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Positive

49er Casino is one of the casino leaders in good-looking, smooth-working gambling software. They offer an unusually wide selection of games. Highlights of their version 4.0 casino are new and enhanced single and multi-player games (Blackjack, Mini Baccarat, and Roulette) including bonus rounds and progressive games, an interactive casino floor populated with 'real' players, table and seat selection, customizable player avatars, simpler registration and enhanced download capabilities, gaming- and e-cash tutorials and advanced online purchasing capabilities. Fast, attractive and user-configurable multi-media is the heart of the system. There is a side-bar that includes a "Who's Playing" list, a live chat channel and a real-time news/stocks feed. Their E-Cash Service is famous for quick payouts, once you've completed all the necessary forms. We've never heard of anyone who has played at 49er Casino and felt being cheated. They make a lot of information about their operation available, a sign that they are taking things seriously.

Bonuses

Promotions: Make a deposit of $100 to recieve a $50 bonus every month. To cash out bonus money you must wager at least $1500. Wage at least $25 to get a chance to win a $25 Random Drawing four days a week, or $5000 to win a $100 random Drawing every month.Make your first deposit using ECP to get a $5 bonus. Comp Program: Free casino chips. Tickets to sporting events Free travel packages to 25 destinations worldwide. International Golf Vacations. A 19-day Around the World Trip for two. Coach Leather Products. TAG Heuer Watches. A 9-day African Safari for two.

There may be negative features

We suggest that you also read this review of "49er Casino" from NoNuggets.com before playing.

Supported languages

•

English

Financial Info

49er Casino uses E-Cash Services, Inc. as the third-party administrator for credit card purchases. This system has processed billions of USD of transactions since 1996 without a single instance of fraud. 49er Casino accepts Visa or Mastercard and credit- and debit cards with Visa or Master Card connection. Also accept Bank Check, Money Order, Wire Transfer, Ecash and Western Union. First they credit back to your creditcard the amount you originally deposited. The rest of your money will be sent by check. As part of 49er Casino's continuing commitment to safe and responsible gaming, the company has integrated new personal options and security features into version 4.0: Players can impose deposit and bet limits on themselves, place a temporary lock on their accounts and track their gaming activity and e-cash transactions online in real-time. All payouts are audited by a trustworthy auditing firm.

Software

49er Casino was developed by Cryptologic and runs on Windows only and a download is required at just over 13 MB for the basic casino. You download a 'lite' version (3.5MB) first which offers only Blackjack, then others may be added later with their easy to handle Upgrade-Assistant. A 'complete' casino is about 28 MB in size. 49er Casino offers a "User Information System" backup that will save your settings on a floppy disk. This is a great idea, as you're covered in case of a disk crash or other disaster.

Licence

49er Casino is owned by Sands of the Caribbean Online Casino. 49er Casino operates under a gaming licence granted by the government of Antigua & Barbuda. Established, licensed, and fully functional since 8/21/2001. To have a gaming license means that a casino is able to 1) deposit enough money yearly as a financial backup for players (approximately US $50,000 up to US $100,000 per annum), 2) pay the taxes (of about 2,5% up to 5%), and hence 3) is subject to the control of the government that issued the gaming licence in case of any disputes.

Games

•	Baccarat [Mini]
•	Blackjack
•	Craps
•	Keno
•	Poker [Caribbean]

•	Poker [Let It Ride]
•	Poker [Pai Gow]
•	Red Dog
•	Roulette [American]

•	Roulette [European]
•	Slots
•	Video Poker
•	Video Slots

Baccarat (Mini)

Mini Baccarat Review

Game: In Baccarat you and the banker receive two to three cards to get a point value as close to nine as possible. You have to correctly guess whether you or the banker will win, or a tie will occur.

Odds: In baccarat the best bet is on the banker (bet that the banker will win) and the fewer the decks used the better the banker bet gets. Since 49er Casino uses eight decks, the house edge on a banker bet is 1.06% (best possible house edge is 1.01% if played with one deck). Dealt and played using "standard" rules, if you win by betting on the banker, the bank receives a 5% commission. The eight-deck house edge on a player bet is 1.24%. (The one-deck house edge on a player bet is 1.29%.) A winning bet on a tie pays 8:1 which results in an house edge of 14.36% on tie bets (less decks increase the house edge to 14.44% - 15.75%). Anyway, you should avoid betting on ties at 49er Casino since there are online casinos offering 9:1 payouts on ties which lowers the house edge to 4.8% on tie bets.

