Casino software is an integral part of gambling online

Many online casinos look very similar to each other and carry a lot of the same casino games and the reason is that they often use the same casino software. In the very beginning of gambling online the companies involved were writing their own software which was fine for sports gambling but it meant that the games available for online casino gambling were very simple. It soon became obvious that customers were demanding more and more sophisticated games, especially casino slots. This in turn meant that the investment required to write this software became very expensive and time consuming such that one online gambling company decide to stop the gambling side altogether to concentrate on software development which it could then sell to other users. Today there are many casino software developers but nothing like as many as there are online casinos which are why the same casino slots can be found on different online casino sites. For those involved in online gambling at casinos this is not a bad thing as it enables players to make a choice of online casino while still playing their favourite casino slot.

Another reason that it can be good to have several online casinos carrying the same casino slots concerns the progressive jackpot slots. Online gambling progressive jackpots are controlled and administered by the casino software rather than any individual online casino. The jackpots are built up over time by each spin on the slot contributing a very small amount so the more spins there are then the faster the jackpot will build. Clearly this also means that the more online casinos there are that carry the particular casino slot the more spins there will be in any given time period. Typical examples of this are the Microgaming jackpot slots Mega Moolah™ and Mega Moolah Isis™. All top three online casinos listed at gambling.ie carry these two casino slots, amongst several hundred others, which means that all three are contributing simultaneously to the jackpot. This also goes some way to explain why it always appears that casinos are happy when one of their players hits a super large jackpot when, in fact, you might except them to be less than happy at losing so much money. The truth is that they are losing nothing as all the money for the jackpot has already been accumulated and is in the hands of the casino software supplier who will make the payout. In the meantime the casino will use the fact to advertise that one of their players has won an enormous sum which they hope will attract more players to their site.

Microgaming is one of the casino software companies in use at the top three mentioned but the principle software comes from NetEnt which also has jackpots running into the millions of Euro but is possibly better known for the fun element of casino slots. Slots such as Gonzo’s Quest and Jack Hammer are particularly interesting by adding a bit of humour or a new twist to the game. Online gambling needs to remain fun and slots which are a little bit different add to that fun. Gonzo’s Quest for example is a type of 5 reel slot but it has the intrepid explorer Gonzo watching over things from the sidelines. He spends a lot of the time scratching his beard waiting for the player to find a big win but springs into action when that happens. The best way to get big wins is to trigger the free spins game which is actually called free falls in this slot. Get the required number of free falls symbols and the standard play screen parts and Gonzo escorts the player through to another game where all wins are tripled and the win multiplier can reach 15 times the nominal win size. These wins are paid out in gold coins which cascade over the top of the playing wall and Gonzo is there using his helmet to help gather the coins. Don’t worry though they are all yours. This type of fun moment is what makes casino software NetEnt stand out from the crowd. The other slot mentioned from casino software company NetEnt, namely Jack Hammer, also has an interesting feature called “Sticky Wins™”.

The Sticky Wins™ feature is always active and what happens is that when a win is triggered which can be as few as three matching symbols on a win line, all those symbols in the win are held and all other symbols are spun again. The symbols are not attached to reels as in a conventional slot but are independent of each other so re-spinning them all is possible. Should the re-spin result in the original win being improved or indeed a new win being created then those are also held and the process repeated. This repeats again and again unit the win is no longer improved after which the highest win is paid out. This means that even a small win can very quickly escalate into something quite substantial. A Free spins game is also available but it requires a minimum of 5 free spins symbols to get into the game which might seem quite a lot but just are enough to be held under the Sticky Wins™ feature so three can quickly become 5. The great thing about the slot is that even a simple in keeps you in the game and you never know what will happen.

As can be seen the industry of casino software is quite different from that for sports gambling. It is still the case, as can be seen from several advertisements from Paddy Power, that sports gambling companies, or at least the big ones, prefer to keep software development in house and are willing to spend large amounts of money to keep offering players something new. Being able to cash out in the middle of a multiple bet is just one of the recent innovations but it is all targeted at the online gambling business and the use of mobile phones and tablets.