Sleeping Dogs: Poker Mahjong guide

Hello! I've not seen any advice on how to win at Poker Mahjong in Sleeping Dogs, so here's a guide for anyone who might be struggling with it.
How do I access Poker Mahjong?
You can play Poker Mahjong at either of the two gambling dens located offshore to the north and south of the map. These locations are reachable by boat after completing the main story mission 'Bride to Be'.
What are the rules of the game?
Poker Mahjong in Sleeping Dogs is basically a form of video poker (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Video_poker), but played with a deck of mahjong tiles. The tiles are all of the same suit and are numbered from 1 to 6.
You play against one computer opponent (the house, or dealer). I'll refer to them as your 'opponent' for consistency.

1. You first choose how much to bet on the round, from 500 Hong Kong dollars up to 5000.
2. Both players are dealt five mahjong tiles. Tiles are numbered from 1 to 6. These tiles are called your 'hand'.
3. Your opponent always plays first. He chooses to discard any number of tiles from his hand and pushes them in front of the tiles he plans to keep - you can see from the table which ones will be discarded.
4. The above happens before you get to do anything. Then it's your first turn. You can choose to discard any of the tiles from your hand.
5. New tiles are drawn from the deck to replace all the tiles that were discarded.
6. There is a second turn of discarding and drawing new tiles.
7. Once those new tiles are added to your hand, both players' hands are evaluated, and the player with the better hand wins the round.

​

• If you win the round, you receive winnings based on the payout table.
• If you lose the round, you lose your original bet.
• If the hand is tied, you neither win money nor lose your original bet.

What are the winning hands?
The table below shows the ranks of each hand from lowest to highest, along with the payout.

HAND	PAYOUT
High card	1:1
Pair	1:1
Two Pair	1:1
Three of a Kind	2:1
Straight	2:1
Full House	3:1
Four of a Kind	4:1
Five of a Kind	5:1

Updated: Payouts are implemented oddly in the game. A payout of 1:1 means that you win an amount equal to your original bet. The best hand, Five of a Kind, pays out 5:1 which means that you can win $25000 on a bet of $5000. You don’t actually get your original bet back, though. So, for hands that give 1:1 payouts, actually you only get back your bet, you don’t earn any money for winning.
How does the game decide who wins each round?
During the evaluation of both players' hands, each component of your hand is compared against the equivalent in the other player's hand, in order of importance.

• For example, if you have a Full House, say 6's full of 2's (6,6,6,2,2) and your opponent has a Full House of 6's full of 3's (6,6,6,3,3), the sets of three are compared, then the pairs. (In this example, the opponent wins with a pair of 3's beating your pair of 2's.)
• If you both have Two Pair, the higher pairs are compared, then the lower pairs.
• If you both have Straight, the higher Straight (2,3,4,5,6) beats the lower Straight (1,2,3,4,5).

Tiles that aren't part of a winning hand aren't compared - for example, if you both have Four of a Kind 6's (6,6,6,6), the fifth tile is ignored, resulting in a tie.
I'll use 'rank' to refer to the payout table and 'strength' to refer to the numbers on the tiles that make up the hand.

• A higher-ranked hand beats a lower-ranked hand.
• If the hands are of the same rank, a higher-strength hand beats a lower-strength hand.
• It's a tie if the hands have the same rank and the specific tiles that make up the winning combination have the same strength.

The comparing of hands by strength (tile value) isn't stated clearly in the game, so it's easy to not notice this and assume that you have to outright beat your opponent's hand in rank. It also means that (if you ignore the fact you always play second) your opponent has the same chance to draw winning hands as you do. This means in the long term, you would expect to win 50% of the rounds, and with the high payouts on good hands, you can expect to win money over time rather than losing it (unlike most casino games based on chance).
Can I win Poker Mahjong consistently?
Yes! Over time, you can beat the computer player consistently. You can make about $100k per (real-world) hour of play, depending on how lucky you get. (It would be more if the controls and animations were faster.)
There's several reasons for this:

1. You can expect to win 50% of the time and lose 50% of the time, on average, before taking into account how well you and your opponent play. The payout structure means your winnings on good hands will tend to exceed your losses.
2. You get to play second, so you can respond to your opponent's final move before the hands are evaluated. This gives you a slight edge in cases where your opponent decided to stick with a 'safe' hand instead of trying to improve his hand.
3. Your opponent tends to overvalue low-strength tiles and undervalue high-strength tiles. These bad decisions can be exploited.
4. Your opponent tends to hold on to Straight or Full House hands as long as your hand can't beat them. This means you can sometimes win by getting a stronger Full House or Four of a Kind just before the end of the round.

Obviously some luck is involved, so sometimes you'll have a run where your opponent keeps getting unbeatable hands, or vice versa.
How much should I bet?
You should always bet the maximum amount ($5000). However, if you come to the table with less than $100,000 and you're unlucky during your session, you might run out of cash before your luck turns around.
(Poker Mahjong isn't the fastest way to earn money in Sleeping Dogs. If you want to make money fast, you can bet up to $100,000 a time on the cockfighting in Kennedy Town docks. You'll win $100,000 (and get your bet back) if you picked the winning bird.)
What's the general strategy?
You get to play after your opponent, so the general approach is to look at what your opponent is discarding, and then translate that information into a strategy for your own hand. Ideally, you want to get a Full House or better. Low Pairs/Two Pairs and Straights are usually not worth keeping. Also, the payouts below Full House are not worth aiming for even if you do beat your opponent with a low hand.
Now let's look at some scenarios in rough order of frequency.
1. Opponent has a low pair (1,1 to 3,3) and is discarding all other tiles.
You should aim to get Three of a Kind, Full House or Four of a Kind.
You can do this by building on a Pair of your own (if you already have one starting out), or, if you have a high tile (5 or 6 - if you have both, just keep the 6), you can discard all other tiles and hope for a 5 or 6 to appear in the draw. It'll depend on whether you already have a Pair that would beat your opponent's Pair. If your Pair is the same strength or weaker, discard it.
2. Opponent has Two Pair or you both have Two Pair.
There is a good chance that your opponent will improve their hand to Three of a Kind or Full House, so you need to aim for the same. If you have Two Pair yourself, the best way to do this is usually to keep your high Pair and discard the other three tiles. Then you can hope to build a strong Three of a Kind or better.
It's tempting to just discard the one tile that isn't part of your Two Pair, but then you lock yourself out of the possibility of Four of a Kind (which you need if your opponent gets a Full House) and you may end up matching your lower pair, giving you a weak Full House. Also, you're actually less likely to get a Three of a Kind with this play, which would be enough to win if your opponent fails to improve their hand.
The maths for the above play is estimated as follows. Assume each tile has an independent probability of being drawn of 1/6, and your Two Pair is 6,6 and 5,5. Then if you discard the single other tile, you need a 5 or 6 to get a Full House. The chance of this happening is 2/6 = 33%. If you keep the high pair and discard the other tiles, you need a 6 in any of the three new tiles to get Three of a Kind (and 2 or more would make your hand very strong). The chance of getting at least one 6 is 1-(5/6 * 5/6 * 5/6) = 42%.
3. You both have nothing, or your opponent has nothing while you have a low or mid-strength Pair.
If you have a high tile, consider discarding everything else and trying to get a good hand using the high tile - especially if your Pair is weak. Otherwise, build on your existing Pair.
4. Opponent has a Straight (1,2,3,4,5 or 2,3,4,5,6).
Straight is a weak hand and is frequently vulnerable to a Full House play. You will usually not see your opponent try to build a Straight from having four of the five tiles. It will usually happen instead at the start of the round, or randomly during the round.
Your opponent will hold on to their Straight as long as you have a weaker hand. Your play should be to build on any existing Pair or better in your hand, to aim for a Full House or Four of a Kind. Discard all tiles that don't help with this.
If you start with a Straight, don't bother keeping it. Discard everything except the high tile. Only keep a Straight if it's the last round and your Opponent has a Pair or worse going into the final draw.
5. Opponent has Three of a Kind or Full House, or better.
Most of the time you'll lose if your opponent has Four- or Five of a Kind.
You need to aim for a stronger Full House than your opponent's, if possible. If you have a 5 or 6 in your hand, keep that and discard the rest.
Or you might have a Full House, but it's weaker than your opponent's. In that case, you should discard the Pair and hope to get a Four of a Kind with your set of three.
Notes
This guide is based on a playthrough of Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition on Xbox One.
Comments and feedback welcome!

This is a long review about Option Alpha. I tried to post this on Investimonials but that website was glitching so here it is on Reddit. I'm not riffing here on Option Alpha but trying to provide an unbiased review to the community. Hopefully this helps someone make a better decision before they part with their hard earned money.
A lot of people are getting into options, whether its theta gang or long directional option trading. My warning to everyone is that don't necessarily fall for option trading services/rooms specially when they don't list an accurate trade log and PnL account performance.
This review below here is more applicable to the Theta gang option traders/option sellers so if you are a option buyedirectional optional trader than this review won't apply to you.
Here is the TLDR - At the very best if you want very low single digit annual returns while taking huge risks and want to take the headache of making 100s of option trades, spend tons on trading commissions and subscription fees ($100 to $300 per month), waste time making option adjustments and then create a tax headache paying short term capital gains tax rates (your highest income tax bracket) on profits and filling out IRS forms at the end of the year then this is the service for you. Also the return on your time spent understanding option alpha and then implementing its strategies is negative.
Normally I would not write reviews unless I thought that subs were getting ripped off. Let me start of by saying that I don't think Kirk (the founder of Option Alpha) is running a scam per se, but he is basically bilking gullible subscribers who are very new to options trading and have been sold the dream about option selling as the ONLY proper way to make money in options.
This service is a total waste of time for the individual investor. The last few years the returns have been flat after all these trades (basically up a few % or down a few %). This is before accounting for option commissions, and taxes (selling options ie. premiums are always taxed as short term capital gains at your highest income tax rate so you get no benefit vs holding stocks or buying options over 1 year) and subscription fees. Accounting for all this basically makes this a negative return. In fact I think it is better to buy a balanced Vanguard index fund or VTI etf and just Dollar cost Average into that every month vs using this system. Atleast with VTI you can expect to make 6% over the long term. The simplest strategy which is to buy VTI etf will beat Option Alpha over the long term with fewer headaches and invested time and energy.
Let start of with the good stuff first. The option education videos are free, extremely well made so that even total beginners can understand option selling. Kirk is a gifted teacher and explains everything in simple language. If you are a complete beginner than these videos will help. Things I learnt that are useful - adjusting losing positions and how to beta hedge. However they don't get deep into the intricacies of options that professionals worry about.
The education is totally biased towards option selling strategies. They try to sell the Option Alpha system (where you are a net seller of options) to the subscriber as basically running a an insurance business or creating your personal casino where you make 100s of trades ever year to eke out a small premium for taking on the risk. They then go on to basically sells you the system as being better than buying and holding ETFs or stocks over the long run and - how option buying doesn't work 80% of the time and how buying and holding stocks is riskier than selling option premiums. This is all good in theory. But in practice it reminds me of this quote - "In theory, theory and practice are the same. In practice, they are not.". In reality, what they don't talk about is the fact that the success of option selling relies on harvesting variance premium in the option markets (historically around 3% or so). Unfortunately in recent years the variance premium has at times declined to negative levels. The sign for VRP can flip positive to negative for different underlyings and is not always positive every single month of the year. So making money with this system is basically entirely dependent on luck. Atleast the stock market tends to grow over the long term with earnings growth and GDP growth, but there is no guarantee that this will be the case with variance premiums which could be permanently arbitraged away by option sellers and brain dead option selling strategies such as Option Alpha. Option selling has to be done smartly or not at all.
The basic system is this:
Naively diversify by selling wide Iron butterflys/condors (this is the bread and butter trade about 80 to 90% of all trades) or credit spreads (about 10% to 20%) on these sector ETFs - SPY, TLT, XOP, XRT, EEM, OIH, FXI, XLP, XBI, GLD etc. Sell options about 30 to 45 days to expiration. I say naively because whenever markets crash everything goes down together so infact naive diversification is really di-worsification. Never have more than 5% of risk in any one ETF. They like to start out trades with a 1% to 2% risk per position and then scale in as adjustments are and will be needed. Good luck following this strategy if you have a small account as you will be taking greater risk. Then do this every single month or so without regard to broader macro conditions or IV levels or trend. Doesn't matter what EEM is doing or FXI is doing. Does Option Alpha look at price action, fundamental analysis, news flow, macroeconomics etc or anything else at the individual ETF level? No it doesn't appear they do. If and when positions move against you (which they regularly do) then waste time adjusting your positions and tracking credits to prove to yourself that you did make a tiny profit. They try to center the strikes as the underlying moves with adjustments and additional scaling in positions but honestly it doesn't work over the long term.
At the end of the year after 100s of trades (6 to 10 etfs x 4 (assume butterfly or condor) x 2 (opening and closing) x 10 (every 35 to 45 days) = assume 600 trades per year not including the adjustments and additional scale ins that will be needed), subscription fees (between $100 to $300 per month), broker commissions, pay short term capital gains and then waste additional time filling out dozens of pages of IRS forms with the 100s of option trades all to make a small single digit low annual return if lucky. The thing to understand is this, with option selling you generally risk $3 to $4 for every $1 of gains. So you can have 3 winning trades and then the 4th one will blow up profits. To counter this, they will show you how to make adjusting trades (only one side of the butterfly is underwater, so the whole position can be adjusted) or scale in so that strikes are centered around current underlying price. Even after adjusting which is not a guarantee of profits, the overall the results are just extremely lame. If you refuse to adjust positions it will be impossible to make any profit with this system. This is not to say other option selling strategies don't work (there are some that can work but they require a true edge) but its just that Option Alpha doesn't work. The free Theta gang on reddit or discord probably does a better job than OA.
As such there is nothing even remotely proprietary about Option Alpha. There is no edge. Because there is always a risk that all positions can simultaneously lose money in a crash as all assets trade downward, so Option Alpha advises that only use 40-50% of the account value for option selling and keep the rest as cash as a hedge against blowing the account up. Recently they advised having a 1% long VXX calls positions to hedge black swans/market crashes which I think is an improvement over the system of past few years.
I personally think that selling this system to gullible retail subscribers is extremely irresponsible. You can argue that option selling has a place within pension funds or other entities that have a lot of money who need yield income tax free and who have a proprietary system with an edge that can makes better risk adjusted profits but Option Alpha is basically gambling and praying for profits. If selling options is so good, how come I have not heard of a single Hedge fund that only does this with 100% of their capital? There were some crooks in Florida who blew up one fund that was selling energy options (you can look up Optionseller.com on google - website is defunct now). I'm not saying Option Alpha is pursuing similarly risky strategy since these are all defined risk trades and they do ask to hold 50% in cash. But it is conceivable that you can lose 100% of the amount you have put into selling options - that is the other 50% of the portfolio under a true black swan scenario. Maybe making adjustments etc will save the portfolio but its not really a guarantee. Btw the stock market can never goto zero. We can get another market crash and yes it could take a long time to recover but it can never goto zero (the businesses underlying these stocks have real value unlike options/derivatives). With stocks you have time to sell even with a 10% gap down overnight. Options will get blown up much faster.
This strategy is not at all the best way for the individual investor to invest. The only market where this system works is even Implied volatility is high ( so that you get extra compensation for selling time decay) and the market moves sideways. However in practice the market is either steadily marching higher and IV is low, or IV is so high (that you get a decent premium) but the market is rapidly moving in either direction so you will endlessly keep adjusting positions or keep taking losses. Options are complicated instruments and if you don't understand vol skew, statistics and probability, option greeks properly and can't backtest with good data than it is literally gambling and praying for profits. There is a real risk that naive option selling can blow up accounts. Option selling only makes sense in certain market regimes and only when done smartly. To tell retail traders that they should trade this way all the time for the rest of their life is extremely irresponsible.
Here is the thing. What I'm mad about is that Option Alpha has spent all this time very aggressively marketing this system and spent the last few years trying to develop an autotrading platform. It has been recently launched in Beta mode if you upgrade to lifetime membership for $2000-$2500. My hope is that the autotrading system will work and not blowup accounts due to software glitches like the Knight Capital software glitch fiasco in 2010.
I think they know these strategies don't work. The website claims that there have been 200k people who have signed up. I think at any given time they have 1000s of subscribers who come and go. If we assume 4000 subscribers per month at avg of $100 per month is $400k per month or $4.8 million per year. This is better than a lot of smaller hedgefund managers. For Kirk's own account, it appears that he trades a $300k portfolio, but his main source of income is selling Option Alpha subscriptions and doing real estate investing. How come his account is not millions of dollars now after almost a decade? But still around 300k? The simple reason is this doesn't work and instead he invests his income from Option Alpha subscriptions into other things/real estate investing etc.
The founder of OA has institutional experience trading and as such I would have expected him to focus on improving trading performance, creating new strategies, backtesting etc, interacting with members, rather than selling snake oil promises.
There isn't enough skin in the game. Option Alpha has forums where members can talk to each other and there are probably some legitimate strategies there (none are based on the Option Alpha) developed by members. But the OA founder has been completely AWOL last few years. Zero participation. Zero time trying to refine or improve his strategies on Option Alpha. They could have hired professional optional traders or even subscribed to institutional level stuff to help them out but no they have been focused entirely on making money. There are other free blogs and similar option newsletter services which also trade condors and butterflys which have shown much much superior results, however OA refuses to adapt their strategies or spend any time engaging with members. The focus has been on scaling the business and selling promises about the new autotrading system.
I think the founder has realized that this Option alpha is going nowhere and so has decided to pivot into autotrading. Gullible retail investors have been financing the build out of this service it seems.
Want another proof of what I'm saying? You can sign up for free membership and see the performance section. First the performance section does not tell you the performance from one year to the next. The only thing you can see is the meaningless numbers such as avg profit and loss on different option selling spreads and win rate. It is impossible to reconstruct PnL performance from these metrics. I think this is very misleading. Even Motley Fool shows their performance for their $100 per year newsletter. Almost any good newsletter and or trading/membership service shares performance/trade log for the past few years. If this is just about education then charge only for educational videos and don't have trade alerts and monthly membership/weekly elite calls etc.
Another note on some of the enhancements they up-sell on the website. The tools are almost totally useless. The backtester sucks. The scanner sucks. The forum is basically impossible to use properly.
The research reports (each priced at $400) are not worth the money.
Let me summarize the technical indicator report - use commonly used oscillators that everyone knows already at a medium term time-frame and buy at oversold condition and sell at overbought condition. I mean C'mon everyone already knows this. Does Option Alpha appear to use this research - nope!
The profit matrix report will tell you that there is no limited-loss option selling strategy that produces a CAGR (compounded annual growth rate) above a low single digit return. Not a single one. This is not surprising since the variance premium per academic research is around 3 to 4%. Shouldn't this be disclosed to regular subscribers instead of asking them to pay another $400 bucks?
Covered calls research report - sell short dated deep OTM calls. Viola! There is no actionable information in these reports. These reports are a few years old and the information is not updated. The reasonable price for such reports should have been $20-$30 not $400.
You can even find REITs or dividend paying stocks that have a higher yield than than option alpha strategies.
In fact I'm not even confident if Option Alpha has used proper back testing methodology and not made mistakes. You will learn more spending this money on a proper backtesting website that professionals use. Even Seeking Alpha and Reddit have better options strategies articles for free. A lot of academic research is available for free. Tasty Trade has similar trade ideas for free. The bottom-line is that Kirk is not a skilled trader. And has made no effort to improve or adapt to the market environment the last few years. All effort has gone into growing the business and up-selling membership with very aggressive sales tactics. He is a master salesman so be careful. Its really the case of the blind leading the blind.
Just blindly sell options every month without any edge and charge big money for it without any real view about the direction of the underlying or IV.
Just to be clear I do not have unrealistic expectations from a newsletter service/system. If I'm subscribing to an expensive service than I expect that I should have a reasonable chance to make greater than 10% on my account annually. I'm not expecting 100% nor even 20% - just a reasonable 10% to 20%.
The best thing about OA is the free educational videos and the podcast. Use that and skip the paid services. Time will tell if the new autotrading pivot will work well and I would suggest waiting until it is proven to work.

