Playboy Gaming Delivers Sex and Excitement With New Online Casino

The launch of Playboy Casino was one of the more highly anticipated events in the world of online gambling. Despite the money being earned in the industry, the number of recognizable brand names
Playboy Casino Logo  that have been associated with online casinos and online poker rooms has been limited to a handful. Always a maverick company, Playboy made a strong commitment to this form of entertainment and brought the world a casino where players can play the games and 'Live the Life.'

Part of the big appeal of the Playboy experience is participating in the fantasy that Hugh Hefner created way back in 1953. Hefner celebrated a world where all the women were beautiful, young and willing. There were great sports cars, mansions, books and movies, music and, of course, gambling. Now in the 21^st century, it makes total sense to create a virtual casino where the rewards can include trips to Hef's Playboy Mansion and partying with the Playmates.

Playboy Casino uses Cryptologic software, the same software that powers a long-time favorite of many online gamblers – Intercasino. Other Cryptologic casinos include William Hill, Littlewoods Casino, and Ritz Club Online Casino. Dressed up in the logos and colors of Playboy, the software offers all of the table games and slots that you would expect, plus some games made exclusively for Playboy, the Playmate Party Slot and the Girl of the Month Slot. Besides these two special slots, the casino features over 85 different slot machines including the new 'Frightmare' slots and the ten exclusively branded Marvel comic slots. Progressives are represented in Blackjack, Caribbean Stud Poker, video poker, video keno and a number of slot machines.

To get a feel for the casino, you can play in fun mode before moving to real money play.   As with other Cryptologic sites, if you choose to use the play money mode, you will be happy to know that you won't be prompted to move to 'real money' every time you hit any kind of jackpot or win a hand at a table game. One interesting note about the play money mode is you won't have access to the Playmate Party and Girl of the Month slots. The management must believe playing slot machines with naked girl symbols is a great incentive to move you to gamble with real money.  

If you decide to go to 'real money' play, you'll need to visit the cashier. The casino is integrated with Cryptologic's ECash system and offers tabs for deposit, withdrawal, statement, and My Account. The deposit methods included at Playboy Casino include credit card, NETeller, Firepay, Citadel, electronic check, wire transfer and check.

After opening an account, a letter will be sent by mail containing your PIN and account number. You will need the PIN to cash out and the account number for customer support.

Playboy has a relatively generous bonus policy, but is not as good a deal as Intercasino. If you are a new player, you will be matched up to $100 or £50 with a 30x wager requirement. After your first month, the casino offers monthly bonus offers that you will be eligible for. I've played at the casino for the past few months and it is always a pleasure to see those extra dollars hitting my account after I've deposited.

For those of you new to the game, here are the facts regarding wager requirements. If you choose the £50 bonus, you must wager an aggregate total of 30 times the bonus in the casino before you can withdraw the free money. For example, if you deposit £50, you'll receive a bonus of £50. You must then wager an aggregate total of £1,500 in the casino before you can cash out the bonus money and its winnings. You may wager on ALL games (excluding Blackjack Roulette, Craps, Baccarat and Punto Banco) to meet the wagering requirement for this offer.

Another excellent service, and one that all online casinos should offer, is the 'My Promotions' tab in the cashier's area. This feature lets you know exactly where you stand in earning your bonus along with other promotions you may be eligible for. This gets rid of the guesswork usually involved with cashing out bonuses as you can periodically check on your progress to see when you can withdraw your winnings.

PlayboyGaming.com Rewards Club is big part of the appeal of playing at the casino. According to the site "partying with Hugh Hefner and his girlfriends or lunching with Playmates at the Mansion" are a couple of the rewards you may earn if your wagering level is high enough. In addition to earning Comp Points for your play, you now also receive "Bunny Money" which can be traded in for rewards as simple as a pack of sexy playing cards, to a 1 month Playboy.co.uk Subscription (2,000 points) to the ultimate of partying with Hef at the Mansion (1,000,000 points). Points accumulate monthly and are automatically credited to your ECash Direct account on the 25th of each month (on the basis of $1 for each 100 points). For your points to be converted, they must be worth the equivalent of $20 or more (2000 points). If you accumulate less than 2000 points, your points will roll over into the next month. The site provides a complete chart of points you earn for each $10 or £10 you play.

