Portomaso Gaming Live Blackjack (Status Unclear)
Status, October 2026: we have found no sign of Portomaso Gaming supplying new live tables to online casinos since about 2016, and its website currently shows no content. The Portomaso Casino venue in Malta is still open. The description below is kept for reference and may no longer be current. For live blackjack today, see our list of live blackjack providers.
Portomaso Gaming was founded in 2007 in Malta, with the aim to spread the land-based casino experience of the Oracle Casino in the Portomaso area of St Julian’s, on the Mediterranean island of Malta.
Although their blackjack selection may be smaller than that of many other live casinos, what they lack in size they make up for with a few unique features. All their tables are either streamed from the land-based casino floor, or just next door in the purpose built Portomaso studio.
Players can choose to play at a dedicated online players table, or alongside regular casino customers in the live venue. Either way adds a real level of authenticity to proceedings, which helps make Portomaso unique.
Live Blackjack Features
We haven’t seen any sign of new Portomaso Gaming live tables since about 2016, so treat this page as a record of what we saw when we played, not a guide to what is available today.
Portomaso Oracle Blackjack was played from the casino floor, where users could hear the hustle and bustle of a working casino in action as they played. Especially on weekend nights, the surroundings could get quite lively at this popular tourist destination and holidaymaker hotspot.
The game itself was played with an eight-deck shoe according to European rules, which means the dealer only takes one card before play begins in each round. The side bets on offer were the standard 21+3 and perfect pairs bets. The most unique thing about Portomaso blackjack however though, is definitely the ability to split four times.
Most live casino developers will only let you split once or possibly twice – so being able to split four times means you can quadruple your win if you’re lucky. As far as we knew at the time, this was exclusive to Portomaso live blackjack tables. However, the table does get a little confusing if two or more people decide to split three times.
The stream quality here was very good, with crisp and clear visuals. All three Portomaso blackjack tables let you play in full table, or classic mode. This is where the video-feed takes up a small window of the screen compared to the betting interface. Why you would want to you use this mode at a live casino is beyond us, as it rather defeats the point.
The full table mode here comes with a simple user interface anyway, which makes picking your decision during gameplay intuitive and easy while keeping the immersive live casino experience intact. You can however, switch modes quickly without interrupting your game experience.
On the negative side, Portomaso’s blackjack tables were not all available 24/7 and they would also kick you pretty quickly if you didn’t make any actions within one or two minutes.
House Rules
When we played, Portomaso’s blackjack tables all had the following rules:
- 8 deck shoe
- Double on any hand
- You can double on a split hand.
- Split up to four times.
- Dealer stands on soft 17s
- Insurance offered on a dealer ace, paying 2-1
- Blackjack pays 3-2
Mobile
Portomaso blackjack wasn’t the best mobile version of this classic game we have played on the net. The stream quality certainly dipped a little and the user interface became a bit fiddly on smaller screens. Classic view in particular, made the cards on the table itself almost impossible to see. They do show your cards as a graphic on the side of the screen, for exactly this reason, but then what is the point of playing live blackjack?
Even in full table mode, the cards can become quite cluttered when a few players decided to take advantage of the multiple splits rule – and this matters a lot more on an already smaller screen.
Overall, Portomaso blackjack in a mobile browser was definitely playable but nowhere near the top mobile experiences offered by developers like Evolution.
Native & Private Tables
Portomaso did not offer private custom tables for the different online casinos it provided services for. Part of the attraction was the Oracle Casino brand itself, so we could see why they hadn’t gone down the private table route.
It did not offer any blackjack tables with live dealers speaking languages other than English either, which is more than a little disappointing.
In Comparison
Portomaso Gaming had a few unique selling points for its live blackjack tables. The Oracle Casino in Malta was a classy venue and streaming from its busy floor helped bring players into the action.
Being able to split up to four times, and double down after splits as well, was a big pull for blackjack fans, as it was not a rule we found at many other online blackjack tables.
However, our experience playing Portomaso blackjack in a mobile browser was less than stellar and the classic streaming mode was just dead weight in our opinion. Still, the unusual rules and bustling ambiance at the Oracle made Portomaso tables worth a look at the time.