The last drama post I did about Kuma Miko seemed to have gotten some praise, but some wished to see a Hobby Drama post that had consequences outside “people got angry over it”. So without any further delay, here’s a story about a studio that’s close to my heart, one that I’ve backed twice and seen die twice.
Note: This is a fairly lengthy drama, so forgive me if I’m not able to provide all of my sources. Most of the front half of this comes from this video, which chronicles the first half of Lab Zero entirely in Russian.
From Ahad to Mike Z
Let’s start in the beginning. Alex Ahad is a freelance illustrator who, in between other work, had created character designs for a prospective fighting game. Mike Zaimont is a professional fighting game player best known for games like BlazBlue and Marvel Vs. Capcom, but since 1999 had been coding a custom engine in his free time, which he hoped could be used for a fighting game. The two met in 2008, and the two quickly realized that with each other’s help, their dream could come true. In 2010, the two joined the newly developed game studio Reverge Labs. Joining their team was Mariel “Kinuko” Cartwright, a friend of Ahad’s and daughter of a Disney animator who helped animate games such as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Shantae; Peter Bartholow, who acted as CEO of Reverge as well as their PR arm; and an assortment of other animators and designers. Their goal: a fighting game in the style of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with hand-drawn animation that they called Skullgirls.
After obtaining publishers in Autumn Games and Konami (at the time of development the Microsoft required indie devs to have a retail publisher in order to bring their games to Xbox Live Arcade), the team got to work on Skullgirls. Initial impressions were favorful - people liked Ahad’s unique character designs, the fluid animation, and the solid engine Mike Z built - but upon release, there were some concerns. The time and money needed to develop each character meant a starting roster of only eight characters, a far cry from other fighting games (the original MvC had 15 characters in 1998), and due to the team trying to get the game out, there was no in-game move list. Some were also concerned that the cast, consisting entirely of women, was too fanservice-filled, although Bartholow said that the characters were just attractive women who could fight as opposed to characters using their sexuality in battle (Ahad said that sex wasn’t his main focus, he just wanted to have monster girls fight each other). The team at Reverge Labs stressed that they would continue to update the game, with plans to add DLC if the game sold well enough. Good thing nothing could go wro-
Everything goes wrong
Alongside publishing Skullgirls, Autumn Games and Konami had previously published a karaoke game called Def Jam RapStar. Unfortunately, around March 2012, the time Skullgirls released, both parties were at the end of several lawsuits made against them - one argued that Autumn and Konami did not get the rights to some of the songs used in the game, while another claimed that the game was funded with a bank loan which Autumn Games was unable to pay back. The result of these costly lawsuits was that Autumn was unable to pay Reverge the money made from Skullgirls - this led to the entire Reverge team being laid off around July, and the future of the game in the air.
And so, the team decided on a whim to reconvene as a new development studio, Lab Zero Games. At a fundraiser for breast cancer research which included a fighting game tournament, Mike Z revealed the first DLC fighter and promised that new information about her and the team would be posted soon. This would turn out to be an Indiegogo fundraising campaign that asked for $150,000 to develop the first DLC fighter, with more characters promised if people backed enough.
In the end, $829,829 was raised in the campaign, enough to fund five DLC characters, a bevy of stages and voice packs, and other features. It was quickly becoming a cult classic.
The Skullgirls Curse
And so work on Skullgirls DLC was underway. However, a variety of events happened to befall Lab Zero during development, some causing controversy and others just annoying the team. Some dubbed this “The Skullgirls Curse”. So let’s go over some of them:

• Paypal Woes: During the Indiegogo DLC campaign, Lab Zero announced that Ahad had created around 30 prospective designs for DLC characters, and that there would be a vote to see which characters would be the two “mystery characters” teased in the Indiegogo campaign. As you would guess, this caused the Skullgirls fanbase to get heated, to the point where some stressed that they would ask Indiegogo for their money back if their character didn’t win. PayPal, who managed the funds for this campaign, was concerned about these threats and put nearly all of the money on hold. Bartholow tried to negotiate with PayPal, and was eventually able to get the funding - once PayPal was given a hefty sum as collateral.
• Bad Juju - If you notice on the list of prospective DLC characters, one character is Juju, a character who was designed by Ahad from a fan’s suggestion on a Whiteboard Wednesday art stream. Ahad seemed to like the idea of the character, and kept building her up until she became a legit character in the game. The original fan made a joke on Facebook that he’d like to be compensated for the design, which led Lab Zero to negotiate obtaining the character rights from him. They eventually worked out a contract that would give them the rights to the character, but only if the original fan didn’t reveal it until Lab Zero announced it themselves. The fan then posted about it on the Skullgirls forum the very next day, breaking the NDA immediately and making it so that Lab Zero couldn’t use the character at all.
• Don’t be (Red) Cross with me: One of the characters included in the base game of Skullgirls is Valentine. As you can tell, the two biggest features of her character are her being a nurse and a ninja - as such, her costume is decorated with red crosses. This was upsetting to the real Red Cross, which fights hard to prevent its trademark from being associated with violence - as such, when they came to the Skullgirls publisher demanding a change, all red crosses in the game had to be changed to magenta.
• #FucKonami: In November 2013, due to Konami barely helping at all with the publishing process for Skullgirls (they refused to greenlight any patch or DLC until Lab Zero tested it itself on their own time and money, they didn’t help with Microsoft’s certification process for Xbox, etc), Lab Zero dissolved their publishing agreement. This led to a massive snafu where, due to the dissolution, the original Skullgirls was taken down on consoles, and Lab Zero had to scramble to get a new publisher on the consoles side and then reupload the game as Skullgirls: Encore. It was a tangled web of issues which the above YouTube video relays, but required certification from both console storefronts and even the Japan storefront, as their publisher there was also coincidentally being dissolved at the same time without Lab Zero knowing.
• EVO 2014: During one of the largest fighting game tournaments of 2014, Skullgirls was promised a space for airing their tournament stream by controller distributor Madcatz. Lab Zero and Autumn provided a pot for the tourney, and everything was smooth sailing - until a multitude of delays made it so that the entire time Skullgirls had for streaming was replaced with Tekken tournaments. By the time these issues were fixed, only the final four matches were able to be shown.
• What’s the worst kind of ship? Censor-SHIP!: In April 2015, one of the patches of Skullgirls altered the animation of some characters, which according to Lab Zero themselves was because of their own artistic values (while they admitted that panty shots in a fighting game comprised entirely of girls is unavoidable, they didn’t want to go out of their way to show them). As you might expect, this led to a massive onslaught of negative Steam reviews and caustic tweets from people who abhor censorship of any kind. Funnily enough, this brigade started around October, six months after the changes were made, and only via word of mouth - people didn’t even notice there was a change until someone told them about it.
• Backer characters: As part of their Indiegogo campaign, some of the highest-paying backers could have their original characters put in the background of some custom stages. Lab Zero warned these backers that these stages would be a casino and a ballroom, respectively, so their OCs should ideally be designed with a formal flair. Some backers did follow this unspoken rule - ZONE, a notoriously NSFW Flash animator who helped work on the DLC characters, made a perfectly formal look for his mascot Zone-tan. As for the others, well...
• SonicFox: This isn’t included in the compilation video mentioned above as this occurred way after all the initial Skullgirls drama. Basically, SonicFox is a five-time EVO champion and one of the best Skullgirls players in the world. In May 2020, after Skullgirls was mostly complete, they were given a cameo in Skullgirls’ training stage. Of note is that SonicFox is black, non-binary, and a furry, and the character added to the game was their fursona, who has a trans rights flag in the inside of their jacket you can only see for like one frame. People reacted as you would expect. Also, one of the original backers requested to change their character as they were now transitioning, which didn’t get as much flak, so that’s nice I guess.

So as you can see, Skullgirls had a menagerie of problems and issues during its dev time. However, their Skullgirls curse seemed to have faded away, as they had a new game in store.
If I was Indivisible
Indivisible was a new project of Lab Zero, announced in 2015 as Skullgirls DLC production was nearing an end. Billed as a platformer RPG similar to games like Valkyrie Profile, it would tell the story of Ajna, a young girl whose town is stricken by tragedy and she finds out that she’s a portion of the god of creation, who has grown discontent with the world and wishes to remake it anew. Its Indiegogo campaign focused on Incarnations, party members who came from a variety of cultures, religions, and demographics not usually represented in popular culture. And as you can see by the fact that it got over two million dollars in funding, people were excited to see what Lab Zero could do. They even got enough funding to get Studio Trigger, of anime fame, to create the opening for the game.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Lab Zero without the occasional issue here and there. As shown above, some Incarnations were changed or scrapped during development, which irked some who backed because of that character specifically (not naming any names, but look in the incarnation list and see if you notice any). Backer characters were included again, and although there were more places to add them so they didn’t look out of place, you still had the occasional few that did. Critics liked the art and presentation of the game, but disliked some gameplay issues: the second half of the game became a cakewalk once you progressed far enough, it was a bit of a pain to go from one end of the map to another, especially for side quests, and a bunch of party members simply weren’t complete. Most egregiously of all, the Nintendo Switch version of the game was ported by a different company and released before Lab Zero was even aware of it - which forced them to scramble again to patch it up so it was on par with other consoles.
Still, it was a better situation they were in than when Skullgirls started. They had a legit publisher in 505 Games, people were satisfied with the base game, and Mike Z mentioned how the base game would continue to be refined with gameplay changes, small additions, and guest incarnations from other indie games. NBC even announced that Indivisible would be adapted into a television program for their Peacock streaming service. Things were looking up for Lab Zero.
Everything goes wrong... AGAIN
During the production of Indivisible, Alex Ahad was let go by Lab Zero. Not much is mentioned about it except that he was growing increasingly hostile, making it difficult to work with him, and his art was not meeting the standards for the game. He left, tried to sue Lab Zero, and eventually agreed to a sizable settlement. Mariel became the lead artistic director in his stead, and the art team had to be rearranged to compensate.
Now, as Lab Zero was preparing to transition from being employee-owned, Mike Z was made the temporary head of the studio. In June of 2020, Mike Z did an “I can’t breathe” joke during a Skullgirls livestream just days after George Floyd’s death - he later apologized for this, claiming he was trying to bring attention to the issue. Soon, more people provided proof that Mike Z has had a history of sexual harassment. Kinuko chimes in as well, noting that while she tolerated inappropriate behavior for years, when she talked to Mike Z about it, he blamed her for his actions. She talked with others in the team, who came to the conclusion that Zaimont had treated all of them like this. Some Lab Zero employees resigned on their own, while others pushed for Zaimont to resign. However, as Mike was still head of the studio, he dissolved the studio board and laid off the rest of the staff.
So where does that leave everyone?

