Reviewing the New Buffalo Blitz Live Online Slots from Playtech

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Playtech launches new Live Slots, an online gambling industry first that features Buffalo Blitz via Playtech Live.

For more than 15 years, the “live casino” business has been limited to table games, wheel games, and other interactive, multi-player style gambling amusements. The whole concept of live online gambling centers around games like blackjack, baccarat, and roulette. Other card games are inherently adaptable, and live casino suppliers often come up with new ways to take advantage of live-streaming technology.

The one thing we never really expected to come in live format – for rather obvious reasons, I might add – is a slot machine. Slots are singular games. There is no human interaction involved when playing land-based casino slots; thus it wouldn’t make sense to portray slots as interactive, multi-player games, where there entertainment value is amplified by a live host.

Apparently, everyone who thought that was wrong…

Playtech Introduces Live Slots

Not for the first time in this company’s long and illustrious history, Playtech has done the unexpected. This month, the company launched the gambling industry’s very first live streaming online slots game. It has a game show ambiance with a clear goal of giving slots play a community feel, just like any other dealer-hosted, multi-seating casino game.

The Live Casino Slots concept is Playtech’s first attempt at delivering an entertainment-based live gaming option. It is essentially the same type of game show experience Evolution brought us with the launch of its Dream Catcher, Monopoly Live and Deal or No Deal Live. Whether Playtech’s idea to inject slot machine play into the live market will catch on like Evolution’s did remains to be seen. As I said before, the slots experience has always been a more private affair, enjoyed individually by single players.

How Live Casino Slots Work

The first and currently only slots game to go live on Playtech is Buffalo Blitz, a 6×4 reel game with 4,096 all-ways win lines. Bets starts at $0.40 per spin, scaling up to $200. Its features include wilds, multipliers and free spins.

For the most part, the game never stops running. Players are required to take advantage of the ever-present auto-play function. To join in, players must press the Auto-Play button, then toggle their gaming preferences. Choices include number of spins (10-99), bet per spin, loss limit, single win limit, and the option to stop after the free games feature is struck.

One unique feature of these games is the big ‘Manual Spin’ button in front of the host. The game normally runs on auto-spin, as I said above, but the players can request that the presenter disable auto-play and use this manual spin button instead.

The Negative Spin on Live Online Slots

Unfortunately, I see a few problems with this idea already. First and foremost, it’s very difficult to keep a crowd entertained while staring at a slots screen – not for any length of time, anyway. How many things can you say about a slot machine? In my experience, most of it is, “Oh, is the feature going to strike? There’s one scatter – there’s two – here it comes……! Oh, no, not this time.”

This is the type of chatter we hear in our heads as we play slots on a singular level. It’s kind of strange watching a host say it out loud, over and over, in as many ways as the English language is capable of organizing a paraphrase.

Buffalo Blitz is notorious for that, too (as are so many slot machines). It’s got a high variance and a 95.96% RTP, so teasing free spins is the most common form of excitement in the live slots game.