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

[dooglus]

Are you interested in hearing suggestions/feature requests?

If he isn't, I don't know who is; bitZino customer support is the best I've found anywhere.

[1714020571]

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[1714020571]

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[libertaad]

Are you interested in hearing suggestions/feature requests?

Absolutely! We're still in active development, and we encourage our players to let us know exactly what they want, so that we can make the best product possible.

[dooglus]

Absolutely! We're still in active development, and we encourage our players to let us know exactly what they want, so that we can make the best product possible.

In that case...  keyboard shortcuts! 

[Zaih]

Going to play this tonight. Looks like a lot of fun compared to the other fairly simple gambling mechanisms.

Which game has the highest expected return? Black Jack I assume?

[gmiwenht]

Are you interested in hearing suggestions/feature requests?

Absolutely! We're still in active development, and we encourage our players to let us know exactly what they want, so that we can make the best product possible.

Here are some roulette features that I would find useful. I am not a gambler, and this is really just a matter of personal taste, so take it with a grain of salt.

1) I am colorblind, so red kind of glows against the ever-so-slightly greenish blue history backdrop. Not a HUGE deal, but after a few hours it becomes noticeable.

2) Introduce empty roll feature (no bet). Roulette brings out superstitious tendencies in even the most rational people, and I think that if you keep roulette logs you will probably find a lot of single unit dummy bets.

3) Single repeat+spin button would be nice, instead of having to click each button separately (but I guess this can clutter the interface a bit). If not, then at least swap the double and repeat buttons, so that one can repeat, double and spin in one motion (left to right).

4) Invert bets feature. This is the most useful addition that I can think of. If a superstitious gambler (i.e. most roulette players) see 18,27,18,27,18,18 then naturally the desire is to be on everything except 18 and 27. This involves clicking on each number repeatedly. (Unless the numbers are on the same row or in the same dozen, in which case you can bet 12 on each row/dozen and fill the other numbers with a single unit, and then multiply through by some scalar.) Either way it's a pain to do this each time. It would be great if you could either fill all outside bets in one click (with the base bet amount) OR place bets wherever you like (e.g. 18 and 27) and then invert bets by betting on everything but the selected numbers. This would save more time for scenarios like the one I described. More time saved by gamblers = more spins per minute ... PROFIT??

5) Half button beside the double button. Blackjack already has this, so why not roulette? Sometimes a betting strategy reaches its limit, and you only win half your money back, then one may decide to take a few steps back and keep trying, rather than reset to the starting bet. The other reason is that sometimes you might be trying to distribute the max bet equally among a bunch of different odds. For example, if betting on everything but 19-24, one would place 12 on first dozen, 18 on 19-36 and 1 on zero, and then double through until it gets to the limit. With a 1000 unit bankroll, you end up with 384, 576, 32, respectively. But now suppose you also wanted to bet a separate line on red, but you only have 8 units left. It would be convenient to be able to half, and then place the remaining bets.

6) Insurance feature. Insurance on even bets would be basically placing a bet on zero. But the size of the bet depends on the even bet wager, and requires a calculator if you want a fixed payout. This can be pretty annoying. For example, for a 200 unit bet on red, the insurance would be 200/18 = 11.11 (say 12), which would pay 12*35 = 420 if the even bet (200*2 = 400) loses.

This is probably a lot of extra buttons! So maybe you can add an "advanced" panel or something. Good UI design is definitely an art, and it's hard to say what works well without trying it out for several hours.

Anyway, I am not sure how much of this is useful feedback. Just some stuff that caught my attention after messing around with your website.

Absolutely! We're still in active development, and we encourage our players to let us know exactly what they want, so that we can make the best product possible.

In that case...  keyboard shortcuts! 

Yes please, and keyboard shortcuts!

[gmiwenht]

Going to play this tonight. Looks like a lot of fun compared to the other fairly simple gambling mechanisms.

Which game has the highest expected return? Black Jack I assume?

Blackjack has better EV than roulette, but there is a lot more variance in blackjack, so betting systems are a lot more frustrating to implement. Basic strategy is only good for very very small stakes.

