Introduction

Visionary iGaming is a supplier of live dealer casinos to about 20 different Internet casinos. At the time of this review, the games supported were blackjack, baccarat, and roulette, including variations of all three games as well as the classic versions.

The lovely Latina beauties of Visionary work out of their studio in Costa Rica. I have played at their casino a fair bit and always find the dealers to be friendly, professional, and easy on the eyes. My only complaint is some of the other players can be real crybabies, as evidenced by the chat window, when they incorrectly blame you for causing them to lose. However, that will be a problem at any live dealer casino.

Most of the time, I'm able to play with a clear connection. However, sometimes there seems to be some kind of buffer drag because the video blacks in and out. Once I had a blackout when playing blackjack, which prevented me from playing my hand. Fortunately, the dealers will default to playing the hand by basic strategy for the player if he doesn't make his own decision in the allotted time.

Table Games

Following are my comments on the games available through Visionary. They serve many clients and each of them has the option to accept or reject whichever games they wish. Thus, depending on which casino you play through, you may not see all of these games. In particular Premium Payout Roulette is not offered by all casinos using the Visionary live dealer casino.

Baccarat

Baccarat is played by the standard rules with six decks. As a reminder, the house edge on the major bets are as follows:

• Banker: 1.06%
• Player: 1.24%
• Tie: 14.44%

 

The lower limit tables feature no fewer than five side bets as follows:

• Player Pair: Pays 11 to 1 if the Player's first two cards form a pair. The probability of winning is 7.40% for a house edge of 11.25%.
• Banker Pair: Pays 11 to 1 if the Banker's first two cards form a pair. The probability of winning is 7.40% for a house edge of 11.25%.
• Either Pair: Pays 5 to 1 if either the Player and/or Banker have a pair in the first two cards. The probability of winning is 14.24% for a house edge of 14.54%.
• Player Dragon: This side bet is normally called the Dragon Bonus in the land casino. It pays if the Player wins with a natural or a margin of victory of at least four points. I explain the details in my page on baccarat side bets. The house edge on the Player Dragon is 2.65%.
• Banker Dragon: Same as the Player Dragon, but pays on Banker wins. House edge on the Banker Dragon is 9.37%.

Nearly every card is seen in the six-deck shoe. The first seven cards are burned and then the cut card is placed 11 cards from the back. When the cut card appears mid-hand, that hand is finished and then one more is played before the shuffle. Some of my more advanced readers might find my baccarat calculator useful in this game.

Blackjack

The blackjack rules are as follows:

• Six decks, of which about four decks are dealt.
• Dealer hits soft 17
• Dealer peeks for blackjack
• Player may not re-split
• Player may double after a split

Using my blackjack house edge calculator, the house edge of this game is 0.69%.

As in baccarat, the player may bet on a pair, based on his first two cards. Wins pay 11 to 1 for a house edge of 11.25%.

There is also the "Rummy" bet, which is known as 21+3 in the land casinos. It pays based on the players first two cards and the dealer's up card. If these three cards form a straight, flush, or three of a kind, then the Rummy bet pays 9 to 1. The probability of winning is 9.68% for a house edge of 3.24%.

As mentioned in the introduction, if the player does not make a decision in time then the dealer will revert to playing the cards by basic strategy. This has happened to me a few times due to problems with the connection.

The following table shows the Blackjack games available in alphabetical order.

Here is the same list in returns range, choose your game wisely.

Roulette

There are three ways to play roulette — European (single-zero), American (double-zero), and enhanced payout American roulette.

The European game follows conventional roulette rules on a single-zero wheel. Sorry, no half back if the ball lands in zero. The house edge on every bet is 2.70%.

The American game is played on a double-zero wheel for a house edge of 5.26% on every bet, except the 0-00-1-2-3 combination, which is 7.89%.

The Enhanced Payout Roulette is what the name says — double-zero roulette with enhanced payout. As mentioned in the table games introduction, not all casinos using the Visionary live dealer casino offer this game.

The following table shows what each type of bet pays, the probability of winning, and the return. As you can see, the house edge on every bet is 2.42%.

Given the lower house edge on the enhanced payout game, I would recommend roulette players choose that one, if given the choice.

For a comparison against competing live dealer products, please see our page on roulette live online dealers.

Blackjack Early Payout

Blackjack Early Payout has the same rules as the regular blackjack game (see above), including the rummy and pairs side bets. However, it adds the choice to surrender at any point in the hand. The game posts the "early payout" offer and you can click it whenever it is your turn, much like regular surrender in ordinary blackjack.

I created this video to carefully study the value in the early payout offers. What I found was most of the time the offer was worth about 98% of expected value. In other words, there is a 2% house edge to accepting the offer.

The following table shows the Blackjack Early Payout games available in alphabetical order.

Here is the same list in returns range, choose your game wisely.

Super 6

This game is the same as conventional baccarat, except a winning total of 6 for the Banker shall pay 1 to 2 and all other Banker wins 1 to 1. I refer to it as the U.K. variant of commission from baccarat in my baccarat pages.

As usual with gimmicks, the house edge is a little higher than the original. In this case, the house edge on the Banker is 1.46%. So, given the choice, which you have in this case, I recommend conventional baccarat.

Please see my baccarat section above for the odds on all the other bets.

Conclusion

For more information, please visit the Visionary iGaming web site.

Live Dealers

Here are screenshots of the lovely dealers at the Visionary live casino in Costa Rica. The ladies and gentlemen are all very polite. Whenever anybody new shows up, even just to watch, they always welcome him.

The dealers can somehow see what the players type in the text box and they respond verbally. Sometimes the dealers speak in English only and other times in English and Spanish. I have found the English to always be fluent, although the dealers usually don't say much besides greeting players and information about the game itself.