• Ahad is still doing art on his own, and gets by with commissions and his Patreon.
• Kinuko, as well as the majority of Lab Zero, created a new studio called Future Club, which has promised to create new titles with the same art style they refined from Skullgirls and Indivisible.
• Autumn Games still own the rights to Skullgirls, and with the help of some former Lab Zero devs, created a mobile version of the game. It’s surprisingly not bad, although it’s of course stuffed with microtransactions. However, they’ve apparently made enough to fund a completely new character for the game for both the mobile and console/PC versions.
• After everything with Mike Z, 505 games put out a statement which signaled the end of all development of the game, leaving it unfinished. Mike Z has been suspended from Skullgirls streams and the like, making his future in the gaming world unclear.

There’s probably something I’ve missed in all of this, but yep. I backed them twice, both for Skullgirls and Indivisible. I don’t regret it, and I’m looking forward to whatever Future Club does, but I won’t lie - I’ll always miss what could have been.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/ftl-faster-than-light/user-reviews?sort-by=most-helpful&num_items=100&dist=negative
I sometimes look up negative reviews for games/books/movies I like. I find it amusing that media I enjoy thoroughly can be despised by other people (of course with my nose in the air due to their obvious lack of good taste...). I thought I'd share some of FTL's negative user reviews, hopefully you'll find it as entertaining as I did.
Each and every negative user review of FTL boils down to: it's not my fault that I lost, the game's unfair. This had me chuckling after reading that 90-something no-pause-hard-winstreak achievement that was recently posted here. Ctrl+F:ing "Luck", "Random" and "Frustr*" got a lot of hit, by the way.
Some excerpts:
"[...]your chances of winning a particular run are controlled very minimally by you. All you do is steer the ship and click on parts of enemy ships."
"The game's set up is completely randomized, so much so to the point that it's completely unfair. It's quite possible to start a brand new game and die in a matter of moves, not because you are being stupid, not because you are a bad gamer, but simply because that's how the game generated."
"This game sucks. Basically it's all about luck, no strategy nor skill is involved. Even on sale spare you this pain and use your money for something else... Anything else would be better, thrust [sic] me."
"FTL can be perfectly summed up in two terms: Luck and RNG. That's it. 95% of this game is basically out of your control. Events are random. Outcomes are random. Upgrade materials and new items are random. Your weapon shots are random. It is all random. So all you can do is pray to the RNG gods for mercy throughout the game only for the final battle to completely destroy you because it is artificial difficulty in the highest magnitude. All that time wasted."
"The single biggest factor in this game is luck. As every encounter is completely random it removes any real sort of skill or challenge from the game, or a sense of achievement to more accurate. When you do 'finish' it you realise it wasn't because you did anything in particular, but because you happened upon the right encounters"
"Insanely overrated. Its basically a casino game where you get lucky and get the items you need or you simply dont and there isnt a thing you can do about it. " (Petition to add "Casino game" to Steam game tags please)
We're probably not without fault, and I can sympathize -- I sometimes throw my hands in the air and yell "What!" when an early missile hits something it shouldn't hit, but I still find these emotional reviews a blast to read.

Slots are a well loved casino game which has provided the ultimate entertainment for millions of people for decades. As slots become more complicated, casinos are seeking to develop more challenging online slot games. The latest addition to this list is slot machine online.
Slot machine online is where you play a slot game against the computer. As with traditional slots you start by choosing a number from a range. Your aim is to win the maximum jackpot but in this case wild symbols are used instead. When you press the play button the computer randomly chooses symbols from a list and these symbols will be randomly mixed up within the symbols on the traditional slot paylines. If you choose the right symbols your chance of winning the big jackpot increases dramatically as there are now fewer bad combinations.
It is this process that makes slot online games more difficult than traditional slots played in land-based casinos. As you can imagine the human brain can only take so much information at a time and when the number of symbols used is increased, it becomes harder to process all of this information. In land based casinos the slot machine staff have been trained to stop the play and hand back a loss when the correct answer is not found - they are paid for this service and it does help them retain their job.
Online slot machine slots employ a different kind of computer technology. In the majority of cases the reels are electronically programmed so as to replicate the random nature of a traditional machine. The result is that when you press the reels they spin in accordance with a pre-set sequence of numbers. This is the reason why it is possible to win many times your regular earnings from just one machine. Once the initial investment from the slot machine is recouped through winning winnings then you can simply withdraw from the machine or transfer funds to your bank account.
When slot machines work their reels it is because of what is known as "matching symbols". There are typically 24 symbols on the reels but only a handful of these symbols actually have anything to do with winning combinations. When a winning combination is found by randomly selecting one of the symbols on the reels then the symbol which has the highest probability of matching with the winning combination is drawn. When you place your bet on the slot you will be choosing one of these symbols and since it is random, the outcome is certain. The symbols on the reels are arranged in a particular pattern called a "payline". Each symbol on the payline corresponds to a specific slot machine.
As slot machine players you are not always going to win every time you place your bet. That is why many casinos offer a "no-charge" slot rebate. Some of these casinos will rebate no matter what you pay while others will only rebate the initial slot machine slot if you win. If you are going to play slot games at a progressive casino you may also qualify for a no-charge bonus. When you play in these locations, you will only need to pay a base entry fee as well as an up front bonus for playing a certain amount of spins. These types of bonuses are often only awarded to slot players that have been a loyal customer for a certain period of time.

I grew up in a small mountain town named Eureka. It was founded in the late 1800s during the gold rush, but after the mines dried up the town began its slow descent into decay. Half the houses are empty or abandoned now.
You can see a picture of the kind of houses here in Eureka:
First house
Second house
When a massive construction project began nearby, it was the talk of the town for weeks. Why would they build something in a sleepy dying town like Eureka? It wasn’t until my sister Selene talked to a few construction workers that we discovered they were building a casino.
A casino up in the mountains, over two hours away from Denver. None of us could understand why they’d chosen here of all places. After a few months of work, the casino was done.
I took a picture of the town with the completed casino in the background to the right. The ten-story-structure sticks out like a sore thumb off in the distance.
Town+Casino
After the casino opened, they hired a few dozen members of the town, offering high paying jobs to work as dealers or cleaning staff. I was already employed as a firefighter, but my sister Selene got a job as a blackjack dealer. She’s a widow with two young kids, so the paycheck was a real lifesaver.
Still, something about the situation seemed too good to be true. The jobs over there paid far too well, and the management was far too accommodating. The fire station where I work is located high on a hill overlooking the town, so I began watching the casino from a distance each day.
I had initially thought that the casino was located in a terrible location, but I was apparently wrong. True, Eureka was hours from any major city, but despite that, a bus full of people arrived every morning and left every evening.
One night I was over at my parent’s house and had dinner with Selene and her kids. I asked her about her experience as a dealer.
“It’s Ok,” she said. “Just a little boring I guess.”
“Boring?” I asked. “I’m surprised you don’t have your hands full.”
“Why’s that?” she asked. “It’s like you said, Eureka’s too small. I never have people playing cards. The casino is almost always completely empty.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of that. If the place was always empty, what happened to the people who I’d seen arriving on buses? “I’ve been keeping an eye on the building,” I said. “A bus full of people typically arrives around 9 AM every day.”
“Really?” she asked, looking confused. “If that’s true, I’ve never seen them.
“I can see it from the fire station,” I said. “If you head out for a smoke break at 9 AM, you’ll probably see them arriving.”
“Interesting,” she said. “I’ll do that. If they’re being processed for their organs or something, I’ll let you know.” She laughed.
“Har har,” I said sarcastically.
The next night she sent me a text calling me over. When I arrived, she was nearly breathless with excitement.
“Orin, You were right,” she said. “A big group of people did arrive, but they didn’t walk into my part of the casino. Instead, they all walked into an elevator at the back of the building. I’m not sure where that goes.” She looked thoughtful. “It was weird. They looked… How can I say it? Desperate? Something about the whole situation was very off. I’m gonna check out the elevator tomorrow.”
I told her to be careful, though, to be honest, I was excited to hear about what she discovered. When I visited my parent’s house the next night, I found her two kids there alone. They told me that Selene had never returned from work.
I called all her friends, then all our neighbors, but no one had seen her since she left for work that morning. Our conversations regarding the casino flooded my mind, then a plan began to form.
Early the next morning I walked across town in my nicest pair of jeans and a button-up shirt. I pushed through the door to the casino and saw that Selene wasn’t lying. The place was all but deserted. Three dozen slot machines crowded the walls surrounding a few tables interspersed throughout the floor of the casino. The only players in the whole building were Bob and Donald, two locals.
I walked up to a nearby table where Bridget, a girl I’d gone to high school with, was shuffling cards. She broke into a grin when she saw me. “Hey Orin, you here for a few rounds of blackjack?”
“I wish,” I said. “No, I’m here to ask about Selene. She never made it home last night.”
Bridget’s expression darkened. “Really? Have you asked around?”
“I already called around. Have you seen her?”
She shook her head. “No, our schedules rarely line up. I’ll be sure to let you know if I--” Her eyes focused on something behind me, and she cut herself off.
I turned around to see the casino’s pit boss watching us both. He was a tall thin man in an impeccably clean black suit. When I turned back towards Bridget, she was looking down at the table and shuffling cards absent-mindedly.
“Well, if you hear anything, let me know,” I said.
She nodded, so I turned around and headed for the pit boss. I stuck out my hand. The temperature of his hand was so hot that I had to pull my hand away after a few seconds.
“Have… have you seen my sister Selene?” I asked. “She hasn’t been seen since her shift here yesterday.”
He smiled. “Sir, this floor is for players. You’re more than welcome to head to the tellers for chips, but barring that I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
I stared at him for a long second before stalking towards the door. When I looked back, he was talking with Bridget.
I checked my watch. 8:55 AM, just as I’d planned. I walked around the back of the building and waited as the morning bus pulled around the building. I waited for the telltale hiss of the opening doors and the sound of people descending before I rounded the corner and joined the crowd. None of them paid any particular attention to me as I walked with them into the casino.
The crowd walked through a side door down a hallway to an elevator. Small groups of people entered the elevator as the rest of us waited for our turn. I shot a glance at the casino patrons, surprised at their diversity. There seemed to be people from all different countries and ethnicities. I heard one speaking Japanese and another speaking what sounded like an African language.
My turn came along with a few other patrons in the elevator. A sickly woman hobbled into the elevator beside me carrying an IV that was still connected to one of her veins. We piled in and rode up to the top.
The elevator rose for a few long seconds. I wasn’t sure what I would find, but I steeled myself for something horrible. The elevator’s speaker let out a TING, then the doors opened.
We all walked out onto what looked like a standard casino. Another few dozen slot machines ringed the walls, but on this floor, they were almost all occupied by customers. I took in the scene, confused at why they’d have a ground floor that was almost completely empty when this place was almost--
Selene was dealing cards at a nearby table.
I jogged over and sat down at an open seat. None of the players around me paid me much attention.
“Selene!” I said. “Are you OK? Did you spend the night here last night?”
Her eyes were glassy and confused. She looked up at me with a dumb expression and didn’t respond to my question.
“Selene?” I asked.
“What’s your bet?” she asked me. “This table is for blackjack players only.”
“I…” I trailed off, looking at the players around me. None of them were betting with chips of any kind. “What’s the minimum bet?” I asked.
“Three years,” she responded.
“Three years then,” I said, not knowing what that referred to.
Selene nodded, then began dealing cards. I shot a look down at my hand. King and a 9. Selene dealt out cards for herself, showing a 9. I stood, then leaned forward again. “Should I call the police? Are you--”
“Congratulations,” she said tonelessly.
An almost impossibly warm hand grabbed my shoulder. I spun to see the pit boss I’d spoken to earlier. He gave an impressed smile. “Orin, was it? I’m impressed, truly. Would you mind if I had a word with you?”
I shot a look back at Selene who was dealing the next round of cards. Then I got to my feet, balling my hands into fists. “What did you do to her?”
The pit boss clasped his hands behind his back. “Nothing more, and nothing less than what I’m going to do to you. That is, offer you the chance to play.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
The pit boss nodded his head towards a nearby slot machine. A woman in a wheelchair pulled a lever and watched the flashing numbers spin. They exploded in a cacophony of sirens and flashing lights. “WINNER WINNER WINNER!” The machine screeched.
The woman in the wheelchair put her feet on the ground and stood up on a pair of wobbly legs that had clearly never been used before.
“As in any other casino,” the pit boss said, “you must wager for the chance to win.”
“She... won the use of her legs?” I asked, feeling light-headed. “Wait,” I said. “I played blackjack just now. ‘Three years,’ Selene told me. What does ‘three years’ mean?” I asked.
“Three years of life, of course. Did you win?”
My mouth felt dry. “I-- Yes, I won.”
He smiled warmly. “Congratulations. I hope you enjoy them. I can tell you from personal experience that watching the decades pass is a bore. Give it some time and you’ll be back to spend them.”
I watched the pit boss’s face. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, and I was in my early thirties. I looked around at the casino. No one was playing with chips of any kind. “So what?” I asked. “I won years of life. That woman won the use of her legs. What else can a person win here?”
“Oh, almost anything. They can win almost anything you can imagine.”
A cold feeling settled in my stomach. “And what do they wager?”
His eyes flashed with greed. “Almost anything. They can wager almost anything you can possibly imagine. Anything equal in value to the item they want in return.” He nodded towards a nearby roulette table.
A man stood by the table, cradling his hands. “Another finger,” he called out. He only had three fingers remaining on his left hand. As I watched, the ball came to a stop, and another finger disappeared from his left hand.
The pit boss extended his hands. “Feel free to try any of our games. Bet and win whatever you’d like.” He reached out and snatched my hand. A feeling of intense warmth passed up my arm to my chest. “There,” he said. “I’ve even given you some house money to get you started. An extra decade of life, on me.”
I ripped my hand away, staring at him in horror. Then I looked back at Selene. Something clicked in my mind. “You offered her the chance to play. What did she want?” I asked.
“Her husband,” the pit boss said. “Quite the sad story. He died two years ago. She wanted him brought back to her.”
“What did she wager?” I asked.
“She wanted the chance to win a soul, the most valuable object in existence. I’m sure you can imagine what she needed to wager for the chance to win it. What she wagered is unimportant. The important question is: What do you want, Orin?”
I stared at Selene with a flat expression. “I’m sure you can imagine.”
His eyes flashed with greed again. “How wonderful. The casino could always make use of another dealer. Feel free to make your wager at any one of our games; I’ll be eagerly awaiting the results of your night. Oh, and do take advantage of our waitresses. We always supply food and drink for ‘high rollers’.” He walked away.
I spent the next few hours trying to decide which game to play. I was going to be wagering my soul, so I wanted the highest chance possible. Slots and roulette were out. I’d done some reading online about counting cards, so I figured that blackjack gave me the best odds.
I walked up to Selene’s table and sat down. “Bet?” she asked with that same toneless voice. “Three years,” I said.
I spent the next hour or so doing my best to remember how to count cards. I knew that low cards added one to my count and high cards decreased it by one, but the casino used three decks. I had read something about how that was supposed to change my calculation, but I couldn’t quite remember how.
Every time I won a hand, I cursed myself for not putting everything on the line. Every time I lost, I breathed a prayer of thanks that I’d waited. And all the while, I kept track of the count.
I had lost fifteen years of life when the count finally reached +5.
“Bet?” Selene asked.
“I wager my soul so you can be free,” I said.
The table around me fell silent. Selene’s eyes flickered, but she showed no other emotion as she dealt the cards. I watched my first card, punching the air in excitement when I saw a Jack. My excitement turned to ash when my second card was a four. Fourteen.
I looked at her hand. One card was facedown, but the faceup card was a King. I swore loudly, staring down at my hands.
“Hit?” she asked. The entire table was silently watching me.
“Hit,” I said, not looking down. The table erupted in cheers. I looked down to see a 7 atop my two other cards. 21. Blackjack.
I looked at Selene who flipped over her facedown card to reveal a 9. 19. I won.
The glassy look left her eyes immediately. She looked around in surprise, then her eyes locked on mine. “Orin?” she asked, then almost immediately began to cry. The entire casino broke out in cheers.
I grabbed her hand and headed for the elevator. The doors had begun to close when the pit boss reached out with a hand to stop them.
“Congratulations,” he said, beaming. He seemed to be honestly excited.
“Shouldn’t you be upset?” I asked.
“Not at all. Casinos love it when we have big winners. It inspires the other players to make larger bets. I imagine I’ll gain two or three dealers before the night is through from your performance.”
“Great,” I said flatly. “Now let us go.”
“Not yet,” he said. “You didn’t just win, Orin. You got a blackjack. And blackjack pays out 1.5 times your bet. You won your sister’s soul and more.”
I stared, not sure what to say. “What are you saying? I won half a soul extra?”
The pit boss grinned wildly. “Just remember what I said. You’ll find living for decades and decades to be a boring experience. After a few centuries, you’ll be back to gamble that half a soul away. Congratulations!”
He removed his hand, and the elevator doors slammed shut.
I helped Selene back to her house. Her children were relieved. I watched them cry, then moved into the kitchen to start making dinner.
It’s been a few days since that experience. The casino is still out there, and buses full of people still arrive. I… I cut my hand pretty bad a few days later. When I checked it an hour later, it had already healed, no scar or anything. I’m not sure exactly what I won at that casino, but there’s no way I’m ever going back.
X

