this software and although it wasn't very impressive, it was ok.

Common Problems:

The software progressively slows down necesitating a restart of the casino game. I'm not sure what the problem is but this isn't an operating system issue because it affected my play using Windows 2000. I've also heard of software freezes on earlier operating systems.

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Playtech:

This software company has had recent unfair criticism regarding it's Video Poker. Someone analysed data from the video poker and I'm not even confident that a valid method of analysis was used. Even if it was valid, it in no way showed it was rigged like many people claim.

Playtech has become more popular since it was launched a couple of years ago and many Microgaming casinos and other big names have switched to it.

There has been controversy regarding a deal it struck with Mike Craig of the OPA and this seems to be one of Playtech's only mistakes.


Common Problems:

Although most software plays just as fast on dial-up as with a broadband internet connection, Playtech downloads other games in the background whilst you are playing it and this greatly affects game speed on dial-up internet connections. This is so much of a problem that it's almost unbearable to play until all the extra games have been downloaded. Broadband users will not really notice this problem. Some older Microgaming versions also had a similar problem but was nowhere near as noticeable and didn't affect game speed too much.

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more to come............