River Belle Casino aims to capture the feeling of the old paddle-wheeler gambling boats of yester-yore. Offering the wide range of games typical of the MicroGaming software package, River Belle Casino's unique advantage is that the atmosphere of the software package actually reinforces the riverboat theme. Where I'm normally not a big fan of simple arcade-style sounds in my casino games, I find that they do seem to work here.

The games package is simple, stable and a good choice for non-technical users. What you download is a core package -- Blackjack, Slots, and a few others -- that is easily expanded by the "Add More Games" option. This well-polished mechanism is basically an assistant that helps you add games from River Belle Casino's site to your resident package: you plug in the games you want and forget about the rest.

The games themselves are colorful, stable and easy to learn. While I have the occasional nit to pick -- the dice in Craps being too small and the cards being dealt a little slow -- I'd have to say that it's a good, solid, middle-of-the-road system. It's not going to wow you with scintillating animation, but it won't crash, freeze or otherwise mess with your computer either.

The simple, uncluttered website is the starting point to River Belle Casino, but after that the action is basically limited to the software package. You get a basic Support page complete with toll free numbers and email addresses, a Banking page describing the payout plan and a VIP Lounge page where the Comps system is described.

River Belle Casino's Comp system is detailed on their VIP page. What it boils down to is that they'll give you $1 for every $1000 of chips you buy, with a minimum Comp payout of $10. In other words, you have to spend $10,000 before they give you anything. Not much of a Comp is it? It's only fair to point out that River Belle Casino isn't the only one offering this anemic Comp system, but that doesn't make it any more appealing.

River Belle Casino is a reliable, middle-of-the-road casino. While there's a lot to be said for that it's not enough to stop the presses.

My rating for River Belle Casino: A straight.