Casino News

The year 2011 has bid adieu, leaving cherished memory for the online gambling world. A lot of activities took place till the last minute of the previous year. Several brands finished a decade of operations. Some casinos extended their games to mobiles like iPhones and iPads. Some others gave away these dream gizmos as prizes. The Beach Life progressive slot touched $6 million and more in jackpot. More such applaudable events rocked 2011.

The New Year Gambling Scenario

The year 2012 has descended with a fresh aura of jackpots and wins. Watch for new and more challenging games. Get ready for progressive jackpots that promise a big payout and attractive promotions. Check out the new Skrill service by Moneybookers this year. It seems they are busy building the ultimate payment solution for players who can use it for depositing and withdrawing money in their local currency. This comes with a deposit bonus, all the way safeguarding players’ privacy too.

The European gambling market, though, has decided to make the most in 2012. Denmark intends to welcome with open arms online casino operators with license and regulations this year.

When talking of new gambling activities in 2012, it’s impossible to leave behind the debate of legalizing gambling in the United States. It may or may not become legal this year.

The UIGEA, in 2006, banned online gambling that took place inter-state and cross-state borders. But, intra-state gambling is allowed. Also, players need to be 21 years or more of age to gamble. Each state harbors its own views and regulations when it comes to gambling.

For example, New Jersey is not happy with prevalent online gambling inside the state’s borders. On the other hand, Nevada, which harbors Las Vegas (the casino capital), has opened to online poker. The State has allowed online lotteries, online casinos, and online poker to sell tickets to players on the web. Sports betting is an exception, which is under separate Wire Act of 1961.

Recent action by the Nevada Gaming Commission suggests that the state is on the verge of regulating online poker and working in favor of casinos. The new rules allow licensed casinos to expand their business online. The regulation has also opened doors to technology companies to enter the online gambling market of Nevada.

Gambling and the US

The United States may continue with its ban of online gambling. But certain states within the US have decided to move beyond bans and look at online gambling with a positive perspective. Certain states consider gambling as one of the best ways to clear off state debts, whereas others simply wish to give its players free and legalized version of online gambling.

Come what may, 2012 promises to usher in a change in the online casino and gambling industry. This change is waiting to occur across the world gambling market. The year 2011 had its share of ups and downs in the gambling world. Now, the New Year is set for bigger trendsetting and breakthroughs in the making, thanks to the shifting outlook of states toward online gambling.

Wishing you a jackpot New Year!

Come every Wednesday and Virgin Casino would launch a new online game. This happened throughout the last year, and in keeping with this unique trend, this year too, on the first Wednesday of January, it has come up with the new Crazy Slots game. The casino says this game promises a lot of fun and depends mostly on chance. It has been given a unique structure. There is one master reel with three vertically arranged spots in a strip. As the player begins his game, the reel will spin to a particular position which shows three symbols. At the bottom are four slots in three reels each that will not spin. The player will have to select any slot to give the master reel combination, and once this has been put in place, a new combination comprising three symbols will appear again on the master reel. This combination then has to be placed in one of the other slots remaining. So, the player will have to put symbols in slots in a manner such that whenever all the three reels have been completed, he gets winning combinations in pay lines. The player will also be given hints throughout the game. Once a slot gets filled, a player can get points when three of the identical symbol happens to appear on any one of the pay lines. With all 12 combinations getting placed, the sum of all points is taken and when sufficient points are accumulated, the player is awarded matching rewards.

Virgin Casino also comes up with some fantastic bonus offers. When nine similar-looking symbols appear in a slot, a player gets 200 points. The Crazy Sots logo is one of the symbols. And when three of these come on a single pay line, the spins feature gets activated and points from here are added to your game total. Each of these slots has five fixed pay lines comprising two diagonal lines and three horizontal lines. Other game symbols are the Red Star, Plum, Lemon, Blue 7, Strawberry, and others. To get a payout, a player must have accumulated a minimum of 100 points. The size of the payout depends on the size of the bets placed.

