For those playing the free rolls at Royal Vegas

[brianzz]

Here's a recent inquiry I sent to Microgaming and Royal Vegas.... Being a land based casino connoisseur and a very regular participat at B&M casinos I was very curious about the weirdness of RVC's beta tournaments.

Original Email...

Firstly I'd like to say thanks for running a slot tournament (sorta) the way it's supposed to be ran at Royal Vegas Casino. Not a play with real money and try to win more that other real money players to win a prize.

Now the bad stuff. When you play the games in a tournament it's supposed to be at a much higher percentage than what is normally available on regular play, Microgaming has failed at this. I've played several tournaments and see no difference between these games and the games available during regular real play.

During tournament play if you're given free spins or a 2nd screen bonus and there's not enough time for the spins to play out or the 2nd screen bonus to be played out the game just ends. Yet another failure by Microgaming since the triggering spin and all the free spins afterwards count as 1 spin of the reels or 1 game.

Yet another failure is the fact that during the free play tournaments you can rebuy with cash more time/credits. This is wrong on so many levels. When you offer a free tournament that's what it is, free, not free but you can buy your way into the top rankings if you have some money to spend on it.

Again the idea was a good one, but it really does not live up to the expectations of a real casino slot tournament.

Thank you for entertaining my opinions.

And the Reply from Fortune Lounge Support.......................

Thank you for contacting us.



*******, we are happy to hear that you are enjoying the FreeRoll tournaments.

Free spins and bonuses within a tournament are just that, free. So when you are playing in a tournament you only have a certain time to make use of them, keep in mind that there are other players playing on the tournaments as well. The tournament works on the most wagering done within a specific time, with our without bonus futures.

We give you free time to play on the free roll, but the extra credits is an add-on, so you need to deposit to get the add-on. We reward players for purchasing at the casino, like add-ons and purchase match offers.

I did forward all the information in your e-mail to our Marketing team so that they can see if they can give attention to this. Thank you for your feedback.

I can also recommend a guest account for a bit of practice, and I am going to say good luck for the next FreeRoll.


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In other words we don't care, and at the least casino support should know that the tournament action is based on coin win, not coin wagered. I understand that this is beta testing and everything but a free roll is a free roll, whether you've purchased (which I have way too much in the past) or not shouldn't effect the outcome of the freeroll tournaments, free rolls tournaments should be just that, one 5 minute shot with no cash rebuys, otherwise that makes for a cash tournament. Period!.

Rewards with purchase match and add ons.. so in other words spot us a $20 and we'll reward you with a free roll win.. yay, thanks RV I appreciate you inviting me to deposit so I can win a free tournament. Oh and forward me to marketing so I can get more useless 20% bonuses since I'm in the US and can't deposit without jumping though flaming hoops and when I get halfway through they crank the gas up to burn me, all for such a great bonus.

Like I sent in the originating email, to Microgaming, learn to run a slot tourney like a real casino would, then you could compete, until then, you're just another online casino begging for deposits.

 

[vinylweatherman]

Poor

They are simply not "free", it is misuse of the term. In effect, by using the rebuy, players buy an advantage over those players that take the tournament at face value as "free". This probably explains how they are able to "give away" so much in prizes for these "free" tournaments.

My gripe is that the tournament software plays so bloody slowly, so there isn't even enough time to play the starting chips, let alone a rebuy, unless the rebuy offers more time too.
The only way you can win without using rebuy is to hit a good bonus round early on, and get so far ahead that rebuys will not really help the opposition.

The percentage payout is irrelevant here, since all players play the same game. The true house edge is total money in less total prizes paid out. With the sit n go tournaments, this is poor, the prize pool is less that the total cost of initial entry, even without rebuys.

The software is full of bugs, although it is beta. It refuses to install on my new XP machine whatsoever, and installs with permanent bugs on my old Windows 98 machine.
It is at least an effort to move away from the style of tournament where the player who wagers the most with real money wins - this pretty much freezes out low rollers, and US players who struggle to get meaningful amounts deposited, and paid out in the end.

 

[tennis_balls]

They are simply not "free", it is misuse of the term. In effect, by using the rebuy, players buy an advantage over those players that take the tournament at face value as "free".

while the re-buys have an advantage, the players (suckers) making the re-buys are certainly not making money with such a strategy.

I played a few of the 5 player $3 entry tourneys. These don't have re-buys, but it appeared to me that some of the other players were getting twice as many spins as was I. I think this is the biggest challenge these tourneys have. If some players are playing with an edge due to their proximity to the server or just faster PCs, this will quickly sour the appeal of these tourneys.

 

[trips to win]

Have there ever been any free tourneys where there is a set amount - say 200 - free spins that can be completed within a couple of hours time? Gee, I never saw a free tourney being offered in all of the years I have been playing on-line.