EDIT: Realized I forgot to add a TLDR so here goes nothing lol:
Buy a mansion and have AI run your MC businesses, CEO businesses, and Bunker. Start a crew of AI and start building yourself up as a kingpin. Then, buy a customizable private island and start a cartel. Open up massive labs and add entertainment for tourists, if you so desire. Compete against AI-run cartels for control of major cities in the GTA universe (Even ones that aren't accessible in GTA online). Become allies with other cartels or enemies. Topple other cartels and take control of their assets. (Islands, territory, production, etc.) Go head to head with the government like Pablo Escobar did or stay more lowkey like the Cali Cartel.
Now I want to preface this by saying I have no insider information whatsoever. This is literally just what I’d like to see going forward in this game.
So moving forward after the Cayo Perico heist (which is the best money maker in the game by far) I’m not really sure where there is to go for Rockstar. I highly doubt they want to make something that pays even better than this because of shark card sales. So from here, I think they could head in a slightly different direction than heists with every other update.
-The Mansion Update: The apartments in-game are borderline useless for everything but the garage. You can do the original heists but that’s about it, unfortunately. I’d love to see mansions added into the game with the highest-end one being something like 20 million and the lowest end being say 5 million. From the mansion, you can get a central area to control all your businesses. Maybe you can get a massive garage with this. (A 40-60 car garage like the CEO office) Beyond this, you can start a crew and have them work under you as dealers for your various businesses (MC, Bunker, Nightclub, Vehicle warehouse, and Crates). You have to pay the dealers say 10-20 grand a day but they manage your business and sell them for you and pay you the money. You can also give them secondary tasks like going to collect money from your businesses, etc.
Now the big update
-The Cartel Update: Owning the mansion will be a precursor to all this content. With this update, you would be able to buy your own private island. My thought is it would be extremely expensive. Starting at around 30 million and going up to say 80-100 million. With this update, you can take the crew that you had with your mansions and expand it to become your own cartel. All of your businesses would run through this. Bunker, MC, CEO, and any others you may have. You’ll have bigger and better labs and warehouses on this island than you do in LS but you’ll still own the ones in LS. You can hire hitmen and enforcers or even hire old characters from prior DLC’s as these roles. (Vincent, for example) You’ll be able to employ drug dealers such as the Madrazo’s and new ones too. They employ dealers and move your product. They get a percentage based on how good they are. Eventually, they’ll be able to move all the products you can produce across all businesses. For example, the Madrazo’s could be good at moving your drugs but then not be very good at moving your weapons and vice versa with a new character. You’ll be able to choose which dealer moves which product. You can get your products and shipments seized and again that will depend on the quality of dealers you employ.
The Island itself will be originally blank except for a small airport. It will cost money to build labs and bunkers for your island but they will be worth it. They will be much bigger and able to store way more product and completely AI-controlled and maintained. You’ll start out with a smaller house on one side of the island that you can designate as your residency space. You can build guard towers and security checkpoints which will help boost the morale of your employees as well as keep your island safer from enemy cartels and the government. You can build entertainment spaces like a casino and nightclub or even a nightclub if you want to have tourists come to your island. This will be a security risk, of course, but will bring in money for you. You’ll be able to build garages below your home on the island and store whatever cars there that you want. You would be able to build yourself a race track if you wanted to. If you run out of room on your island you’ll be able to upgrade your island to a bigger one with a slightly different layout. It certainly would not be cheap but you’d have more space. Once you run out of space on the biggest island that’s as big as your cartel will be able to get until you topple other cartels and take control of their operations.
Now the big part of this DLC would be the AI-controlled cartels and government. We have one cartel in the game now to some extent (El Rubio) and you’ll be able to interact with these cartels. You’ll be able to choose what to say to them and how you handle business. If you choose to be offensive towards them and take over their territory they won’t like that which will start beef between you and them. You can have wars and, if you play your cards right, topple the cartel and take its resources and territory. You can also ally with other cartels and use each other’s routes and just generally help each other out.
If you topple another cartel (AI-controlled) you take control of their resources such as their island, territory, and supply lines. You can annoy other cartels if you wish by selling in their territory, robbing them (Cayo Perico heist), and killing their soldiers. This will make them less trusting of you if you do it obviously but if you’re careful they’ll be less trusting of everyone. Including any allies they have and this can be used to weaken them and hopefully topple them. The goal would be to become the biggest drug lord in the world which would probably mean toppling other big cartels. Play your cards right and these cartel leaders will have their guards lower around you and your cartel and you can make a move against them and kill them and topple the cartel swiftly. Of course, none of your allies would trust you anymore but you would have toppled a cartel and given yourself more control. The territory would be split up with you selling in LS and other cartels arguing over Vice City, Liberty City, Las Venturas, San Fierro, London, Capital City, etc. These areas would not be able to be traveled to but you would be able to see which cartel controls which cities and the cities population and a few other stats. Any cities added in future games that came to GTA online as free-roam areas would be added to that list, of course.
You can be a high profile drug lord like El Chapo and Pablo Escobar or you could be more low profile like the Cali Cartel. These are the two extremes but you can always fall somewhere in the middle. You can raise your public opinion meter by giving out money, building apartment buildings, parks, etc. With this update, there would be elections introduced. Only for President and maybe one or two other government roles but they can be elected and they’ll have different stances on issues that directly affect you. One can be hard on the cartels or another can be more lenient and open to working with them. If you want to go the low profile route you can try and rig the election in favor of the candidates you want to win. Of course, this won’t always work but you can always try. If you go the high profile route you can just assassinate (or attempt to, depending on how good your hitmen are) the candidate you want to lose. You’ll also have a meter of popularity and at each point the citizens of the country will either love you or they’ll hate you. The higher your popularity the easier it is to conduct business, higher prices for your products and if the government ever decides to launch a manhunt against you the citizens won’t help the government catch you. This will be seen as you’ll be able to move around LS and any other new cities freely and all you have to do is just stay away from police stations as much as possible. If you commit a crime or are seen near the police station you’ll instantly get a 5 star wanted level that you can’t cancel using Lester. If you use a CEO ability or any of your cartel abilities to try and bribe the police it’ll only take it from a 5 star to a 4 star. If your relationship with the public is bad it will be much harder to move around the city. There’ll be police checkpoints near any businesses, homes, or offices you have. You will be able to get around them but it won’t be easy. On your island, you’ll be completely safe and won’t have to worry about getting wanted. Of course, there will be a limit to how much stuff you can do before the government steps in, in a much bigger way. If your cartel kills too many politicians, cops, or other government officials the manhunt will become much larger and more intense. By this point, the relationship you have with the people will be essentially down the drain so everything with the low relationship will apply in this situation.
If your relationship is this bad you will essentially be staying on your island and away from the mainland because it won’t be safe for you. But periodically, the government will send the military to your island to try and take you out. You and the crew you employ as island security will have to hold off the military and at least attempt to kill them all. It won’t be easy but it will be possible. If you’re allied with any AI cartels they will send reinforcements to help you. This will happen for two weeks straight every two days unless you raise the meter with the citizens. After these two weeks of hell, the manhunt will reset back to just the low punishments and your island will be safe again. If you get killed by the military you will lose a lot and respawn in Bolingbroke with some of your crew coming to break you out. This will be a tough fight but it will be scripted like a heist mission and if you die then it will restart. After you’re outside the prison you’ll need to lose the cops, no help from Lester or CEO/Cartel abilities either since you won’t have a way to contact them just yet. After you lose them you will need to escape to a warehouse of yours that isn’t known by the police. (Facility or new underground safehouses) until you decide to make a break for it and try to get back to your private Island. Once back, most of your workers will be in jail or dead so you’ll have to hire new ones. Your lead enforcers and hitmen won’t be killed but will be in jail so you can decide during your escape whether you want to attempt to break them out too. If you choose no, you’ll have to hire a crew of players to break them out. You’ll pay something like 1 million per player and the players will have to break them out. To sum up the price of getting caught it will probably cost you somewhere in the region of 30 million dollars of lost product and workers on the low end and around 75 million on the high end.
Your cartel will bring in lots of money for you. Somewhere around 5-10 million per week on the low end and 30 million at the high end. You will NOT compete with other players, only against AI cartels. Elections will be for you and you alone, not other players.
As you can see this will be an endgame thing primarily based on the amount of money the buy-in would be. For the first update, it will be mainly vehicles that the people without a ton of money can buy but if you have a high-end apartment you’ll be able to become a kingpin for an AI-controlled cartel. It’ll be something to get your foot in the door and build some infrastructure for yourself. The pay won’t be amazing as you won’t be able to build that big of a crew but it will be something. Probably 50-100 thousand every GTA day. Eventually, the players will (ideally) save up money to buy the mansions which will mean you can employ more people and go higher up in the food chain with the AI cartel you chose. Eventually, once you get enough money to buy the private island you can split off from the AI cartel and start your own. You’ll be able to bring the infrastructure you built up under the AI cartel to your new cartel. The AI cartel will not like this for obvious reasons and this will set off a lot of beef and wars between your cartel and the AI cartel.