Set: 49er Casino provides you with a neat, automatic tracking mechanism of which hand was won by who. The default table limits are set to $5-$300. You can change the table limits once you have received your PIN via mail. And since betting limits are considered to be important when playing baccarat, high betting limits are certainly positive.

Summary: 49er Casino offers a rather standard baccarat game with pretty bad odds for the player but pretty good betting limits for high rollers.

Blackjack

Blackjack Review

Game: In Blackjack each card has a point value. You first get two cards, calculate their value and decide whether to draw more cards or not where the maximum total points allowed is 21. The dealer does the same thing. You try to be better than him (draw closer to 21).

Odds: The house edge with the rules listed below is 0.49% which we consider lowest standard. Be aware of that you can find much better blackjack games online.

Set: You can play only one hand at once which is frustrating because somewhere else you probably would be allowed to play up to three, four or even five hands at once. The dealer stands on soft 17 (Ace & 6) which is good but standard. Doubling down is allowed on any first two cards and you even can double down after you split pairs which is better than what land based casinos offer you but standard when it comes to online casinos. You may split pairs to two hands only which really is below average, because many other online casinos allow you to split your cards up to three or four hands. Split Aces receive only one more card. When the dealer's face-up card is a ten or an Ace he peaks under the face-down card to tell you if he has a blackjack. Because there is no insurance or surrender offered all bets are lost if he gets a blackjack which is a little unfair since many online casinos offer you one of these options if not both. There are better blackjack games online.
49er Casino uses eight decks which couldn't be any worse: it makes card counting quite impossible. And to dash any hope the cards are shuffled after every single hand. It is difficult to find an online casino making card counting easy anyway, but there are some and 49er Casino certainly does not fall under this category. Most other online casinos use six, four, two or even only one deck. The default table limits are set to $5-$300. You can change the table limits once you have received your PIN via mail. The bad point here is that you cannot bet less than $5 on a hand which simply makes your bankroll disappear much faster.

Summary: There certainly are better blackjack games to play. You can find them in our Best Blackjack List.

Craps

Craps Review

Game: In Craps two dice are thrown by a player. If he rolls a 7 or 11, he wins. If he throws a 2, 3, or 12, he loses. If he throws any other number (4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10) he continues throwing the dice and hopes that the same number will be thrown again before the 7 comes up. When the 7 comes up first, he loses. You can bet on the player or the house.

Odds: 49er Casino offers 2x odds: if you bet $10 on the pass-line (bet, that the player will win), you can increase your original bet after the dice have been thrown by 2x the amount you bet. This is called "wagering behind". To wager behind is what a good craps player will do and a criteria of a good craps game is how many odds the casino offers you to wager behind. As the amount of allowed odds increases, the house advantage decreases considerably. The house edge is 0.85% / 0.68% (pass-line / don't-pass-line bet) when offering 1x odds - as most online casinos do, 0.61% / 4.5% when offering 2x odds - as 49er Casino does, and 0.47% / 0.34% already when offering 3x odds - as only very little online casinos do. But 49er Casino does not exactly offer 2x odds the way land based casinos do: 2x usually means that you can bet twice the amount you could win. So if the odds were the real 2x and you bet $10 on the pass-line, you could win $20 and hence wager 2x $20 = $40 behind. Because 49er Casino does not follow the real rules - as almost no online casino does - the basic house edge stays 0.58% on pass-line-bets.
All place and proposition bets pay according to standard rules. Buy and lay bets are not offered.
Winning bets get rounded down to the nearest dollar. To avoid getting rounded down you can bet as many extra dollars on top of your 2x odds bets as needed so that winnings will be evenly divisible by $1. A pop up box will alert you if standing to get rounded down.

A good strategy would be to always wager behind.

Set: The default table limits are set to $5-$300. You can change the table limits once you have received your PIN via mail.

Summary: There are better online casinos to play craps at. You'll find them in our Best Craps List.

Keno

Keno Review

Game: There are 80 numbered balls. You pick some numbers. 20 balls are drawn. You win of course as more of your picks match the numbers that were drawn.

Odds: There are two types of keno: a) paying you good already when you match only a few picks (therefore decreasing the payouts for matching many picks) and b) paying you good only when you match many picks (therefore decreasing the payouts for matching only a few picks). You have to decide where you prefer to play. I'd play only the a) type. 49er Casino is the b) type casino.
49er Casino keno payoffs are about equally as generous as land based casinos, paying between 71% and 75%. Online casino usually pay between 90% and 95% though.

