Hollywood Casino to Offer Blackjack

March 22nd, 2013 by OBO-admin

In Perryville, Maryland, blackjack, amongst other casino games will be available for the first time in one of the state’s exclusive professional gambling operations. This will mark the first time in the history of Maryland that blackjack and other table games will be offered legally in the state.

After a test run this past Tuesday, the casino has been given the go ahead by the director of the State Lottery and Gaming Control Agency of Maryland.

Stephen L. Martino said that the casino is, “prepared to open table games to the public.”

This entire situation hasn’t come about without some resistance and challenging by a major gambling company, Penn National Gaming. Penn National Gaming owns a casino in a nearby state and, in an attempt to prevent any potential loss of business due to the emergence of a close-by casino, heavily lobbied against the expansion of gambling in the state of Maryland.

Despite its efforts, legislators approved the motions for the new casino, as this will likely generate enormous amounts of annual revenue for the state and its municipalities.

As this is the first time table games such as blackjack are available, many Maryland residents are excited to be able to enjoy their favorite games in their home state.

Posted in Blackjack News |

Robotic Dealers a New Reality

March 21st, 2013 by OBO-admin

It has always been an amazing fact that people always make discoveries and advancements to make our everyday lives easier. Household chores, office work and class assignments can now be done in a shorter time and with fewer mistakes because of machines and computers. In the recent Automate 2013 conference, a video was shown containing a robot that works as a blackjack dealer.

Blackjack has always been an all time favorite casino game, as there is simply something about chasing that magical number 21 with the hopes of beating out the dealer to earn a sizable payday. Everyone is used to seeing dealers that are either female or male, that interact with players. With the footage that showed a robot doing all of the tasks typically done by a dealer, many people will probably now think that they’ve seen it all.

Yaskawa Motoman Robotics is the company responsible for creating SDA10F. During the conference, they showed the video where SDA10F was working at the blackjack table, dealing hands with the aid of Cognex 2D. Cognex 2D is a vision guidance system that reads the playing cards and deals them accordingly.

People have a difference of opinion regarding the matter. Some say that robots will be the answer to casino issues where dealers are engaging in malicious activities while some say that they are not capable of totally hiding their reactions, which gives players an edge in the game. This can also be beneficial for casino owners since it will definitely cut overhead costs.

This is not on the final stage, however and not one casino has announced their interest in acquiring the robots just yet. This still wont stop people from thinking about what could happen in the near future. One can’t help but ask, will blackjack still be as exciting with robotic dealers?

Posted in Blackjack News |

New Mobile Blackjack App

March 19th, 2013 by OBO-admin

Improved mobile blackjack gameplay will be available this 2013 courtesy of Betfred and Playtech. The two partnered up to come up with a better and more state of the art mobile Live Dealer Casino App.

Along with the enhanced version of blackjack are the virtual roulette and baccarat tables, which Betfred is expecting will attract more online players that rely on their mobile devices for recreational game play.

The constant development of technology through the efforts of developers and operators ensures that playing in online casinos with the use of mobile devices gives an equally exciting experience one can get from other online gambling platforms.

What was barring this development before was the hardware and bandwidth limitation but it is now slowly being eliminated and high quality live video feeds to our mobile devices will soon be available. 3G devices and much better smartphones as well as tablets are now used by an increasing number of people and is in large part the reason why the demand for improving gaming features is growing.

The COO of Playtech, Shay Segev said, “It gives us great pleasure to be working with Betfred on the exciting launch of their new offering, which uses our advanced mobile live gaming technology. The mobile platform has become utterly invaluable to every online gaming business, and we are proud to be leading the market in this arena with strong operators such as Betfred,”

This is really something online blackjack players can look forward to. A much more convenient way of playing the game anywhere they want to. Hopefully it is going to be available sooner than expected.

Posted in Blackjack News |

Lucrative Blackjack Tournaments at 32Red Casino

March 13th, 2013 by OBO-admin

32Red Casino offers an excellent opportunity for blackjack players to win attractive cash prizes. To grab this opportunity, players only have to download the 32Red Casino and register a real play account there. They then have to visit the Multiplayer and Tournaments section under the Games tab.

32Red Casino runs blackjack tournaments throughout the week, so players do not have to wait long for the next multiplayer tournament. The entire schedule can be viewed on the 32Red Casino website. The schedule also includes a couple of freerolls with prize pools of $50 each, which are to be shared among the top 4 players of each freeroll.

32Red Casino, which is available in the download as well as instant play version, runs 3 major tournaments—the $500 Blackjack Attack, the Survivor Blackjack Tournament, and the Freeroll Blackjack Tournament.

