MyVEGAS Blackjack: Play Cards for Comps. As mentioned, the app switches things up by focusing on the game of Blackjack, instead of slots. There are four core variants of Blackjack available, including Free Bet Blackjack and Single Deck blackjack.
Konami’s position as a creator of innovative, visually impressive slot machines and casino games comes after a long, varied history in technology and entertainment. Starting from its simple roots, this Japanese company grew into a multimedia powerhouse with gaming divisions throughout Asia and North America.
Staying true to its slogan of “Born from Fun,” Konami develops and distributes both original creations and games based off of its popular video game licenses.
With a growing online presence and a steadily increasing list of unique slot machine features, Konami is prepared to stay competitive in the modern gaming environment.
Free to play Konami slot machines
Top five Konami slot games
Players looking to try out some of Konami’s hottest offerings can keep an eye out for the following games.
No. 1 Dragon’s Law Twin Fever: A fun, Chinese dragon-themed slot machine, featuring fivereels and 30 paylines. This game includes basic action-stacked symbols as well as a free spin bonus round. The titular twin dragons are at the heart of the game. One or two lucky dragons can arrive after any spin to drop additional wild spaces onto the reel for some surprise wins.
No. 2 Solstice Celebration: A cute, wonderfully designed slot game has a theme around the beauty of spring in an enchanted meadow. The five-reel machine features 30 paylines and uses an enhanced version of the action-stacked symbols as a bonus. Called the Sparkle feature, all action-stacked symbols are lined with a bright border. Filling two reels with a full stack of sparkle-lined symbols nudges other partial stacks to fill their reel. It also has the potential to trigger a free spin bonus round.
No. 3 Chili Chili Fire: A five-reel 30 paylines slot has a general Mexican theme. Including action-stacked symbols and the chance to win free games, this machine also uses the Fade Away feature. After any spin, low-paying card symbols have the opportunity to fade away. The newly empty spaces then fill with random higher paying picture symbols, with a chance to turn a disappointing spin into something special.
No. 4 Lion Festival: Boosted Celebration – Inspired by Chinese New Year celebrations, this five-reel slot machine offers players a mix of neat features including a boosted middle reel that has double the symbols to make forming a winning combination that much easier. It includes action-stacked symbols and a free spin bonus round, but the bonus round includes the twist of the Balance of Fortune system. After winning free spins, players can stick with their standard 2x multiplied free spins, or they can trade stacks of five free spins for a “super-free spin” with a much higher multiplier.
No. 5 Castlevania: Labyrinth of Love – Konami has multiple Castlevania themed slots, inspired by its video game franchise of the same name. This five-reel machine includes an expanded free spin mode along with a progressive jackpot tied to the Castlevania game board. Players who trigger the minigame get to pick from different sets of potential moves to try and reach the castle. At that point, the game switches to a flashy battle minigame, where players get to spin a set of reels to try and land on attack symbols that kill enemies while hoping that they avoid the damage symbols that close off the reel. Making it past the bosses can reward the player with one of the four progressive jackpots. Sadly, Castlevania machines are generally not available on a mobile device.
Konami mobile slots
While some of Konami’s more advanced machines are sadly still stuck in physical casinos, it has developed mobile versions of many of their classic slots. Players with a mobile device should be able to find free versions of Konami’s online slots available in participating casino apps. Anyone lucky enough to live where real money online slots are legal will also find real mobile versions available.
For unlucky players, Konami does offer a nice middle ground. The My Konami Slots app is available for iOS and Android devices. This app offers several popular slots for free play. Players can collect free chips throughout the day, and the app includes a daily free bonus spin that can award credits. While packages of chips are available for purchase, patient players can stick with the Konami free casino slot games.
The Konami slots app includes linked progressive jackpots and slot tournaments for players looking for high-stakes play. Konami goes back to its video game roots by also offering daily challenges and quests, which reward players for hitting set goals or betting certain amounts. The real hook is that players can win loyalty points that they can spend on prizes and comps at real casinos, similar to Chumba Casino. Players can earn room discounts, credit toward food, tickets to great shows or just themed merchandise. It’s a great way for players to have a little fun between trips.
