Blackjack Ballroom

Mini Baccarat Review

Game: In Baccarat you and the banker receive two to three cards to get a point value as close to nine as possible. You have to correctly guess whether you or the banker will win, or a tie will occur.

Odds: In baccarat the best bet is on the banker (bet that the banker will win) and the fewer the decks used the better the banker bet gets. Since Blackjack Ballroom Casino uses only one deck, the house edge on a banker bet is 1.01% (it would be 1.06% if played with six or eight decks). Dealt and played using "standard" rules, if you win by betting on the banker, the bank receives a 5% commission (Land-based casinos take 4%).
The single-deck house edge on a player bet is 1.29% (where the six / eight-deck house edge on a player bet is 1.24%). These differences in percentage do not seem large, but they do have a considerable impact on play in real life.
A winning bet on a tie pays 8:1 which results in an house edge of 15.75% on tie bets (14.44% when using six and 14.36% when using eight decks). Anyway, you should avoid betting on ties at Blackjack Ballroom Casino since there are online casinos offering 9:1 payouts on ties which lowers the house edge to 4.8% on tie bets.

Set: The table limits are set to $1-$1000 which is excellent since betting limits are considered to be important when playing baccarat and high betting limits are certainly positive.
 

Blackjack Review

Game: In Blackjack each card has a point value. You first get two cards, calculate their value and decide whether to draw more cards or not where the maximum total points allowed is 21. The dealer does the same thing. You try to be better than him (draw closer to 21).

Odds: 1 Deck is used which is excellent, because as less decks are used as more easy it gets to keep track of the cards and to estimate your chances correctly via card counting. The cards are shuffled after every round though. The house edge is about 0.1% which again is incredibly good. Anyway, Blackjack Ballroom Casino also offers a multi-hand game with the same rules, except 5 decks instead of 1. This results in a house edge of 0.57% which is not good enough to play.

Set: You can play only one hand at the same time which is a pity since it is a great pleasure to play more than one hands at the same time.  The dealer stands on A-6 which is standard. Doubling down is allowed only on 9, 10 and 11 which is standard for land based casinos whereas online casinos usually allow you to double down about any first pair. Still: it makes the game more authentic this way. You are not allowed to double down after you split a pair though. Again, there are online casinos that allow doubling after split. You may split pairs to 2 hands only which is below average really: many other online casinos allow you to split cards up to 3 or 4 hands. Split Aces may be re-hit though, which rather is a rare feature and taken into positive account. The dealer does not peak (check for Blackjack) until all players are finished, so if the dealer does have a Blackjack then all players will lose the total amount they've bet, including any additional money from doubling or splitting (this is called "European hole card rule") which is very tough for the player and advantageous for the casino. Insurance is offered if you think that the dealer might have a blackjack. No surrender is available.

Betting Limits are $1-$200 and $1-$2,000 after asking for permission. This certainly are the best betting limits you will find online. There are only little online casinos letting you wager as high as this on blackjack.
 

Craps Review

Game: In Craps two dice are thrown by a player. If he rolls a 7 or 11, he wins. If he throws a 2, 3, or 12, he loses. If he throws any other number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) he continues throwing the dice and hopes that the same number will be thrown again before the 7 comes up. When the 7 comes up first, he loses. You can bet on the player or the house.

Odds: Blackjack Ballroom Casino offers 1x odds: if you bet $10 on the pass-line (bet, that the player will win), you can increase your original bet after the dice have been thrown by 1x the amount you bet. This is called "wagering behind". To wager behind is what a good craps player will do and a criteria of a good craps game is how many odds the casino offers you to wager behind. As the amount of allowed odds increases, the house advantage decreases considerably. The house edge is 0.85% / 0.68% (pass-line / don't-pass-line bet) when offering 1x odds - as Blackjack Ballroom Casino does, 0.61% / 4.5% when offering 2x odds - as some casinos do, and 0.47% / 0.34% already when offering 3x odds - as only very little online casinos do. (Land-based casinos sometimes offer up to 100x odds).
All place and proposition bets to win pay according to standard rules.
The "lose bets" pay 2-5 on the 4 and 10, 4-7 on the 5 and 9, and 4-5 on the 6 and 8. The house edge on the "lose bets" are 6.67% on the 4 and 10, 5.71% on the 5 and 9, and 1.82% on the 6 and 8.
The field bet pays 2:1 on both 2 and 12.

A good strategy for craps would be to always wager behind.

Set: Winnings always get rounded down to the next dollar so be sure to bet in correct increments. The table limits are set to $1-$99.

Keno Review

Game: There are 80 numbered balls. You pick some numbers. 20 balls are drawn. You win of course as more of your picks match the numbers that were drawn.

