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

[libertaad]

I am the creator of bitZino - a provably fair HTML5 bitcoin casino with a focus on ease of use and a slick UI. bitZino also features extremely low minimum bets (as low as 1 μBTC), airtight security practices, and stellar customer support.

My goal is to make bitZino be so fun and easy to use that even non-bitcoiners will go there and play their favourite casino games. Then, when they realize they can actually step up and start playing for more than just play money, they'll take the time to learn about bitcoins.

Currently Blackjack, Craps, Roulette, Slots, Three Card Poker, and Video Poker are live. Our Video Poker game offers the following variants: Jacks or Better, Tens or Better, Deuces Wild, Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker and Double Double Bonus Poker. We also plan on launching more single-player games shortly:  Let it Ride, Pai Gow Poker, and more varieties of Slots. (Let us know what games you want to see, and we'll prioritize them!)

Blackjack	Craps
Roulette	Video Poker
Slots	3 Card Poker

Additional features:

• Provably fair: We utilize cryptography to allow you to verify that you get a fair deal with every game you play.
• HTML5: You don't need to download any software to play our games.
• Security: We take security seriously. All communication to our servers is sent over an https connection. We store all user passwords with bcrypt encryption. We utilize offsite wallet cold storage for the majority of our funds.
• A wide range of limits: Bet anywhere from 1 μBTC all the way up to 100 BTC. (The maximum bet varies by game)
• Customer support: Our primary objective is to serve our customers. We listen to your feedback, and make sure you have the best experience possible on bitZino.
• No registration required: We support both URL based authentication as well as username/password authentication, so you can choose your level of security. We also support two-factor authentication for even more security.

Check it out, and let me know what you think!

https://bitzino.com

[gweedo]

great site, any plans to scale it to mobile?

[FreeMoney]

Very nice site.

One minor thing I noticed. On the edit/account page the only way I noticed to get back to the action is clicking "BitZino" at the top and some people might not realize that's the way. A "Play" or "Blackjack" button on the other side of that top bar could help.

[libertaad]

Thanks for the feedback!

Gweedo: I am planning currently working on optimizing the gameplay for mobile, so stay on the lookout!

FreeMoney: That's a great point. I have been working on making some of the other flows more streamlined (ie, having multiple ways to get the the withdrawal page), but I hadn't thought about making sure it was easy for players to get back in the game from the user page. I'll definitely be adding something.

[FreeMoney]

I see it says withdrawals take up to 24 hours. I think manual withdrawal is smart, but since they are manual anyway you could allow withdrawal requests even when there are unconfirmed funds. Not a big deal though, just a thought.

[libertaad]

Good point, FreeMoney. There really isn't any reason to force the user to wait until all deposits are confirmed before requesting a withdrawal. I've went ahead and changed that behavior - so now you can request a withdrawal regardless of whether your deposits are confirmed -we just wont' process the withdrawal until all your deposits prior to the withdrawal request are confirmed.

I also added some "Back" links to the user edit pages.

Keep the feedback coming!

[dooglus]

There's a text entry box at the bottom of the bit that says:

Welcome to Blackjack!
To get started, please cash in
Your bitcoin deposit address:
1C7Zwt9WU3EpvmXjTC9rXs9QJmKmKrFLho
Available balance0.0 m฿
Amount to cash in

I'm not sure what's going on there.  Am I meant to type the amount I'm going to deposit into the box?  Whatever I type it gets changed back to zero.

Or is that the withdraw box, and it's getting changed to zero because I have a zero balance?

If so, it's confusing to use "cash in" to mean both "deposit" and "withdraw".

[dooglus]

I think it would be nice if you kept a record of my play money balance.

It seems that if I leave the table and go back again, my balance is reset to 1000.

Maybe offer a 'reset' button either when I go bust or available all the time, in case people run out, but I'd prefer to see how I'm doing overall on the play money before committing to depositing precious mbtc. 

Is there a minimum deposit?  State this on the deposit page.

[dooglus]

This is going to sound weird, but the repeated diagonal sliding animation of the cards makes me feel kind of nauseous.  I don't usually get that from any kind of game, but there's something about how the cards slide in quickly and often that leaves me feeling like I'm falling over sideways.  It's quite unpleasant.

How about an option to disable animations?

[dooglus]

Also, the action buttons are pretty big and far apart.  If I'm going to play this for any length of time, I'm going to get tired of moving the mouse between the buttons.

Is it possible to make keyboard shortcuts in HTML5?  Maybe if I could type to play instead of constantly 'aiming' for buttons with the mouse it would feel less tiring.

Maybe I should just get some sleep.

Yes, that sounds like a good idea. 

[libertaad]

Thanks for the extensive feedback, dooglus!

..it's confusing to use "cash in" to mean both "deposit" and "withdraw".