The best bet is on pick 4 with a return of 73.79%.

Set: You may pick 1 to 10 numbers, bet $.25 - $5 per pick, and play 1, 5, or 10 games at a times.

Summary: Find another casino to play keno at.

	Pick
Match	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Payouts
0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0%
1	3	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	75.00%
2	-	12	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	72.15%
3	-	-	43	4	2	1	0.5	0	0	0	73.54%
4	-	-	-	115	20	4	1.5	0	0.5	0	73.79%
5	-	-	-	-	500	90	20	9	3	2	73.22%
6	-	-	-	-	-	1500	360	90	40	20	71.61%
7	-	-	-	-	-	-	5000	1500	300	140	72.41%
8	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	25000	4000	1000	72.71%
9	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	37500	4000	71.87%
10	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	50000	72.35%

Poker (Caribbean)

Caribbean Poker Review

Game: In Caribbean Poker you place an ante (bet before game starts) and after having received five cards decide whether to compete against the dealer or not. You simply compare cards. The better hand wins.

Odds: The basic house edge for this game is 5.21% which doesn't make it look competitive compared to other casino games. American Roulette has the same house edge though. And what makes this game interesting is the side bet of $1 for which you will receive an additional payoff for certain hands (flush or better). This extra win is based on the value of your own five-card hand, not on the hand of the dealer. So even if the dealer beats you or does not qualify you still get the bonus payoff. There certainly are casinos with much better payoffs for Caribbean Poker but the additional payoff bet at 49er Casino is based on a progressive meter which always starts at $50,000. Actually the side bet is a sucker bet (bad bet) when the jackpot is low, but since the jackpot gets such big here the house edge decreases and really makes it worth a try. Since the release of their Progressive Caribbean Stud Poker in March of 2001, many jackpots have been hit already, one for over $235,000.
The strategy for Caribbean Poker is quite simple: you should raise on any pair or better and fold on anything less than ace/king.

Set: The default table limits are set to $5-$300. You can change the table limits once you have received your PIN via mail.

Summary: 49er Casino offers standard Caribbean Poker version with a nice jackpot. There are better ones.

Caribbean Poker Payoffs
*Hand*	*Payoff*	*Bonus Payoff*
Royal Flush	200:1	100% of Jackpot
Straight Flush	50:1	10% of Jackpot
4 of a Kind	20:1	$1,000
Full House	7:1	$100
Flush	5:1	$50
Straight	4:1	4:1
3 of a Kind	3:1	3:1
2 pair	2:1	2:1
1 pair	1:1	1:1

Poker (Let it Ride)

Let it Ride Poker Review

Game: Let It Ride is a card game based on poker where you first get three cards and then have the option of paying for each more card until you hold five cards. A pair of tens or better will receive a payout.

Odds: The basic house edge for this game is 3.5%. And what makes this game interesting is the side bet of $1 for which you will receive an additional payoff for certain paying hands (3 of a kind or better). This extra payoff is based on the value of your own five-card hand, not on the hand of the dealer. So even if the dealer beats you you still get the bonus payoff. This extra payoff usually is based on a progressive meter which causes the house edge to vary. If the jackpot is small, the house edge is huge (sometimes up to 70%). But 49er Casino offers a flat pay schedule with a fixed house edge of 22.61%. As you can see actually this is a sucker bet (bad bet) that should be avoided.

Summary: This probably is one of the best Let It Ride Poker games to find at online casinos.

Let It Ride Payoffs
*Hand*	*Payoff*	*Bonus Payoff*
Royal Flush	1000:1	$30,000
Straight Flush	200:1	$3,000
4 of a Kind	50:1	$400
Full House	11:1	$200
Flush	8:1	$50
Straight	5:1	$25
3 of a Kind	3:1	$5
2 pair	2:1
1 pair	1:1

Poker (Pai Gow)

Pai Gow Poker Review

Game: Pai Gow Poker is a card game based on poker where you and the dealer get seven cards and have to split them into five and two cards, each of them containing a better hand than the dealer's in order to win (your five card hand has to be better than your two card hand).

Odds: In Pai Gow Poker usually each player gets the chance to be the banker. Actually only a Pai Gow Poker game where the casino alternates the turn of the banker is good because in the event of an exact match between hands, called a copy, the tie goes to the banker. It would set the house edge to 1.46%. (The probability that the two-card hands ("front hands") will copy is 2.55% and the probability that the five-card back hands ("back hands") will copy is 0.32%.) When it is your turn to be the banker the house has only an 0.08% edge over you. Because both the turn of the banker and the 0.08% edge alternate you end up with the aforesaid 1.46% house edge. At 49er Casino the dealer is always the banker though which sets the basic house edge at 2.85%. Almost every online casino lets only the dealer be banker. So does 49er Casino.

