Blackjack trickster

The casino has advantage when it comes to bets. And it differs based on the type of a game and strategies applied.

When it comes to slot machines, including online and mobile slots, the house advantage can be as high as 10%. That’s when playing at legitimate casinos. Ending up in an illegal betting den, or wagering via Internet in Nigeria, is as good as taking the money out and burning it with a lighter. Better to do it than to feed the crook.

When it comes to roulette, the winning odds are slightly better and come around 5%. Still, it makes it difficult to win, unless being quite lucky. But then a wager can be multiplied by a factor of 35, or so. Roulette is a game of fun, or for hardcore gamblers.

Speaking of craps, the house advantage varies greatly. It can go from 0.5% percent when betting on odd or even number, or can rise to several percent for bets on specific combinations.

Now, enter the game of blackjack. Here the casino advantage can be as low as 1%-2% when an experienced player sits at a table. When the cards can be counted, the player can even win consistently.

Types of Gamblers

Why would people want to gamble anyway if most lose? There are three types of gamblers. At the bottom, there are problem gamblers, or those who are even willing to sell their wives into prostitution, as well as their kidneys, to raise funds for betting. Those are deranged gamblers and they need help.

The second group is the largest and is composed of everyday Joes who come to a casino to play for fun, hoping even to win big, but being realistic. That is called responsible gambling. Some of them even hit bigger jackpots.

The third group is, by far, the smallest, but it is a deadly herd. Among these are professional poker tournament players or gangs of blackjack card counting gurus, best of whom make millions of dollars from gambling within their lifetimes.

There is also another group, which is also professional, but has crossed the barriers of the law. These are all kinds of scam-artists, tricksters, and crooks who specialize in ripping people off. Those hyenas need to be avoided at all costs. Often, illegal gambling is infested with these monsters. So, be careful. Don’t gamble on the sidewalk.

Customs detain HTC

US customs are delaying the HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE smartphones ahead of the American launch due to Apple patent violation.

The much anticipated HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE heading for the American market via AT&T carrier are being delayed on the US customs apparently for violating Apple patents. However, recent news, dug up by mobile casino games experts, suggest these smartphones aren’t even employing Apple patents.

The AT&T versions of the Android casinos monsters, HTC One X and EVO 4G LTE don’t feature the data tapping, as their international counterparts, and this particular feature seems to be the cornerstone behind ITC orders to detain the phones on the customs.

Just as a reminder: this particular feature allows tapping on email addresses, numbers or links in messages and reveal a menu of options. This interface has been patented by Apple on the US market.

The international versions of already highly popular with mobile casinos regulars HTC smartphones, bring out a list of applications associated with a particular link, when you tap it. But, the American versions of the phones will launch one of the apps once you tap the link, and in case you want to change what app needs to be started with a particular link, you’ll need to go to the Settings menu.

We, here at BlackjackChamp.com, are fully supporting HTC in this matter, since it’s clear that the US versions of the two most powerful HTC phones so far are not violating the Apple patent in question. However, the American release date of the phones still lies in the hands of US customs, which must decide if they are letting the smartphones through or not. Stay tuned as we continue to cover the story as it unfolds.

New online slot

Slotland Casino adds a new, retro-style game to its impressive gaming portfolio.

The Greatest Hits online slot is a 5 reel, 19 payline game with a music industry theme. The players can collect gold and platinum records in order to multiply the payouts for up to five times.

Three Disc scatters will trigger a bonus round where players get a chance to promote their records, and if these top the charts, the winnings get multiplied. The game is offered as a no download for quick access to spinning.

Slotland Casino offers multiple games such as quality online blackjack, video poker, and online slots. The games are unique and not to be found anywhere else as the company has its own proprietary software.

This is in contrast to many other online casinos which use providers such as Microgaming for online and mobile casino software platforms.

The members can also access smartphone casino games via iPhones, Nokias, BlackBerries, and Android-operated systems.

Slotland Casino offers first deposit bonuses, reload bonuses, frequent promotions, and loyalty points to keep its members satisfied. Progressive jackpots are available to give players a chance at scoring big with a single spin.

Casino entertainment

Due to improving economy and consumer sentiments, the gambling revenues in the Unites States rose last year.

The biggest increase happened in Maryland, but is attributed to the opening of two new casinos within the state’s borders, as international gambling news report.

