Evolution Lightning Blackjack Review

Before we begin—do not apply the typical blackjack strategy while playing Evolution Gaming’s Lightning Blackjack. Evolution has published a detailed guide with all the spreadsheets which I recommend you check first before playing the game. The rest of this review will focus on the game assuming you are not playing it with the typical strategy in mind.

With that out of the way, let us see how to play the game.

Choose the table that suits your betting preferences and pick your stake range between £1 and £10,000. Once your bet size is selected, place the wager and wait for the cards to be dealt. As with standard Blackjack, your goal is to beat the dealer by getting a hand total as close to 21 as possible, without exceeding it.

Lightning Blackjack follows standard Blackjack rules with a few twists. You can hit, stand, double, or split, and the dealer always stands on 17. A winning hand pays 1:1, while Blackjack pays 3:2. What sets this game apart is the mandatory “Lightning Fee,” which is equal to your main bet and applies every round. This fee funds the multipliers, which range from 2x to 25x and are awarded to your next winning hand.

This is the exciting part—as it can make way for some exciting potential payouts.

The house edge for Lightning Blackjack is typically low at 0.44% (RTP of 99.56%) on the first hand, but the lightning fee and multipliers affect subsequent rounds. The maximum win can reach up to 25x, depending on the multipliers awarded in the game. Over the longer run, however, I have seen that the house edge is far greater. This is nothing to worry about and is quite common in games of this style (even though it is blackjack—a casino game with one of the lowest house edges).

Lightning Blackjack has an interesting twist of random multipliers—but there is a wide range of live blackjack games offered by Evolution from Infinite Blackjack to Fun Fun 21. However, for the Lightning variant, there is just one more called Lightning Blackjack First Person.

Lightning Blackjack First Person

As with other “First Person” games, this variation of Lightning Blackjack will have you face the table itself. The dealer will not be visible. It is intended to mimic a real casino table. The rest of the game remains the same. The multipliers and other differences vis-à-vis traditional blackjack are all there. It is ideal for some who find the First Person variants to be less distracting, but it totally depends on your taste and which one you prefer.