I grew up in a small mountain town named Eureka. It was founded in the late 1800s during the gold rush, but after the mines dried up the town began its slow descent into decay. Half the houses are empty or abandoned now.
You can see a picture of the kind of houses here in Eureka:
Abandoned House
Non-abandoned House
When a massive construction project began nearby, it was the talk of the town for weeks. Why would they build something in a sleepy dying town like Eureka? It wasn’t until my sister Selene talked to a few construction workers that we discovered they were building a casino.
A casino up in the mountains, over two hours away from Denver. None of us could understand why they’d chosen here of all places. After a few months of work, the casino was done.
I took a picture of the town with the completed casino in the background to the right. The ten-story-structure sticks out like a sore thumb off in the distance.
Town+Casino
After the casino opened, they hired a few dozen members of the town, offering high paying jobs to work as dealers or cleaning staff. I was already employed as a firefighter, but my sister Selene got a job as a blackjack dealer. She’s a widow with two young kids, so the paycheck was a real lifesaver.
Still, something about the situation seemed too good to be true. The jobs over there paid far too well, and the management was far too accommodating. The fire station where I work is located high on a hill overlooking the town, so I began watching the casino from a distance each day.
I had initially thought that the casino was located in a terrible location, but I was apparently wrong. True, Eureka was hours from any major city, but despite that, a bus full of people arrived every morning and left every evening.
One night I was over at my parent’s house and had dinner with Selene and her kids. I asked her about her experience as a dealer.
“It’s Ok,” she said. “Just a little boring I guess.”
“Boring?” I asked. “I’m surprised you don’t have your hands full.”
“Why’s that?” she asked. “It’s like you said, Eureka’s too small. I never have people playing cards. The casino is almost always completely empty.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of that. If the place was always empty, what happened to the people who I’d seen arriving on buses? “I’ve been keeping an eye on the building,” I said. “A bus full of people typically arrives around 9 AM every day.”
“Really?” she asked, looking confused. “If that’s true, I’ve never seen them.
“I can see it from the fire station,” I said. “If you head out for a smoke break at 9 AM, you’ll probably see them arriving.”
“Interesting,” she said. “I’ll do that. If they’re being processed for their organs or something, I’ll let you know.” She laughed.
“Har har,” I said sarcastically.
The next night she sent me a text calling me over. When I arrived, she was nearly breathless with excitement.
“Orin, You were right,” she said. “A big group of people did arrive, but they didn’t walk into my part of the casino. Instead, they all walked into an elevator at the back of the building. I’m not sure where that goes.” She looked thoughtful. “It was weird. They looked… How can I say it? Desperate? Something about the whole situation was very off. I’m gonna check out the elevator tomorrow.”
I told her to be careful, though, to be honest, I was excited to hear about what she discovered. When I visited my parent’s house the next night, I found her two kids there alone. They told me that Selene had never returned from work.
I called all her friends, then all our neighbors, but no one had seen her since she left for work that morning. Our conversations regarding the casino flooded my mind, then a plan began to form.
Early the next morning I walked across town in my nicest pair of jeans and a button-up shirt. I pushed through the door to the casino and saw that Selene wasn’t lying. The place was all but deserted. Three dozen slot machines crowded the walls surrounding a few tables interspersed throughout the floor of the casino. The only players in the whole building were Bob and Donald, two locals.
I walked up to a nearby table where Bridget, a girl I’d gone to high school with, was shuffling cards. She broke into a grin when she saw me. “Hey Orin, you here for a few rounds of blackjack?”
“I wish,” I said. “No, I’m here to ask about Selene. She never made it home last night.”
Bridget’s expression darkened. “Really? Have you asked around?”
“I already called around. Have you seen her?”
She shook her head. “No, our schedules rarely line up. I’ll be sure to let you know if I--” Her eyes focused on something behind me, and she cut herself off.
I turned around to see the casino’s pit boss watching us both. He was a tall thin man in an impeccably clean black suit. When I turned back towards Bridget, she was looking down at the table and shuffling cards absent-mindedly.
“Well, if you hear anything, let me know,” I said.
She nodded, so I turned around and headed for the pit boss. I stuck out my hand. The temperature of his hand was so hot that I had to pull my hand away after a few seconds.
“Have… have you seen my sister Selene?” I asked. “She hasn’t been seen since her shift here yesterday.”
He smiled. “Sir, this floor is for players. You’re more than welcome to head to the tellers for chips, but barring that I’m afraid I’ll have to ask you to leave.”
I stared at him for a long second before stalking towards the door. When I looked back, he was talking with Bridget.
I checked my watch. 8:55 AM, just as I’d planned. I walked around the back of the building and waited as the morning bus pulled around the building. I waited for the telltale hiss of the opening doors and the sound of people descending before I rounded the corner and joined the crowd. None of them paid any particular attention to me as I walked with them into the casino.
The crowd walked through a side door down a hallway to an elevator. Small groups of people entered the elevator as the rest of us waited for our turn. I shot a glance at the casino patrons, surprised at their diversity. There seemed to be people from all different countries and ethnicities. I heard one speaking Japanese and another speaking what sounded like an African language.
My turn came along with a few other patrons in the elevator. A sickly woman hobbled into the elevator beside me carrying an IV that was still connected to one of her veins. We piled in and rode up to the top.
The elevator rose for a few long seconds. I wasn’t sure what I would find, but I steeled myself for something horrible. The elevator’s speaker let out a TING, then the doors opened.
We all walked out onto what looked like a standard casino. Another few dozen slot machines ringed the walls, but on this floor, they were almost all occupied by customers. I took in the scene, confused at why they’d have a ground floor that was almost completely empty when this place was almost--
Selene was dealing cards at a nearby table.
I jogged over and sat down at an open seat. None of the players around me paid me much attention.
“Selene!” I said. “Are you OK? Did you spend the night here last night?”
Her eyes were glassy and confused. She looked up at me with a dumb expression and didn’t respond to my question.
“Selene?” I asked.
“What’s your bet?” she asked me. “This table is for blackjack players only.”
“I…” I trailed off, looking at the players around me. None of them were betting with chips of any kind. “What’s the minimum bet?” I asked.
“Three years,” she responded.
“Three years then,” I said, not knowing what that referred to.
Selene nodded, then began dealing cards. I shot a look down at my hand. King and a 9. Selene dealt out cards for herself, showing a 9. I stood, then leaned forward again. “Should I call the police? Are you--”
“Congratulations,” she said tonelessly.
An almost impossibly warm hand grabbed my shoulder. I spun to see the pit boss I’d spoken to earlier. He gave an impressed smile. “Orin, was it? I’m impressed, truly. Would you mind if I had a word with you?”
I shot a look back at Selene who was dealing the next round of cards. Then I got to my feet, balling my hands into fists. “What did you do to her?”
The pit boss clasped his hands behind his back. “Nothing more, and nothing less than what I’m going to do to you. That is, offer you the chance to play.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
The pit boss nodded his head towards a nearby slot machine. A woman in a wheelchair pulled a lever and watched the flashing numbers spin. They exploded in a cacophony of sirens and flashing lights. “WINNER WINNER WINNER!” The machine screeched.
The woman in the wheelchair put her feet on the ground and stood up on a pair of wobbly legs that had clearly never been used before.
“As in any other casino,” the pit boss said, “you must wager for the chance to win.”
“She... won the use of her legs?” I asked, feeling light-headed. “Wait,” I said. “I played blackjack just now. ‘Three years,’ Selene told me. What does ‘three years’ mean?” I asked.
“Three years of life, of course. Did you win?”
My mouth felt dry. “I-- Yes, I won.”
He smiled warmly. “Congratulations. I hope you enjoy them. I can tell you from personal experience that watching the decades pass is a bore. Give it some time and you’ll be back to spend them.”
I watched the pit boss’s face. He couldn’t have been more than a few years older than me, and I was in my early thirties. I looked around at the casino. No one was playing with chips of any kind. “So what?” I asked. “I won years of life. That woman won the use of her legs. What else can a person win here?”
“Oh, almost anything. They can win almost anything you can imagine.”
A cold feeling settled in my stomach. “And what do they wager?”
His eyes flashed with greed. “Almost anything. They can wager almost anything you can possibly imagine. Anything equal in value to the item they want in return.” He nodded towards a nearby roulette table.
A man stood by the table, cradling his hands. “Another finger,” he called out. He only had three fingers remaining on his left hand. As I watched, the ball came to a stop, and another finger disappeared from his left hand.
The pit boss extended his hands. “Feel free to try any of our games. Bet and win whatever you’d like.” He reached out and snatched my hand. A feeling of intense warmth passed up my arm to my chest. “There,” he said. “I’ve even given you some house money to get you started. An extra decade of life, on me.”
I ripped my hand away, staring at him in horror. Then I looked back at Selene. Something clicked in my mind. “You offered her the chance to play. What did she want?” I asked.
“Her husband,” the pit boss said. “Quite the sad story. He died two years ago. She wanted him brought back to her.”
“What did she wager?” I asked.
“She wanted the chance to win a soul, the most valuable object in existence. I’m sure you can imagine what she needed to wager for the chance to win it. What she wagered is unimportant. The important question is: What do you want, Orin?”
I stared at Selene with a flat expression. “I’m sure you can imagine.”
His eyes flashed with greed again. “How wonderful. The casino could always make use of another dealer. Feel free to make your wager at any one of our games; I’ll be eagerly awaiting the results of your night. Oh, and do take advantage of our waitresses. We always supply food and drink for ‘high rollers’.” He walked away.
I spent the next few hours trying to decide which game to play. I was going to be wagering my soul, so I wanted the highest chance possible. Slots and roulette were out. I’d done some reading online about counting cards, so I figured that blackjack gave me the best odds.
I walked up to Selene’s table and sat down. “Bet?” she asked with that same toneless voice. “Three years,” I said.
I spent the next hour or so doing my best to remember how to count cards. I knew that low cards added one to my count and high cards decreased it by one, but the casino used three decks. I had read something about how that was supposed to change my calculation, but I couldn’t quite remember how.
Every time I won a hand, I cursed myself for not putting everything on the line. Every time I lost, I breathed a prayer of thanks that I’d waited. And all the while, I kept track of the count.
I had lost fifteen years of life when the count finally reached +5.
“Bet?” Selene asked.
“I wager my soul so you can be free,” I said.
The table around me fell silent. Selene’s eyes flickered, but she showed no other emotion as she dealt the cards. I watched my first card, punching the air in excitement when I saw a Jack. My excitement turned to ash when my second card was a four. Fourteen.
I looked at her hand. One card was facedown, but the faceup card was a King. I swore loudly, staring down at my hands.
“Hit?” she asked. The entire table was silently watching me.
“Hit,” I said, not looking down. The table erupted in cheers. I looked down to see a 7 atop my two other cards. 21. Blackjack.
I looked at Selene who flipped over her facedown card to reveal a 9. 19. I won.
The glassy look left her eyes immediately. She looked around in surprise, then her eyes locked on mine. “Orin?” she asked, then almost immediately began to cry. The entire casino broke out in cheers.
I grabbed her hand and headed for the elevator. The doors had begun to close when the pit boss reached out with a hand to stop them.
“Congratulations,” he said, beaming. He seemed to be honestly excited.
“Shouldn’t you be upset?” I asked.
“Not at all. Casinos love it when we have big winners. It inspires the other players to make larger bets. I imagine I’ll gain two or three dealers before the night is through from your performance.”
“Great,” I said flatly. “Now let us go.”
“Not yet,” he said. “You didn’t just win, Orin. You got a blackjack. And blackjack pays out 1.5 times your bet. You won your sister’s soul and more.”
I stared, not sure what to say. “What are you saying? I won half a soul extra?”
The pit boss grinned wildly. “Just remember what I said. You’ll find living for decades and decades to be a boring experience. After a few centuries, you’ll be back to gamble that half a soul away. Congratulations!”
He removed his hand, and the elevator doors slammed shut.
I helped Selene back to her house. Her children were relieved. I watched them cry, then moved into the kitchen to start making dinner.
It’s been a few days since that experience. The casino is still out there, and buses full of people still arrive. I… I cut my hand pretty bad a few days later. When I checked it an hour later, it had already healed, no scar or anything. I’m not sure exactly what I won at that casino, but there’s no way I’m ever going back.
Interested in more? Support me on Patreon at any level!
My Patreon backers will get early access to my horror stories, free copies of my horror novels, and an exclusive story each month.
Become a Patreon supporter here:
https://www.patreon.com/WorchesterStreet
Thank you to my lovely Patreon Backers:
Brooke Tang Private Castle Lilith Scyther Peter Jamison MADman611 Lily Bain Vivienne Hoai Claire Shabbeer Hassan Maranda Mae Madeline Budd Lauren Ashley Luna Vaughan Stephanie Jennings, Krystin Molina
and my new Patreon backers, Carter B, Yazz Ledgister, and an especial thanks to newest backer Christina! Your support is invaluable!

Missed ya, boys. Let's go.
One of the most important things in a game to me in the places you atually go through. Platformer, shooter, visual novel, every genre should have some places that really pop and make you feel alive in them. Of course, I'll start with my own favorites:
Danganronpa V3 - Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles: I've mentioned a few times that I much prefer Hope's Peak and Towa City in terms of how their atmosphere captures their game's story and the series in general the best, and I'm also not necessairly a fan of the muted color scheme the game has, either. However, in terms of pure content, this place wins by a mile. Particularly the Casino and the Love Hotel for how their colors are very bright, warming, and glamorous. The place really shines in the FTEs because of the characters and how they interact with the protagonists in their labs. Salmon Team is my personal hubworld for when I have nothing better to do and just want to relax.
Oddworld: Abe's Oddyssey - Rupture Farms: The world Abe has to go through is absolutely evil. Death at every corner, animals being hunted for food products. This is a place I would never want to live in, but I don't think I've seen a setting be implemented better in a story. I especially love the look of the outside world. It looks absolutely beautiful, especially during the night.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - Casino Night Zone: Ah yes, everyone's introduction to underage gambling. Fun. A common theme in my favorite stages is that they take place largely at night. This is because these night levels often have these bright colorful lightshows that make the place look like Las Vegas or Tokyo, which look absolutely gorgeous. This is a humble zone, but probably my favorite in the classic series for its strong level design, multiple ways to earn rings when you're not going to the goal, the way it's actually designed like a casino with its gimmicks, and of course, in typical Sonic fashion, the music.
Super Mario Oddyssey - New Donk City: Probably my most obvious choice if you've seen my Top 10 Favorite Games list, this was the first place I've been to in a game where I truly felt alive and immersed. After beating the stage's boss, the level becomes this urban utopia, full of things to do and things to explore. The city is jam-packed with sights to see, people to talk to, and the fanservice is through the roof, particularly with Pauline. Because Mario is invincible to fall damage, you can explore even the highest places of the city to your absolute will. And of course, best of all, the Jump Up Superstar sequence, which is one of my favorite moments of any game I have ever played.
Personal Favorite: Crash Bandicoot 4 - Off Beat: And here is my absolute favorite setting in any game I have ever played. This level is as close to perfection as you can possibly get for me. The night sky is breathtaking. The bright lights contrasting them, much like Casino Night, make this place pop out. The place is seemingly endless with activity, and there are creative enemies and locals seeping out of every angle. Many things you do in the level make you feel like a superhero when you do them right, espeiialy the ending grinding section. And of course, and I must stress this: THE MUSIC.

