For those readers who are thinking about playing at Blackjack Ballroom casino, I present for you here the most thorough review of that site on the Internet. You may or may not have seen other reviews of BlackjackBallroom.com on the Internet, but none of them go into the exhaustive detail that we've done here. Enjoy.
The first part of this article is a list of 20 things you should know about the site before playing there. After the list I provide an explanation of each bullet point, then more information in general about the casino (including resources elsewhere on the web related to the site.)
Situations can change at any time, so please keep in mind that while this information was accurate when I wrote and published it, their situation might be different now. You can and should visit their site to confirm any of the information I've included on this page. I don't make recommendations about whether or not anyone should or shouldn't gamble online. My job is just to present information for educational and entertainment purposes.
I hope you'll agree that the information included here is useful.
Everyone who plays at any of the Casino Rewards casinos receives loyalty points for playing. Play at any of the casinos in their network applies toward this VIP club account. 100 VIP points is equal to a dollar in chips for use at the casino. All transactions with the VIP club are conducted in real time, and as long as a player has at least 1000 VIP points in her account, she can exchange her points for cash.
Microgaming is a privately owned company located on the Isle of Man. The company provides online gaming companies with the software that powers their games. Microgaming provides games for over 120 online casinos and has been in business for over a decade. They're particularly well known for their progressive jackpot network and the huge variety of slot machine games their platform offers.
Blackjack Ballroom casino offers several versions of blackjack and slot machine games. I cover those in subsequent sections, because those games have such a specific audience. But the casino also offers table games like Poker Ride (which is comparable to Let It Ride or Let 'em Ride poker), roulette, Cyberstud Poker (which is comparable to Caribbean Stud Poker), multiple video poker variations, three card poker, baccarat, keno, sic bo, craps, war, and red dog.
Actually, not all of the progressive jackpot games at Blackjack Ballroom casino are slot machine games. They offer Triple Sevens, which is a progressive version of blackjack with a side bet that triggers a jackpot payoff based on how many 7's you're dealt and what suit they are. Another progressive table game they offer is called Roulette Royale, which is a roulette game with a bonus progressive payout that is activated when the same number hits five times in a row.
They also offer two progressive video poker games, Supajax (which is based on Jacks or Better) and Jackpot Deuces (which is based on Deuces Wild). Poker Ride is another table game with a progressive jackpot, and it's based on Let It Ride, a popular land-based casino game. Cyberstud is Microgaming's version of Caribbean Stud Poker, and it also offers a progressive jackpot.
The progressive slot machine games available include:
Blackjack Ballroom offers multiple variations of multiple deck and single deck blackjack games. The best game is Classic Blackjack, which offers a low house edge of only 0.13% when played with correct strategy. You can find a complete strategy guide for this game at the Wizard of Odds' page about Microgaming software.
Even variations of blackjack like Spanish 21, Bonus Blackjack, and Double Exposure Blackjack are available.
The $500 is made available to new players who download the software and register a casino account. New players receive an email to let them know when their one hour of free play is ready. When logging into the software at this point, you'll get a button that you'll click on to get your free hour and your $500.
All of the free play takes place on a miniature version of the Blackjack Ballroom casino. This miniature version includes a timer showing how much time is left in the special offer. You can claim your winnings at any time you're over $500, but you must open a real money account and deposit at least $20 in it before receiving your winnings into your casino account.
The maximum amount of winnings you can claim as part of this special offer is $200. This amount is subject to the casino's wagering requirements, which is a 30 times play through. Slots and parlor games count 100% toward this, but other games count less toward your wagering requirements. Table poker, casino war, and sic bo only count 50% toward requirements. And video poker, blackjack, craps, and baccarat count 10% toward wagering requirements, except for Classic Blackjack, which only counts 2% toward the requirements. Roulette also only counts 2% toward the requirements.
You also have to complete 100 bets during the promotion.
The wagering requirements outlined above apply to this special offer too. But this is a pretty straightforward deposit bonus. Take the amount you deposit, multiply by 40%, and receive that amount in bonus credits. The maximum deposit bonus is $400.
The casino is available in the following languages:
Support is available via toll free numbers from multiple countries, live chat online, and via email.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is located in the Mohawk Territory of Kahnawake and was created in June 1996. They enacted their gambling regulations in 1999. Over 300 sites beside BlackjackBallroom.com are also licensed by Kahnawake.
eCogra stands for e-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance. eCogra is a nonprofit organization which acts as a standards authority for the online gaming industry. They provide a list of "approved" websites on their site. Most of these approved sites are Microgaming powered casinos.
You can review the audit information on the appropriate page of the Blackjack Ballroom website.
Many Microgaming casinos offer no download flash versions of their software. Blackjack Ballroom casino is not one of them. Most people have a fast connection nowadays anyway, and 2 minutes isn't a particularly long download time. The downloadable software is more robust and offers access to more games than the flash Microgaming casinos anyway.
The following currency types are available:
Players from the following states cannot play for real money at Blackjack Ballroom.com:
Players from the following countries are not able to play for real money at Blackjack Ballroom:
Players can deposit using the following methods:
The following methods are available for Blackjack Ballroom players to withdraw funds:
The following online casinos and online poker sites are also owned by ITS Limited. (They're also all part of the Casino Rewards network.)
I think I explained the VIP Club fairly extensively earlier in the article. The main idea is that the VIP Club is a good thing to belong to, but only if you're going to gamble anyway.
You should do some research on your own about this casino before deciding whether or not to play there. Don't take anything I've told you as gospel, because this information might include mistakes or misunderstandings. And since I do everything on this website manually, some of the information here might already be out of date.
But my opinion? I think the Blackjack Ballroom casino is about as good as an online casino gets. The bonus offers are cool, and even though the wagering requirements might seem restrictive, they're actually pretty good compared to some of the other online casinos out there. (Most online casinos just ban games like roulette and blackjack from bonus play altogether.)
Whatever you decide to do, I hope you've found some of the information in this review helpful, useful, educational, or entertaining. I went for clarity and information first when I wrote this, so I hope you weren't expecting Shakespeare.