Sloto’ Cash promotions

The host of Sloto’ Casino, Vaughn, came up with some exciting promotions for this year. This promotion news was notified to his players through an email. According to this email, Sloto’ Casino promises to deliver far more entertaining games this year which will enhance the player’s winning chances. To begin with, there is a bonus offer. To be eligible for this, players must deposit a minimum of $20 between January 3^rd and January 5^th. The eligible participants can then contact their representatives for getting $50 credited to their respective accounts. This was the first of the many New Years gifts promised by Sloto’Casino. Besides the bonuses, there are many slots tournaments being arranged every week. There will be daily freeroll tournaments with $20 prize pools. There are also going to be weekend tournaments with higher stakes. When the collections seem to be escalating, there are plans to increase the prize pools as well. The most popular slots currently are Field of Green, Basketbull, and Lucky Last.

During the whole month of January, Crazy Vegas casino will be holding freeroll tournaments. Although the prizes are not very huge, the tournaments guarantee fun time and give the players a unique chance to build their bankrolls. The tournament will begin at 8:00 GMT and every tournament can have as many as 3000 players. The prize money is valued at 100 pounds which is to be shared among the top 5 players. The structures for all the tournaments basically remain the same, though the parameters may vary from one game to another. Every player is given a chip stack and a definite wagering period. This is free and players can get more coins and more time for a nominal charge until they have achieved their desired scores. These freeroll tournaments have been based upon online slots which are among the best Microgaming has ever come up with. Whereas the Avalon takes the players back in time to the days of King Arthur, the Hitman slots is based on the same titled Enix video game. Thunderstruck finds its inspiration in Thor who is the Norse God of Thunder and the symbols here are fabled rams, hammer, and thunderbolts. Another branded slot game is the Tomb Raider which has adventures of the popular Lara Croft. Finally, there is the Ladies Nite game which is for the adventure-loving womenfolk.

Carnival Promotions in InterCasino

One lucky player from InterCasino will actually have the royal opportunity of attending the Rio de Janeiro carnival scheduled for this year. This unique promotion launched by InterCasino can actually lead you to Rio for this amazing carnival. The $4000 prize will cover your trip along with your partner with four-star accommodation facilities and even tickets to Sambadrome. There is an additional prize of $8400 in casino credits. This promotion will take place in two definite phases – the first from January 4 to January 16 and the second from January 17 to January 29. The first is the Warm Up phase and the second is the Rehearsal Phase. A player needs to give his bonus code for one segment, and once he places a wager of $25, he gets a ticket for that segment prize. When he pays an extra $25, he can earn an extra ticket. The one who gets the first position get $1000, whereas the second and third place winners get $500 and $200, respectively. Every ticket that is earned is then passed onto the lucky draw to get the winner of the Carnival Holiday prize. This carnival promotion has other attractions too in the form of slot games like the Samba Nights. This game has 50 lines which display a bevy of beauties that dance across your screen. You can win cash prizes and freebies in this game. The players who have got at least a single ticket for the promotion can attend the Samba Nights event. InterCasino has been powered by Cryptologic and has got the license to operate from the Malta-based Lotteries and Gaming Authority.

Casino Tropez had released many scratch cards the previous year which had themes based upon the popular online slots. When scratch cards and slots share similar kinds of themes, they are bound to generate more attention among the players. This increases traffic to the online casino automatically. During the first week of January, Casino Tropez similarly launched three additional scratch cards. Among these, two have been based upon earlier slots, but the third one has been launched before the release of a branded game. It is expected to be like a teaser and popular expectations are already at a high where this new game is concerned. Spamalot by Monty Python had 14 nominations in the Tony Awards and it went onto become the Best Musical. The scratch card basically stands for this musical’s essence and is essentially an animated adaptation. It displays all characters in the Holy Grail cup and the background music is by Spamalot. One of the symbols is shown with the payout, and when any of the six spaces in the card displays the designated symbol, the player gets the payout. These symbols are all caricatures of knights and the players who are well-versed with the Spamalot kind of music can easily identify these. Another popular online slot at Casino Tropez is the Irish Luck and this scratch card has no resemblance with the original slot game. The Night Out card is again very interesting where the Night Out bar has a total of nine spaces. When there are three matching symbols, a player wins. The symbols that pay the most are the three slot game girls followed by symbols like the beer and cocktails. Casino Tropez has been powered by Playtech and enjoys licenses in Barbuda and Antigua.