Odds: There are two types of keno: a) paying you good already when you match only a few picks (therefore decreasing the payouts for matching many picks) and b) paying you good only when you match many picks (therefore decreasing the payouts for matching only a few picks). You have to decide where you prefer to play. I'd play only the a) type. Blackjack Ballroom Casino is the a) type casino. The average payout here is nearly 95% (92.85% for all 15 picks and 94.12% when not counting the pick 1 which always pays 75% only). This payout ratio is excellent since both land-based and online casinos generally pay back about 70% - 75% on average.

The best bets are on pick 7 and 13 both offering a return of 94.93%.

Set: You may pick 1 to 15 numbers, bet $1-$10 per pick, and play 1, 5, or 10 games at a times.

Summary: Overall, Blackjack Ballroom Casino offers returns ranging from 92.09% to the high of 94.93%, except for the Pick 1, which always pays 3:1 for a return of 75%. This payout ratio is excellent. Betting limits are excellent as well.

Caribbean Poker Review

Game: In Caribbean Poker you place an ante (bet before game starts) and after having received five cards decide whether to compete against the dealer or not. You simply compare cards. The better hand wins.

Odds: The basic house edge for this game is 5.21% which doesn't make it look competitive compared to other casino games. American Roulette has the same house edge though. Anyway, Blackjack Ballroom Casino changed almost every payoff per hand, making a two pair hand pay only even money (1:1) but increasing the payoff on everything from a straight to a royal flush, lowering the house edge to 5.01% and making it one of the best Caribbean Poker games you can find online.

The strategy for Caribbean Poker is quite simple: you should raise on any pair or better and fold on anything less than ace/king.

Set: Usually online casinos offer a side bet of $1 for which you will receive an additional payoff for certain paying hands (flush or better). This extra win is based on the value of your own five-card hand, not on the hand of the dealer. So even if the dealer beats you or does not qualify you still get the bonus payoff. Blackjack Ballroom Casino does not offer such a side bet. Actually a shame.
The table limits are set to $1-$50.

Summary: Caribbean Poker actually is a sucker bet (bad bet / not worth a try). But if you want to play it, play it at Blackjack Ballroom Casino. There is no side bet offered and the table limits are awfully small.

European Roulette Review

Game: A wheel with pockets numbered 0 to 36 is spun in one direction. A ball is spun around the wheel and as the ball slows, it drops into one of the pockets of the wheel. You bet on which pocket the ball will drop into.

Odds: This is an 'European' single-zero roulette (with only one zero on the wheel) which sets the basic house edge to 2.7%. That's actually far better than the American roulette version which usually has an incredible basic house edge of 5.26%. But Blackjack Ballroom Casino doesn't use any additional rule to put you in an even more favorable position, so the house edge stays at 2.7%.

If you prefer to bet on one of the inside bets once in a while, you really should play European roulette, since the house edge is 2.7% on all bets. But if you are an outside bettor, who likes to bet on high, low, red, black, odd or even only, you should play an American roulette version offering the "la partage rule" since it offers slightly better odds for those bets (2.63%).

Consider that inside bets offer far better payouts than outside bets, so bet the middle 12 once in a while. Generally the best idea is to bet on the streak that is running at the moment (e.g. if the last number was red, bet red).

Set: The betting limits vary according to the type of bet. For example, they are usually $1-$10 on a single number bet and $1-$80 on an "outside" bet.
 

Slots Review

Game: Slots are machines with three to five wheels with symbols on them, spinning downwards when you pull a lever at their side or similar and coming to a stop after a few rounds of spinning. If the symbols align you win.

Odds: It is difficult to calculate the payout probabilities of slot machines without knowing how many times a certain symbol appears on each real. You could sit in front of the slot machine, pull the lever 1,000,000 times and write the results down or rely on the information that Blackjack Ballroom Casino gives you. They say their payouts were to find somewhere at 95%. If this is true than it's a good place to play slots at if you are interested in payouts only.

Set: Another reason for playing at Blackjack Ballroom Casino is that their jackpots get big at all their progressives. A number of online casinos and sister casinos are linked to another and pool their resources to make available the biggest jackpots online. New casinos are joining this system and continuously adding to the overall jackpots. The jackpots range from $10,000 up to $300,000 and more. There are more than 40 slot machines available. Six of which are progressives.
Blackjack Ballroom Casino offers 11 slot machines, two of which are progressives. The betting denominations are $0.25, $1, $2, and $5.

Video Poker Review

Game: In Video Poker you receive five cards and decide which ones to change (only once) in order to make a good poker hand. As better your hand as better the payout gets.

Odds: Blackjack Ballroom Casino features a set of nine different Video Poker machines, almost all of them offering a very good payout.
Their 'Aces & Faces' video poker machine for example offers 8/5 and a return of 99.26%.

Set: The coin denominations you wish to play are 25c, 50c, $1, $2, or $5.

Summary: Overall, video poker and slots seem to be Blackjack Ballroom Casino's best games and even one of the best among all online and land-based casinos.