Adobe has announced that they will discontinue support for Flash Player sometime in 2020, but what does this mean for Fair Go members such as yourself?

It doesn’t matter whether you’re fresh to Fair Go or you’ve been hanging out with us since day dot. Pretty much every one of you would have heard of Adobe Flash Player at one point or another.

Also known as Shockwave Flash or simply Flash, this plugin is used by online casinos the world over in order to run videos, movies, animations and of course, interactive games. You might have seen the “Enable Flash” popup before, which appears when you want to run a casino game that requires Flash in order to function. But did you know that at the end of 2020, Adobe has announced that Flash will no longer be continued?

At first glance this may not sound like a big deal. You might be asking yourself whether all this is even relevant. Don’t worry if that sounds like you. You’re not alone. Flash is probably not something you’ve paid much attention to. The truth is though that the discontinuation of Flash will have an impact on many casino games that we host. Some of which may be recent favourites or beloved classics. This will in turn alter your playing experience. But it’s not all bad.

In this article we get stuck into the nitty gritty when it comes to this announcement, starting with a brief overview of Flash. So if you’re curious as to what the removal of Adobe Flash Player means for everyday gamers such as yourself, you’ll be pleased to know that you can find all of the answers down below.

What is Adobe Flash Player?

Adobe Flash Player was developed in the 90s as a way to deliver multimedia content such as animations, videos and interactive games to personal computers. It does by running as a browser plug-in from a web browser. At its time of inception, there weren’t many other options available to consumers. This means that it didn’t take long before Flash became the go-to plug-in software for a wide range of popular video and gaming websites, including YouTube. With the rise of mobile and tablet gaming though, Flash has become less and less relevant.

Why is it being discontinued?

This was chiefly because of the fact that playing an online casino game or watching a movie that requires the Flash plug-in can drain your battery rather quickly if you’re using a laptop.
                         
These battery-draining issues aside though, there are a number of other reasons why support for Flash is coming to an end. This includes the fact that there were always new versions of Flash to download, each of which took considerable megabytes and time to install.

Another frustration was that Flash content was also often quite large. This made websites that were more or less totally reliant on Flash all but redundant if your local internet was slow or your connection poor. Then there was the fact that Flash had a reputation for crashing, which is devastating if you run a Flash-heavy website.

Finally, and perhaps most tellingly, Flash-powered content was rarely supported on mobile devices. For an online casino such as ours that has so many mobile players, this single aspect of Flash is pretty much a dealbreaker.

How does it relate to our online casino?

The Flash plug-in is the default software for many of Fair Go’s online casino titles. To tell you the truth, we’ve never had a major problem with Flash. Without Flash software though, some games will have to be removed entirely or at the very least only made available on Mobile only.

On the plus side, the games that we anticipate will need to be taken off the site are mainly older titles. This is because many of our newer and more popular games do not require Flash in order to be playable, which is somewhat of a silver lining.

When will it be discontinued?

Adobe is planning to end its support for Flash Player on December 31st, 2020. At this point in time, updates will no longer be available for various browser types (Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc.).

On our end, the Fair Go team plus Kev the Koala will be busy putting our migration plan in place. This involves reshuffling our roster and determining which titles will need to be discontinued and which titles we can still offer on Mobile.

Note that Adobe will continue to issue security patches and add features as required up until the 31st December in order to ensure Flash is still 100% safe and secure. Once we’ve entered 2021, Flash will no longer receive any updates which could see it become a potential security risk. Something that we here at Fair Go have dutifully considered and decided is no good for you, our loyal member.

Which games will be impacted by this change?

The shutdown of Flash will most certainty result is Fair Go hosting less casino titles, however, the entire internet landscape will be impacted by this change.

Any movies, clips, animations or games that require Flash technology to work will need to be taken down. This of course includes a handful of pokie titles such as Aztec’s Treasure, Hairway to Heaven and Polar Explorer in addition to some of our more dated table games.

Other games will only be available to play using Mobile, such as Aladdin’s Wishes, Ghost Ship and T-Rex.

For more information as to which games will be migrated to Mobile and which titles will be completely removed, see the list below:

Games to be Available only on Mobile:

  • Aladdin's Wishes
  • Builder Beaver
  • Count Spectacular
  • Crystal Waters
  • Double Ya Luck!
  • Ghost Ship
  • God of Wealth
  • Henhouse
  • Hillbillies
  • Kung Fu Rooster
  • Loch Ness Loot
  • Lucky 8
  • Megaquarium
  • Mermaid Queen
  • Naughty or Nice
  • Ninja Star
  • Ocean Oddities
  • Paydirt!
  • Penguin Power
  • Regal Riches
  • Return of the Rudolph
  • Rudolph's Revenge
  • Santastic!
  • Small Fortune
  • Snowmania
  • Super 6
  • Swindle All The Way
  • T-Rex
  • The Naughty List
  • The Nice List
  • The Three Stooges Brideless Groom
  • The Three Stooges II
  • Voodoo Magic
  • Zhanshi

Games being permanently discontinued:

  • Aces & Eights
  • All American Poker
  • American Roulette
  • Aztec's Treasure
  • Aztec's Treasure Feature Guarantee
  • Baccarat
  • Bonus Deuces Wild
  • Bonus Poker
  • Bonus Poker Deluxe
  • Craps
  • Crazy Vegas
  • Orc vs Elf
  • Pai Gow Poker
  • Pirate Isle
  • Polar Explorer
  • Rain Dance
  • Red Sands
  • Ronin
  • Sevens & Stripes
  • Sevens Wild
  • Shark School
  • Super 21
  • The Elf Wars
  • Tiger Treasures
  • Treasure Tree
  • Vegas Three Card Rummy
  • Vulcan
  • Wild Wizards
  • Derby Dollars
  • Deuces Wild
  • Diamond Dozen
  • Double Bonus Poker
  • Double Double Bonus Poker
  • Double Double Jackpot Poker
  • Double Jackpot Poker
  • Dream Run
  • European Blackjack
  • Food Fight
  • Fruit Frenzy
  • Golden Lotus
  • Green Light
  • Hairway to Heaven
  • Hillbillies Cashola
  • Jacks or Better
  • Jumping Beans
  • Lion's Lair
  • Loose Deuces
  • Lucky Tiger
  • Match Play 21
  • Mister Money
  • Naughty or Nice Spring Break

How does this affect your Fair Go experience?

It’s hard to quantify just how this shake up will affect your Fair Go experience. If we’re being honest, members with an affinity for soon-to-be discarded titles may be somewhat disappointed that they can no longer play a particular game.

Conversely, we have some many fantastic progressives, table games and speciality games on offer, so we’re confident that you’ll be able to find another favourite. As far as the rest of our services are concerned, the discontinuation of Flash plays zero role in your overall Fair Go experience. We’ll still offer the same stellar standard of customer service, still deliver wildly generous promotions and still keep you entertained through our regular blog articles.

In short, we won’t be changing all of the things you’ve come to love about us. If anything, this adjustment will improve your playing experience in the long run.

Where do we go from here?

Over the next few months you will notice some small alterations to our current roster of pokies and table games.

To ensure you’re not left in the dark, we’ll also post more information about the removal of Flash titles as we get closer and closer to the 31st December. For now though you can simply expect a new game every month as we begin to replace the titles that we’ve had to regrettably take down.

If you want to speak directly with one of our legendary customer support blokes or sheilas about this change, please feel free to reach out via email. We’re on hand to answer all of your questions in regard to the removal of Flash. 

Keep one eye on your emails for more Flash updates

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