Real Time Gaming Software Review

Real Time Gaming downloadable software is fast, fun, and easy to use. All of their casinos seem to offer bonuses of 10% or more to new players, up to a bonus of $250. The customer service and payment processing is usually very fast. Among their most competitive games are single zero roulette and full pay jacks or better video poker. Casino Merlin offers full pay deuces wild. Each casino may select their own slot and video poker payback but all seem to have full pay jacks or better. The only nuisance is that you have to fax in a copy of your credit card and drivers license for a withdrawal of $500 or more. Table game limits are $5 to $500, slots and video poker take coinages from 5 cents to $5.

Baccarat

Tie pays 9:1, six decks of cards. House edge of 1.06% on banker bet, 1.24% on player bet, 4.93% on tie bet.

Blackjack

The default rules are as follows:

• Two decks
• Dealer hits soft 17
• Double on any first two cards
• Double after a split
• Split two times (to three hands)

The house edge under these rules is 0.41%.

The casino operator may change the number of decks, at least one has been seen to use more than two decks.

The following table displays the basic strategy for Real Time Gaming casinos. To use the basic strategy look up your hand along the left vertical edge and the dealer's up card along the top. In both cases an A stands for ace. From top to bottom are the hard totals, soft totals, and splittable hands. In the body of the chart are color coded cells that indicate the best play: H=hit, S=stand, D=double, P=split.

Caribbean Poker

This is the same game as Caribbean Stud Poker. The rules and the pay table are as usual. No side bet is available.

Let 'Em Ride

This is another name for Let it Ride. The usual rules and pay table are used. A $1 progressive side bet is available. The side bet pays $50 for a flush, $75 for a full house, $100 for a four of a kind, 10% of the meter for a straight flush, and 100% of the meter for a royal flush. When I checked the meter was only at $1724.51, which results in a house edge of 76.46%! The meter would need to reach $263,205 for this side bet to have no house edge.

Pai Gow Poker

The dealer is always the banker, resulting in a house edge of about 2.86%.

Red Dog

The usual rules are followed. Two decks are used, which results in a house edge of 3.08%.

Roulette

A European and American wheel are available. The European wheel has one zero and the American has two. Neither offers half back on even money bets if the ball lands in zero. A button is available to repeat the last bets made.

Slots

The operator may select their own return on the slot machines.

Video Poker

Three video poker games are offered: jacks or better, joker poker, and deuces wild. The operator may select their own pay table, however many keep the defaults, which are displayed below. Of special interest is that Casino Merlin offers full pay deuces wild (return of 100.77%). Also note that the sequential royal is only payable in one direction, the online rules do not make this clear.

War

Standard rules are used with one deck of cards. The house edge with one deck is 2.42% (less than the 2.88% with six decks).