Hoyle Casino is a virtual casino video game published by Encore, Inc.

Encore, Inc.

Encore, Inc. is a Los Angeles-based software publisher focused on retail sales.Encore is a wholly owned subsidiary of Navarre Corporation, which acquired Encore's assets from the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California in August 2002.In November 2008 Encore announced...

 It was previously published by Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment

Sierra Entertainment Inc. was an American video-game developer and publisher founded in 1979 as On-Line Systems by Ken and Roberta Williams...

 for a variety of different platforms, including Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

, Sega Dreamcast, and Game Boy Color

Game Boy Color

The is Nintendo's successor to the 8-bit Game Boy handheld game console, and was released on October 21, 1998 in Japan, November 19, 1998 in North America, November 23, 1998 in Europe and November 27, 1998 in the United Kingdom. It features a color screen and is slightly thicker and taller than...

.

Set in a virtual Las Vegas

Las Vegas Strip

The Las Vegas Strip is an approximately stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard in Clark County, Nevada; adjacent to, but outside the city limits of Las Vegas proper. The Strip lies within the unincorporated townships of Paradise and Winchester...

 casino

Casino

In modern English, a casino is a facility which houses and accommodates certain types of gambling activities. Casinos are most commonly built near or combined with hotels, restaurants, retail shopping, cruise ships or other tourist attractions...

, players create profiles and are given a set amount of virtual money. A player can then visit any part of the virtual casino and wager their virtual money as they could in a real casino.

The game offers instant access to the rules for each game, as well as real time tips and strategies as the player plays a game.

Games included

The 2007 edition of Hoyle Casino includes the following games:

• Baccarat
  Baccarat
  Baccarat is a card game, played at casinos and by gamblers. It is believed to have been introduced into France from Italy during the reign of King Charles VIII , and it is similar to Faro and Basset...
  
  
• Blackjack
  Blackjack
  Blackjack, also known as Twenty-one or Vingt-et-un , is the most widely played casino banking game in the world...
  
   (variations listed below)
  • 6-Card Charlie
  • Face Up
  • Special 21's
  • Royal Match 21
• Caribbean Stud Poker
  Caribbean stud poker
  Caribbean Stud poker is a casino table game with rules similar to five-card stud poker. However, unlike standard poker games, Caribbean stud is played against the house rather than against other players...
  
  
• Craps
  Craps
  Craps is a dice game in which players place wagers on the outcome of the roll, or a series of rolls, of a pair of dice. Players may wager money against each other or a bank...
  
  
• Horse Racing
  Horse racing
  Horse racing is an equestrian sport that has a long history. Archaeological records indicate that horse racing occurred in ancient Babylon, Syria, and Egypt. Both chariot and mounted horse racing were events in the ancient Greek Olympics by 648 BC...
  
  
• Keno
  Keno
  Keno is a lottery or bingo gambling game often played at modern casinos, and is also offered as a game in some state lotteries. A traditional live casino keno game uses a circular glass enclosure called a "bubble" containing 80 balls which determine the ball draw result. Each ball is imprinted...
  
  
• Let It Ride
• Pai gow poker
  Pai gow poker
  Pai Gow poker is an Americanized version of Pai Gow . The games of Pai Gow poker and Super Pan-9 were created by Sam Torosian and Fred Wolf.The game is played with a standard 52-card deck, plus a single joker...
  
  
• Fortune Pai Gow Poker
• Poker
  Poker
  Poker is a family of card games that share betting rules and usually hand rankings. Poker games differ in how the cards are dealt, how hands may be formed, whether the high or low hand wins the pot in a showdown , limits on bet sizes, and how many rounds of betting are allowed.In most modern poker...
  
  
  • Texas Hold 'Em
    Texas hold 'em
    Texas Hold 'em is a variation of the standard card game of poker. The game consists of two cards being dealt face down to each player and then five community cards being placed face-up by the dealer—a series of three then two additional single cards , with...
    
    
  • Omaha Hold 'Em
    Omaha hold 'em
    Omaha hold 'em is a community card poker game similar to Texas hold 'em, where each player is dealt four cards and must make his best hand using exactly two of them, plus exactly three of the five community cards...
    
    
  • 7 Card Stud
  • 5 Card Draw
• Poker Tournaments
• Roulette
  Roulette
  Roulette is a casino game named after a French diminutive for little wheel. In the game, players may choose to place bets on either a single number or a range of numbers, the colors red or black, or whether the number is odd or even....
  
  
• Slot Machines
• Three Card Poker
  Three card poker
  Poker played with three cards dates back to the origins of the game of poker. As a result it's as unclear as the origins of poker, but includes the 16th century British card game of Brag. Rules for three card poker are included in Hoyle's Rules of Games from 1983 along with a hi-low...
  
  
• Four Card Poker
  Four card poker
  Four card poker is a relatively new casino card game similar to three card poker, invented by Roger Snow and owned by ShuffleMaster.-Description of play:...
  
  
• Video Blackjack
• Video Poker
  Video poker
  Video poker is a casino game based on five-card draw poker. It is played on a computerized console similar in size to a slot machine.-History:...
  
  

Controversy and Bugs

The 2007 version of Hoyle Casino was plagued by a bug in the cards game. A player would place a bet, and then the game would freeze for 30 seconds before continuing. This caused a lot of controversy. Unfortunately, Encore was not able to fix this bug ultimately leaving customers angry. Their only recourse was to visit the Encore USA website and submit a refund request for the software. This bug was fixed, however, in Hoyle Casino 2008.