Launched in April 2003, Casino Del Rio quickly established a loyal base of players who simply love it.

Available in intercompatible download and web-based platforms and in a variety of multilingual and multicurrency versions, the Casino Del Rio is fully free and boasts over 60 games, 3D animated graphics and a host of industry-first innovations and features like real time game and transaction histories, VIP rating and a cash-convertible Comp Points scheme

PartyGaming saw its shares surge 16.5% as it hinted that online Blackjack had the potential to grow as explosively as online Poker.

The group - owner of Party Poker, the world's biggest internet Poker site - introduced Blackjack in October. The game has quickly surpassed Roulette as the site's most popular non-poker game and news of the rapid take-off prompted across-the-board profit upgrades by analysts. 19.25p rise in the shares to 136.25p means they have doubled

An innovative betting option known as Casino Surrender, which was recently introduced in the greater Chicago area at the Blue Chip Casino & Hotel in Michigan City, Ind., has the potential to become a standard feature at blackjack tables in casinos nationwide if the early returns are any indication.

Since its debut on two tables at the Stardust in Las Vegas last April, it has expanded to 70 tables at 12 casinos and is currently licensed in the states of Nevada, Indiana and Mississippi.

By John G. Brokopp

Being labeled as a "card counter" gives a blackjack player a bad reputation among casino owners and operators.

It has always struck me as odd that a person who plays the game with a high degree of skill is subject to being banned from putting that knowledge to work. I cannot think of another pursuit where similar discrimination is enforced.

Ute Mountain Casino - Hotel & Resort is partnering with GSN, The Network for Games, on the broadcaster´s third year of the franchise series World Series of Blackjack 2006. Ute Mountain Casino, the largest casino in southwest Colorado, is currently hosting three preliminary blackjack tournaments. The top winner of each tournament will win one of the 40 seats in the World Series of Blackjack which will be taped early next year.

Distinguishing which casinos offer the most player-friendly rules at its blackjack tables is one thing. Knowing how to take best advantage of those conditions is something else all together.Almost everyone who plays blackjack with any degree of seriousness employs basic strategy. That's how it should be. Blackjack is no different from any other game of skill. You owe it to yourself and others to play correctly to minimize the house advantage and maximize your profit potential.

Thanks to the array of celebrity poker tournaments on television, it's no surprise that casino games are a popular entertainment option for special events. Here, the experts who know casino games best discuss how to add Las Vegas-style excitement to any occasion.

Geri Windecker, manager at Wild Bill's Interactive Events in Kent, Wash., notes that casino classics such as blackjack, craps and roulette "are still the mainstay of our events".

The skill factor associated with blackjack makes it unique among table games. Because of this, casinos have done everything they can through the years to alter the game and make it an acceptable revenue generator.

Depending upon how serious a player you are, there are some major differences in house rules among the four properties in the Chicago-area in Illinois that can affect your bottom line over the long run. Today we'll examine those differences.

As if the house didn't already have the upper hand, casinos are betting on new technology that lets them read the players better than any savvy gambler.

The casinos says the new systems can't be used against gamblers and might even benefit them, but some players and regulators aren't so sure.

"Intelligent" blackjack systems that have several elements, all invisible to the players

A homeless victim of Hurricane Katrina, which ravaged New Orleans, shelled out $4.25 in quarters and won a $1.6 million jackpot at a Louisiana casino.

Jacquelyn Sherman, a 57-year-old retired librarian told The Associated Press, that she evacuated to her sister's home in Opelousas, La. in late August, just after Hurricane Katrina destroyed her house and since that time she's been sleeping on her sister´s floor.