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Casinos for you
GTA Unveils Hot New Diamond Casino & Resort
By Shane Addinall Jul 23, 2019 EntertainmentThe long-awaited launch of the Diamond Casino and Resort for GTA Online is finally here. Join us as we look at the games, the features and what it costs in real money to be an in-game High Roller!After six long years of blood sweat and tears, one of the most anticipated casinos of the last decade has finally lifted the velvet rope to allow patrons into its hallowed halls. Today saw the Grand Opening of Grand Theft Auto’s brick and mortar digital casino, The Diamond Casino and Resort.
Experience ‘Sin City’ Online
The Grand Theft Auto (GTA) games have always been for a mature audience, with armed robbery, prostitution, grand larceny and other nefarious misdeeds being at the core of the game world.
Loading the new Diamond content, you are treated to a high-end casino advertisement that would make Vegas flush with pride while a sultry female voice welcomes you with:
“Announcing the Grand Opening of the Diamond Casino and Resort - an exclusive luxury adult playground with limitless indulgences. Binge and give into temptation in our VIP casino.”
Diamond Casino is not the resort you want to take your kids too. This the resort for the rich and infamous, those who make their money the hard way and party it away even harder!
What’s Hot At The Diamond Casino
While the addition of the Diamond Casino and Resort does come with additional in-game missions for you to complete and high-life toys like expensive sports cars, rooftop hot tubs and even a limo service, the DLC's biggest draw-card is access to the casino and interest in how its gambling mechanics have been implemented.
The Diamond Casino model would work in any resort casino around the world. The casino floor is split into specialty areas dedicated to slot machines, table games (including Blackjack, Roulette and 3 Card Poker), betting on virtual horse-races and of course a High Limit room for big spenders.
Given the online multi-player nature of Grand Theft Auto, it comes as no surprise that the table games allow for you to play with other real people. At this time there are no Live Dealers as all the games are run the video games internal RNG but the time and effort put into the models and their scripts make this a negligible point.
As with many land-based casinos, Diamond Casino also offers a tempting prize to lure patrons to the casino floor. In this case, they have a Cash Wheel which can be played once per day for free and offers a shiny new sports car as the main prize! Other prizes include clothing items (also available in the casino store), casino chips and GTA Dollars (GTA$).
Living Large
If you’ve ever dreamed of living like a ‘Rockstar’ then GTA Online is must-play for you. You can use your hard-earned, well stolen or even purchased in-game money to luxuriate in a penthouse condominium with its own bar, games room and croupier.
Everything you could ever desire is just a call away with the front desk offering to convert your cash into casino chips on the phone, send up bottles of champagne, send a limo to drive you to your next destination or even charter an aircraft for you!
As a penthouse owner, you’re a bit of a big deal in the resort which allows you access to VIP rooms and higher roller tables so you can mix with “people of a certain calibre”.
Show Me The Money!
A major point of contention around the inclusion of the Diamond Casino update was how closely it skirts the line of being real gambling. For now, there is no legitimate way to convert your winnings into real cash players do purchase GTA$ with real money.
These cash packs are sold by Rockstar, the creators of GTA Online, and are called Shark Cards. Heading over to the digital game store Steam you will see the following price points:
- 100,000 GTA dollars = €2.49
- 200,000 GTA dollars = €3.99
- 500,000 GTA dollars = €7.49
- 1,250,000 GTA dollars = €14.99
- 3,500,000 GTA dollars = €37.99
- 8,000,000 GTA dollars = €74.99
This is where the real money for gambling debate begins. While this is not technically online gambling, as you cannot win a cash value prize, you are playing a game of chance with real money.
To put the costs in context, the highest wager you can place on a spin of the roulette wheel on the main floor is 5,000 GTA$ while the same spin in the High Roller room can be played for up to 10,000 GTA$ - keeping in mind that in order to access the High Roller room you first need to own a Penthouse in the casino. The cost of purchasing a High Roller Penthouse at the resort is a cool 6.5 million GTA$.
Whether your poison is the ponies or the slots or any of the other table games the reality is that every bet you place or spin you make has a real-world monetary value.
Not All Fun & Casino Games
Given the recent furore around gambling mechanics in video games and various countries reviewing their stance on online gambling, the Diamond Casino update has not been made fully accessible to all GTA fans.
Some players have reported being notified that they cannot access the casino due to their local gambling laws. In addition to not allowing them to play the casino games on offer, it has also stopped them from purchasing the “High Roller” Penthouse as it comes with a Private Dealer so you can gamble at home. It also removed the option to add a Private Dealer as a separate add-on.
So far the Grand Theft Auto subreddit has listed the following blocked regions: Argentina, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Greece, Iceland, Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Luxembourg, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Slovakia, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Vietnam and Qatar.
Keeping You Mobile
GTA Online acknowledge our devotion to our mobile devices by making your phone central to the game. You use it to message your crew, organise missions and access the Diamond websites to purchase an apartment or pick up a hot new sports car.
The game uses an in-game search engine to help you find car dealers, shops and property sales. It even pushes previous game content down as new content is added mimicking the natural growth of a website.
It would be fun to see GTA include the option to play a few mobile slots and table games on your device to bring the experience full circle.
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