I’d really love to see how THIS one happened… Apparently someone somewhere, probably while sipping on vodka (there’s no way a sober man can possibly come up with this) said “Hey, you know what part of Russia needs a large casino resort? The far east, right next to North Korea”, and someone else was like “Sure, that sounds like a great idea”, and then a bunch of more people agreed to it and began constructing a casino in one of the harshest environments on the planet. This can’t possibly be the best way to do it, can it? Either way, it’s officially happening, and Vladivostok will become the host of a huge hotel and casino resort with about 800 slot machines and twice as many vodka bottles on the shelves around them.

In fairness, this isn’t the only big construction project to hit Siberia in the last couple of years. Russia has been attempting to “revitalize” the region for quite a while (which has plenty of resources, but almost no one there to take advantage of them – probably because in January the temperature falls to -18 degrees Celsius, and even in summer it never goes up to more than 20 degrees. Russia is hoping that these projects will add some positives to counterbalance the negatives of the harsh weather and remoteness of the area, offering huge visa exemptions and tax benefits to investors willing to build there.

The genius behind this construction is none other than Macau gambling tycoon Lawrence Ho (owner of casino company Summit Ascent), who has decided to invest half a billion dollars into the casino which would gradually rise up to $900 million as construction progresses. Yes, you heard right – Mr. Ho has decided to invest almost a billion dollars in constructing a casino in Siberia, of all places. Then again, maybe I’m wrong in thinking that this is a bad idea. After all, as Eric Landheer (director of corporate finance in Summit Ascent) says, there’s over 300 million people living less than a 3 hour flight away from Vladivostok, so with the right push this could attract quite a lot of attention from both Russia and China, as well as Japan and South Korea (where gambling is illegal). Attracting the Chinese market seems like a particularly wise idea – as Macau has shown us, Chinese businessmen give a whole new definition to the term “high rollers”, and now that Macau’s recent crackdowns have scared a lot of the gamblers away Russia could become their new home. The question is, would a casino be enough to warrant a vacation to one of the coldest inhabited places on the planet? I suppose it all depends on just how good the casino resort, titled “Tigre de Cristal”, will turn out to be, and also how many other notable tourist attractions will join it in the region.

Ever get the feeling that playing virtual casino games doesn’t quite scratch that itch? Or perhaps you are one of those people that love to have other people cheer for them when they win, otherwise it doesn’t quite feel like a win? If so, have I got news for you! If you miss the real-casino feel, there is a way for you to get all you love about brick and mortar casinos, without ever having to put a tie on or even be decently dressed and see your name on TV in the same time. Or, should I say … username. How, you ask? Bare with me, I’m getting there.

Ever heard of Supercasino? No, it’s not the Superman of online casinos, although it might as well be. But what it is for sure is the first operator to offer Live games in real time on Live television, with some really friendly real-life dealers. Real enough for you? Never heard of it, you say? Well, truth be told, I hadn’t heard of them either, until I saw one of their broadcasts and that was it! I was hooked! The way this works is players place their bets over the phone, the desktop or the mobile platform on the Live Roulette tables and it is all broadcasted in real-time on Channel 5 and the winners of every spin are announced on a big TV-screen.

Although they only feature Live Roulette during the Channel 5 broadcast, Supercasino also offers Live blackjack and 4 other variations, as I recently found out from an article on Supercasino, reviewed by bestonlineblackjack.com. And believe me when I say that that’s not all they have going for them. Not by a long shot! And while their live broadcast is what actually won me over and caught my attention in the first place, I have to admit that their overall mark is a pretty high one, even by my standards. I mean, they have loads of first deposit offers, cash giveaways and many others means of being quids in right from the get-go, and that’s always an appealing characteristic.

Mobile users seem to be also privileged at Supercasino, as they get to not only play live games, but they can also take part in the Channel 5 broadcast. And from what I’ve seen so far, it runs smoothly and error-free on most devices. Another feature that is a lot to my liking is the fact that you can place your bets via telephone. Their Live TV presenters will guide you through the process, which is pretty simple, so no need to lose sleep over it. All in all, I am happy that I came across this operator and just hope that Live Blackjack will be added once more to their TV portfolio.