If you're playing $10 or $25, then it's risky. For example if you keep hitting blackjack and getting 3/2 on your starting bets, you are getting a lot less return than if you catch a string of losses first and then hit 3/2 on a higher stakes bet. Conversely, splitting/doubling is great at lower stakes, but as you get closer to the bet limit you dread aces because it usually means 3x your starting bet and you might not have that.

Roulette is far more homogeneous in this respect.

If you just wanna pump some dopamine and top up 5% to your starting bankroll, go with roulette. If you have been drinking and just wanna gamble until you lose everything, then play blackjack. With blackjack you don't know what the fuck is gonna happen, and you could make a lot of money fast!

[dooglus]

Going to play this tonight. Looks like a lot of fun compared to the other fairly simple gambling mechanisms.

Which game has the highest expected return? Black Jack I assume?

Blackjack's house edge is apparently 0.398% if you play using basic strategy.
Roulette's is 2.7027%.
Jacks or better video poker is 0.46% to 0.54% depending on how complex a strategy you're willing to learn.
I don't have numbers for craps or slots.

[libertaad]

In that case...  keyboard shortcuts!  

Yes please, and keyboard shortcuts!

Sorry it's taken so long to implement this! Keyboard shortcuts have always been on the backburner, but it seems like we keep finding a reason to push them off. We'll stop pushing it off, and get it implemented soon.

Here are some roulette features that I would find useful. I am not a gambler, and this is really just a matter of personal taste, so take it with a grain of salt.

1) I am colorblind, so red kind of glows against the ever-so-slightly greenish blue history backdrop. Not a HUGE deal, but after a few hours it becomes noticeable.

We always do try to take color-blindness into account, basically by trying not to rely on color, or at least using highly contrasting colors when possible. However, we don't actually have any colorblind people to test with, so this feedback is very valuable!

I wonder if there is anything subtle we can do to alleviate this issue, or if it's minor enough that it's not worth a change? Please do let us know if there are any other color issues that you notice! We have thought about adding a colorblind mode, but ideally we'd just make it work right for all users by default.

2) Introduce empty roll feature (no bet). Roulette brings out superstitious tendencies in even the most rational people, and I think that if you keep roulette logs you will probably find a lot of single unit dummy bets.

We'll think about this...

3) Single repeat+spin button would be nice, instead of having to click each button separately (but I guess this can clutter the interface a bit). If not, then at least swap the double and repeat buttons, so that one can repeat, double and spin in one motion (left to right).

I agree about not wanting to clutter the interface, but this may fit well under an expandable "advanced" section.

4) Invert bets feature. This is the most useful addition that I can think of. If a superstitious gambler (i.e. most roulette players) see 18,27,18,27,18,18 then naturally the desire is to be on everything except 18 and 27. This involves clicking on each number repeatedly. (Unless the numbers are on the same row or in the same dozen, in which case you can bet 12 on each row/dozen and fill the other numbers with a single unit, and then multiply through by some scalar.) Either way it's a pain to do this each time. It would be great if you could either fill all outside bets in one click (with the base bet amount) OR place bets wherever you like (e.g. 18 and 27) and then invert bets by betting on everything but the selected numbers. This would save more time for scenarios like the one I described. More time saved by gamblers = more spins per minute ... PROFIT??

This is a great idea! We see a lot of wagers where the board is completely covered except for a few numbers, and I'm sure that clicking that many times is very tedious. Anything we can do to help make it easier to wager is definitely a good thing!

5) Half button beside the double button. Blackjack already has this, so why not roulette? Sometimes a betting strategy reaches its limit, and you only win half your money back, then one may decide to take a few steps back and keep trying, rather than reset to the starting bet. The other reason is that sometimes you might be trying to distribute the max bet equally among a bunch of different odds. For example, if betting on everything but 19-24, one would place 12 on first dozen, 18 on 19-36 and 1 on zero, and then double through until it gets to the limit. With a 1000 unit bankroll, you end up with 384, 576, 32, respectively. But now suppose you also wanted to bet a separate line on red, but you only have 8 units left. It would be convenient to be able to half, and then place the remaining bets.

