Dr Ho

His very name brings an air of class and style to gambling, and anything he touches is known to turn to gold.

When Stanley Ho decided to open www.DrHo.com online casino, the world waited with baited breath. Everyone knew that the doctor would produce nothing short of revolutionary. Well the casino is now online, and it certainly is revolutionary.

Unfortunately, for a vast majority of people the software (around 70 MB) will need to be downloaded overnight, all night, unless they order it on CD-ROM. This prospect may turn prospective players of www.DrHo.com to other quality casino packages in the 6 MB region. However, if you have a high-speed connection (ADSL takes only 2 hours) or a lot of time on your hands, and you are a buff for the latest creations in 3-D, than this casino software is a good investment in time.

Once you have downloaded the software, you can install it with great easy simply by following the instructions on your screen. The package is quite large, so the install will take a few minutes before its ready. The good news is that once you have put the time in, the whole of the casino package is on your hard drive forever, and you’ll not need to go through the rigmarole again.

Now its time to play the games. You’ll immediately see why this package is a 70MB download. The introduction sequence alone is a larger file than some casinos would consider for their entire games suite. You’ll see Stanley Ho morph from his real world image into his 3-D virtual casino avatar before your very eyes. Dice blaze by and the music blares as you are transported into Virtual Reality. The intro sequence is actually more like a movie than anything you’d expect in a casino game. Top quality sounds and graphics await.

Once you have watched the intro in utter amazement, you’re ready to play. Either play for dollars, or play for Ho Bucks, which are what they call their comp chips. Put in your username and password, along with a few other minor personal details and you’re off. Well, that is if you are running the casino on a fairly high spec computer with a good graphics card. Although the casino is stored on your hard drive, it makes extensive use of 3-D rendering, and the load on your machine is substantial. I first played the casino on a Pentium II computer with 64 MB of RAM, frankly it slowed the computer to a crawl. After that debacle, I moved the software to a Pentium 3 machine with 250 MB of RAM and had a much better experience.

If you have a high-end machine, expect the type of 3-D experience that you have always been promised and never had delivered. Each game has a different sexy, very sexy, dealer wearing the slinkiest of outfits moving in true 3-D as she communicates to and silkily deals your hand. Her movements mimic those of a well-trained casino from Monte Carlo. She’ll deal you your cards, sweep the table, and show all the movements that you have grown accustomed to at Loews.

Hard core gamblers will notice that game play is not very fast at Ho’s virtual casino, as there is a time period for which to place bets that must expire before the cards are dealt. But as long as you don’t mind waiting and watching sexy virtual dealers, it hardly poses a problem.

Summary: If you are a tech-buff and you want to see the cutting edge of 3-D than you have to see this. People with slow connections to the net are best off ordering the CD-ROM from www.drho.com, and players that don’t have a fast machine had better upgrade their hardware before playing. This casino is waiting for technology to catch up to its capabilities.

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