Online Casinos: Results of Year 2008. Part Two

Unfortunately, in the end of the year the Microgaming played a dirty trick on American gamblers, i.e. all casinos with this software stopped accepting new gamblers from the US (as a result of the problems with Kentucky). It was rumoured that gambling would be prohibited for all the American in general, but the existing US players could still play on their old accounts at most of the Microgaming casinos.

The RTG still accepts the American and it is going as usual. Some good and moderate casinos were bought by a Norwegian company which made them work with new software putting the emphasis on the poker. Generally it may be said that no serious change was made.

Though the Playtech has not being accepting USA casino players for a long time, it's going well. The company publishes in glowing colours their press-releases on record profits. The poker network grew up to the largest one (only a couple of independent rooms runs ahead). Some new casino clients appear, some of them are absolutely new, the other are oldies. Thus, several Cryptologic casinos (and pokers) made a switchover to the Playtech software platform. The first to do it were Omni and The Sands, and William Hill established a joint venture with the Playtech having obtained its software and some casinos for management (for today an old Cryptologic and a new Playtech casinos still work).

Online casinos with Cryptologic software are going downstream and rather quickly. The company declared its great losses according to the results of the year. They lost most of their clients. The company took decision to close its own poker network, the mortal remains thereof should join the network IPN/Boss Media. There is almost no new casino appearing, except for the CasinoJoy. Now the company's backbone is InterCasino, plus they sell the rights on their slots to Marvel comics. As a whole, the situation with this software is just frightening. The casinos are good, they have a convenient deposit and withdrawal options, good monthly bonuses, the software and the games are deemed to be the best ones... But the license policy failed the company, alas.

New rising stars are appearing on the US gambling horizon. The newcomers are trying to take an advantage of the leave of leading casino software suppliers from the American market. Thus, in these latter days such software suppliers as Wizard Gaming, Top Game actively promote themselves, but they still didn't win the gamblers' love. However the company Rival was really successful. The casino with this software appeared in 2006 only and within two years their number was over twenty. The casinos accept players from USA, they offer up to 70 games putting the emphasis on the slots. The slot machines at the Rival are really rather interesting and innovative. May be, now we are witnesses of the birth of a new star in online casinos' heaven, but may be, it's only a comet which will shoot along and fade...

Gambling Online Magazine and some gambling portals summed up the results of the years. The community of gambling companies have nominated Casino on Net as the bets casino of the year 2008. Probably the most respectful portal Casinomeister for the sixth time named the best the casino 32Red (Microgaming). Casino software suppliers such RTG, Microgaming, Rival, Cryptologic were also ranked among the best in different nominations and at different websites.

For the purpose of promotion some online casinos began offering games where the house has no advantage over the player (i.e. games with zero mathematical expectation). Here the pioneer can be the Bet Voyager, the second one was Betfair "Zero lounge" - where the house has no edge. Among the games there are popular ones such as the roulette, blackjack, video poker and baccarat is offered. Usually these games have some restrictions on the limit of the table but nevertheless they should be interesting for the players.