Unified Gaming - Software Review in association with thewizardofodds.com

Unified Gaming is a dominant provider of Java software to online casinos. The company itself is based in St. Maarten, which is about all I know about it. The Unified Gaming rules are among the best on the Internet, especially in blackjack. Many Unified Gaming casinos offer bonuses for new players, although existing player bonuses are not frequent as they used to be.

A major annoyance with Unified Gaming casinos is lost connections to their server. When this happens it necessitates at the minimum logging back in and at most having to shut down and reboot. Disabling the sound card can help minimize this problem. The game play at Unified Gaming casinos is to the point and down to business. Following is a list of the games available at Unified Gaming casinos, the rules, and some strategy tips. Please be advised that these are the usual rules but some casinos may elect to use different ones.

Baccarat

The usual rules are followed. The player must manually click for a third card when one is required. I do not know the number of decks used.

Blackjack

Unified Gaming deals a great game of blacking, featuring the following rules:

• Single deck
• Dealer stands on soft 17
• Double on any two cards
• Double after a split
• Split up to three times, except aces.
• Late surrender, player must buy insurance to get late surrender against an ace
• Betting ranges: $1-$10, $10-$50, $25-$100, and $100-$250

Many players have alleged that Unified Gaming is cheating, at least in blackjack. These players claim losses in the lowest 1% of the bell curve and argue that they must be cheating to offer rules this good. However my own play has seemed fair and I have yet to see any evidence beyond a reasonable doubt of foul play. Yet I feel that due to the volume of complaints I have had some kind of warning was in order. Note that I am not acusing Unified Gaming of cheating, just responding to numerous requests that I address the issue.

The following table displays the correct basic strategy for the single-deck Unified Gaming blackjack.

H - Hit

S - Stand

P - Split

D - Double, hit if 3 or more cards

Ds - Double, stand if 3 or more cards

R - Surrender

The player edge under these rules and following proper strategy is 0.13%.

Craps

The player may take 1X odds on in the $1-$25 game and 2 times odds in the $10-$100 game. The maximum allowed when laying the odds is correctly relative to the amount the player can win (a rule few software companies get right). The field bet pays 2:1 on both the 2 and 12. Place and proposition bets are allowed according to the usual odds.

Keno

The player can choose from 1 to 10 spots. The following table shows the return according to the number of marks chosen. The best bet is the pick 5 with a return of 94.79%. Compared to most other keno games in both real and online casinos these returns are quite generous.

Pai Gow Poker

Unified Gaming has the best pai gow poker I have seen online. Other software providers give the dealer the role of the banker every hand, resulting in a house edge of 2.86%. At Unified Gaming casinos the player and dealer alternate the role of banker, resulting in a house edge of 1.46%. Another nice feature is the house way button, which the player may press to arrange his cards according to the house way Unified Gaming uses.

Roulette

Vegas double-zero rules are followed.

Spanish 21

Contrary to what the rules and the table itself say the dealer hits on a soft 17. Departures from normal Spanish 21 rules are that no super bonus is offered and early surrender is allowed against a dealer ace. Six decks are used. Modifications to my usual Spanish 21 strategy are to surrender on hard 12 to 17 against an ace and split suited 7´s against a 7. The house edge under these rules is 0.63%.

Sports Betting

Unified Gaming casinos seem just as serious about their sports book as their casino. There are a wide variety of sports to bet on and kinds of bets to make.

Video Poker

Unified Gaming offers many different variations of video poker. Not all games are available at all casinos. Unified Gaming´s best game is Bonus Spades which is a jacks or better variation, paying double for a flush, straight flush, and royal flush if spaded. Bonus Spades and Shock Wave are unusual games, which I do not have the software to analyze exactly. My returns for these games are my best estimate but are slightly understated. The names may vary at some casinos, for example instead of Bonus Spades some casinos have Bonus Diamonds or Bonus Hearts. Paying 4 for a four of a kind marks the usual deuces wild game. However, at least one pays 5 instead, among other changes, for a return of 99.55%.

Following are specific probability tables for the various Unified Gaming forms of video poker. All tables except Jacks or Better and All American were produced with the help of Bob Dancer's Winpoker 6.0. All tables assume optimal strategy.

Note: In Shockwave the player enters "charge mode" for the ten plays following a four of a kind.