Microgaming Software & 664 Online Casinos Reviewed

Introduction

Microgaming is one of the oldest and best known suppliers of online casino software in the industry. Their story begins in 1994 when they launched the first Internet casino, the Gaming Club, which continues to use Microgaming software to this day. Since then they have grown to about 70 Internet casinos. In online gaming news, they have broken the record for the largest progressive jackpot won online many times over. They have paid out jackpots over $1 million multiple times. Unlike some other Internet casinos which dribble-pay big winners, Microgaming casinos pay jackpot winners immediately and in full.

In 2008, Microgaming announced their casinos would no longer accept American players due to anti-Internet gambling laws in the US. Despite losing a large portion of the market, Microgaming has continued to grow, adding many new games and casinos from their headquarters in the Isle of Man. In particular, Microgaming offers hundreds of video slot machines with state of the art graphics and sounds. They have licensed some themed games, like Lord of the Rings and Batman.

What players can expect is the same package of games at every Microgaming casino with the same rules and odds. At the Gaming Club website, they claim, "All payout percentages are reviewed by independent auditors, and with an average 97.48% payout ratio, you can expect better returns than those from a land-based casino. " This is probably true on average, but on some games the Microgaming rules are just as stingy as land casinos, or more. This review looks in depth at the rules to advise you when you're getting a good bet and when you're not.

As an American, it isn't easy playing a Microgaming casino at all, even in fun mode. To do so, I had to get a proxy server, making it appear like I was in the UK via a phony IP address. I played only the Flash casino at the Gaming Club in free mode, as opposed to the download and using real money. This review details the games that they have and the rules they follow.

Microgaming Casinos

Table Games

In the Flash casino, Microgaming lists 55 table games. However, some of these are nearly identical to each other, like the same set of blackjack rules with and without a side bet. The minimum on most games is $1 and the maximum is usually $100 to $500. Following is a description of each game.

Baccarat

There are two baccarat games: baccarat and baccarat gold. They both use eight decks and pay the standard odds. In terms of rules, the only difference seems to be that baccarat gold offers bets on a player/banker pair and the other does not. The following table shows the house edge of each bet.

Casinos that try to be competitive with baccarat usually pay 9 to 1 on the tie, or 0.96 on the Banker bet, but Microgaming casinos offer the standard rules land casinos do.

Bingo

Microgaming has several bingo games to choose from. Most are played on Mexican 3x5 cards or UK 3x9 cards. The images shown are just some of the games. There are others I had difficulty opening.

The only one I could easily analyze was Ballistic Bingo. This is a bingo game played on eight Latin American 3-by-9 bingo cards. The player is paid according to how many balls are required to cover the 15 randomly chosen numbers on the card. The following table shows the probability and return of each win. The lower right cell shows a game return of 94.72%.

Blackjack

Microgaming has a host of blackjack games to choose from. They all pay 3 to 2 on a blackjack. I assume the cards are shuffled after every hand, which mathematically favors the player, unless he is counting cards. The limits and number of spots the player may play varies from game to game. The following table shows the pertinent rules to each game and the house edge, which is based on perfect composition-dependent strategy.

The following table shows the Blackjack games available in alphabetical order.

Here is the same list in returns range, choose your game wisely.

The most interesting blackjack game is European Blackjack Redeal. In this game, the player can pay to replace his whole hand, the dealer's up card, or his last card (with three or more cards) at any point, except after splitting. The cost of all three options are adjusted according to the situation. If a switch would on average be bad for the player, then it is offered for free.

Based on some rough estimates, I show the replacement costs offered by this game to be within 1% of fair, including being under priced sometimes.

All things considered, the house edge averages about 0.40% in the various Micgrogaming blackjack games. This average is indeed better than the rules in the median land-casino blackjack game, at least in the US. However, there are some better games out there, in both land and online casinos.

While this review is based on the Flash casino only, it is worthy of mention that the download version has a very liberal blackjack game known as "classic blackjack." The rules of said game are:

• Single deck.
• Dealer stands on soft 17.
• Dealer does not peek for blackjack. Player will lose total bet against a dealer blackjack, including on doubles and splits.
• Double after split not allowed.
• Player may split only once.
• No surrender.
• Player may draw to split aces.

