Winning Worlds currently offers some of the best sign-up bonuses in the business -- and that's good enough reason to check them out.

Here's the offer: Winning Worlds will give you $35 in free chips on your first deposit. If you prefer, you can decline the chips and take a 2 night hotel package at your choice of North American destinations or 2 complimentary roundtrip airline tickets to one of 20 worldwide destinations. There is, however, a minimum hotel purchase required with the free airline tickets.

I opted for the hotel package. The website doesn't give full details about this bonus but I'll let you know more as soon as Winning Worlds gets back to me.

(Update 8 Dec 99: I received the free hotel voucher a while ago and everything looks legit. However, the brochure gives very little info on the accommodations so I really can't say much until I actually use the voucher. The accommodations are arranged by WorldWide Travel Center so you might want to check out their website for more info. -- Chuck)

So the bonuses are excellent, but how are the games?

Winning Worlds' games require a download and are powered by South African software company MicroGaming Systems. MicroGaming powers dozens of online casinos (Riverbelle, Cyberbetz, etc.) so you may have seen them before.

(Update 31 Jan '01: It appears as if Winning Worlds is no longer using Microgaming Systems software. We'll update the review as new information becomes available.)

My colleague Max Drayman describes MicroGaming's casino games as "middle-of-the-road," and I agree. Their games aren't nearly as fast or slick as those provided by Boss Media (Sunset Casino, USA Casino and others) or Cryptologic (InterCasino, Omni Casino, etc.) but they are solid and reliable.

My main complaint was at the blackjack table. The cards were dealt much too slowly for my liking. There is an option to increase card speed but it didn't seem to have any effect over a 56K connection. So my stay at Winning Worlds was short.

To sum up, Winning Worlds offers exceptional sign-up bonuses and reliable but unspectacular games.

My rating: Three-of-a-kind.