The casino also has an avatar function that allows you to choose a representative portrait of yourself. Given the choices here, it looks like the developers didn't expect anyone over 35 to be playing at the casino. The avatars at Playboy are hipper and sexier than they are at Intercasino. The avatars smile if you win and frown when you loose, which is appropriate. The avatars can also be turned off.

As a Cryptologic-based casino, effort has been made to replicate a casino floor on the start-up screen. You can choose your game not just from a menu, but also by clicking on a game or bank of slots in the setting of a casino.

Playboy Casino offers multi-hand, multi-player and private group playing modes, where you can chat with other players. The multi-player feature is not available in fun money mode however, but the multi-split blackjack table is now offered.

Playboy Casino Blackjack

Blackjack – The graphic and user design of the blackjack table is nicely rendered with crisp colors and more dealer expressions than previous Cryptologic casinos. The betting, dealing and decision buttons are all at the center of the table, which is good for efficiency, but can lead to some expensive mistakes. The re-bet button is directly on top of the $25 chip, so if you're moving very fast, you may wind up betting $25 by mistake.

Playboy Casino blackjack conforms to the rules played in Atlantic City. This means the game uses 8 decks and dealer must stand on all 17s. The dealer uses a hole card reader to determine if the house has a blackjack prior to settling players' hands. Other rules are:

• After each round, used cards are returned to the deck and the deck is shuffled.
• The player may double on any two cards.
• The player may double after splitting.
• The player may not re-split a hand.

The house edge under these rules is 0.49%. Also offered is a multi-split version of blackjack with a higher minimum wager ($5 versus $2) and a house edge of 0.44%.

Blackjack Progressive – You can also play progressive blackjack where the jackpot is based on the cards you are dealt. If you like jackpot games, remember that the progressive has to be over $200,000 to make it a good bet.

Pontoon – Here's a game that looks a little bit like blackjack, but was actually invented earlier. Pontoon is linguistic garbling of Vingt-et-un, the French predecessor to twenty-one or Blackjack. The rules are provided with the game and should be carefully consulted if you haven't played the game before. Basic blackjack strategy is not the way to play this game. The house edge is not bad for the player.

Craps

Playboy's craps table is the most realistic of all of the current offerings on the Internet, including the unique ability to shoot the dice with a realistic action using the mouse. All standard bets are available including place bets, but buy and lay bets aren't allowed. The player may take up to 2 times line odds on the pass, don't pass and come and don't come bets.

Playboy Casino Craps

There are a few other reviewed features that make craps here a good experience. A summary of each bet won or lost is displayed in a ticker above the table. When you have a lot of bets in action, this can be very helpful. There's also a history of rolls. The dealer calls out the numbers, but the calling is straight-forward without any craps slang. The house edge is 0.60% on the pass and come and 0.46% on the don't pass and don't come.

Roulette

Roulette comes in three versions, American Roulette, European Roulette, and European VIP Roulette. The rules are generally favorable to the player compared to physical casinos in the United States.

If you're looking for the best deal, go straight to European VIP Roulette which has one zero and the half-back rule (en prison) with a resultant 1.35% on even money bets and 2.63% on all other bets. Next best is European Roulette with one zero and a house edge of 2.63% on all bets.

Finally, American Roulette has two zeros, but returns ½ of all even money bets if the ball lands on zero. This equates to a house edge of 2.63% on even money bets and 5.26% on straight up bets.

All versions include a history of numbers hit. The dealers voice is sexy, but the spin button makes a video game bleep sound which doesn't quite with roulette.

Baccarat

The baccarat table offers the standard rules, rake and odds for the game. The look and feel of the table is excellent and the player controls are intuitive. The casino also has a mini-baccarat game. Remember, Baccarat does not count toward your wagering requirements.

Caribbean Stud Poker

Caribbean Stud Poker is entertaining but has a house edge of over 5.22%. This version features a bonus progressive game with a top bet of $1. If you are considering the side bet for the progressive, keep in mind that the meter would need to reach nearly $220,000 for the odds to be even.

Let it Ride

Another fun game that has the elements of poker, Let it Ride has a house edge of about 3.5%. There is also a side bet which has an edge of 13.8%, certainly not the worst for this type of bet, but still something you'll want to avoid.

Pai Gow Poker

The dealer is always the banker, resulting in a house edge of 2.9%. There is no house way button (the house's best guess on how the hand should be played).

Three Card Poker

Playboy's Three Card Poker follows full-pay rules making it competitive for versions of this game on the Internet. The house edge is 2.3% on the Pair Plus bet and 3.4% on the Ante bet.

