Casino Reviews

Silver Dollar Casino

The Sherpa is neutral on Silver Dollar Casino. The bonus was good. The customer service was good. The cash-in was painless. I even got some random bonuses just for playing. The only problem with Silver Dollar was that their games just weren't very good and neither were their limits. (Always the minimum folks, the Sherpa isn't such a high roller that I worry about the maximums.)

The Basics

URL: www.silverdollar.com
Software: OddsOn
Software Type: PC Download, Flash
Accepted Deposit Methods: credit card, debit card, cheque, bank transfer, Neteller, Firepay, Citadel, PrePaid ATM
Payment Service: Virtual Exchange
Customer Service: Email / Toll Free phone
Auditor: n/a
Payout %: n/a

The Bonus

Bonus Amount: 100% match up to $100.
Bonus Wager Requirement: 16x deposit and bonus. The following games are ineligible: Craps, Roulette, Baccarat, War, All Star Horse Racing, Extreme Lotto, and Ultimate Hi-Lo.

There are two balances on your display. One is the regular balance and one is the bonus balance. I deposited $100 and found $100 in my regular balance and $100 in my bonus balance. As you play, half your winnings move into your real balance and half into your bonus. So for example, let's say you bet $5 and win $10. $5 each will go into your regular and bonus balance. If you lose, it just comes out of your bonus balance. I don't know why they do this but pretty quickly, all my money was in my regular balance.

The Games

The most popular games in online gambling are blackjack, video poker and slots, and I've played my share of them. Silver Dollar has $2 min BJ, which is pretty good but their rules stink. You can only double down on 9,10 and 11; you can't double down after a split. Also, this is purely a game design issue but in order to insure against blackjack, you have to move your mouse all the way to the upper left hand corner when all your betting and hit/stand/double buttons are at the bottom right. Efficiency, people! That's all I ask in game design. The little things do matter.

Video Poker was pretty good though. I prefer casinos that offer 25 cent video poker but Silver Dollar's version was pretty good. Fast and responsive with a lot of variations - Aces and Faces, Deuces Wild, Joker Poker, Tens or Better. I stick to my favorite Jacks of Better and played for a few hours.

Finally, we have slots. The problem I have with Silver Dollar's slots is that they're all minimum $1.50 on a 3 coin bet. When I play slots, it's just for the fun of it so I prefer quarter or even better, nickel slots. The lack of slot options makes it hard to play slots at Silver Dollar, especially when the fun games are the five-reel nine-line variety. I also noticed that there is an autoplay function where you tell the computer how many spins you want. Unfortunately, the OddsOn software doesn't do it very well. You have no idea how many spins are left.

Silver Dollar also has Stud, Let Em Ride, Three Card Poker, Poker Dice, Roulette, War, Craps, Baccarat. They also have some "Specialty Games" which aren't much fun. Also, a couple of the ones I tried weren't working.

The Withdrawal

Silver Dollar payment processing is handled by Virtual Exchange and I found that the withdrawal process was quick and painless. It only took 2 business days from when I initiated the withdrawal to when I got the money in my account. No hoops to jump through and quick. Excellent.

Customer Service

My contact with customer service was good. I contacted them a few times via phone and email and my questions were replied to quickly. In addition, they were knowledgeable and seemed friendly enough.

Final Thoughts

Silver Dollar is a good place to play if you like your slots expensive and you're not a big blackjack player. If BJ is your game, look elsewhere for better rules. Otherwise, the customer service and withdrawal process was excellent and I would recommend them except for the notes above.

-- The Sherpa