Playing Spanish Blackjack in the US and Australia
Spanish blackjack has gained popularity in North America, particularly the United States, and in Australia. In the US, the more popular name for Spanish blackjack is Spanish 21, whose rights were owned by Masque Publishing Inc., a Colorado-based gaming publishing company.
In Australia, Spanish blackjack is known by the name "Pontoon." The major difference of playing Pontoon from Spanish blackjack is that the dealer does not have a hole card in Pontoon. There are other differences between the US version of Spanish blackjack and the Australian Pontoon.
While hitting, standing and splitting rules are the same among conventional blackjack, Spanish blackjack and Pontoon, splitting two aces is not allowed when playing Spanish blackjack
Re-splitting the cards into four hands in Spanish blackjack is permitted in the United States. In Australia, however, this rule is not accepted in all states.
While choosing to surrender is a common option in the US game of Spanish blackjack, in Australia, surrender is only allowed if the dealer has revealed an ace or a card with a value of ten. And even if you surrender, (which should just make you lose half of your bet in blackjack), in the Australian Pontoon, if the dealer gets a blackjack, you still lose the whole wager.
The dealer checks if he has a blackjack through the face card that is showing. In Australia, it's different. The dealer checks for a blackjack after the round. This is after all the players have played out the hands.
Sky City Adelaide in south Australia has a different rule for doubling down in Spanish blackjack. Doubling down allowed only if you have two cards on your hand.
Another rule in Australia when playing Spanish blackjack is that an ace will only have a value of one after deciding to double down. Because of this blackjack rule, it is best not to double down when you have a soft hand (which means the total of your cards includes an ace with a value of eleven).
In most Australian casinos, when the dealer has a blackjack, the dealer takes the only the busted and original bets. The Spanish blackjack rule in Sky City is the dealer gets all the losing bets.
It is interesting that apart from cultural differences in different continents, even the rules in playing Spanish blackjack in casinos are also different. If you love to try casinos during your travel to other countries, make some research on the differences in casino games.