Slots are every online casino’s most popular attraction. Even though in physical locations they’re mostly there as a relic of the past, mostly placed there because players expect them to be as they bet the vast majority of their chips on table games, on the Internet slots have absolutely and completely thrived. A lot of people register in online casinos specifically to play slots (sometimes even just to play one slot in particular), to the point where in some places slots outnumber all other games dozens or ever hundreds to one. It’s downright insane! I don’t know exactly what makes online slots so appealing – maybe it’s the fact that they’re so pretty, with animations, licensed characters and bonus games (in fairness, while physical slots have those too, most people still think of them as the classic 3-roll mechanical machines that were popular 20-30 years ago), or perhaps it’s because people say to themselves “Hey, everything’s random in online casinos anyway, so I might as well go with the most random game out of all of them” (which isn’t really the case, but unfortunately the misconception that online casinos are somehow “cheating” is a relatively prevalent one). Okay, I admit, maybe I don’t really know the reason, but I can’t argue with the facts – there’s a whole lot of people playing online slots, and most of them are doing it with real money. But how does that work? Isn’t it expensive? What’s the risk/reward? Let’s dive a bit deeper into it and find out!

Making Your First Deposit

If you’re reading this, then I assume you’ve already picked your casino and slot. If not, then there’s plenty of sites that can give you recommendations if you’re interested in playing slots with real money. When you’ve made your choice, it’s time to make your first deposit. Keep in mind that, while it’s called “deposit”, you should, for all intents and purposes, treat it as an expense – of course, you’re likely to win a pretty big sum (that’s what jackpots are for, after all), but you’re just as likely to lose everything. As such, I wouldn’t advise you to deposit a gigantic sum until you’re more comfortable with playing with real money, but at the same time your sum should be big enough to take advantage of the first deposit bonus that every casino offers – it’s pointless to waste it on a fiver. Ultimately, you’re the one who has to decide what amount you’d like to play with, based on your budget.

The deposit itself can be made in a variety of ways – most commonly and conveniently via a debit or credit card, PayPal and other e-wallet sites, as well as several kinds of pre-paid cards. The complete list of payment methods available on the casino of your choice should be listed on the page where you make your deposit (depending on the casino, it might also be in the Help section), so feel free to take a good look and pick the option that works best for you. Personally, I would recommend that you use a credit or debit card, simply because that way your winnings can be easily withdrawn into the same card. True, you could always request a withdrawal via bank transfer, but honestly, I’ve found it to be most convenient when you’re just using a card for everything. And if you’re worried about your credit card information being stolen, honestly, I wouldn’t be – the casinos have invested hundreds of thousands in protection, so it’d take an online heist worthy of “Ocean’s Eleven” to steal your information from them!

Playing With Real Money

Alright, partner, you’re all set! You’ve got money in the bank, and now it’s time to play slots! What should you be looking out for? First and foremost, it’s important to know that while a lot of slots seem pretty much the same when you’re playing for free, there are a lot of noticeable differences when you’re playing with real money. A good example are the paylines, which you might know as the various lines running through the reels that give you prizes if you land symbols on them in a specific order. Some slots have 25 paylines, others have 40, and some have a different number entirely (classic slots have only one, for example). The more paylines there are, the higher your chance of winning, but you also need to pay for each payline, so bets on a 40-payline slot are gonna hit your wallet hard. Keep in mind that on 99% of all slots you can change the number of paylines to suit your needs, decreasing your chance of winning, but also the price of each bet. Do keep in mind that some slots with jackpots only make you eligible for it if you’re betting the maximum amount, so that can (and should) influence your decision.

Another thing that you should be looking out for is the so-called RTP, also known as Return to Player. In layman’s terms, RTP is a number (a percentage) that shows how much of the money invested in a slot is expected to be returned to players. For example, if $100 are deposited in a slot, on average, the players who played on it will receive about $90, while the casino will keep the other $10 (and thus make profit). However, not all $90 will be spread equally – if 10 players each invested $10 each into a slot, one player might get $10, two might get $15 and one might get $50, with the other six not getting anything. So ultimately whether you make your money back, win 5 times your investment or just lose everything all depends on chance. However, if you want to further give yourself a little bit of an edge, you should look for slots with a high RTP. Some casinos list the RTPs for each slot separately, others just have a certificate with the verified RTP value of all slots somewhere on the site (usually, but not necessarily, in the footer), and some sites don’t display it at all. I advise you to seek out that information and use it to your advantage!

Is There Any Advice You Can Give me?

Experiment! Unless you’re dead-set on playing one particular slot, try out everything that catches your eye, even if it is in demo mode. RTPs don’t change between demo mode and real money mode, so you can generally expect the frequency of your winnings to transfer over when you replace the virtual coins with real ones. Try to find a slot that you really like – a perfect combination between price of spin, RTP and frequency of winnings, and then just go nuts with it! We’ll keep our fingers crossed for you!