Following is the correct basic strategy for these rules.

The house edge under the classic blackjack rules, using the total-dependent strategy above, is 0.13%. To shave 0.04% off this house edge, use my composition-dependent basic strategy for a single deck game where the dealer stands on soft 17.

Spanish Blackjack

This is the same thing as Spanish 21. In particular, Microgaming follows these rules:

1. 8 decks.
2. Dealer hits soft 17.
3. Surrender allowed on initial two cards.
4. Double after split allowed.
5. Re-splitting aces allowed.
6. A player 21 or blackjack always wins.
7. Player may double on any number of cards.
8. Player may surrender after doubling, known as "double down rescue." The player forfeits an amount equal to his original bet.
9. A five-card 21 pays 3 to 2, a six-card 21 pays 2 to 1, a seven or more card 21 pays 3 to 1. Bonus not honored after doubling or splitting.
10. A 6-7-8 or 7-7-7 of mixed suits pays 3 to 2, of the same suit pays 2 to 1, and of spades pays 3 to 1. These bonuses usually do not pay after doubling or splitting.
11. Suited 7-7-7 and the dealer has a seven face up pays 50 to 1.

The house edge under these rules is about 0.42%.

Craps

Microgaming offers only 1x odds in craps, which is the ratio of how much the player may bet on the odds to the pass or come bets. When laying the odds after a don't pass or don't come bet, they make the usual online casino software error of basing the bet relative to the bet amount, not the win.

The field is the stingy version that pays 2 to 1 on both a 2 and 12. The hop bets are also stingy at 15 and 30 to 1, depending on whether it is an easy or hard hop. The hard ways pay the usual tight odds of 7 and 9 to 1. What really adds insult to injury is they have the Big 6 and 8 bets on the table, and yes they pay even money only.

The following table shows what they pay on most bets and the house edge.

If Microgaming is striving to offer better odds than land casinos, then they definitely failed in craps. In fact, I've never seen worse craps rules anywhere, land or online. If anyone wants an example of good craps rules, then go to any land casino in the UK or Australia.

Crown and Anchor

This is a simplified skin of sic bo. In both games, three dice are rolled and the player can bet on any given face appearing at least once. One match pays 1 to 1, two matches pays 2 to 1, and three matches pays 3 to 1. Sic bo offers the same bet, except three matches pays 12 to 1.

The house edge in Crown and Anchor is 7.87%. The equivalent bet in sic bo has a house edge of 3.70%. So, there is there no reason to play Crown and Anchor when Microgaming offers a better bet in sic bo two clicks away. Playing this game would be like betting the Big 6 or 8 in craps. Why get only even money when a place bet is exactly the same but pays 7 to 6?

Double Exposure

In the tradition of liking outdated table games, Microgaming offers Double Exposure. For those who aren't familiar with the game, it plays like blackjack except both dealer cards are exposed. For this, the player loses most ties and a blackjack pays even money. Here are the specific Microgaming rules.

• 8 decks.
• Dealer hits soft 17.
• Player blackjack always wins.
• Double on hard 9 to 11 only.
• Double after split allowed.
• Player may re-split to four hands, except aces, which may be split once only.
• Player may not split unlike tens.
• Drawing to split aces not allowed.

The limits are $5 to $500. I estimate the house edge to be about 0.32%.

Keno

Standard keno rules are followed. The following two tables show the pay table.

The next table shows the return by number of picks. Note the highest return is 94.90% for picking 13.

Other Games

The Microgaming Flash casino has 57 "other" games. Many of them are scratch cards. In general, the full rules are not quantified so I can't offer any comment about the odds.

3 Card Poker

This is the same thing as Three Card Poker. I'm not an intellectual property expert, but I think that changing the word Three to the number 3 is no license to usurp a patented game, but this happens in online gambling all the time. Sometimes I wonder if anybody is really being fooled by these name changes.

