SlotCharts Newsletter: Issue 1 August 21, 2002

Greetings from SlotCharts.com

In this issue:
1. Welcome!
2. Cryptologic feed broken for a week
3. MegaJacks looks like one to watch
4. More features on the way

1. Welcome!

Boy, launching a new site sure is a lot of work! I'm glad to say that much of the technical work is done at SlotCharts.com, and I've been able to take a little time off. I spent 10 days in Vegas on a quite productive trip, bringing home some extra cash and an invitation to next year's big Million Dollar Blackjack tournament at the Las Vegas Hilton. But now, it's back to work, and saying hello here was high on my list. You can expect a newsletter approximately once a month, and maybe a special issue if events warrant.

2. Cryptologic feed broken for a week

As Murphy's Law would predict, a technical problem arose while I was away in Vegas. On August 12th, the jackpot values supplied by Cryptologic stopped changing. The data feed values were stuck for a solid week. Things like this may have gone unnoticed before SlotCharts was around, but with a graph readily available, it's quite obvious. To see what I mean, take a look at the big plateau from Aug 12 to Aug 19 on this graph of the quarter video poker.

And, as you can tell, someone hit the jackpot at some point during those days. Apparently, the actual progressive was fine. It was only the website feed that had problems. After the folks at Cryptologic were notified, things were straightened out pretty quickly.

3. MegaJacks looks like one to watch

I'm still in the process of adding a long list of PlayTech-powered casinos to the site. SlotCharts has been tracking the jackpots since July 30th, but I haven't captured enough data yet to include them in the automated rankings. However, one of the PlayTech progressives looks like it will be well worth watching. The MegaJacks game is a full-pay Jacks or Better video poker game. (That's a 9/6 pay table, paying 9 coins for a full house, and 6 coins for a flush, per coin bet.) It becomes profitable for the player at a progressive value of $1250. Although the progressive meter for this game starts at a low $312.50, it's already been above breakeven 4 times in the last 3 weeks. To see the current graph, click here.

If you don't have an account with a Playtech-powered casino yet, please consider signing up under one of the links listed there. You have 7 casinos to choose from! The Playtech software is pretty impressive.

4. More features on the way

One of the next items on my agenda at the site is a breakdown of the various games by game type. For example, if you're interested in Caribbean Stud poker, you'll be able to see at a glance which online casinos offer the best payout on a Royal. Similarly, being able to compare the various video poker games online at a glance should be helpful.

The full PlayTech list should come online in the next few weeks as well, and I'm working with English Harbour to begin tracking their progressives as well.

So, I'm making progress, but there's still a lot to do! It's back to work for me...

Thanks for reading! Now, go hit a big one! -Ken-