bitZino - Bitcoin Casino - Blackjack, Roulette, 3 Card Poker, Slots and more!

[World]

bitZino is good example for gaming industry and this is only the beginning
nice work

[ErebusBat]

How about a setting in my profile so that I can have the client record (log) my play.  e..g, to later get a list of all hashes and secrets.

Just from knowing the speed of hands that the player is going at it becomes pretty easy to tell if the player is looking at the verification.  Of course, the odds are that 99.998% of us won't be verifying.   But if the client might be logging each play, for verification after the fact, then there's no way to tell which players might be scrutinizing the results.  Which keeps everyone honest.

I was thinking this would be the perfect use-case for a greasemonkey script. Because honestly, even if we allow you to log the hands client-side, you still have to trust that the javascript we're serving you isn't corrupted.

If anyone wants to build such a script, I'd be happy to help support it!

I think this would make a great browser extension too, blockchain.info does this to make sure nothing has injected javascript.

The bitZino verifier.

Actually this opens up a whole world of hand analysis / logging plugins too.

[libertaad]

That is pretty slick, however FYI: it doesn't work on my iPhone, but DOES on my iPad.  Wonder if it could be a size issue.

What isn't working for you on your iPhone? I have tested it on an ipod touch, and everything seemed to work well, but I may need to dig deeper if you're seeing issues.

bitZino is good example for gaming industry and this is only the beginning
nice work

Thanks!

I think this would make a great browser extension too, blockchain.info does this to make sure nothing has injected javascript.

The bitZino verifier.

Actually this opens up a whole world of hand analysis / logging plugins too.

I would love to see some bitZino greasemonkey scripts and browser extensions! If any developers are interested in building anything like this, please feel free to reach out to me. I intend to keep the structure of the DOM on bitZino relatively the same going forward, but it would probably help to coordinate a little just to help ensure nothing breaks when I update the site.

[ErebusBat]

That is pretty slick, however FYI: it doesn't work on my iPhone, but DOES on my iPad.  Wonder if it could be a size issue.

What isn't working for you on your iPhone? I have tested it on an ipod touch, and everything seemed to work well, but I may need to dig deeper if you're seeing issues.

Hrm.... IIRC the 'cards' never loaded.  However I just tested it under chrome and safari on my iPhone 4S (same device as before) and it is fine.  So I honestly don't know what the problem was.  If people have troubles in the future maybe force closing safari might resolve it?

[libertaad]

What isn't working for you on your iPhone? I have tested it on an ipod touch, and everything seemed to work well, but I may need to dig deeper if you're seeing issues.

Hrm.... IIRC the 'cards' never loaded.  However I just tested it under chrome and safari on my iPhone 4S (same device as before) and it is fine.  So I honestly don't know what the problem was.  If people have troubles in the future maybe force closing safari might resolve it?

Hm, strange. It may have just been due to poor networking, but it could be a genuine problem with the way iPhone handles network timeouts or other failure cases. I'll stay on the lookout to see if I can ever replicate this behavior. Thanks for the report!

[ErebusBat]

What isn't working for you on your iPhone? I have tested it on an ipod touch, and everything seemed to work well, but I may need to dig deeper if you're seeing issues.

Hrm.... IIRC the 'cards' never loaded.  However I just tested it under chrome and safari on my iPhone 4S (same device as before) and it is fine.  So I honestly don't know what the problem was.  If people have troubles in the future maybe force closing safari might resolve it?

Hm, strange. It may have just been due to poor networking, but it could be a genuine problem with the way iPhone handles network timeouts or other failure cases. I'll stay on the lookout to see if I can ever replicate this behavior. Thanks for the report!

It very well could have been network issues, my wifi has been acting up. I will keep my eyes peeled too.

On a side note I played some bitZino hands on the same phone with no problems.

[casascius]

I just played a hand and think that the game might have malfunctioned.  Here is the info:

I was dealt two aces against a dealer jack.  I split them, and the two hands were blackjack and ace-ace.  I was not given an opportunity to split the second ace-ace and was forced to accept a value of 12, which lost against the dealer's 18.  By "not given an opportunity", I mean the game just proceeded without waiting for a user choice, the same way it would were it a blackjack.

Final shuffle: qA0eNDIgGCfpAqdMoxM513qeGtw1zzpnlt8CrLK9MxFjs...

EDIT: Nevermind: rules clearly state "cannot act on split aces".