The rules are the same as the standard game. The Microgaming version follows the usual 1-4-5 Ante Bonus pay table, for a house edge on the Ante bet of 3.37%. They follow the liberal 1-4-6-30-40 on the Pairplus bet for a house edge of 2.32%.

Cyberstud Poker

This is another name for Caribbean Stud Poker. However, Microgaming follows a different pay table, as follows.

The house edge in conventional Caribbean Stud Poker is 5.22%, compared to Cyberstud Poker at 5.01%.

Under the Progressives menu there is another Cyberstud Poker game, but with a $1 side bet. The side bet pays $50 for a flush, $100 for a full house, $500 for a four of a kind, $20,000 for a straight flush, and a progressive jackpot for a royal flush. The house edge on the side bet is 36.06% less 1.54% for each $10,000 in the jackpot meter. The breakeven meter (no house edge) would be $234,290.

You can find the full return table for Cyberstud Poker in my page on Caribbean Stud.

Pai Gow Poker

Microgaming deals a nice game of pai gow poker. There is a "house way" button, so it is nicely impossible to foul your hand. Standard rules are followed, with no player banking, for a house edge of 2.72%.

There is also a $1 bonus bet. The following table shows all the wins and odds.

The lower right cell shows a house edge on the side bet of 5.79%.

Poker Pursuit

This is Let it Ride with a different name. After converting the pay table to a "to one" basis, it looks as follows.

This is the same as the conventional Let it Ride pay table, except the top three wins are one less. Compared to the standard pay table seen in the US of 3.51%, the house edge in Poker Pursuit is 3.57%.

For more information, please see my page on Poker Pursuit.

Red Dog

Microgaming casinos have got to be one of the few places left on earth to bet on Red Dog. I remember playing this at the old Las Vegas Silver City in the 1980s, but if it weren't for some online casinos, I would have thought it went the way of the dodo bird long ago.

The gist of the game is two cards are dealt face up and one face down. The player wins if the face down card falls between the ranks of the face up cards. Before revealing the face down card, the player has the opportunity to raise his bet. Wins on small spreads pay more.

A few of the rules are configurable. Microgaming uses a single deck and pays 11 to 1 for a three of a kind. This results in a house edge of 3.15%.

For more information, please see my page on Red Dog (link).

Roulette

There are six roulette games available. Other than the rules, they vary in such things as appearance, limits, and speed of the game. In one version, the player can bet on eight wheels at once. Another is a multi-player game.

However, what is important is the rules. There are only three main types of roulette rules and the following table shows which each game follows. An explanation of each set of rules follows the table. The last two columns show the house edge on even money bets as well as all other bets.

* House edge on the 0-00-1-2-3 combination is 7.89%.

• Double-zero rules: Double-zero wheel used. Player loses everything in even money bets if the ball lands in a zero.
• Single-zero rules: Single-zero wheel used. Player loses everything in even money bets if the ball lands in zero.
• La Partage rules: The La Partage game uses a single-zero wheel. What makes it different from single-zero rules is that if the player makes an even money bet and the ball lands in zero, then the player loses half the bet only. "La Partage" is French for sharing, so think of it as sharing the loss when the ball lands in zero.

Sic Bo

In this game, the player has various ways to bet on the roll of three dice. You can find all the rules in my sic bo page.

The bet on any one face pays even money for one match, 2 to 1 for two matches, and 12 to 1 for three. This results in a house edge of 3.70%.

The following table shows what all the other bets pay, the probability of winning, and expected value.

These odds are the same as what you'll find in Australia and a little better than the US. Be wary of the similar game, with worse odds, called Crown and Anchor.

Slots

By my count, the Flash casino has 302 non-progressive slots and 15 progressives. Although Microgaming doesn't disclose their slot returns I have two outside sources to shed light on that:

First, the Gaming Club casino posts monthly audit reports, which state, in part, the overall return percentage of their slot games. At the time of this writing the average of the monthly returns going back 12 months, covering August 2016 to July 2017, was 96.38%.

Second, our friends at Slot Tracker crowd source their members to get information about each member's slot results as well as the combined among all members. As of this writing they have recorded 1,913,325 spins on Microgaming slots, which saw a return of 94.48%.