Pennsylvania also experienced solid growth but neighboring New Jersey suffered, especially Atlantic City, a town ridden with crime, prostitution, and crack cocaine and heroine addicts, some of which are former gamblers who didn’t succeed, just like fallen Hollywood-star-wanna-bees. In fact, gambling revenues in the Garden State dropped by 7%. Some casino industry insiders are hoping that the opening of Revel will turn things around.

Overall, the 2011 gambling revenues in the United States reached $35 billion. This is the second year in a row that gambling industry gets to see a rise in revenues.

In the US alone, over 20 states have issued licenses to commercial land-based casinos. The upcoming legalization of the Internet casinos in America is expected to profoundly affect the revenues of these land-based casinos as some of the wagers will be done online.

The online casinos are well known for providing casino cash hand-outs and frequent promotions to attract new players, while retaining current members with loyalty points.

The rise in revenues is definitely making casino executives happier, but they must not rest as the growth opportunities lie in the smartphone casino gambling and now the ones with superior technology will see the growth in revenues.

Desire C gambling

Mobile gamers can now rest assured: HTC Desire C is a reality and it’s everything they’ve been waiting for.

The latest mid-range mobile casino gambling tool from HTC – Desire C gets announced officially. The specs are you usual run-of-the-mill, but quite enough to make mobile gambling experience pleasurable.

The features start with Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box and continue with Sense 4.0 UI, Beats Audio, but without the headphones. Playing mobile casino games is carried out on a 3.5 inch LCD screen with HVGA, and all this is packed into a 12mm thick highly durable metal frame.

The HTC Desire C is running on a Qualcomm Snapdragon S1 SoC with a 600MHz CPU. Other features that Android casino pros will find useful include a 5MP snapper with f/2.8 aperture and 34mm focal length. 4GB of internal memory with inclusion of a microSD card and 25GB of Dropbox space for 2 years are a big plus.

Connectivity is taken care of by 3G with 7.2Mbps HSDPA, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi-Fi and USB 2.0. The 1230mAh battery capacity is quite enough to allow long mobile blackjack playing sessions. And there’s also talk of an NFC-enabled version of the smartphone later on.

The new HTC smartphone will come to Europe in Polar White, Stealth Black and Flamenco Red color options. Available pricing information so far suggests EUR 200 in Romania, EUR 220 in the Netherlands and Portugal. British gamblers will be able to lay their hands on the HTC Desire C starting early next month and will have to cough up GBP 170 for a SIM-free version.

EURO2012 Betting

The football fans and punters need to be very, very careful when attending the events in Ukraine.

What is amazing is that the two hosts of the upcoming Euro 2012 Football Championships, Poland and Ukraine, are quite different countries. Poland is part of the European Union, while Ukraine is not, and not likely to be. Moreover, the distance between the west of Poland and the east of Ukraine is quite large, unlike that of Switzerland and Austria, the hosts of the previous tournament.

That is not the biggest problem, though, as the sports betting news portray. The problem is that in Ukraine the international mobile charges can be quite large. Polish mobile operators, on the other hand, are required by the European Union to keep international roaming charges low.

When, for example, a British spectator arrives in Ukraine, making or receiving mobile calls there can costs as much as $50 a day, if not more. Data access in Ukraine is quite expensive as well, making sports betting via smartphones prohibitively expensive.

Indeed, the mobile charges can account for as much as $300 a day if the users don’t connect to local Wi-Fi. This certainly affects Android and iPhone mobile gambling from within the state borders. That doesn’t worry too many Ukrainians anyway as such bets over these devices aren’t legal for them, and haven’t entered the mainstream yet.

Anyway, in addition to Ukraine and England, Group D consists of France and Sweden, and the same charges apply to the punters coming from these lands. Meanwhile, the teams in Group B – the Netherlands, Denmark, Germany, and Portugal – also play in Ukraine. The final will take place in Kiev as well. So if your team plays in Ukraine and does well, and you happened to have the tickets, be careful when using your mobile there.

Wanna Bet?

If fraudsters fake the currency, why not fake casino chips?

The casino chips can range from small to large denominations. When it comes to high roller card games, such as baccarat, chips worth $1,000 each are petty bets.

The main difference when it comes to playing at a traditional casino and playing online is that with land-based casinos tangible chips are used. This motivates many casino fraudsters to produce exact chip replicas and putting them on a table to make bets. After all, the dealer doesn’t touch them, and busy and inexperienced dealer can be easily suckered into accepting fake chips.

As the latest casino fraud news report, a Indonesian national decided to manufacture $500 and $1,000 baccarat chips in China, which later he bet at a Macau baccarat table. The strategy backfired twice. First, the bets were losing ones and the man lost half a million dollars during a single baccarat session. Second, he got caught.