High all! I really recently fell in love with the Fallout Universe, with all its complexities and unique stories. In particular, I very much enjoy the subjectivity of interpretations of the games and their outcomes, and I wanted to create my own personal contribution by writing a story specifically set after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. The Courier is referenced once in passing and there's no mention of a next of kin for the Courier. The story is completely original with entirely unique characters that I've made and it takes place after a non-specific timeline in which Mr House wins the fight for the Mojave Desert. I wanted to share some of my work with my fellow Fallout fans and see what you think. I sincerely hope you enjoy it.
Beginning:
After the guns fell silent during the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, the world was forever changed. Mr House’s City State of New Vegas gained full sovereignty and control over the Mojave Desert, and his Securitron Army pushed the exhausted NCR and broken Legion out. In the following years, Mr House rapidly expanded the city of New Vegas, and reignited the production of old Pre-War Technology automobiles, bus lines, and a high speed train line appeared. The Strip itself expanded beyond the Three Families; Strip clubs, pubs, casinos, all you can eat buffets filling the area, with some residential apartments and houses now beginning to be sold to the highest bidder, just as it was in the old world.
The expanded city of Vegas outside the Strip itself however is a slum, crime, inequality, and denigration is all but abundant, and unrest is growing. Following the removal of President Kimball, his Vice President Donald Watson took over and inherited a State in crisis. Faith in the government had rapidly deteriorated, and the economy of the NCR began to suffer as many relocated to the Strip to live a life of luxury and excess. The NCR is now a shadow of its former self, with Military Police now required to keep order on the streets of its towns and cities. The poverty level is rising. In the East, Caesar’s Legion too is changing, and not for the better. With the Western Campaign a failure by all accounts, resources dwindling, questions about the strength of their Leader Caesar are cropping up in the minds of those closest to him.
By 2295, the pieces had fallen into place. The fate of these States and the people who uphold them is uncertain. One thing is for sure. Whatever happens, the Wasteland will be changed unlike it has ever been before.
‘I appreciate your respectful and restrained response to my contact. It is a pleasure to interact with the less agitated members of your State.’
Aminta barely heard Mr House, and instead stared out the windows of the Lucky 38. The skyline of the Strip extended seemingly forever, pushing away the surrounding darkness with neon light. Just beyond the city outskirts, the silhouette of Mr House’s newly created Launch Pad. It was one of five, and she could just see the other four, each slightly further away from the city than the last. She scrutinised them, and was struck by the boundless possibilities of such technology; the opportunities provided. How exciting it would be! Mr House’s voice then cracked her thoughts and brought back to the present. She listened, without comment.
‘Roughly 18 hours ago, a team of five extraordinarily skilled individuals ascended Hoover Dam from the base of the structure,’ The ostentatiously large screen in which Mr House’s face sat suddenly changed to show grainy footage. ‘This was captured by one of our cameras on the perimeter of the dam. I apologise for the bad quality, it has been surprisingly difficult obtaining improved camera lenses, and As you can see, they used some kind of Grapnel Launcher and ascended via the rope.’
On the screen, it was possible to just make out five distinct figures at the base of the dam. They were clearly dressed in dark clothing, though the quality was too poor and the camera was too far away to make out any of the fine details of the material. Aminta scrutinised the footage, watching intently as the five figures used an oblong object, reminiscent of a hunting rifle to fire a rope, or cord up the side of the dam; high enough to catch the top. The operator of the device then disconnected it from the gun, and pressed it into the ground. It appeared to stick. They then ascended the rope. The camera feed then cut to show three of the attackers subdue and restrain two security guards. Due to the light, it was clear that the clothing the criminals were wearing was Recon Armor, though there were no insignia or identifiable characteristics. The two men were then held down by two and clubbed across the face by the third member with the butt of a 10mm pistol. He then turned to the computer and retrieved something from his pocket. Then the screen went black.
‘At this point, at roughly 1:27 am a Trojan was fitted onto the system. It temporarily disabled all the security cameras in the sector. It was one of the strongest Trojans I’ve ever come across, but I was able to get the system back up and running within 15 minutes. Unfortunately we cannot recover any footage from the corrupted data files that detail how the robbers escaped. I hope you can understand why I decided to contact you.’
Aminta pondered to herself. Why would Mr House, a man who controlled Rockets and owned and governed an entire city and it’s enterprises, would need to contact the New California Republic for assistance in a robbery? From where they were standing, he appeared to be in a position any high ranking NCR official would kill for. She didn’t say anything. There had to be more to this meeting than what Mr House was implying. She looked to her left, trying to be casual. Sitting next to her with an overexaggerated grave look on his face was Political Officer Neville Dawson, and next to him was Dennis Crocker, former Ambassador to the Strip. They too were quiet, their faces frustratingly hiding what they were thinking. Not sure where to look, Aminta turned back to the screen Mr House’s caricature face was on. She had to say something.
‘Mr House, why exactly do you think these people targeted Hoover Dam? There are many casinos and places full of money on the New Vegas Strip. Is there anything of massive value at Hoover Dam?’
‘Well Chief Aminta Marr, no, ostensibly speaking, there is nothing there of real value to anyone, unless they have the ability to take and control the Dam and source it’s hydraulic generated electricity,’
‘Then why would someone do this?’ Aminta said curtly. She tensed up, not meaning to sound dismissive.
‘Well Aminta, they did take one thing from what we've deduced,’ Mr House said, appearing to ignore her tone.
‘And what was that Mr House?’ Neville cut in. He was leaning forward, hands clasped tightly together. He was trying - and failing - to ease the tension in the room.
‘Well, before I contacted you Neville, and to answer your question Aminta, I ran through my storage records from 2285 to the present. I had Mr Harvey Shwarze, my ‘Representative in Government’ review them in paper form in our archives. Three things - completely inconsequential things mind you, were missing. Three Platinum Chips.’
‘Three Platinum Chips?’ Neville said concertedly, as if he knew exactly what Mr House was talking about.
‘That’s right. It’s a data storage device, well it was a data storage device. Designed by me before the Great War of 2077. Perhaps once upon a time this would’ve been valuable to somebody, but after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam I had access to all kinds of ruined facilities all over the Mojave to reform to working order. I began reprinting hundreds of Platinum Chips which were variations of the original Platinum Chip. They continuously upgrade and encrypt my software to prevent any outside programmers from accessing my highly sensitive data. I have no idea what a group of hooligans would want with three. I can easily replace them, and since they’re only usable on my systems, well they would simply be useless.’
‘Perhaps they wanted to sell them,’ Aminta proposed. It wasn’t impossible, she thought. People pay top dollar for things with perceived value, isn’t that the cardinal rule of the Strip?
‘To whom?’ Mr House replied. ‘The point still stands. Nobody has any use for them but me.’
‘Well, perhaps they thought they were valuable.’ Dennis remarked.
‘In any case, they will soon learn they are not valuable.’
‘If you have no problems with this Mr House,’ Aminta cut in. ‘Why do you need us here? The NCR has its own problems, big problems, and from where we’re standing, you seem to have everything under control.’
‘That’s precisely the issue!’ Mr House exclaimed. ‘The very fact they managed to steal anything from me at all is deeply disconcerting! I spent days and nights running statistical simulations for all possible scenarios in and formulated the best plans for countering every scenario I came across!’
‘I guess my point is, I do not understand, in any capacity, why you, YOU of all people would need to call us for assistance in a matter that you - whether intentional or not - have spent the last fives minutes telling us it isn’t an issue.’
The room fell quiet. Aminta pulled her hands back from the table and into her lap, and looked down at them, pretending to be occupied analysing them. She had exposed the true, unspoken meaning of this meeting, and they all knew it. She bit her lip. Dennis wiped the sweat off his face. Neville breathed in deeply, as though he was going to speak. But Mr House did first.
‘As I understand it, the NCR has fallen on hard times since the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. My Lieutenant after the battle was admittedly curt in regards to handling our relations, and since then it seems your economy is really struggling with extremely poor unemployment and satisfaction levels,’ Mr House paused.
Neville looked at Aminta with a look of understanding, and regret but he didn’t say anything. Mr House was right. Of course he was right.
‘It just so happens that while it may look from the outset I’m doing well, with the occasional launch of one of my experimental rockets, crime in Greater New Vegas is extraordinarily high. To be clear, the Strip is not, but the extended city state with the newly constructed buildings - those areas are. I want to make a proposition for the mutual benefit of the NCR, and New Vegas. Neville, think carefully about what I’m about to say.’
Neville spoke up. ‘Alright, I’m all ears.’
‘Dennis Crocker here can once again become the Ambassador to the Strip, and the NCR can once again have an Embassy. I will also give the NCR access to some of my technologies to help your state re-stabilize after everything that’s happened. In return however, I would like Aminta here, who is your Chief and Commander of both your military and normal police forces, to assist my Securitrons in patrolling Outer Vegas. Securitrons don’t make the best police, and security guards are in short supply and are not equipped, in any sense, to be police. I also would like your help in tracking down the culprits of this robbery; that being an extension of the aforementioned policing stipulation. Such a breach of security cannot happen again. Neville Dawson, I’m willing to sign a treaty pertaining to these terms, or any terms the NCR may propose, unless of course it does mutually benefit both states.’
Aminta felt her twang strike her deep in her heart. For years, the NCR Police Force had been absorbed into the Military Police Unit, and they could barely contain black market dealings of Chems and military grade weaponry on the streets of NCR’s cities. They did not have the resources or power Mr House seemed to think they did. For nearly 3 years straight she had been bombarded with evidence of killings by her own subordinates, illegal incarcerations, and illicit behavior between colleagues within her own chain of command, with no power to rehabilitate or prosecute those involved. Meanwhile, those that had the money to escape fled to New Vegas, desperate to find a life of comfort. It was possible that through re-establishing trade and mutual respect with Mr House, they could rebuild the NCR’s respectability on the international and internal level. She found herself hoping the treaty would be signed.
‘This... is a huge proposition. I hope you can understand the overwhelming nature of what you’re telling us, it’ll take a bit for us to come to a conclusion.’ Neville exhaled, as though he had been holding it for the last minute.
‘I understand.’ Mr House responded.
‘Maybe I ask,’ Donnie piped up. ‘What specific kinds of technology will you provide to the NCR?’
Mr House ran down a checklist. ‘Vehicles. Remade pre-war cars. Excavation machines. Cement mixers. Would provide jobs and improve your infrastructure in the process, whilst also giving me business and improving the situation here. Mutually beneficial for both sides.’
‘I see.’
Aminta struggled to contain her happiness. She had become a police officer to enforce safety and protect those who abide by the law. This was a way back to such operations, in which she could help those in need, rather than sit idly while their situation worsened.
‘I’ll also be willing to give 10% of the electricity produced by Hoover Dam to the NCR. It produces more than I need.’ Mr House offered.
Dennis shifted his weight, and opened his mouth. It was a second before anything came out.
‘15% would be great, if possible.’
‘Done.’ Mr House concluded.
‘Well, we’ll definitely have to confer this back to President Watson. As previously said by Mr Dawson, this is a huge offer.’
‘I understand. Aminta, I can only hope you also support this.’
Aminta smiled. ‘I am willing to establish a NCR Police Force here in New Vegas, and assist in establishing prosperity and stability, for the benefit of both states.’
‘Excellent. I’ll arrange for a Taxi to take you back to the border.’
*****
Nobody said a word in the ride in the elevator down to the entrance of the Lucky 38. There was a perpetual sense of being watched, and listened to, and Aminta supposed they probably were. She sensed from the stiffness of Donnie and Neville’s postures they felt the same way. As the three left through the ground level of the building, the desolate casino indicated a time long past, preserved in pristine condition yet uncannily lifeless; inhabited only by robots. Aminta felt a shiver flow throughout her body, prompting her to hurry outside.
Upon exiting, Aminta was greeted by the fantastic lighting she had seen from the Lucky 38. Buildings stretched high into the now night sky, perpetually lit up and calling for you to spend a few short hours in their luxurious suites and lose all the money you have without knowing it. She had visited the Strip a couple of times before the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. Back then, whilst still grand, its exterior walls felt cobbled-together, layered pieces of steel to preserve what glory the pre-war days had. Now, the Strip felt open, almost a complete return to complete pre-war glory, though there was no way of her knowing what such a time looked like. Polished, beetle like cars with extravagant interwoven pieces of silver and gold making up their hubcaps cluttered the road, filled with nicely dressed young women chattering incessantly.
Boys, ranging from teenagers to old men stumbled around, drunk and happy, their legs falling beneath them as though they were wet noodles. To the left, the Ultra Luxe Casino hotel stood at the far end of the street, intoxicatingly ostentatious and alluring for any hoping to climb the social ladder, despite the many rumors of cannibalism attempting to tarnish the brand. The fountain outside the front sprayed sparkling water into the night air which caught the light of the strip and reflected it like the jewels the building it was in front of was embroidered in. However, Aminta was not taken by the hotel, and watched two NCR troopers, still in their military uniforms be forced to dance in front of a crowd of onlookers. They were pushed and shoved as they struggled to dance, their arms and legs barely keeping to any rhythm as they fell to the ground, vomiting a putrid yellow substance onto the asphalt. She looked away in disgust and embarrassment for the two men.
A man in an expensive looking suit and bowtie greeted the three. Behind him stood a long polished black car.
‘Shall I take you to the crossing point?’
‘Yes.’ Donnie answered. Aminta and Neville followed his lead. He had more experience on the Strip than the majority of the tourists around them. She started the car once they were all inside, the engine barely kicking as it began to drive. Aminta marvelled at its power, it’s sleekness, at the strength and confidence of its movement and the luxury of it’s exotic wood plated interior.
The chauffeur drove to the large South Gate of the Strip, passing multitudinous buildings of similar grandeur and spectacle, all the same though uniquely different, until they all blurred into one mix of different colours and moving forms. The chauffeur leaned out of the side window, showed an identification pass to a Securitron, and the gate opened. Aminta’s car was the only car that left. As the gate closed, the car picked up speed and tore through the rest of Vegas.
Immediately outside the Strip, the buildings were noticeably more dilapidated. Aminta watched as the varied prosperity of the Strip curtailed rapidly into a mess of buildings, barely recognisable as residential or industrial, though they were unmistakably new creations. She almost didn’t notice it at first, but they were all the same. Row after row of buildings with the same geometric exterior, though placed at odd angles to each other, as if a child had been playing with them and haphazardly threw them into where they now stood. As the car moved further and further away from the Strip, lights in these buildings became scarce, and the brickwork became exposed to reveal pipelines and shreds of electrical appliances, some still spitting sparks. When the light of the Strip was nothing more than a flicker of light on the night horizon, the copied buildings were replaced with houses, roofs sagging, walls crumbling. As the car zipped passed, Aminta caught wisps of figures; people moving about the ruins and the darkness like ghosts, until they passed the last house, and all that could be seen was the night sky and desert shrubbery.