[dooglus]

I was dealt two aces against a dealer jack.  I split them, and the two hands were blackjack and ace-ace.  I was not given an opportunity to split the second ace-ace and was forced to accept a value of 12

We discussed this a couple of days ago.  I thought the rules had changed since then to allow hitting split aces, but I guess not:

I think I will change the rules to allow for both hitting and re-splitting of split aces, which is more fun, and it'll bring the housed edge down to a meager 0.398%.

[libertaad]

I just played a hand and think that the game might have malfunctioned.  Here is the info:

I was dealt two aces against a dealer jack.  I split them, and the two hands were blackjack and ace-ace.  I was not given an opportunity to split the second ace-ace and was forced to accept a value of 12, which lost against the dealer's 18.  By "not given an opportunity", I mean the game just proceeded without waiting for a user choice, the same way it would were it a blackjack.

Final shuffle: qA0eNDIgGCfpAqdMoxM513qeGtw1zzpnlt8CrLK9MxFjs...

EDIT: Nevermind: rules clearly state "cannot act on split aces".

I was dealt two aces against a dealer jack.  I split them, and the two hands were blackjack and ace-ace.  I was not given an opportunity to split the second ace-ace and was forced to accept a value of 12

We discussed this a couple of days ago.  I thought the rules had changed since then to allow hitting split aces, but I guess not:

I think I will change the rules to allow for both hitting and re-splitting of split aces, which is more fun, and it'll bring the housed edge down to a meager 0.398%.

Sorry about that. We have not changed the rules yet. Right now we're pretty busy with a server upgrade, so none of the major changes suggested in this thread have been implemented yet. A rule change like this is pretty minor code-wise, but we're also re-running all our monte carlo simulations just to ensure everything adds up. Look for the rule change to hit later this week sometime.

[mem]

Quick bump for bitzino, the admin helped my friend out with a technical issue he had - not the fault of bitzino and the admin was very quick to respond.

Great to see.

[libertaad]

Thanks to everyone that has been offering feedback and suggestions to make bitZino a better place. We have definitely been listening! We just launched the following changes:

- Split Aces can now be hit and resplit. This brings the house edge for our blackjack game down to only 0.398%.
- QR Codes for deposit addresses: If you use your phone as your primary wallet, you can now scan your bitZino deposit address using a QR Code.
- Auto-logout after inactivity. To increase security, you can optionally set your account to auto-logout. As always, your games will continue right where you left off in the event that you log out.
- Small balances are no longer displayed in scientific notation :p

We also have these other features on the roadmap, but realistically, we'll probably be focusing on adding new games (such as draw poker) before doing these features:
- Alternative cash-in mechanism (MT Gox codes, or importing private keys)
- Cancelling withdrawals
- Changing the base currency of a live table (we really want to fix this, but its complicated to get the UI and user flow correct here - there's a lot of corner cases)
- Showing the withdrawal screen in the user's base currency as well as whole bitcoins (again, the UI is difficult to get right here - our internal user testing found that adding too much information to this screen could confuse users)
- Creating additional deposit addresses (After researching this, we found it has the potential to slow down bitcoind if we allow too many addresses to be added. There are workarounds, but it'll take time to figure it all out)
- Playing for real BTC without actually registering
- Keyboard shorcuts
- Sounds
- The option to disable animations
- Better reveal animation, utilizing CSS3 3D transitions

Thank you so much to everyone for their feedback, and please keep it coming! Our primary objective at bitZino is to please our customers, so we will always listen carefully, and act on your feedback!

[libertaad]

The words "your" and "deposit" overlap, as seen in this screenshot:



It's probably got to be a browser bug, since the HTML looks fine.

I'm using Chromium 18.0.1025.151 (Developer Build 130497 Linux) Ubuntu 12.04.

Ah, I see it in Chromium 18 myself as well. Interestingly, it's not in Chrome 19. Also interestingly - the layout glitch goes away if you refresh the page.  I do have an idea of what causes this bug - I think it's due to the way webkit handles re-layouts of the page - I'm going to have to dive a little deeper though to figure out a fix. Thanks for the report!

I never was able to figure out what was causing this. But, it looks like the most recent update of chromium caused the issue to just be fixed, so I guess it was a browser bug.

[IveBeenBit]

I just played here for the first time and really liked it. Nice interface, I like the "account settings" page where you can select how long before you are auto-logged out, as well as what currency to use and so forth.

My one complaint was after screwing around with "playmoney" for a while, I sent in 5 BTC to play with for real and couldn't figure out how to change over from playmoney to real money. I kept trying to place bets, but wound up only placing playmoney bets.

I finally clicked something that said, "Leave" and I thought I would be leaving the site, but in fact it let me start playing again for real money!