Adding a "Halve bets" button does make a lot of sense. We'll work on adding this.

6) Insurance feature. Insurance on even bets would be basically placing a bet on zero. But the size of the bet depends on the even bet wager, and requires a calculator if you want a fixed payout. This can be pretty annoying. For example, for a 200 unit bet on red, the insurance would be 200/18 = 11.11 (say 12), which would pay 12*35 = 420 if the even bet (200*2 = 400) loses.

This could also fit nicely under an advanced panel. We'll see if we can make this work.

This is probably a lot of extra buttons! So maybe you can add an "advanced" panel or something. Good UI design is definitely an art, and it's hard to say what works well without trying it out for several hours.

Anyway, I am not sure how much of this is useful feedback. Just some stuff that caught my attention after messing around with your website.

Thanks for all the advice! I definitely like the idea of an advanced area which could house a lot of these option, and just make it easier for power-players to make their wagers more efficiently.

We'll be pushing out some other updates soon, and then we'll get to work on these! Thanks again for the feedback, and keep it coming!

[IveBeenBit]

We always do try to take color-blindness into account, basically by trying not to rely on color, or at least using highly contrasting colors when possible. However, we don't actually have any colorblind people to test with, so this feedback is very valuable!

I wonder if there is anything subtle we can do to alleviate this issue, or if it's minor enough that it's not worth a change? Please do let us know if there are any other color issues that you notice! We have thought about adding a colorblind mode, but ideally we'd just make it work right for all users by default.

I found this link after some quick searching: http://designshack.net/articles/accessibility/tips-for-designing-for-colorblind-users/

An interesting video: http://on.wsj.com/SJoIRX

Also, as long as you're taking feature requests, I would like the ability to do self-imposed betting limits. I cost myself a lot of money one time when I played and didn't move the decimal far enough to the left. Gambling addicts could also find this useful to mitigate their problem.

[libertaad]

I found this link after some quick searching: http://designshack.net/articles/accessibility/tips-for-designing-for-colorblind-users/

An interesting video: http://on.wsj.com/SJoIRX

Thanks for the links!

Also, as long as you're taking feature requests, I would like the ability to do self-imposed betting limits. I cost myself a lot of money one time when I played and didn't move the decimal far enough to the left. Gambling addicts could also find this useful to mitigate their problem.

We are working to add this feature as well. Now that we've increase the max-bet for most of our games to such a large amount, this feature will be nice for someone that knows they never want to wager that high.

[gmiwenht]

We always do try to take color-blindness into account, basically by trying not to rely on color, or at least using highly contrasting colors when possible. However, we don't actually have any colorblind people to test with, so this feedback is very valuable!

I wonder if there is anything subtle we can do to alleviate this issue, or if it's minor enough that it's not worth a change? Please do let us know if there are any other color issues that you notice! We have thought about adding a colorblind mode, but ideally we'd just make it work right for all users by default.

The history board is a different shade of blue to the table (it's a sort of dark aquamarine, ~20/70/128). If you can make the history board black or light grey, it would alleviate the issue with the red letters. The rest of the table and color scheme is fine, although I am somewhat surprised that you would choose blue as your main color. Research has shown that color has a huge effect on emotions, and considering that your main source of revenue is people staring at your color scheme for hours on end, I would guess this effect is accentuated tenfold. Would a bright, cheerful color scheme not be better suited to motivate risktaking?

[libertaad]

We've pushed a handful of changes which address some of the issues recently discussed:

- We made the Roulette history slightly darker. We spent a lot of time experimenting here with different changes, but the change we ended up making is relatively subtle. Let me know if it helps with the eye strain!

- You can now set a self-imposed maximum bet from your settings page. This helps prevent you from accidentally betting more than you intended to.

- You can now enable a self-imposed "Cool-off" period. During the cool-off period, you won't be able to make any real-bitcoin wagers from your account. This hadn't been discussed on these forums yet, but we've gotten some user feedback regarding it, and it fits in well with the self-imposed maximum-bet feature. We want our players to have fun, so hopefully this feature can help make sure it stays fun.