Set: Usually a progressive jackpot is paid out if any 5 cards of the 7 cards you are dealt make up a royal flush. 49er Casino does not offer such a jackpot.
You are paid even money on all winning hands less a 5% commission (some casinos take a 2% commission only). The default table limits are set to $5-$300. You can change the table limits once you have received your PIN via mail.

Summary: Find an online casino that offers you the option of being banker.

Red Dog

Red Dog Review

Game: Red Dog is a simple game where two cards are chosen by the house. You may raise your bet if you think a third card will fit in between the first two. You are given certain payouts for certain spreads. The spread is the number of ranks between two given cards. For example, the spread between a five and an eight is two. The maximum spread is eleven.

Odds: In Red Dog the greater the number of decks the better the odds for the player. This is because of the greater probability of drawing a fitting card or a three of a kind, which pays 11:1. Since 49er Casino uses eight decks while most other online casinos use two or one deck only, the house edge is 2.75% which makes 49er Casino one of the only places worth playing Red Dog at.

Set: The default table limits are set to $5-$300. You can change the table limits once you have received your PIN via mail.

Summary: One of the best places to play Red Dog at.

Roulette (American)

American Roulette Review

Game: A wheel with pockets numbered 0 to 36 is spun in one direction. A ball is spun around the wheel and as the ball slows, it drops into one of the pockets of the wheel. You bet on which pocket the ball will drop into.

Odds: This is an 'American' double-zero roulette (with two zeros on the wheel) which sets the basic house edge to 5.26%. Actually this house edge is too high to play here. But 49er Casino makes use of a great rule that puts you in an more favorable position: the 'la partage' rule (also called the 'en prison rule' or 'Hamburg variation of the European half back rule'): if the zero comes up you lose only half your bet when betting on the 'outside' bets (the 'outside' bets are the bets that pay even money: high/low, red/black, odd/even). By losing only half your bet, the house edge on these ('outside') bets is cut down to 2.63% which is slightly better than the basic 2.7% house edge at an European Roulette table. Remember, however, that an 'inside' bet still has the double-zero house edge of 5.26% against it.
So if you prefer to bet on one of the inside bets once in a while, you really should play the European roulette version, since the house edge there is 2.7% on all bets alike. But if you are an outside bettor, who likes to bet on high, low, red, black, odd or even only, you should stick to the American roulette version since it offers slightly better odds for those bets (2.63%).

Consider that inside bets offer far better payouts than outside bets, so bet the middle 12 once in a while. Generally the best idea is to bet on the streak that is running at the moment (e.g. if the last number was red, bet red). Avoid the five-number bet.

Set: The betting limits here are $1-$1,500.

Summary: That's a very good American roulette version since offering 'La Partage'. The betting limits are excellent. There are better roulette tables in our Best Roulette List. If you would like to bet big, go to Global-Player Casino. You can bet up to $6,000 on a spin there.

Roulette (European)
Williamhillcasino European Roulette

European Roulette Review

Game: European roulette is played the same way American roulette is played.

Odds: This is an 'European' single-zero roulette (with only one zero on the wheel) which sets the basic house edge to 2.7% on all bets. That's actually far better than the American roulette version which usually has an incredible basic house edge of 5.26%.
No additional rule puts you in a more favorable position here, so the house edge stays at 2.7%.

If you prefer to bet on one of the inside bets once in a while, you really should play European roulette, since the house edge is 2.7% on all bets. But if you are an outside bettor, who likes to bet on high, low, red, black, odd or even only, you should play their American roulette version since it offers slightly better odds for those bets (2.63%).

Set: It's taken into positive account that 49er Casino offers both the European and the American version of roulette with one of them offering the 'La Partage' rule. The betting limits here are $1-$1,500 again which can be increased to $1,500 after you received your PIN via mail. If you would like to bet big, go to Global-Player Casino. You can bet up to $6,000 on a spin there.

Summary: That's a standard roulette table (2.7% house edge) with very good betting limits of up to $1,5000 per spin available in both single- and multi-player.

Slots

Slots Review

Game: Slots are machines with three to five wheels with symbols on them, spinning downwards when you pull a lever at their side or similar and coming to a stop after a few rounds of spinning. If the symbols align you win.