It took me 7 days primarily low betting the whole time to reach level 100. (9 to reach level 110.) Whenever I bet higher than 350-450K, usually, my coins just plummeted within minutes. I think anyone who reached level 100 within 1-3 days bet higher and lucked out tremendously.
Slow and steady guide:

1. Join a club. The higher AND more active the better. Absolute highest is Master 1. From what I've seen, Master I, II and III required players to be a minimum level (like 100+) to join and/or a request to join (mine was never accepted). Unlike similar casino games, Stars Slots won't let you do an advanced search. You can search for a specific club if you know any names, however. So you are left with the option to join the first club on the list that currently has the most collective coins made and which allows members of your current level to join. Either that or create a club (don't recommend). So go ahead and join that first one, but change later based on step #3’s information. Also, the higher the club the bigger percentage of extra free coins you get from different sources within the game. So it goes Master I, II, III, World Class I, II, III, Expert I, II, III, and last is Pro I. Since I couldn't join Master clubs I did best in World II and World I.
2. Collect coins. The FB group, free coins from https://www.peoplesgamezgiftexchange.com/stars-slots-free-chips/gifts or similar website, starting with the most recent and going back as far as you can. Within the game: Once daily spin the wheel; Star Bonus every 60 minutes from far bottom left side of home screen; Huuuge Heist (unlock at level 35) every 15 hours (beside Star Bonus) (the 15 hours increase the higher a level you are at for longer wait)... make sure you've gathered bucks (can see next to dollar image under coin image at top left) (amount of bucks needed increase the higher a level you are at) in case you get an empty box and want to keep what you've won so far with boxes. Tip: An empty box for one round, for example the first one, can also be the empty one in the very next round; it's random each round. I was terrible at this game and should've clicked "give up" sooner than keep gambling; Lottery (ticket to play) every 6 hours (some say value goes up at level 70, so to save them. User batmanbnb below states to save bronze tickets until level 70. It’s up to you whether to save tickets or not.); click on Shop (top middle in green) and on the top right you can click and collect free coins every 8 hours; at the bottom of the Shop screen OR to the right of the Shop image on the home screen you click and watch a video to collect coins, until you can no longer watch, every 8 hours. Also collect coins from club members every time they hit a jackpot and 1 million coins just for first time joining any club through Stars League (middle bottom of home screen).
3. When you join a club click on a team member's profile and connect and you'll get an option to connect/friend every member in the club. I did this and connected to as many people during games I played until I reached my limit. I figured people in the clubs I joined, even lower level clubs, may leave and join higher ones like I did. Probably would be a good idea to go to a tier II game (the middle option for higher betting than Beginner called High Limit once you've unlocked it) and connect to players currently playing it since they have high enough coins to play that. You don't have to play yourself if you don't want to: just drop in, connect, and leave. Then, at the bottom right of the home screen click on Social and you'll see every friend you have. What I did was click on those who had the highest coins at the time and see what club they were a part of: If the club was World II or higher I joined it. Question: What if you want to do better than this club you found (either through this method or the Join Club list) either because its level is too low or not active enough players? Click on Stars League (middle bottom of home screen) then click on Seasons (to the right of Members). This shows you where your club is currently placed. If you see higher placed clubs with available space AND you can join AND it's World Class II or higher then join it. Remember your old club’s name if you ever want to go back, just in case. If you attempt to join a club and you can't get in (maybe you're not at high enough a level) you are also kicked out of your current club for attempting to leave (for some reason), leaving you club-less. My favorite clubs were Polacy2019 (currently World Class I), pour tous (World Class I), and A.Y.M.K.N. TEAM (World Class I).
4. Betting: The general rule of thumb I found was to bet when you have a minimum of 10-20 million, which I agree with. But you can wait, collecting as many coins as you can, to start betting when you have more. The tip I read (and stuck with) was to follow the 1% bet rule: bet 1% of your current chips or even lower (like half of that).
5. Games: Everyone has a different favorite game. Some games are passive (can do Hold for Autospin and not babysit the game) while others you need to be engaged with*. Passive games: God of Sky, Steam City, Neptune's Mistress. *Note: User DilutedDante below stated all games are passive; for the games I saw that wanted my input (choose numbered cards for spin the wheel, etc.) I didn't wait long enough to see if the game would perform the action for me. Recommended games from other users here on Reddit: Wheel of Wins, God of Sky (one of my favorites), Speedy 777 Spins, Retro 81 (one of my favorites), Fortunes Jackpots (never played), and Jackpot Mania (never played). Of course, more games are unlocked the higher the level you reach. I recommend that if you are under 30 million to play God of Sky or Speedy 777 (which didn’t work too well for me, but others like it when trying to gain coins). Remember to do minimum betting or 1% or lower betting. Occasionally I would switch games and play Retro 81 or Wheel of Wins. Do this until you reach level 38 and unlocked Steam City and level 40 to unlock Neptune’s Mistress. I almost exclusively played these two, passively, to reach level 100. My method was betting 100K or 125K (if I had a minimum of 40-50 million). I didn’t feel secure enough to bet 250K or higher until I had a minimum of 100 million because otherwise I would run out of coins too quickly. I rarely bet higher than 500K. I think it took 2 hours or so, minimum betting, to level up each time. So that’s why it took me a week to do this and reach level 100. I found Steam City to be the best game overall as another user did. Sometimes, even at lowest betting and even with 100+ million coins and leaving it to play on its own, I would lose all coins. But that’s OK - just collect coins again and play again. It’s all luck. Another time I started with 15 million and it jumped to 125 or so million in a short amount of time with 100K betting playing Neptune’s Mistress.
6. I don’t recommend Daisy’s Challenges (far bottom right of main screen). The games to be played either rarely had wins for me or the minimum bet required to unlock a box was higher than I was comfortable doing. See user DilutedDante's comment below for benefit of doing Daisy's Challenges.

If anyone has any other tips or corrections on what I've said (I've read other users got into Master clubs, but they all seemed to be for very high level players?) please share! This is just my conservative and mostly passive playing guide based on how the experience was for me. Some users do recommend Daisy's Challenges or betting higher playing the 2nd tiemiddle High Limit slot machine and had better luck with those than I did.
I gathered many other tips from various users from the Swagbucks Reddit thread not mentioned here. If anyone wants me to include some of them I can.
See below for user Kpheark1's additional tips.

Hello!
I am Mr. Way, and it is theoretically possible that you've seen one or more of my articles on Medium. Here's a link, if you are interested! https://medium.com/mr-ways-guide-to-clash-of-clans
Okay, so here's the deal. I've been running one clan for several years (ikr), and that was cool, but for a lot of reasons, I think it would be much cooler if I initiate the organization of a whole bunch of clans together into one self-governing and self-maintaining "institution" that could function with or without me, and support many more players in the ways a good leader does than I could support, myself.
So, since I happen to have 16 accounts at high levels, I've been creating additional clans, and pumping multiples at once! The idea is, ultimately, to have a type of clan for every type of player, and to have as many of each type of clan as players want to join, with players able to move easily between different clans in the organization depending on whether they are farming, warring, trophy pushing, base designing, hero upgrading, etc.
Here is the discord link that unites the clans, and which I will be using to organize interclan activities and offshoots etc.
https://discord.gg/ZekS3uEFNs
We are still fairly early in this process, but we currently have accumulated 4 clans populated with about 130 accounts, many of which are people with minis. I try to purge the inactive accounts regularly, but there must be a few hiding in there somewhere.
Clans in the Tribe: #1 Mr. Way's Casino, Clan level 16, #LGPP9088 This is my original clan, and it is the highest average level. Players range mostly from TH10-TH12 with a couple 13s, and then my own mini squad of TH13s when I have them there.
---
#2 Way of Blitz 13, Clan level 5, #29UURR2RJ Clan dedicated to the "War Blitz Rush" strategy, all the way to TH13, following certain guidelines for upgrades to maintain war capabilities despite "rushing." Rushed bases welcome.
Large span of TH levels, probably from TH6-TH13, mostly very rushed, but in such a way that we are still highly competitive in wars. Get ahead in your attack levels, and don't wait to unlock anything! Join the fast track!
---
#3 Guerrilla Wars [sic], #2YRUGPPGQ "Pirate War" Clan. That is, we don't try to win wars. This clan is all about looting, ideal for pushing heroes fast. Wars are seen as a source of cheap loot, which you will just use a low power attack to snipe the TH for the loss loot against the enemy #1.
Everyone plans to lose with their attacks, so they can use extremely cheap attacks, Perhaps just the heroes, for a totally free bit of loot. The point, again, is that we accept all bases of all types, and we lose wars on purpose (unless it looks really easy to win) for the assured easy loot w/o army.
---
#4 WayOfSanctuary, #2L92JCQC8 Clan dedicated to helping rushed bases recover into war readiness, in a welcoming, inclusive, understanding, accepting environment. Also a place where you could rush intentionally, if you wanted.
---
If you are already the leader of a clan, and you would be interested in having your clan added into our collective, please contact me!
If you are yourself wanting to start a clan, and would be willing to start it a part of this organization, also please contact me. I can lend you my mini squad to get the initial war win record, high level donations, and clan EXP that can push you past the initial threshold. It is my intention not to be the leader of the clans in this organization, but to hand off as many as possible to solid leaders that I can trust to maintain positive clan environments. This vision I have is not something one leader can build alone.
I hope to see you in the game, or better yet, on our discord server!

Idnsport is one of the leading brands of Slot Machine gambling websites. It was established in 1996 and has come a long way since then. The company also provides all the essential equipment and software required for you to start and run your own gaming site. It comes with a wide range of different casino games that can be played on your website. This article will provide you with some information on how to gamble with slot machine online at the price you can afford.
When it comes to selecting your own slot machine, there are many things you need to consider before purchasing one. One of those things is the type of slot machine that you will get. There are currently three types of slot machines from which you can choose from - LED, reel, and dual-code. LED slot machines are quite popular and have been known to give players the best response rates. The only downside about these machines is that they usually pay out very little. If you would like to win big jackpots, however, Dual-code machines are probably the best ones for you.
Slot machine gamblers who would like to win big have the highest chance of winning from any of the slot games offered by Idnsport. One reason why individuals love to play with this particular company is because it offers top quality gambling products. In addition, this casino games website also has a wide array of casino games including online slots. Individuals who play online can take advantage of many features that would allow them to be able to win big jackpots from the comfort of their homes.
If you are wondering how individuals may be able to win from the comfort of their homes, you may want to check out the following features: jackpot-winning odds, number of bets allowed, and pay-outs. jackpot-winning odds show how an individual may increase his or her chances of winning against other individuals who may be playing joker games at the same time. On the other hand, the number of bets allowed shows how much money an individual may win from single gaming sessions.
The pay-outs involved in the website are also excellent. Most individuals have learned how to beat the odds when playing video games, so it is likely that an individual may want to try their luck at video slot machines as well. In addition, most companies that offer slots also offer video games. If you want to win in both casino games and video games, then you should definitely look into all the options that are available on the website.
Overall, players have the opportunity to win real cash with the help of this website. This idnsport review recommends that you take a few minutes to visit the website and review all of the features that are available on its website. If you enjoy online slot machines and video games, then it should be easy for you to see why this company is so popular. After you have checked out all of the information that is provided on the audit slot import website, you should feel ready to place your bets and win big.

​
Whamoo Casino Review & Free Bonus
Sign up with Whamoo Casino and test slots in freeplay - No Deposit Required! Additionally, take advantage of 300 Free Spins and up to 600 EUUSD Welcome Bonus. Exclusive promo codes apply. Click on the link below and start playing for free!
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<

About Whamoo Casino [Full Review]

Whamoo is a brand new, fun-loving online casino that has recently opened its premises for gamblers from many countries around the world. It does however promise to be more than just an online casino, as Whamoo describes itself as a lifestyle and feeling.
The rush you feel when the reels spin. The sound you make when that spin turns into a huge win. That’s Whamoo. Yet Whamoo is so much more than that. This online casino promises all you would expect from a reputable online casino – but then improved further. A massive game library? Check. Live casino? Check. Full mobile compatibility? Check. An entire VIP bonus programme for loyal customers? Check. Whamoo is a casino which comes with the entire package which players have come to expect of a casino provider.
On paper Whamoo sounds like a great online casino. But being a newcomer on the scene, there are of course always some open questions. How reliable is Whamoo? What can you expect from this brand new casino when it comes to the available games? How cooperative is their online help desk? What kind of welcome bonuses are there for new players who wish to open an online account?
In our extensive Whamoo review, we will try to answer all of the above questions and guide you through this brand new casino. So do read on and let’s explore this exciting new addition to the world of online gambling!
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<

A fully licenced online casino

Whamoo is a fully licenced online casino and a safe place for gamblers to put down their wagers. The website of whamoo.com is operated by DialMedia Ltd, a company registered by the Malta Business Registry with number C86642, on the registered address of Depiro Point, Block A2, Triq Mons G. Depiro, Sliema, Malta.
As gambling operator, DialMedia Ltd. fully licensed and regulated by the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) under licence number MGA/B2C/542/2018 issued on 10/04/2019.
What does this say about the reliability of Whamoo?
The MGA licence is one of the better ones you can find in the online casino world as Malta is the major European nation when it comes to online gambling. It is home not only to most of the world’s top online casinos, but also to many software providers and other businesses providing auxiliary services in the gambling industry.
A Malta Gaming Authority licence is not handed out with ease, as a company needs to fulfil many criteria before being granted one. The national gambling authorities of this Mediterranean island and EU member state check for example if all games which are made available are indeed fair and honest. They also check whether a company has enough cash reserves to pay out lucky winners of casino games and hold regular audits to ensure that there are no irregularities.
If an online casino has a MGA licence, it means that all the important criteria when it comes to safety, honesty and reliability are fulfilled and that it is a safe place to gamble. For us, the online casino licence is always a first thing we check before we even would consider playing somewhere. With this crucial criteria being fulfilled, we can thus move forward in our Whamoo review and look at all the other things this casino has to offer. And to be honest, the whole Whamoo package looks quite promising! Three of the main selling points of the Whamoo online casino are:

• Compile your own welcome bonus package and decide between free spins or a deposit bonus – or a combination of both.
• Hundreds of games from top casino software developers, including an exciting live casino platform.
• Recurring reload bonuses every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Whamoo clearly sounds like a promising casino when looking at the selling points, but do these points hold up when we test out the casino in real? Let’s continue our review of Whamoo with one of the most important aspects of every online casino: its game library. Which casino games can we find back in the Whamoo game collection? How honest and fair are these games? These are all legit questions which must be looked into before you can decide whether or not an online casino is suitable or not.
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<

Games from top software developers

When checking the list of Whamoo’s software providers you can only feel relieved as this brand new online casino only has games from the world’s top casino games developers. Especially for a newly opened online casino it is important to show to the public that you are talking serious – and you can only do that by adding the most popular games from the top software providers to your game library.
It’s not only about fun. Sure, these top software developers are known for making some of the most fantastic video slots, stellar table games. They have the most exhilarating and professional live casino tables to which you can connect in just a few clicks. But it’s more than just playing fun, graphics and game design.
By only having games from the top software companies, you are giving your players a clear message that you are only satisfied with the best quality games. Perhaps the most important aspect is game reliability, honesty and fairness. All games from the top software companies are fully tested and accredited by regulatory bodies. These gaming authorities check whether games indeed turn out completely random results and give gamblers a honest shot at winning. This is perhaps even more important than just a fantastically designed game, as in the end what matters most is reliability and honesty inside a casino.

RNG

The games which can be played at Whamoo Casino all have a piece of code called a Random Number Generator (RNG). With a random number generator, the outcome of every game is completely random and independent from previous results. It means that every card being dealt on the table, all dice which are thrown during a game, and every ball spinning around in the roulette wheel is never predetermined. Let’s put it this way: if you throw a single dice with the numbers 1 to 6 on it, you have indeed an exact 1 out of 6 chance that it will land on your predicted number.
A random number generator is absolutely crucial when it comes to delivering fair game results and giving gamblers a honest chance at winning. By having games from the top software providers, Whamoo makes sure that you can trust the fairness of every casino game you play. The good thing is that not only are the game results subject to occasional audits by regulatory authorities, but that these software providers also pro-actively test their own games to ensure they fulfil the highest industry standards. They hire independent testing agencies such as eCOGRA to check their games, both in virtual simulations and real-time results.
Let’s take a look at the software providers whose games have already been added to the Whamoo game library. As these are some of the best known software developers in the world, chances are that you have heard about some of these names before!
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<

NETENT GAMES

Also known by its full name of Net Entertainment, NetEnt is one of the largest casino game developers in the world. NetEnt is a Swedish company which was founded in 1996, which makes it one of the oldest companies in the relatively young world of online casino gaming. It is so big, that the company is even listed on the local NASDAQ stock exchange in Stockholm, Sweden!
NetEnt is best known for its vast video slot portfolio, of which many games are also playable at Whamoo. Having NetEnt games in your casino game library is almost a must for every online casino, as besides Whamoo some 300 or so more online casinos have NetEnt games available, which tells you something about the popularity of this company. Just like Whamoo itself, NetEnt has a full gambling licence in the EU member state of Malta, which means that all games are subject to regulatory oversight and can be trusted for their fairness. NetEnt also works closely together with independent testing labs to ensure that their games meet the highest standards.
Some popular NetEnt games which you can play at Whamoo are Jack and the Beanstalk, BerryBurst, Twin Spin, The Vikings, Wings of Riches, Aloha!, Fruit Shop, Jacks or Better, Gonzo’s Quest, Dazzle Me, Wild Bazaar and of course the eternal favourite of Starburst.

