KISS MY APP: Place your bets

Kiss My App is about to embark on a four-week hiatus as we travel over to the US of A for some much needed R&R, but with one of our stops being Las Vegas, we couldn't resist choosing a gambling theme for this week's edition. So if you are missing us while we're away in Vegas, staying at Caesar's Palace, seeing O at the Bellagio and playing the slots at the Luxor, here are some things to keep you entertained.

Poker

Texas Hold'Em marks our first review of an Apple-made app. At $5.99 this poker app might seem pricey, but it's an absolutely beautiful game. The graphics are beautiful – you're actually sitting at a table. And the other players sitting at the table can be your mates, because you can wifi a game up together if you're sitting around having a few drinks. The game can take up to nine players in a multiplayer wifi option. But even if you're playing on your own, opponents bet, bluff and have their own tells.

You can switch the views by rotating your phone and the game has statistics tracking for when that frenemy you play with tries to rewrite history.

Poker Analyzer bills itself as a poker performance tracker. Each time you enter a tournament or play a game of poker, you enter the information into this app – irrespective of what game you're playing, whether it's Texas Hold'Em or Omaha. The app will tell you whether you're up, down, flat or if it's time to do a Brendan Fevola and quit the online card-playing caper altogether.

Slots

We found two cute slot games; the first is Cleopatra. It is a real-life slot game, supposedly one of the most popular in the world, developed by slot maker IGT. The thing about slots is that, well, it's kinda boring. You pull a lever, or a cyber-lever in this case, and if the lines match up or hit a certain combination, you win. There's no skill involved – it's pure luck. And if you're going to play a game like that, you need some serious colour and chintz to make it worthwhile. Cleopatra has all of that, for $2.49 – terrible colours and busy, frenetic design – just like being in the pits at Harrah's.

But if you're boring and you don't like drama in your slot-playing experience, iSlots might be more for you. I don't know if I'd agree with the developers on the "dazzling graphics and sound effects", but if you want mindless entertainment for absolutely nothing (the app is free) give it a shot.

Roulette

ASD Roulette $1.19 is another game that is completely luck-based, but it's a great deal of fun. There is also a free lite version, but once you finish your credits you can't restock without buying the full version, a hitch that has generated a raft of negative feedback at the iTunes store. Also, some of the buttons are really quite small on this app, making its usability less than perfect.

If ASD Roulette doesn't float your boat, Payday Roulette is also $1.19 and has "lifelike graphics that reaffirm your faith in humanity", according to the developers. If that's not worth $1.19, then what is?

Aus Racing

How can this app be free? Because if you're prone to a flutter on the gee gees, it's just about priceless. It gives you full fields, selections, live tote, past performances, scratches and results, as well as live streaming video of the runs themselves. It's a beautiful app and well worth the download time. There do appear to be some negative reviews indicating certain reliability issues, but we didn't encounter any of these problems.

Sho Chiku Bai Pachinko

Pachinko is a Japanese game that looks like a vertical pinball machine. Bright colours, anime characters and general Japanese wackiness are all staples in this fun and different game. At $3.99 it's not cheap, but really different to the western-style offerings. You can play it in the original Japanese, for a more authentic feel, or you can use English direction. The game also features the song Sho Chuki Bai by Norihiko Hibino of Metal Gear Solid fame.

No, we didn't know of him either, but it sounds awesome.

Kiss My App is going on leave and will be back in four weeks. Please make sure to send lots of ideas to kissmyapp@businessspectator.com.au for when we start back up and take a look at Business Spectator's app at iTunes.