Playtech and its New Games

Playtech has released a long list of new games include arcade games, scratch cards, and table games. Out of all these, the video games have emerged as the most popular. Out of the new games, Fishing Buddies is a slot game which allows as many as five players to play it simultaneously. There are two level bonus rounds and every player gets to choose an animated 3D bear to be his avatar. Every player will have to wager independently but is allowed to view the wins of others. The main game has a rather innovative Fish a Crab feature. The faster you can play the main game, the greater are your chances of winning larger prizes in the first level of the bonus game. The depth of this bear’s fishing lines shows a player’s progress. The deeper this line is, the faster the game is for the other player. When any of the players becomes too slow, the bear he owns falls asleep and the bonus game goes on without his participation. The next video slot is the Desert Treasure II where the symbols are the same as in the original version, except that they are better crafted here. Some other unique changes have been introduced without altering the main essence of the game. The symbol of the golden cobra in the new game becomes an expanding wild symbol. This time it does not give payouts, but the earlier 10,000 coin payout a player could get through this symbol is not entirely lost because it gets taken over by an Arab symbol. All these new games are live at Playtech casinos like Casino Tropez.

Right before the New Year celebrations rolled in, Mega Moolah which is a progressive slots launched by Microgaming, witnessed a hit on the 28^th of December, 2011. This grand prize was being eyed by millions as it was steadily growing in value and due to approach the two billion mark soon. The final hit was slightly less than the two billion mark and once again the slot has begun to climb after being reset to a one million value. Side by side, Major Millions has also been growing for quite some time and is all set to emerge as the most lucrative online jackpot powered by Microgaming. Those playing these slots typically do not turn into overnight millionaires, but the next player who can hit the jackpot is sure to become one. Among the other lucrative Microgaming slots is the King Cashalot online slot which is a little above 300,000 in value. The jackpot here was recently hit in May, 2011. Another one called Treasure Nile had its jackpot hit a month back and currently is valued at 139,770. In December, LotsaLoot was hit about three times, whereas WowPot registered several hits in both November and December. The Fruit Fiesta was last hit in December and the CashSplash registers frequent hits too.

Super Secret Bonuses by Slots Jungle

For those who are not keen to get emails informing them about casino promotions, they may have lost out on the chance to avail of some of the fantastic offers that have been made during the festive season by the online casino websites. For instance, Slots Jungle Casino had made some excellent offers of bonuses through emails to their members. These Super Secret Bonuses are available for the special players who have subscribed to the casino’s mailing facilities. There are three special bonuses, of which two are for placing wagers on slot games and the third is for wagering on any table game. Of these, the Secret Slots Bonus value is highest and players can get bonus equal to 400 percent of any deposit made by them. The Secret Slots Bonus 2 gives players a 300 percent bonus on any deposit. Those players using both of these bonuses are entitled to receive a minimum of $30 free once they have played here. The higher the amounts the players deposit, the more cash they can win back. The third and final bonus is Secret Tables Bonus where players can deposit an amount of their choice and get bonus that is 150 percent of the amount deposited. The redeeming coupon can be used twice. The email urges the players not to delay in playing and using up these bonuses because there are many million dollar plus jackpots to be won. Out of these jackpots, the Jackpot Pinatas is valued at $1.7 million. This was once hit about five years earlier. The next high one is Aztec’s Millions valued at $1.4 million, whereas the third is Shopping Spree and Midlife Crisis, all powered by Realtime Gaming.