The $500 Blackjack Attack Tournament is a multiplayer tournament held every week and carries a prize pool of $500. Daily qualifiers are held to give players a chance to qualify for this event. The Survivor Blackjack Tournament is a type of elimination blackjack, offering great prizes to the last players standing. 32Red Casino is also home to blackjack freerolls, which offer beginners an excellent way to win cash prizes playing risk-free blackjack.

Posted in Blackjack News |

Blackjack Expert and Economist Dies at Age 67

March 11th, 2013 by OBO-admin

The famous gambling expert, who was also a well known economist, Bill Eadington, died last Monday in Crystal Bay, Nevada.

He visited Las Vegas in the late 1960’s together with his brother-in-law. His interest in gambling initially begun with his brother-in-law placing bets at blackjack tables. He wanted to use his mathematical expertise in playing cards as he learned the game from watching. He was encouraged when they had won about $1,000 and thought of using his skills in becoming a professional gambler.

However, luck was not on his side at first and he began amassing a steady losing streak, so he proceeded to graduate school instead and headed to California.

A sociologist commented that Eadington had every intention and purposes of creating a field of gambling studies inclusive of subfields of various table games.

The American Gaming Association voted Eadington into the 2011 Hall of Fame where he joined the great company of the likes of Wayne Newton, David Copperfield and Donald J Trump.
Last year, the National Council on Problem Gaming awarded him a lifetime achievement award where served on one of their boards. It was the professor’s strong opinion and belief that groups with opposing ideas and opinions about gambling will have greater progress if they work altogether rather than criticizing each other.

He wrote in 2003. “There is still much heated rhetoric that argues on one hand that commercial gaming is ‘nothing more than a modern form of entertainment’ and on the other that it is ‘one of the most pernicious evils to be thrust onto an unsuspecting public.’ However, the reality clearly lays between these extreme public relations positions.”

Posted in Blackjack News |

Big Blackjack Games at Iowa Memorial Union

March 7th, 2013 by OBO-admin

February 21, 2013, the night of this year’s big event for the Iowa Memorial Union, The University of Iowa. The organizers promise to provide a much better, bolder and bigger Casino Night activities that will also include Blackjack amongst other popular table games. A much larger budget was created for this year’s event by the Campus Activities Board and the transformation of the IMU lounge will happen tonight at 9pm.

Last year’s event produced an attendance of over one hundred people and it was held at the Old Brick. This year, with a much larger venue, the Board is expecting to have an attendance of at least 400 guests joining in the activities. Katie Brown, the variety and entertainment director of the board said “We want students to feel like they are not at just a school-sponsored event but more of a casino-esque event.”

Brown is anticipating that the crowd will enjoy the live jazz band, photo booth, a DJ from KRUI and $1,000 worth of food. There are the usual tables for blackjack for those casino lovers who enjoy this game. There are also raffle tickets giving everyone a chance to win a $100 worth of Hawkeye gear, an Apple TC, a spa basket full of Aveda products, coffee theme basket and a lot, lot more.

Students and guests can also enjoy other available games like roulette and poker tournaments. An excited Brown said, “My favorite part is to see the final product and see people play, not just to win prizes but because they are excited to be there. The music and prizes are definitely high points of the event.” With all these preparations, there is nothing else to expect but just success.

Posted in Blackjack News |

$55,000 Worth of Chips Stolen and Found

March 4th, 2013 by OBO-admin

The man who allegedly took gaming chips worth $55,000 last Tuesday afternoon was captured and arrested after returning to the casino after just four hours. David J Blatt, from Brooklyn, NY, took the stack of chips from the blackjack table of Parx Casino in Bucks County. According to police, Blatt allegedly took the chips around 3:15 p.m. and authorities were aware of his identity when the crime was reported, however the public was not informed as they were investigating the incident.

The thief was said to have been seated at the blackjack table and reached into the dealer’s tray and took 11 $5,000 chips from it. He then left the casino and went into a waiting vehicle outside which was described to be a possibly gray, light colored, small SUV and went in an unknown direction.

The theft was actively investigated by people from the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Gaming Enforcement. There was a video of the crime scene, which led to the identification of Blatt. His identity was known to the authorities as well as the casino officials.

Blatt returned to the casino at about 7:30 p.m. that same day with the chips he took earlier. With the stolen items, he was arrested by the state police gaming enforcement officers. Everything was recovered and the thief was sent to Bucks County Prison with $75,000 bail. He was charged with 11 counts of theft by unlawful taking and receiving stolen property. A sad ending for Blatt yet a good one for the state police and casino.

Posted in Blackjack News |