Main Review
Bottom Line
Roulette Casino & Sportsbook is another that uses the Softec gaming package. Nothing stands out here compared to the other Softec sites. If you like the Softec package, see if their themes here appeal to you, if you don’t like the Softec package, then there’s nothing here for you. I give Roulette Casino a rating of 3.75 chips.
Overview
Roulette Casino uses the Softec Software package, and also offers a download in an adult version. The adult version mostly consists of adult images in the background of games, and adult pictures on playing cards. While I leave the merits of having an adult version up the reader, I will say that I have not rewarded or penalized Roulette Casino in any way for having it.
Roulette Casino offers language options of English, French, Japanese, Italian, Spanish, Portugese, German, and Chinese. They offer Sportsbook services, but I only reviewed the Casino portion for this review. They claim for the month of April 2000 that players won on the average 98.82%, but going through each game I find very few games that offer such a payout percentage.
Money Matters
New members get a 10% bonus on their initial deposite. For the month of May 2000, existing members are receiving a 10% bonus as well. I recommend checking back to see if they will continue this promotion in future months. Roulette Casino offers deposite options of Visa, Master Card, Discover Card, American Express, check, money wire, ecash, and bank/debit card.
Gaming
Roulette Casino uses the popular Softec software package from Starnet Communications International, Inc. You have the option to register and receive a free CD in the mail, or you can download the Roulette Casino Casino “Lite” version of the software package. This is a file size of around 5M, and you get a handful of the available games. The Adult “Lite” version is also around 5M. In order to get the complete package of 20+ Keluaran Hk games, you simply click on the “download games” button in the program, and pick which game you wish to add. This is a somewhat tedious process as each time you add a game you are exited from the server and must relogin in with your name and password to pick the next game you wish to download. Once you do this for all the games you think you’ll wish to play, you’ll never have to go through the process again though until they add something you like to their list. I will say that the day I did the download process that it was very quick and bug free compared to some of the other Softec casinos I’ve downloaded from.
Like most Softec sites, they offer 4 Java games: Blackjack, Jacks or Better Video Poker, 1 Slot Machine, and Caribbean Poker. They are the same game as the downloadable version of their software package.
The software package they use which you can download is actually quite nice. Graphics on all the games are very pleasing. I played for fun only, not real money, but you are still connected to their server, and I found game speed to be very quick for all games. The Craps game appears to be currently down at all sites that use the Softec package. There are 22 different games if you download the entire package. Overlap occurs with 4 of these being Bingo variations, 4 are Video Poker variations, 2 are slot machines, and 2 are Pachinko variations. All in all, a nice variety of games to choose from. I’ll go into more detail on each on below.
Games
Blackjack
Rating : 4.25
Min Bet: $5.00 Max Bet: $200.00
I’ve always liked the graphics and playability of the BJ game in the Softec package. Cards are dealt from a 6 deck shoe. The documentation does not mention when shuffling occurs, but I’m assuming that they are shuffled after each hand. Dealer stands on both hard and soft 17. You can double on any initial card combination. Pairs are only split once, and splitting on unlike 10 value cards is allowed. Split aces receive only one card. Doubling after splitting is allowed. Insurance is available. Blackjack pays 3:2. If you split or double and the dealer has a natural Blackjack, you lose both bets.
House Edge: 0.54%
Pai-Gow Poker
Rating : 4
Min Bet: $5.00 Max Bet: $200.00
Roulette Casino’s Pai-Gow Poker game is played from the standard 53 card deck with 1 of the 53 cards being wild. This wild card can only be used as an ace or the 5th card in a straight or flush. The house takes a 5% commision on winning hands. For example, a $5 bet will win you $4.75 if both your 5 card hand and 2 card hand beat the dealer. The other edge for the house comes in the fact that the casino is always the dealer, sometimes referred to as the banker. The dealer wins all hands of identical value. Some online casinos have gone to a method where the game alternates between the player and the casino being the dealer. The house still takes their 5% commision on winning hands, but tied hands at these sites go to the player eliminating some of the house edge. I wish there was a graphic that came up after both parties hand’s are decided upon that told what the hand values were instead of just the end result of whether the player or dealer won, or whether it was a push. This would save time having to do a quick scan of the cards to see what both the player and dealer ended up with.
House Edge: 3.%
Roulette
Rating : 3.50
Min Bet: $1.00 Max Bet: $100.00
This is the american wheel version with both 0 and 00. No en prison rule. So many online casinos offer the European wheel version with just one 0 that there’s just no reason to play this game. With a name like Roulette Casino, I wish they made this game more appealing.