Which happened to work out in the end since when I was trying to bet real money I kept losing all my play money chips to a bad run of cards, but once I finally figured out how to switch to real money I ran hot and made 2 bitcoins in a few minutes.

Anyways, I think it should be more user friendly since I could not figure out how to bet real money on your games and just stumbled on it by dumb luck and clicking buttons and stuff.

[libertaad]

I just played here for the first time and really liked it. Nice interface, I like the "account settings" page where you can select how long before you are auto-logged out, as well as what currency to use and so forth.

My one complaint was after screwing around with "playmoney" for a while, I sent in 5 BTC to play with for real and couldn't figure out how to change over from playmoney to real money. I kept trying to place bets, but wound up only placing playmoney bets.

I finally clicked something that said, "Leave" and I thought I would be leaving the site, but in fact it let me start playing again for real money!

Which happened to work out in the end since when I was trying to bet real money I kept losing all my play money chips to a bad run of cards, but once I finally figured out how to switch to real money I ran hot and made 2 bitcoins in a few minutes.

Anyways, I think it should be more user friendly since I could not figure out how to bet real money on your games and just stumbled on it by dumb luck and clicking buttons and stuff.

Thanks so much for the feedback! This is a great example of a time where real-world user feedback is of paramount importance. We've been trying to do as much internal testing of our flows as possible, but this is clearly something we've missed!

We used to have a link below play money tables that read: "You're playing with play money. Click here to start playing with real bitcoins", but we got rid of the link recently. Your post is a clear indication that the link is necessary for the flow of when a user is just getting started playing.

We have just added the link back, so it should be easier for you and for future new users. Thanks!

[dooglus]

I love how responsive you are to user feedback.

[Stephen Gornick]

- Alternative cash-in mechanism (MT Gox codes, or importing private keys)

Changing 50!



I just wanted to share this to show what is coming.  Currently paper bitcoins are already possible with BitAddress.org, but "coming soon" will be these.

 -  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92969.0

Though you would only use these for gifts or for transferring bitcoins among parties where there is mutual trust, these paper coins make bitcoins accessible to a wider segment of the population.

I'm hoping that bitZino prioritizes the ability to import (redeem) private keys, as I know exactly what will happen next.  Anyone behind the counter that cares to can become a local bitcoin exchange (well, for selling bitcoins, at least).

So at the coffee shop I pay for my coffee and hand over $5 for a fraction of a bitcoin, scan the paper voucher into bitZino, and play a few hands of blackjack while getting my caffeine fix.  By the time I leave there will be so much dopamine coursing through my veins I might just return after lunch for more.  :-)

[libertaad]

- Alternative cash-in mechanism (MT Gox codes, or importing private keys)

Changing 50!



I just wanted to share this to show what is coming.  Currently paper bitcoins are already possible with BitAddress.org, but "coming soon" will be these.

 -  http://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=92969.0

Though you would only use these for gifts or for transferring bitcoins among parties where there is mutual trust, these paper coins make bitcoins accessible to a wider segment of the population.

I'm hoping that bitZino prioritizes the ability to import (redeem) private keys, as I know exactly what will happen next.  Anyone behind the counter that cares to can become a local bitcoin exchange (well, for selling bitcoins, at least).

So at the coffee shop I pay for my coffee and hand over $5 for a fraction of a bitcoin, scan the paper voucher into bitZino, and play a few hands of blackjack while getting my caffeine fix.  By the time I leave there will be so much dopamine coursing through my veins I might just return after lunch for more.  :-)

That looks really cool, Stephen! We're currently heads-down working on the finishing touches to our Video Poker game, but we'll be prioritizing importing private keys after this. From a cursory glance, I think it really shouldn't be that hard, and empowering bitcoin notes would be a huge benefit!

[cbeast]

I'm not a gambler, but I live near a casino. I see how much money the casinos make because their fines for cheating are nowhere near the money they make. So I hope what you are doing will change the world of gambling.

Having said that, I believe your service needs to be promoted in a big way. I have some ideas if you are interested.

[m03sizlak]

I knew I should have patented my provably fair card ordering algorithm.  The system used by this site is a direct ripoff of the "Cryptoproof" system I developed.

[cbeast]

I knew I should have patented my provably fair card ordering algorithm.  The system used by this site is a direct ripoff of the "Cryptoproof" system I developed.

I don't know what would be the point of patenting it. It's just a fancy brainwallet similar to my buried keys game. Like I said earlier it's such a simple idea soon everyone will use it. Next I would like to see a decentralized torrent based game designed that cannot be shut down.