The "Cash In" button is so that you can add some of your funds to the table you're playing at. It isn't meant to deposit or withdraw any bitcoins. This allows users to sit down at a table with less than their entire bankroll all at once. However, I can definitely see how this wording is confusing - especially with the bitcoin deposit address displayed in the same window. I'll work on improving the wording and the general flow!

I think it would be nice if you kept a record of my play money balance.

That's a good idea, and it shouldn't be too hard to do. I agree that it would give you a much better feel for actually playing the game.

Is there a minimum deposit?  State this on the deposit page.

Nope, no minimum deposit

How about an option to disable animations?

That's a good request. I will likely be adding this soon.

Is it possible to make keyboard shortcuts in HTML5?  Maybe if I could type to play instead of constantly 'aiming' for buttons with the mouse it would feel less tiring.

I'm already working on keyboard shortcuts, so stay tuned!

[aq]

Maybe it is just me being that bad at back jack, but how do we know that you don't steer the game? I mean is it common that the bank has a blackjack every 7 or so games when using play money? Albeit, after thinking about it, you would steer it in the other direction while still the player is still at play money.
Apart from this, great site, slick design, like it!

[FreeMoney]

I briefly had the same confusion about depositing vs bringing money to the table.

I think it is only confusing when there is no balance, maybe when balance is zero remove the input blanks and make the instruction to deposit to that address slightly more prominent.

[dooglus]

When playing in a real casino, the play moves around the table clockwise, from right to left.  If you've split and hand, it does the same, playing the right-hand hand first.

Your game plays the left-hand hand first, which gets confusing.

[dooglus]

Maybe it is just me being that bad at back jack, but how do we know that you don't steer the game? I mean is it common that the bank has a blackjack every 7 or so games when using play money? Albeit, after thinking about it, you would steer it in the other direction while still the player is still at play money.
Apart from this, great site, slick design, like it!

The odds of the dealer getting a natural depends on how many decks are being used, but generally the probability of a natural is about (1/13) * (4/13) * 2, or about 1 in 21 hands.

Blackjack is a funny game, and seems to have very high variance.  Winning or losing streaks can last for long periods of time, even though the shuffles are random.

[FreeMoney]

I get a blank pop up when I try to bet zero. My balance on the table is .5, I think this is the issue.

[libertaad]

Thanks everyone for the feedback regarding the buy-in screen! Looking back, I definitely agree it was pretty confusing, which is not good since this is one of the first screens that a new user sees! I've made some changes to clarify it: It now doesn't show a form at all if you have 0 balance on your account. It also has the text of "How much would you like to bring to the table?", which should make it clear that you're buying in to the table, not adding or removing bitcoins from your account. Let me know what you think of the changes

Maybe it is just me being that bad at back jack, but how do we know that you don't steer the game?

Currently you only have my word, and my reputation (which I admit isn't fully established yet). I can assure you that I am in this for the long-haul though. I wouldn't have gone to so much work creating really good custom blackjack software, only to scam a few bitcoins out of people.

Additionally, I am currently working diligently to make the deal provably fair. I will provide a hash of the random seed before the deal, as well as take in a user provided string in order to seed the deal (a similar technique to what the bitjack21 guys do). This will be live within the next week - so if you're unsure, check back in a week for a provably fair game!

When playing in a real casino, the play moves around the table clockwise, from right to left.  If you've split and hand, it does the same, playing the right-hand hand first.

Your game plays the left-hand hand first, which gets confusing.

I'm not sure if it may end up being more confusing to go right-to-left... I'm trying to shy away from the table metaphor, because I think we can do better than that on the web. And since we read left-to-right, that seems more natural to me. However, I'll admit my opinion is probably skewed, and if this is ultimately more confusing for most players, then it should be changed. What do other people think?

[bbit]

Hi I made a mistake  once again ....see private message

[libertaad]

I get a blank pop up when I try to bet zero. My balance on the table is .5, I think this is the issue.

This is definitely a bug! The minimum bet for any table is 1, so if your balance gets down to below 1 (which can only really happen if you got a blackjack in a previous hand, thus allowing you to win a multiple of 0.5), we should be treating you as out of balance, instead of allowing you to try to bet 0.5.

I have fixed this bug, and I also added a BTC to your account for helping me find it. This offer stands for anyone else too! If you find any bugs like this, let me know, and I'll add some funds to your account

[FreeMoney]

I get a blank pop up when I try to bet zero. My balance on the table is .5, I think this is the issue.

This is definitely a bug! The minimum bet for any table is 1, so if your balance gets down to below 1 (which can only really happen if you got a blackjack in a previous hand, thus allowing you to win a multiple of 0.5), we should be treating you as out of balance, instead of allowing you to try to bet 0.5.

I have fixed this bug, and I also added a BTC to your account for helping me find it. This offer stands for anyone else too! If you find any bugs like this, let me know, and I'll add some funds to your account

Oh nice, tyvm.