Odds: It is difficult to calculate the payout probabilities of slot machines without knowing how many times a certain symbol appears on each real. You could sit in front of the slot machine, pull the lever 1,000,000 times and write the results down or rely on the information that 49er Casino gives you. They say their payouts were to find somewhere between 96% and 97%. If this is true than it's a good place to play slots at if you are interested in payouts only.

49er Casino offers huge jackpots and one of their slot machines is quite famous and special: their Rags to Riches machine. It's a Wheel of Fortune style bonus wheel slot machine. The bonus reel holds winning amounts from 10 coins up to the jackpot. To get the bonus reel spinning you must get three rags to riches symbols on the regular reels while making the max bet. This combination comes up quite regularly. The minimum jackpot starts at $100,000.

Set: 49er Casino offers 11 slot machines, two of which are progressives. The betting denominations are $0.25, $1, $2, and $5.

Summary: Nice choice of slot machines with huge jackpots. You'll find the best slot machines in our Best Slots List.

Slots Payoffs
Slot Name	Reels/ Lines	Winning Comb.	Wild Symb.	Bonus Screen	Top Prize
Rags to Riches	3/1	8	No	No	starts at $50,000
Safe Cracker	3/1	8	No	No	$20,000
Galactic Odyssey	3/1	8	No	No	$10,000
Triple Olives	3/3	9	No	No	starts at $1,500
Sphinx Hijinx	3/1	7	No	No	$3,000
Lucky 7's	3/1	8	No	No	$2,400
Storm the Castle	3/1	9	No	No	$1,200
High Noon	3/1	10	No	No	$800
Flower Power	3/1	8	Yes	No	$1,000
Forbidden Fruit	3/1	8	No	No	$1,000
Flower Power	3/1	8	Yes	No	$1,000

Video Poker

Video Poker Review

Game: In Video Poker you receive five cards and decide which ones to change (only once) in order to make a good poker hand. As better your hand as better the payout gets.

Odds: 49er Casino features a set of seven different Video Poker machines, all of them offering a very good payout. Additionally they offer 0.1% cash back on Video Poker which is not calculated in the payout table yet.

The Super Jackpot Video Poker machine is progressive and its payout for a Royal Flush starts to grow from 250:1 to better payout ratios. This Video Poker machine has a payout of 98% when the jackpot reached a payout of 1100:1. It is 99% when the jackpot is 1500:1.

Their 'Double Bonus' video poker machine offers 8/5 and a return of 99.94%.

Set: The coin denominations you wish to play are $0.25, $1, $2, or $5.

Summary: Overall, Video Poker seems to be 49er Casino's best game and even one of the best among all online and land-based casinos.

Video Poker Payoffs
*Name*	*Type*	*Max.Coins*	*Min.Coins*
Double Bonus	8/5	99.9%	98.5%
Jacks or Better	9/6	98.3%	97.1%
All American	8/8	98.1%	97.0%
Deuces Wild	4/3	98.0%	96.8%
Tens or Better	6/5	98.0%	96.6%
Joker Poker	8/5	98.0%	96.8%
Super Jackpot	8/5	96.0%	95.1%

Video Slots

Video Slots Review

Game: Besides their regular slots 49er Casino offers three video slot machines as well which are similar to their regular slot games, but more fun, more probability, more reels, more pay-lines, more winning combinations and more payouts.

Odds: All Video Slots at 49er Casino are five reel games with many winning combinations. Also you will find that the symbols pay in any position on a pay line. For example if you hit "A-B-A-C-A" you will be paid for 3 "A" symbols; this is a great help in getting more winners. Every Video Slot machine at 49er Casino has a bonus feature as well.

Their best machine is "Reel in the Cash": 30 winning combinations (3 symbol - 5 symbol combinations). Hit one or more caviar cans and you take the boat to a bonus screen round where you choose a fishing line and "Reel in the Cash". This bonus feature always wins some additional coins.

Set: The coin denominations you wish to play are $0.25, $1, $2, or $5.

Summary: One of the few casinos offering video slots at all. Very nice slot machines. Definitely worth a try.

Slots Payoffs
Slot Name	Reels/ Lines	Winning Comb.	Wild Symb.	Bonus Screen	Top Prize
Pirate's Island	5/5	24	No	Yes	$10,000
Alladjin's Lamp	5/5	32	No	Yes	$5,000
Fisherman	5/5	30	No	Yes	$2,500