I am somewhat surprised that you would choose blue as your main color. Research has shown that color has a huge effect on emotions, and considering that your main source of revenue is people staring at your color scheme for hours on end, I would guess this effect is accentuated tenfold. Would a bright, cheerful color scheme not be better suited to motivate risktaking?

Our strategy has always been to maximize players' playtime. That's why we have small house-edges and tiny minimum bets. We'd rather you play for hours with a single deposit, than have you take a few crazy risks and end up feeling like you didn't really have any fun. We intentionally chose a soothing color scheme to match this goal.

We've also started work on the advanced roulette features as well as keyboard shortcuts.

Keep the feedback coming!

[gmiwenht]

- We made the Roulette history slightly darker. We spent a lot of time experimenting here with different changes, but the change we ended up making is relatively subtle. Let me know if it helps with the eye strain!

It's a little bit better. Or maybe I am just used to it, I can't tell.

- You can now enable a self-imposed "Cool-off" period. During the cool-off period, you won't be able to make any real-bitcoin wagers from your account. This hadn't been discussed on these forums yet, but we've gotten some user feedback regarding it, and it fits in well with the self-imposed maximum-bet feature. We want our players to have fun, so hopefully this feature can help make sure it stays fun.

I love the cool-off period! Seriously. If there is any additional request I would make is to add 3 days and 1 week options.

[dooglus]

I love the cool-off period! Seriously. If there is any additional request I would make is to add 3 days and 1 week options.

On the setup screen for the cool-off period, I see a button 'Enable' but no 'back' or 'cancel' in case I don't want to enable it.

[Zaih]

Great update in regard to the cool off period.

Very respectable of you to sacrifice potential profit in order to give users a better experience

[libertaad]

- We made the Roulette history slightly darker. We spent a lot of time experimenting here with different changes, but the change we ended up making is relatively subtle. Let me know if it helps with the eye strain!

It's a little bit better. Or maybe I am just used to it, I can't tell.

Thanks for the feedback regarding this, and please let us know if there's any other color issues you see (or any issues at all!) I've added a comp to your account to thank you for helping us make bitZino a better place to play!

I love the cool-off period! Seriously. If there is any additional request I would make is to add 3 days and 1 week options.

Glad you like it! We just went in and added a 3-day and a 7-day option as well.

[gmiwenht]

Very respectable of you to sacrifice potential profit in order to give users a better experience

Second that. Great site and great philosophy wrt treating your customers.

Thanks for the feedback regarding this, and please let us know if there's any other color issues you see (or any issues at all!) I've added a comp to your account to thank you for helping us make bitZino a better place to play!

Thank you, I appreciate the gesture!

[gmiwenht]

Just a small thing: the 3 day and 7 day periods are in the options now, but gives an error when I try to enable.

Once again, thanks for implementing the feature

[libertaad]

Just a small thing: the 3 day and 7 day periods are in the options now, but gives an error when I try to enable.

Sorry about that! We have now fixed this issue, so any cool-off time is allowable. Thanks for letting us know about the problem!

[libertaad]

Love the site and the new additions that keep coming.  That cool off feature would have been nice after I went on some big runs then gave it all back (and more!)  I will never go back to traditional online gaming sites, that is for sure.  Can tell you care about reputation, which is important.  Hopefully your hard work along with the recent run-up in BTC has served you well!  Any update on the loyalty program?  Hopefully it will be somewhat retroactive, but either way I look forward to it.  I agree with others who suggested that the deposit bonus system that traditional online casinos (wow can't believe that is a term now) used is not ideal - it is subject to abuse on both ends.

Thanks for the kind words! I love the differentiation you make with us an traditional online casinos

The rewards program is still in the works, but we are planning on rolling out 3-card poker as our next big release. After that we'll hammer out all the details and get the reward program ready to launch. I know I said the same thing before launching Slots, but sometimes it can be hard to get the exact timelines right, so sorry about that! I can tell you that it will be worth the wait!