Original Release: Playtika, 2014, Facebook
Other Releases: iOS / Android (2014)
The Caesar’s social casino doesn’t offer prizes, but does have a broader range of games than most.
Caesars Casino (Facebook, Playtika, 2014)
Where to Buy: Freemium via Facebook, iOS and Android
How to Emulate: Android Emulation Page
Review by: C. M0use
Caesars is one of the colossi of the U.S. gambling scene, owning about half the properties on the Vegas Strip as well as a bunch of Harrah’s, Harvey’s and Bally’s locations scattered around the country. Since they have a much wider geographical reach than their main Vegas rival MGM, I was really hoping their “virtual casino” offering would give you real-life casino credit for your online play in the way that MGM’s MyVegas does.
Alas, Caesar’s didn’t go that route — this is purely for fun, with the only way of obtaining Total Rewards credits being a kickback for buying optional virtual chips here. The upside is that this is overall the best collection of virtual casino games I’ve run into yet, great for practicing basic strategy, testing out goofball betting systems or just scratching a gambling itch without burning holes in your actual wallet.
There are two significant downsides, though, thus only a moderately good review. One is that you have to be online to play, obviously, and loading up the casino front-end and virtual slots games takes a not-inconsiderable amount of bandwidth for mobile users. The other is the “virtual chips” aspect. Now, with this and every other virtual gambling game of this nature I’ve tried, I’ve found you can nurture your starting bankroll into millions with smart, conservative play and taking long breaks to just collect daily/gift/bonus chips and not do anything else. I understand that a big part of the appeal of these virtual games is in “lettin’ it rip” with high-rolling wagers you’d never try in real life, though, but if you play that way you’re pretty much consigning yourself to either paying real money for chips or having to put the game down for periods of weeks at a time while your bankroll refreshes. So if you’re looking for daily high-wager play, I’d look for a better offline alternative.
Speaking of chips, let’s dive into the free ones in more detail. If you’ve already played MyVegas or similar games, the system will be very familiar. Every 24 hours you get one spin on a wheel that guarantees you some amount of free chips — I’m not sure if it increases with your levels, I only play this once a month or so and am only at level 10, so I only get around 300-1,500 per day. I would guess this goes up as you level, though, as that’s what MyVegas does. Other players can also gift you small amounts of free chips and spins at no cost to them when they hit big wins, and you’ll periodically get promotional emails from Playtika that have you click-through to get 5,000 to 10,000 bonus chips.
And what’s this about “leveling”? Every wager gets you EXP points. Leveling gives you a one-time chip bonus and also unlocks new games, for example roughly every three levels you’ll unlock a new video slot machine. Level 10 is a big early threshold as it unlocks the “Golden Room”, which instantly gives you a whole passel of new video slot games.
While Caesar’s isn’t offering any real prizes or casino rewards points through this, they do have MyVegas beat in both game selection and interface. Most console/PC/handheld attempts at casino games stumble in their interface somehow, which is a big part of this game’s appeal — it’s the most smooth and sensible I’ve seen yet. It also has a wider range of games than MyVegas, with more virtual slots plus the addition of video poker, roulette and old-school three reel slots. The blackjack table here does seem to be exactly the same, however. The slots and video poker also have running contests throughout the day with a prize pool for the highest scorers.
So, to recap quickly: online requirement and pay-for-play can potentially be an issue depending on your personal circumstances, would like to see the video slots be less bandwidth-intensive and load faster, and adding some sort of real prizes/rewards to the mix would be YUGE. But as-is this is a really solid collection of the basic casino fundamentals. I wish they would do an offline-only iteration that they sell for a couple bucks in the app stores.
Videos
Caesars Slots (Android, PlayTika, 2013)
Where to Buy: Freemium (download via official mobile app stores)
How to Emulate: Android Emulation Guide
Review by: C. M0use
With the move from Facebook to mobile, Caesars appears to have dropped the “casino” bit and decided to focus exclusively on slots. It’s still the same deal from developer Playtika, though; unlike direct competitor MyVegas it has no real prizes available for your play, save a weekly raffle you’re entered in just for logging in that can potentially yield 2,500 Caesars Rewards credits if you link your player’s card (or $250 USD in spend at their properties or through “shopping portals” that have higher-than-usual prices).
The overall count of slots available also seems to have been greatly reduced, and you have to unlock most of them by leveling up now. They also all seem to be Playtika’s own designs, many of which are VERY close copies of some other company’s real money games (like down to just changing one letter in the name sometimes). You start with a small selection of like 10 or so and have to do a whole lot of leveling and unlocking to open up the rest of the roster. And along with dumping all the non-slot casino games, the app has seemingly also dumped the multiplayer tournaments that sometimes appeared in the old version.
The one bonus to Playtika’s games is that some are far more generous than anything you’ll find in a online or offline casino, I guess because there’s no real prizes on the line. The All Mine Gold / Diamond game, which is available from early on, hits bonus spins so often that you seemingly can’t lose money at it as long as you bet disciplined amounts (but don’t quote me on this, at the time of this review it’s seemingly a guaranteed moneymaker but they can always nerf these things quietly).
The games are fine, if not always original, Playtika has been at slot development for nearly two decades now and they know what they’re doing. The overall play experience is wanting, though. The “big win” and “mega win” graphics are irritating, appearing far too often and being slow and unskippable. It’s also good that some of these games are so generous as they’re pretty stingy with the daily coins and periodic free offers via email/push notification.
Caesars Slots isn’t bad, but it really doesn’t offer much to entice you away from the competition and it’s a big step down from the legitimately good “Casino” experience on Facebook a few years ago. No real prizes, too much of a time investment to access most of the games, nothing beyond slots, no social aspect at all, too many interruptions from pointless pop-up graphics, no opportunity to play around with real world games before you hit the casino.