The rise of Konami
Konami began as a jukebox rental and repair company in 1969 based out of Osaka, Japan. The name comes from the first letters of its three original officers, Kagemasa Kozuki, YoshinobuNakama and TatsuoMiyasako. The company’s founder, Kozuki, still sits on the executive board. Konami moved away from its original jukebox focus fairly quickly, transitioning to manufacturing arcade cabinets in 1973 to take advantage of the growing video game market.
Konami would go on to produce its important additions to arcade gaming by developing hits such as the massively popular Frogger in 1981, along with gamer favorites such as Scramble and Super Cobra. The company was able to adapt to the rapidly changing video game market throughout the ’80s and early ’90s, providing titles for the Atari 2600 and the original Nintendo console. Konami adapted and evolved its popular Scramble arcade game into the fan-favorite Gradius for the NES, and also developed popular franchises such as the Castlevania and Metal Gear series.
The video game division continued to grow through the ’90s and 2000s with steady sequels and developments even as the company branched out into the gambling industry. Always looking to maintain synergy between their divisions, many of these great video game properties would be adapted into themed slot machines.
Konami’s casino gaming division began with its entry into the Japanese pachinko machine market in September 1992. After several years, the company opened Konami Australia in late 1996. In 1997, this subsidiary would oversee the rollout of Konami’s expansion into the Australian gaming market and later the general Asian market.
Konami expanded into the American casino gaming market in January 2000. The move into the American market was cemented with the construction of a manufacturing and development office in Las Vegas in 2005. The 360,000-square-foot facility served as its base of operations for expansions through North America, South America and Europe. Building on the success, Konomi opened a second facility in Las Vegas in 2015.
Konami’s unique features
While Konami is known for its striking visual design, the company has introduced some software innovations to offer exciting updates to the classic slot machine design. Its development takes full advantage of the ability to modify digital reels before the game or switch symbols after a spin. As a rule of thumb, Konami has focused on enhancing standard slot machine play rather than focusing on adding separate bonus rounds. Konami’s unique twists on the slot machine formula give players a chance to see ordinary spins suddenly change into rich jackpots.
The action-stacked symbols feature
Players of Konami slots are almost guaranteed encounter its action-stacked symbols system. This feature creates sections across all the reels in a game that pick one single symbol to stack for that spin. With a little luck, players will see these sets of stacked symbols fill up their paylines for big wins.
Also, many games have separate bonus features that tie into the action-stacked symbols feature. For example, players may see the reels get nudged into higher payouts with the right set of lucky frames.
Other variations on standard play include dynamic reels that can morph after a spin. In certain games, players may see new wild symbols appear to fill out lines, or they may see low-value spaces disappear to make room for big winners.
The Balance of Fortune features
That’s not to say that Konami has ignored its bonus games, even if it sticks to traditional free spins and multipliers. When going through Konami’s catalog, players will find innovations such as the Balance of Fortune system. This offers winners a choice in how their bonus game plays out, usually based around a more certain smaller payout versus a riskier shot at a big return.
The Mirror Reels bonus feature
The addition of special Mirror reels in bonus rounds also adds a fun change of pace to free spins. Mirror reels are what they sound like, with the two leftmost and rightmost reels mirroring one another, making it easier than ever to get a straight line of five symbols.
Similarly, while many of Konami’s games feature bonus games and special features instead of traditional jackpots, some entries feature progressive jackpot systems.
Konami’s progressive jackpot games
Games such as Pirate’s Jackpot and Pharoah’s Wish include stand-alone progressive jackpots. Konami also has machines with community-linked progressive jackpots.
For example, Beat the Field offers players — in a bank of linked machines — each a chance at different progressive jackpots when one player in the bank triggers the special round. Eligible players can win set bonuses or a progressive jackpot based on the results of a simulated horse race.
Machines, such as the new Power Boost Inferno, offer a supreme progressive jackpot that can potentially be linked across multiple participating casinos.
Konami’s recent innovations have also shifted toward more noticeable changes to gameplay. In 2016, the company unveiled the Crystal Cyclone. This upgrade adds a social element to Konami’s older physical machines. The system places a roulette wheel in the center of several linked Konami slot machines.