House Edge: 5.26%
Red Dog
Rating : 4
Min Bet: $5.00 Max Bet: $200.00
For those unfamiliar with Red Dog, here is a description. After your initial ante, 2 cards are layed on the table, then you’re betting whether or not the 3rd card will be a value between the range of the first 2. If the initial 2 cards are identical or just 1 value apart, it’s a push as the 3rd card cannot be within their range. However, if the 3rd card makes 3 of a kind, this pays 11:1. Aces are considered high value, and face cards are considered to have a different respective value between jack, queen, and king. You are given the option to double your bet after you see the first 2 cards. Below is the payout schedule against the card spread. Red Dog is fairly fun to play in my opinion, although a bit repetitive.
4+ card spread: 1:1
3 card spread: 2:1
2 card spread 4:1
1 card spread: 5:1
House Edge: 4.%
Battle Royale
Rating : 4
Min Bet: $5.00 Max Bet: $200.00
This game consists of the player getting a card, and the dealer getting a card. Whoever has the highest card wins! If there is a tie, then you can either surrender and lose your bet, or go to battle by placing another bet in order to win the value of your initial bet. You can see the house edge here is obtained by only paying out the initial ante even though the player is risking double. If there is a second tie after the battle, this pays 3:1.
House Edge: 2.8%
Slot Machines
Rating : 4
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00 Max Number of Coins: 4
Roulette Casino has 2 Slot Machines. There names are Gold Rush Slots and Magic Hat Slots. There are two different named slots in the Adult version. Both have progressive jackpots. I was playing in fun mode, but if the screen was accurate feeding off the server at the time this was written (5/28/00), the Gold Rush Slots has a progressive of $10,000 for 4 coins at $5 each, $2,000 for 4 coins at $1 each, $500 for 4 coins at 25 cents each, and $100 for 4 coins at 5 cents each. The Magic Hat Slots machine showed similar Progressive dollar amounts to Gold Rush’s for the same coin values.
Video Poker
Rating : 3.50
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00 Max Number of Coins: 5
Roulette Casino offers four variations of Video Poker. I think this is one area where the software package could be improved. The graphics are pleasing enough, but it just needs some fine tuning. For starters, anyone playing smartly will always play the maximum 5 coins to get the higher Royal Flush payoff. I find it tedious to have to click on the coin deposite slot 5 times to start betting. It would be much easier to just have the “bet max” button equate to the user wanting to bet 5 coins instead of having to deposite them initially and then being able to “bet max”. Some casinos also have an “auto hold” feature where the computer will mark cards that make a payout hand. This doesn’t. I also wish the software would either highlight on the payout chart or notify you in text what your winning hand is instead of just the payout amount. My biggest complaint is that the payout %’s are just too low though. Below is a breakdown on the four machines they offer.
Jacks or Better Video Poker
Rating : 3.50
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00 Max Number of Coins: 5
It’s a 6/5 5K Royal machine. 95.5% payout.
Payout: 95.5%
Joker’s Wild Video Poker
Rating : 3.50
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00 Max Number of Coins: 5
It’s 20-8-5-4 2 pairs or better with 5K for natural royal. 91.9% payout
Payout: 91.9%
Deuces Wild Video Poker
Rating : 3.50
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00 Max Number of Coins: 5
It’s 15-9-4-3 with 4K royal. 94.3% payout
Payout: 94.3%
King of Deck Video Poker
Rating : 3.25
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00 Max Number of Coins: 5
This is a version you rarely see on other online casino sites. 5 decks are used (1 deck for each card column) and the payout chart I’ll post below. In the adult version, the theme is the Queen of Hearts, as opposed to the King of Clubs, but the game is the same. The odds are not terrific, however, as the “standard” payout for a video poker game of this time rewards many more payout options such as 5 identical cards and other identical suit combinations. This one doesn’t. This has a progressive similar to the slot machines. Approximately $100, $500, $2000, and $10000 for the 5 cents, 25 cent, $1, and $5 coin used. Overall payout is around 90%.
Hand Single Coin 5 Coins
5 King of Clubs 2000 Progressive
5 Kings 500 2500
Royal Flush 200 1000
Straight Flush 50 250
5 of a Kind 40 200
4 of a Kind 10 50
Full House 6 30
Flush 4 20
Straight 3 15
3 of a Kind 2 10
2 Pair 1 5
Payout: 90.%
Baccarat
Rating : 4.25
Min Bet: $5.00 Max Bet: $200.00
Everything here appears standard. Bets won on the dealers’s hand are paid 5% commision to the house. Winning tie bets payout at 8:1, but that’s a house edge of 14%. House edge on dealer bets is 1.06%, and on player’s bets are $1.23%.
