Scratch City Blackjack

Blackpool is currently attempting to reinvent itself as the new Las Vegas. In principle it seems a worthwhile goal for the faded northern seaside town, but there are several obvious hurdles to overcome before Blackpool Pier has all the glamour of the Vegas strip.

For instance, whereas Las Vegas was founded from scratch a little over a hundred years ago on an empty patch of desert, Blackpool has centuries of history, mostly involving the Pontins holiday camps, fish and chip shops, amusement arcades and pantomime shows that are strewn along the promenade like limpets on a rock.

Think Vegas showgirls versus smutty 'comedy' postcards – a public perception that may prove hard to shake off. It's little wonder then that Scratch City Blackjack chooses to take the Las Vegas approach, putting flashy suits, designer cocktails and young women swanning around with their octogenarian husbands to the fore.

The card game blackjack itself is very simple, however you dress it up. Better known as Pontoon or '21' to most people on this side of the Atlantic, the only real novelty in Scratch City Blackjack is the high stakes involved and a little extra complexity.

A quick recap of the rules. You and the dealer are dealt two cards each, and it's then up to you to make your way to a total of 21 by adding up the cards' face values. You can ask for additional cards to add to your hand, but exceed 21 and you're bust, meaning you lose your bet. The dealer does the same, aiming to equal or beat your hand's value.

With bets upwards of $100,000 on offer here, as well as options for splitting, doubling and insuring your hand during gameplay, the level of strategy involved is a far cry from playing for pennies with your Grandma in a cafe by the pier. But at the end of the day, the cards you're dealt are still random, and though you have to 'stand' or 'hit' in Scratch City Blackjack as opposed to our more familiar 'stick' or 'twist', the 'bust' part of the deal remains exactly the same.

Scratch City Blackjack is well-presented, with colourful characters and competently designed menus. The sound is pretty terrible, to be frank, with the music repeating like last night's falafel, and the sound of cards turning akin to having your teeth pulled out with squeaky pliers. But anyone who's visited Las Vegas will know an aural assault comes with the territory; mercifully it can be turned off here.

More of an issue for some will be the none-too-subtle sense that Scratch City Blackjack was designed by men, for men. While you can choose to play as one of four characters, two men and two women, at least one of the men is a large, sweaty cigar-muncher. Whereas the two ladies happen to be voluptuous young stunners that have somehow amassed a fortune.

If that wasn't naughty enough, the waitress is from the same thoroughbred stock – and you can even ask her back to your place when you order a cocktail. This is mildly amusing, especially when she refuses you until you gain status in the casino, but it doesn't disguise the fact that Scratch City Blackjack isn't really going to score. Inherently based on luck, it's a case of one step forward, one step back. With no tangible rewards or the type of in-depth strategy involved in more complex games like poker, the game is really little more than a drawn-out game of high or low.

There's also the issue that you're playing against the dealer on your own – there's no involvement from anyone else, not even computer players. This limits the appeal of the game, as there's no interaction. Playing against the computer is all very well, and as a purist's blackjack game it probably won't be bettered, but how many blackjack purists are there anyway?

There just isn't much to Scratch City Blackjack to suck everyday gamers in and keep us interested – there's only so much you can take of a single-player game of chance. Had some friendly competition been added, it might have made the difference between the Bellagio and Butlins. But as it is, Scratch City Blackjack is left treading Blackpool's promenade, rather parading itself down the Las Vegas strip.

Scratch City Blackjack

Despite the classic card game underpinnings, Scratch City Blackjack is just too limited. For excitement, stick with real cards and your gran.
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