When triggered, players on the linked machines get to watch bonus balls fall onto the spinning wheel in the center with credits and bonuses applied based on where the balls land.
Finally, Konami’s development comes full circle with the recent development of a partially skill-based Frogger game that provides increased payouts to players who can get their frog farther up the randomly generated arcade game.
There are some players out there that refuse to play a video blackjack game. Some feel that they know they are getting a fair game if they play with cards. The video blackjack games available in Nevada are the same machines that can be found across the world. These video blackjack machines are legitimate in their deal. In some cases it is better to play on these video blackjack games as opposed to the live tables. There are several reasons for this.
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Lower Minimums
Video blackjacks machines will often have a lower minimum bet than the table games. Some video blackjack games will have a minimum bet of as little as $1. At higher-end casinos, the minimum bet may be as high as $5. Whatever the minimum bet is it is going to be lower than the minimum bet at the table games.
Better Rules
In many instances, the video blackjack game will have better rules than any live blackjack game that can be found in the same casino. There is a video blackjack game that has shown up in Las Vegas that stays on all 17’s, offers surrender, double after the split and split up to 3 hands. These are better rules than any table game offered in several casinos. In fact, it is rare to find tables that stay on all 17’s anymore. When the dealer stays on all 17’s it decreases the house advantage by .22%.
Better Comps
Comps are the free perks casinos give to their high rollers. If you only plan on playing a few dollars a hand then there is no reason to play the live blackjack tables. Some casinos will not rate you if you play under $25. Those that will rate you will give you very little in the way of comps. On the other hand, if you play on a video blackjack machine, you will get rated for every bet regardless of how small it is. You will typically be graded as a higher player when you play video blackjack than if you play the live tables if you are not going to average a $25 bet. There will also be some promotions that only apply to slot machines. Typically video blackjack machines will count as a slot machine. If a casino has a slot points race, has a point multiplier day, or gives you free slot play, the video blackjack machines will usually qualify for these promotions. It is very easy to earn points on these machines. Cashback can also be earned on video blackjack machines where table games usually do not give players cashback.
No Dealers
I am certainly not knocking dealers. They have a tough job and I respect them. From a player’s point of view though, I would rather play the video blackjack games. This is because there are no mistakes in dealing on these machines. You never have to worry about the hand being declared a misdeal or not getting paid correctly. Some dealers also hate their jobs and it is obvious. They can bring the whole aura of the environment down. You also do not have to worry about tipping the blackjack machine. Video blackjack games are also faster than most dealers can deal, especially if the dealers have to hand shuffle.
Advantages to Playing Live Blackjack
While I prefer video blackjack, there are certainly advantages to playing live. If you would like good drink service, you will get served more drinks in the table games pit than you will in the slot area where video blackjack games usually are located. If you are going to average $25 or more a bet then you will get noticed in the pit and you are likely to get better comps. If you are going to count cards it will be much easier to do so at the table games. It is impossible to count cards on some blackjack machines. A full table game of blackjack will likely be faster than a video blackjack game because novice players are more likely to be on the machines. If a player is being slow at a table the dealer will remind them that it is their turn, where on a video blackjack machine it may not. If smoke bothers you then table games might be best for you too. Casinos will often make a table smoke free upon request. That cannot be done in the slot area. Table blackjack games also tend to be more social than video blackjack machines.
Playing Blackjack Online For Money
Bad Video Blackjack Machines
The machines that can be played advantageously are multi-seat machines where blackjack pays 3 to 2. Some video poker machines such as Game Kings and Game Makers have a heads up blackjack game on them. These are terrible blackjack games. These games typically pay even money on blackjack. They typically do not allow doubling after the split either. Some of these machines do not allow doubling at all. It is best to avoid these games. Some multi-seat games are single deck games that pay 6 to 5 on blackjack. Avoid these single deck machines as well.
There are advantages to playing both live and video blackjack. Each player has their own goal as to what they would like to get out of a blackjack game. While I lean towards video blackjack, some players still cannot get used to the idea of playing a table game on a machine. Blackjack can be fun whether it is a video blackjack game or a live blackjack game; it is up to the player to decide which they enjoy more.