PRAGMATIC PLAY GAMES

Pragmatic Play is another major company in the online gaming world. The casino games of Pragmatic Play are always popular with the players, so it is no surprise that Whamoo has chosen to add quite a few Pragmatic Play games to its online collection. Pragmatic Play focuses mostly on online video slots, although they also make some exciting live casino games which are hosted in their own studios.
Being only founded in 2015, Pragmatic Play is a relative newcomer within the game developing industry. Yet in those few years time, the company already managed to reach to top heights with Pragmatic Play being considered to rank among the top game providers. Quality and safety are of immense importance for Pragmatic Play. Therefore, all games are documented and tested by independent auditors and testing labs such as QUINEL, BMM and Gaming Labs.
Popular Pragmatic Play games which can be played at Whamoo are John Hunter and the Aztec Treasure, Great Rhino Megaways, Leprechaun Song, Lucky Dragons, Mustang Gold, The Champions, Vegas Nights, Aztec Gems, Buffalo King, Starz Megaways, Triple Jokers, Magic Crystals, Sugar Rush, Beowulf and many more exciting video slots.
Of course, many baccarat, blackjack and roulette variants are available in Whamoo’s Live Casino which is powered by Pragmatic Play software. You are connected by high resolution video feed to professional dealers and croupiers in one of the Pragmatic Play casino studios where you can experience the thrills of a real life casino behind your computer or mobile phone. It’s almost like you are standing in Vegas!

STAKELOGIC GAMES

Stakelogic is another popular software developer which has added its games to the Whamoo game library. As one of the best-known developers in the software industry, it is always a good sign that Stakelogic games are available to play given that this company has made some exciting video slots.
Using HTML5, Stakelogic games are of course fully mobile compatible, which means you can play them on your smartphone as well. The company has also made some exciting new 3D slots which are not only gorgeous to look at but also wild fun to play. As an off-shoot company from gaming giants Novomatic, Stakelogic certainly is a reputable software developer which can be trusted when it comes to fairness and reliability.
Popular Stakelogic games are Epic Slam, Wild Stallion, Magic Wheel, Super Wild Arcade, Fruit Spinner, Lucky Gems Deluxe, Hot Fruits, Grand Slam Deluxe, Runner Runner, Turbo 4 Player Jackpot, Dragons and Magic, Big 5 Jungle Jackpot, Mariachi and The Big Cash Game.
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<

High limit gaming options

Whamoo is an online casino which is not only suitable for gamblers on a tight budget, but also for the true high rollers. You can place bets as low as a few cents, or as high as several thousands of euros or dollars at this online casino. Depending on your game of choice, whether its a jackpot video slot or classic table game, there are countless of options to bet big for maximum excitement and chances of winning top prizes. Further down in this Whamoo review, we will discuss some of the high limit games which are available.
Highrollers should also note that Whamoo comes with its own VIP programme in which you can quickly work yourself to the top category if you bet big. You can get instant access to your own dedicated casino manager and will get invites to high stakes tournaments. There are special weekly cashback bonuses as well for the true high roller gamblers at Whamoo. We will discuss the VIP program more in depth a bit further down this Whamoo review.
For now, let’s take a look at all the high roller games which are available at Whamoo Online Casino!

Endless rows of jackpot video slots

If you are a real lover of video slots you will be glad to hear that Whamoo has several hundreds of online video slots available. Although some of these slots are more suitable for beginning players or those on a tight budget, there are plenty of slots available where you can bet up to 100 euro/dollar per spin. This makes for some exhilarating and thrilling slot game action which will please any high stakes gambler out there!
Of course, Whamoo also has its share of jackpot slots where you have a shot at winning the progressive jackpot which can run well above a million euro or dollar! These premium slots, such as those using the famous Megaways system, offer countless of opportunities to place maximum bets at your video slot of choice.
Check the Whamoo game library whether or not your favourite slot is available as well, or try one of the many exciting new game additions! It is easy to browse through the Whamoo website. You can sort slots by software provider, or use the search function to check for your beloved title.

Join for some high stakes blackjack action

Blackjack has always been one of the most popular games among high rollers and the reasons why are quite clear. You can often bet high amounts of money on a single play and you can as a player slightly influence the outcome of a game as you need to decide whether you want to stand or hit another card.
At Whamoo, there is plenty of high stakes blackjack action. There are both normal blackjack games such as American Blackjack and multihand Blackjack, as well as blackjack tables in the live casino. In the live casino, which is powered by Pragmatic Play software, you can play several blackjack variants. Bets of up to several hundreds of euros or dollars, or even higher for the real VIPs, are possible.
Beat the hand of the dealer and hit that score of 21. Maybe it will be your lucky day playing blackjack at Whamoo Online Casino!

Grab a seat at the roulette table

There is plenty of roulette action at Whamoo as well. You can choose between virtual roulette versions, or opt for a seat at a roulette table in the live casino, where you are connected to a real-time croupier by video feed. Especially in the live casino high bets of up to a thousand dollar or more are possible, making roulette a big favourite among the real high stake gamblers.
Of course, Whamoo Casino has all of the the standard roulette versions of American Roulette, French Roulette and European Roulette. Most of these games are developed by software giants NetEnt.
In the live casino, there is also Roulette Macao Live, where you will be connected to a gaming environment which makes you feel like you are playing in the famous casinos of this Chinese gambling mecca. Live Speed Roulette, Live Roulette Auto and Roulette Azure are popular Pragmatic Play live casino versions of roulette which are available to Whamoo players.
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<

Whamoo's unique bonus package

One area in which Whamoo stands out as online casino is its great bonus package. Of course, there is a great welcome bonus for newly registered users. But the fun doesn’t stop there! At Whamoo casino, it is bonus day almost every single day of the week. On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays the casino has recurring bonus offers if you reload you bankroll on one of those days. This makes Whamoo not only an attractive casino at the moment you sign up, but also at all those moments when you come back to play again.
300 free spins or a €200 deposit bonus

The Whamoo welcome bonus

We start of discussing the Whamoo welcome bonus which is called the “Welcombo” bonus by the casino. On a picture the Welcombo might not look too appealing as its packed in a carton takeaway box you might get at a certain fast food restaurant, but trust us on this: its contents are truly fantastic.
The Welcombo box contains a combination of goodies you get with your very first deposit at Whamoo. And what is best of all? You can decide what combo you want to receive! If you sign up at Whamoo for a free online casino account, you can determine your own bonus by adjusting the slide until you have found a combination which matches your idea of a perfect bonus.
This is a great option as it allows people to choose the bonus which best suits them. You can choose between free spins and a deposit bonus – or a combination of both. If you are an avid video slot gamer and do not care much about table games, you may want to slide all the way to the maximum free spins bonus. In that case, you will receive 300 free spins, but your deposit bonus will be 0%. The free spins in the Welcombo package are valid on the popular Amatic Industries slot Book of Fortune.
On the other hand, if you only care about table games and are not really interested in free spins and playing video slots, you want to adjust the slide to the maximum deposit bonus. This is a 100% deposit bonus of up to 200 euro. This means that if you deposit 200 euro of your own money to your newly created online casino account, Whamoo will top this up by another 200 euro from the house! If you select the full 100% deposit bonus, you will however not receive any free spins at all.
Of course, you can also opt for a mix between free spins and a deposit bonus. If you leave the slider in the middle, you will get 150 free spins and a 50% deposit bonus, for example. You can tweak this in any direction you want, for example to a 70% deposit bonus and 90 free spins. The higher your deposit bonus, the less free spins you receive. Want more free spins? Then your deposit bonus will decrease.

Welcombo bonus terms and conditions

Only one bonus is allowed per household and/or per player account. Do note that Whamoo’s bonuses remain valid until seven days after the required deposit has been made. Once this period ends, the bonus is automatically flagged as expired by the system and can no longer be released. The expired bonus funds are then automatically removed from the player’s account.
Of course, there is a wagering requirement which must be met in order to withdraw your bonus money and any winnings which may derive from it. Real money balance is used prior to bonus balance. The bonus balance will only be used when there is no real money available in your account. Only real money funds and released bonus funds can contribute towards the wagering requirement of the bonus. The wagering requirement for the Welcombo deposit bonus and free spins is thirty times (30x) the deposit + bonus.
Do note that players that deposit money using Paysafecard, Skrill or Neteller are not eligible for the Welcombo. To assure fair gaming and prevent fraud, Whamoo has placed a maximum cap on bonus money wagers, which are limited to a maximum per round/bet of €5 or its equivalent in other currencies. You should also be aware that certain games cannot be played using bonus money. There is a full overview of these games on the Whamoo bonus page.
Bets placed in certain games might not contribute fully to the wagering requirements.

• Bets placed on video slots count for 100%
• Bets placed on scratch cards count for 100%
• Bets placed on blackjack count for 10%
• Bets placed on video poker count for 10%
• Bets placed on poker count for 10%
• Bets placed on roulette, baccarat, sic-bo and craps do not count
• Bets placed on live casino games do not count

Recurring bonuses at Whamoo

The bonus fun does not stop at the welcome bonus when you play at Whamoo! You can count on a constant stream of promotional campaigns and bonus offers. The casino has recurring promo offers every Monday, Wednesday and Friday. If you deposit some extra money to your online casino bankroll on one of those days, you are eligible for a bonus. It therefore pays off to wait for these days before you decide to reload your online funds.
On Monday it is Pick ‘n’ Play day to start off the week with some good vibes. On this day, the casino basically tops up your deposited money You can:

• Turn your €20 into €25 with the code 100024;
• turn your €50 into €65 with the code 100025, and/or
• turn your €100 into €135 with the code 100026.

It is even possible to combine these bonuses if you want to deposit a larger sum! Alternatively, you can use the bonus codes of WHPICK5, WHPICK15 and WHPICK35 by putting these into the promo code field on the cashier page every Monday.

Whoa Wednesday

Wednesday is for many a difficult day in the week, it being right in the middle of another long week of work. To spice up things, Whamoo has come with an unusual bonus which it calls “Whoa Wednesday”.
Every Wednesday you get to uncover your secret gift – for free, no strings attached. The casino will add this gift to your next deposit. This can be a bonus, a set of free spins, or even both. You’ll get all the details once you’ve pulled off the cover and logged into your account. You will receive the bonus details and promotional code, which you can use in the promo field at the payment page to receive your hard-earned Wednesday bonus.

Freeday bonus

Friday is the favourite day of the week for many people – and the reason why is quite obvious. It marks the end of another working week and the start of some well-deserved weekend R&R! For many people this involves paying a visit to a land-based or online casino to get their kicks at their favourite game, whether it is a card game, roulette or video slot.
Whamoo knows that many people cannot wait for the days off work to start and therefore has come up with a special Friday bonus to welcome in the weekend! This bonus day is called ‘Freeday’ by Whamoo. The casino basically hands you a bunch of free spins if you are a regular customer. For every weekday from the previous week (Friday through Thursday) that you’ve deposited 30 euro or more, you get 10 free spins. For every weekend day you even get 20 Free Spins! That means up to 90 Free Spins are yours to play with. That’s a great start to a weekend full of partying and fun!

Wagering requirements

Do note that wagering requirements do apply to all daily promo offers. These are more or less the same as we outlined above in the description of the welcome package, but do take a look at the bonus terms and conditions page on the Whamoo website to know precisely what you can expect! As always, it is important to read the small print in order not to face any surprises later on.
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<

A fully mobile compatible casino

As a brand new online casino, Whamoo knows that already a majority of gamblers nowadays play on their mobile phones rather than on computers. Because of this, the Whamoo casino is fully compatible with mobile devices and tablets. If you load the Whamoo website on your smartphone, it looks just as good as on your laptop of computer. It’s equally accessible and orderly too! The mobile website is a breeze to browse through and you can easily access all the important pages such as the game library and payment page.
The same counts for the actual games themselves. Whamoo only works with software providers which are known to offer full mobile gaming support. These games are made in code such as HTML5, which means that the games can simply be played in your (mobile) internet browser. There is no download or special app required to play these games. Whether you are playing on your computer, tablet or smartphone, you simply surf to Whamoo.com and select your favourite game from the library. This game will then open in your internet browser – and you can play instantly. It does not matter whether your phone runs on Android or is an iPhone, nor does it matter whether you have Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari or any other internet browser. Whamoo will function just fine!
This is absolutely great as you can now play at Whamoo wherever you are, whenever you want. Want to put down some wagers on the roulette table while you are sitting in public transport on your way to work? That’s easily doable! Just take out your smartphone on the train or bus, and surf to Whamoo.com to play at your favourite roulette table. Are you sitting on your couch at home and want to play a few hands of blackjack before going to sleep? Just take out your laptop, tablet or phone and within seconds you can have some of the most exhilarating blackjack fun on your screen.

The Whamoo Live Casino

Whamoo’s live casino is powered by Pragmatic Play and NetEnt software – which are two of the biggest, most reputable software providers in the world. This is great news for the players, as you can access high quality tables in just a few clicks.
In the live casino, you are connected with a live video feed to a real-time casino table in one of the casino studios of these software providers. You can play games like baccarat, blackjack and roulette like you are standing in a real land-based casino in Vegas or Monaco! Thanks to the high definition video stream, you have a great overview of all the action which unfolds on and around the table.
All table games are led by experienced, professional croupiers and dealers who are not only well-trained, but entertaining as well. By all means, feel free to open your microphone or the chat window to have a talk with them, or even with other players from around the world. This is what makes the live casino such a great invention. Even though you might be sitting at home in front of your laptop or computer, it does almost feel like you are standing in a casino for real!
Especially for high rollers the live casino is a worthwhile addition as table limits are often much higher than in regular games. Of course, if you are on a tight budget there will definitely be live casino tables where low minimum bets are allowed too – no worries there. But it is the experienced, high stakes gambler who probably feels most at home in the live casino.
There are multiple baccarat, blackjack and roulette variants which you can play. For roulette, there is American Roulette, European Roulette, French Roulette, Speed Roulette, Live Roulette Auto and Roulette Macao Live. If you prefer the casino classic of blackjack, you will find plenty of different tables all with slightly different betting limits. Baccarat is perhaps the game with the highest betting limit. Besides the regular version, there are also Speed Baccarat tables. A fourth casino game which can be played live at the Whamoo Live Casino is Sic Bo. Just browse through the list of live casino games, or use the search function to find your favourite table!
>> Get No Deposit Bonus Now <<