Texas Hold'em Bonus Poker is a house-banked version of Texas Hold'em where the player competes heads up with the dealer. The betting includes an ante, a flop, turn and river bet. There is also a bonus bet on the first two cards. Overall, the game simulates Texas Hold'em without the bluffing. With no 'dealer does not qualify' scenario, all hands are playable. According to Elliot Frome, who has done analysis on this game, players should only fold about 11% of the time. This means you should fold if you are dealt suited 2,3 or 2,4 or off suited 2-3 thru 2-8 and off suited 3-4 thru 3-8. Otherwise, stay in the game. The Wizard of Odds calculates this game to be at about 0.535% house edge. The side bet is not recommended, with a house edge of 8.5%.

Other table games include Red Dog, Casino War, Solitaire, Super Fun 21, and Punto Banco.

Playmate Party and Girl of the Month Slots

Playboy's slot selection is very good with over 85 different titles. As mentioned above, the site features two games made in the Playboy spirit, with topless girls providing the eye candy as the reels go spinning round. On the Girl of the Month slot, players vote for who will be the featured in various poses on the game for the upcoming month. The lucky girl is there for you to feast your eyes on, plus you get to see exclusive video of her on certain winning lines including a super sexy bonus feature!

The slots come in a wide variety including classic slots (18 titles), classic video slots (6 titles), Marvel Slots (now up to ten titles including the Hulk, X-Men, Blade, Daredevil, Silver Surfer, Elektra and the new Ghost Rider), 9 Line Slots (19 titles), 20 Line Slots (14 titles), Rapid Fire Slots (9 titles, which all include the 'Rapid Fire' progressive), and new category called Casual Slots that include the innovative Bejeweled and Sweet Thing.

The New Cubis Slots

Included in the Casual Slots section is the recently added slot Cubis, which is like Bejeweled on steroids. The game is a three-dimensional drop-square game and offers up jackpots of up to 50,000 coins on one play.  This game offers multipliers and special squares that can clear out areas for new squares. 

A new series of slots called Frightmare Slots is offered at Playboy Casino. These slots are similar in ways to the Marvel series, but feature a whole new set of creepy characters and symbols. The three slots are called Vampire Bats, Witches & Warlocks, and Zone of the Zombies. If you like your jackpots accompanied with gore, these slots are for you.

Bonus screen from one of the new Frightmare Slots

The casino's progressive slots are very popular and have paid out some huge jackpots in the past. The biggest progressive is usually Millionaires Club, which was hit recently for nearly a $4 million jackpot, making it the biggest progressive ever hit on the Web. Other popular progressives are Rags to Riches, Triple Olives and Shoot-o-Rama.

All in all, the online slots at Playboy Casino are quite impressive, with a tremendous amount of variety.

Video Poker

Playboy also has a lot to offer video poker players. The current line-up includes All American, 10s or Better, Jacks or Better, Double Bonus, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker and a progressive video poker game Super Jackpot which comes in $1 and $.25 versions. Cryptologic gives you the option to play all of these game types in either single-hand, three-hand, five-hand or ten-hand version. Another refreshing aspect of their video poker games is that there is no punishment as far as payback goes for playing multi-hand machines. The pay table is the same for single, three, five or ten hand play.

Bonus Video Poker offers another twist on the popular game.  With this series of games, which includes all of the variants mentioned above, the discards are thrown back into the deck when the player initiates the draw. If they are dealt again, the player receives bonus pays. Bonus Video Poker can be played in 3, 5, 10, 50 and 100 hand modes. The odds are better for these games than the standard video poker (all are over 98.0%), but require another look at strategy to get the best paybacks. If you are interested in the optimal play for Bonus Video Poker, you may want to visit the Wizard of Odds page that discusses the subject.

There's also a $.25 and $1 progressive video poker machine called Super Jackpot. This is a 8/5 machine with a return of 97.3% without the progressive. If the machine has a progressive jackpot of over $2,166.50, you've reached 100% return..

The new Playboy Casino offers some sexy sizzle with your gambling fun. With the two special slots, the chance to win Playboy themed prizes including meeting the girls or visiting the Playboy mansion, the site is a world away from many online casinos. Using Cryptologic as the software provider was a good choice, as the company has proven itself over the past 10 years as a reliable and innovative company.  On the downside, the bonus offer requires more wagering to meet the cash out requirements.