Betting with Apple MacIntosh
Online Gambling
May 10, 2001, 13:00
By Gambling Online Magazine http://www.gamblingonlinemagazine
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If you use an Apple Mac then you probably have turned to this article before any other in this magazine. The fact is that you Macintosh users are a breed apart, addicts to the straight forward operating system, the cool designs, and most importantly, lovers of the simple fact that Macintosh has nothing to do with Microsoft. But Mac users are also a practical cult, and generally have computing knowledge beyond the start menu basics that some windows users get stuck with. But knowledge is the incubator of question, and we find Mac users doing more exploring on the Net with their computers then Indiana Jones did in the Temple of Doom. So it isn't a surprise that Macintosh owners are big fans and big players at online casino, sportsbetting and lottery sites.
The flip side of the coin is that Mac owners only represent a tiny portion of online gamblers (less than 2%). So generally this elite group of web surfers and cyber sports fans gets overlooked by casino software developers who develop their download games for the devotees of Bill Gates rather than for the cult of the golden apple.
But as casino software developers look for ways to compete with each other, and as they begin to develop games in operating system independent programming languages, Macintosh users will get more and more options of where to gamble online.
This month we have reviewed three sites that use OS independent Java or HTML software on an i-Mac running OS9 and Explorer for Macintosh browser. The first site tested was Alps Casino (www.alpscasino.com) using Java technology. The casino game ran just as smoothly on the Mac as it does on a windows based PC, but not having a right click button on the mouse made retrieving chips from the table a bit more difficult than when using windows. The apple/click combination required to remove chips from the table takes slightly more time to execute than the right click on windows, and moves the operation from a one hand movement to a two hand operation.
Casinobar (www.casinobar.com) was the second challenge put to the i-mac, and it ran the program as easy as apply pie. The fact is that CasinoBar has specifically designed its no download software so that it runs effortlessly on almost any OS including web-TV. The scaled back game does lack the graphical ability of Java games, but the super-simple betting play and universality that the game provides makes it a good choice for bettors that have a Windows PC at the office, a Mac in the bedroom, and a Web-TV in the lounge. CasinoBar proudly displays its unique position with the government of Venezuela which has licensing overview of the Casino.
The third casino that we lined up for the Mac test was Casino Domain (www.casinodomain.com). Casino Domain is a site that runs software both for the PC and for mobile WAP devices, so as expected this site's cross OS abilities were top notch. Like Alps casino there was really no difference between playing the site on the Mac or Windows 98/2000 browsers.
If you are a die hard Mac user, and you are looking for a site to gamble at that won't crush your machine, then these three are your best starting point. There certainly are several other non-operating system specific sites out there, and most actually have been tested for Mac bums like yourselves, but what these three sites prove is that browser and operating system independent casino games work as well as they do in the testing labs. But more importantly, as far as we have seen, they work as well on the Macintosh OS9 as they do on a Pentium 98/2000 machine.
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