Jailed for 32 months for the fraud, the man is also facing charges of possessing immoral pornographic videos. Local Muslims even call for trial under Sharia Law, which could result in lashing and cutting of a right hand for stealing.

The fact that fake chips with high denominations were accepted at a high roller game already makes multiple criminal gangs buy real casino chips, which later are re-engineered at Chinese manufacturing plants and smuggled into Macau where mules bet them at casino tables for a cut in profit.

This makes the gangs of card counters look like angels.

LG Optimus 4X HD

LG decided to put out two smartphones to go against Samsung Galaxy S III, the Optimus 4X HD will certainly attract mobile gamers.

LG is determined to make Samsung’s smile disappear, not one, but two smartphones will try to go against the Galaxy S III soon. We have already introduced the first one, LG Optimus LTE2, in our LG Optimus LTE2 to Battle Galaxy S III for Mobile Gaming Supremacy article.

Now it’s time for genuine mobile casino games pros to learn about another one: LG Optimus 4X HD is shaping up to be a strong contender featuring an impressive list of specs starting with Android Ice Cream Sandwich out of the box.

Android casinos performance will certainly be boosted by the quad-core NVIDIA Tegra 3 CPU, 4.7 inch 720p IPS LCD screen, 8MP snapper, and 2140 mAh battery to power it all. The phone was initially presented at the start of the year at MWC.

Approximate release date for this monster is said to be somewhere next month. The first markets to get the smartphone in Europe are Great Britain, Germany, Sweden, Italy and Poland. Other markets are expected to follow soon after.

Nothing is known yet about the pricing policy, but expect the LG Optimus 4X HD to cost around the same amount as the Samsung Galaxy S III would. Wireless carriers may have a deal or two ready for you by the time the smartphone hits the shelves.

Internet crime

All kinds of troublemakers, criminals, and parasitic elements have been troubling the Internet businesses since the beginning. Now, the parasites take on online casinos.

As reported by online gambling news, the Internet criminals are seeking new victims and have been taking on the number of online gambling sites.

Although the security at quality online and mobile casinos is high, the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have resulted in heavy traffic at selected online casinos, slowing down response times. In exchange for stopping DDoS, the extortionists are demanding payments, which ask for $50,000.

As many security insiders know, paying money to blackmailists will only have them keep on coming for more.

As Prolexic Technologies disclosed, the trend in these types of illegal activities is growing. Prolexic happens to be a firm specializing is protection against DDoS. As CEO of Prolexic, Neal Quinn, stated:

“The online gambling industry should be on high alert. This appears to be a coordinated global threat.”

Such attacks can make the players experience a halt when playing remote casino games such as mobile slots or roulette. When a wheel of roulette freezes the outcome of as bet is not known for a while, although good casino software will bring the wager to an end.

Whatever happens, the extortionists must never be rewarded. It’s like negotiating with the terrorists.

Gambling in America

The fate of online gambling in America has been harsh.

First, when online casinos started operating in the Land of the Free, the industry expected to profit handsomely. Then, the Unlawful Gambling Act in 2006 destroyed the online betting in the United States as international casino news report.

Some offshore sites were still able to operate. But, the law, which once let them do business, turned upside down in a manic depressive way, and went on cracking down with full force. The American poker sites such as PokerStars and Full Tilt Poker were shot down and owners charged with felony counts.

Even recently, the US government has cracked down on Bodog, an online casino which offers multiple games such Internet blackjack. Bodog’s site in the United States has been seized, although its international branches still operate.

Now, the Justice Department has turned the previous illegal gambling ruling upside down and is stating that the online casinos shouldn’t be banned in the US. This is sparking a massive deal-making in the casino industry, where the game makers are teaming up with land-based casinos, and acquisitions are taking place, such as the purchase of social gambling software maker, Playtika, by Caesars Entertainment for $90 million.

Another massive deal involved a purchase of a small 70-employee company, DoubleDown Interactive, by IGT for $500 million.

There is also craze involved when it comes to mobile casinos and games. What is emerging is a vision of unified gaming conglomerates combining land-based casinos, online casinos, mobile casinos, and social gambling on sites such as Facebook or Zynga.

So far, only Nevada has legalized online gambling, but other states are looking into it as well. This will allow remote wagering to take place within intrastate borders until the Congress gives a go at a Federal level. But exactly when will this happen? No one knows for sure.