Spingo

As far as I know, this wheel-based game is unique to Microgaming. Briefly, a ball numbered from 0 to 10 is chosen at random and then it lands in a wheel with colored slots. The player can bet on the number, color or both.

The following table shows the available wagers, winning combinations (out of 525), probability of winning, and the return percentage.

For more information, please see my page on Spingo.

Three Wheeler

Microgaming must like sic bo a great deal, because this game is yet another skin of it.

Video Poker

Microgaming offers 23 video poker games. There are 16 different base games, all of which exist in single-play mode, and seven of those also exist in "Power Poker" mode, which I would compare to four-play.

For this review, I played in the free play Flash casino at the Gaming Club casino. In that venue, some of the games had auto hold, which was frequently wrong. This may be because it was in Flash and/or free mode. When Microgaming casinos still accepted US players, I played a lot of video poker in them and, as I recall, the games had auto-hold. As far as I know, it was 100% accurate.

The following table shows the Video Poker games available in alphabetical order.

Here is the same list in returns range, choose your game wisely.

Notes:

• * I have an unconfirmed report that the four-play deuces wild game pays 99.3747%. I was not told the pay table.
• ** I have an unconfirmed report that the All American pay table is 800-200-34-8-8-8-3-1-1, as shown above. I previously thought a four of a kind paid 35.

Finally, there is a progressive game called Jackpot Deuces listed under the progressives menu. It is a $1 deuces wild game that pays a progressive jackpot for a natural royal flush in diamonds. Assuming no strategy deviations for the progressive, the return can be calculated as 93.889% plus 1.132% for each $10,000 in the meter. To reach breakeven (100% return), the meter would need to be $53,979.91.

While this review is based on the Flash casino, I can't help but mention the SupaJax game that is available in the download casino only. It is a 53-card game. This 53rd card is the SupaJax card, which is useful only in the top hand. Following is the full pay table, per coin, based on a full 5-coin bet.

The jackpot starts at 10,000 $/£/€. Assuming optimal strategy, it becomes breakeven at 52,417 units of whatever currency. At any given time, the return is 90.427% + 1.826% * j/10,000, where j is the jackpot amount.

For more information, visit these outside links:

• Current jackpot

Conclusion

If you had asked me 15 years ago, I would have said that Microgaming had a few bad apple casinos. Since then, I would say that Microgaming has raised their standards for who can open a casino. That isn't to say I endorse all of them, but on average their operators are mostly reputable.

Looking at it as a player advocate, I can't say that Microgaming has the best overall odds, but they do have some very competitive blackjack and video poker games. Be careful, though. While they strive to have better odds than land casinos, they don't always. Craps is a fine example. Microgaming has a huge game selection and the graphics, especially in the slot games, are outstanding.

As an organization, I have a very high opinion of Microgaming. I have met some of their executives and I found them to be both friendly and professional. They can't control everything their operators do, but the software company itself helps to bring a good name to the business of online gaming.

Monthly Audits

In choosing where to gamble online, there are many things you should look for. One good sign is that the casino posts monthly audit reports of the return percentages. As far as I know, all Microgaming casinos use eCogra for this service. Below are links to take you to such reports for three arbitrarily selected casinos.

• 32 Red
• Gaming Club
• Dash

Live Dealers

The Microgaming web site claims they have a live dealer studio, as well as some other affiliate sites, but I'm having difficulty finding anybody who actually offers them. From other affiliate sites, it seems they offer both generic tables as well as Playboy tables, dealt by lovely ladies in Playboy Bunny outfits.

What I can do for you is comment on the games offered, the rules, and odds, as follows:

• Blackjack — 8 decks, dealer stands on soft 17, no hole card, double 9-11 only, no double after split. House edge under these rules is 0.88%.
• Casino Hold 'Em.
• Baccarat — Standard bets and pays are offered on the Banker, Player, Tie, Player Pair, and Banker Pair.
• Roulette — Single-zero, for a house edge of 2.70%.

External Links

• Official Microgaming web site.
• List of Microgaming casinos at CasinoListings.com.