House Edge: 1.1%
Pachinko
Rating : 3.75
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00
Roulette Casino has two Pachinko games, Victory Pachinko and Dragon Spirit Pachinko. There are 2 different named versions of Pachinko in the Adult version. Let me give a brief description of Pachinko. You purchase a quantity of balls at a price of 5 cents, 25 cents, $1, or $5. Then similiar to a pinball machine you shoot these balls into the playing area. The balls then move around like in a pinball machine and can land in pockets and other things which equate to you winning more balls. After you are finished playing, you can cashout your balls for the equivalent dollar amount. If this was played in real life, I could see how a player might think he has the feel of the machine as to how much pull to give to shoot the ball and might think there’s some skill involved. But to me playing in a video game format, it almost seems random where the payout percentage is determined. So in that sense it might not be any worse than playing a slot machine where you don’t know what payout percentage the machine is set to either. My personal feeling is that I don’t like going into a game not knowing what my odds are.
Sic-Bo
Rating : 4
Min Bet: $1.00 Max Bet: $100.00
Sic-Bo is played by placing your bet against the outcome of 3 dice. You can bet on a single number appearing, a combination of 2 numbers, on any triple coming up, etc etc. The house edge here is pretty substantial. I won’t give a complete analysis on all the combinations, but I will give a few. For a single number bet, payout is 1:1 for the number appearing once, 2:1 for the number appearing twice, and 3:1 for the number appearing 3 times. With 3 dice being rolled, that gives you 216 total combinations. There is 1 out of 216 possibilities the number will appear 3 times. 15 in 216 that the number appears twice. And 75 in 216 that the number appears once. Right away you see with 91 possibilities out of 216 that you’re at a disadvantage. The 2:1 and 3:1 payouts help somewhat, but the house still has an edge of 7.87%. Things don’t get a lot better with the other items to bet on. Betting on any triple pays 25:1, but with 6 possibilities out of 216, the odds are 35:1. This gives a house edge of 27.8%. There’s better games on Roulette Casino’s site to play. One note worth mentioning is that their documentation mentions a payout of 5:1 on 2 number combination bets, and if one of the number appears twice then you get paid twice. It actually pays at 6:1 when you play, and no double payout. House edge is still 3.2%.
Bingo
Rating : 3.50
Min Coin: $0.05 Max Coin: $5.00 Max Number of Coins: 6
Roulette Casino has 4 versions of bingo. They call them Crazy T Video Bingo, Crazy L Video Bingo, Crazy U Video Bingo, and Super Video Bingo. In the Adult version, they have more aptly named Bingo games. You may play 6 cards at a time. Cards can be purchased for 5 cents, 25 cents, $1, and $5. Cards have 9 slots on them. Balls are then chosen from a range of 1-30. Depending on what numbers are on your card and the pattern formed, you win a certain payout range from 1 to 100. I won’t attempt to calculate the odds on this review, but they do not appear to be anything substantial in the player’s favor. We welcome all feedback if you Bingo fans out there find this to be the place to play!
Craps
Rating : Not Reviewed
Roulette Casino’s Craps game was down at the time this review was done. (5/28/00)
Caribbean Poker
Rating : 4
Min Bet: $5.00 Max Bet: $200.00
This is standard for the most part. Dealer only plays with Ace, King or better. After you view your cards and 1 of the dealers, you may choose to fold or raise. There is a progressive jackpot if you wish to ante up the $1 extra. Payout on the progressive is 100% for a royal flush, 10% for a straight flush, $250 for 4 of a kind, $150 for a full house, and $100 for a flush. The progressive was around $10,000 at the time this was written. (5/28/00).
House Edge: 2.6%
Free Ride
Rating : 4
Min Bet: $5.00 Max Bet: $200.00
This is a fairly standard version of Let It Ride Poker. There is a progressive here as well for the extra $1 ante, and the payout is the same as in their Caribbean Poker game. You are initially given 3 cards, and are given the option to raise your bet or pass at this point and also after the 4th card is dealt. There is a maximum of $50,000 payout per hand. Like all Softec sites, the game is played by allowing you to increase your bet after your 3rd and 4th card, instead of the traditional option to withdraw one of your 3 bets.
House Edge: 2.85%
