Before you start gambling at any new online casino, it would be very much worth your while to check out a few simple details about the casino site. Hey, you’re trusting them with your money, so they should disclose certain key information to you! Knowing this information in advance could save you some headaches.

To qualify for a license, an online casino must meet certain standards set in the country where the site is hosted. License fees start from about $50,000 and are usually valid for at least 2 or 3 years. According to estimates, some 20% of online casinos don’t have licenses. Here’s the golden rule: If they’re not licensed, don’t play there!

A casino that values its good name will commission an accounting firm to audit and report on the percentages of payouts. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, for instance, reviews the historical payouts to gamblers by Microgaming and its licensed casino sites. You can usually read the reports on the casino websites.

There are watchdogs and just plain dogs; you can’t trust all of them. Many times the so-called “watchdog” is nothing more than an online advertising gateway to a group of casinos. If the watchdog organization is any good, it will prepare a set of best practices that must be observed by all participants, including casinos, software dealers, casino portal sites and online gamblers.

Here are a few more things you should check out before you start gambling:

The important gambling message boards should reflect trust and faith in the casino. Any online casino should be affiliated to a physical, non-digital casino. There should be a self-labelling system for users to rate the contents of the casino site. The recognized and well-known casino portals should support the individual casino website.

A casino that intends to succeed in the long term will go to the trouble of building a well-structured site supported by reliable software.It will be monitored by an accounting company, and of course it will be licensed.

This is the type of casino that doesn’t have to crook its customers to make a profit. It’s the type of site operated by owners who honestly and professionally work to entrench a trusted and popular brand name.

In the past, going to the casino meant flying to Las Vegas or driving to a hotel that has these facilities. Nowadays, this has changed. The person can do it all in the comforts of home while sitting down in front of the computer.
Online casinos have been around for some time. The games are almost complete to what can be found in the land-based casino. The rules in some of the games may be different but it is still with the same objective and that is to win some money.
There are two things needed to play in an online casino. The first is a computer with an internet connection. The other is the software program which can be downloaded from the casinos website or participating on it on live feed.
There are a lot of sites in the internet that can offer an online casino so looking it up in the internet is a start. Not all these sites are legitimate. Some are scams that are there to steal money from unsuspecting victims. Others put it up with a virus that can cause damage to the computer.
Another thing about online sites is about the payments. Some sites return the winnings immediately while there are those that don’t.
Sites that do this think that the longer the person plays; the chances of the player losing it are higher so that the site does not lose any money.
There are some sites that don’t offer free trials. Since it is hard to tell if that website is worth playing in, asking around can give the person an idea.
Those that offer free trials offer other games as well. That way, the person will know if it is a good site or not. There are a lot in the web to choose from and should the person like several, then there is no harm in playing in all of them. The player has to be sure there is money that can be used to enjoy the online casino.
Before playing, it is best to set a budget for the game. Should the person win or lose, that should be enough. Some people who are doing very well can get greedy and that could be a problem. If the person loses a lot, the problem of paying the huge amount is something that is hard to get out of.
Online casinos just like the real ones are all about having a little fun. This doesn’t have to happen daily and should only be done if the player has time. There are other things that people have to address such as a regular job and engaging in other activities.

A Brief Account of Initial Days of Online Gambling
Online casino history started in the decade of 1990. In the year 1995, the first ever online casino hit the market and marveled everyone. The name of this internet based casino was Internet Casinos Inc. (in short, ICI). The first ever virtual casino was launched on 18th August 1995. During the initial phase, this company started operating from the islands of Caicos and Turks. Internet Casinos Inc. started its operation outside America because they feared prosecution from the Government of United States of America.
Tell Us Something More About the History of Virtual Betting
What is the total duration of the online casino history? The answer to this question is approximately 10 years. Casinos have always been popular among human world. However, a gambling aficionado has to travel long distances to play and enjoy the fun of gambling. Online casinos have helped these betting lovers to enjoy the games right from their home. Thus, you don’t have to move from one place to another to play the virtual casino games. Some of these characteristic features of virtual casinos make it immensely popular among gambling aficionados.

Now, Let Us Check The Evolutionary Chronology of Online Casino History
1. In the Year 1994, a new Act was passed by the Government of Antigua-Barbuda, known as ‘The Free Trade and Processing Zone Act, 1994′. Many internet based casinos as well as sports-books have license of the same and this license is considered as one of the most popular licenses among the internet based gambling industry.
2. One of the largest providers of software in online betting is Micro gaming. It is a huge software development company, which has mastered the techniques of generating software for online betting sites. This company was founded in the year of 1994. In the following year, that is 1995, another software developing giant called Cryptologic was launched.
3. 1996 has special significance in online casino history. In this year, the first internet based casino site that accepts real money was launched. In the month of October of 1996, InterCasino first launched such a virtual casino that dealt with real money.
4. First ever gambling related Act was introduced by a US Congress Senator named Jon Kyl. The year was 1998. The name of this Act was Internet Gambling Prohibition Act. According to this, a company will be regarded as illegal if it offers betting services to any American. This Act was not passed by the US Senate. A revised version of this Act was also placed in the US Senate in the following year, i.e. 1999, but this was also voted down by the Senate. In the same year, a renowned company called Frost and Sullivan published a research report and mentioned in it that online gambling has generated a mammoth amount of revenue of US$ 834.5 million.
5. Internet Gambling Prohibition Act was introduced by a Congress representative, Bob Goodlatte, in the US House of Representatives in the year 2000. However, this Act was also voted down and it failed to acquire the required two-third majority vote. In the year 2000, Cryptologic had published their annual report where it was mentioned that 680,000 customers had used their system of electronic payment already. 2000 was an auspicious year for Cryptologic. It got listed in NASDAQ and received the symbol, ‘CRYP’.
6. Year 2004, was specifically important for online gambling. In this year itself, WTO (World Trade Organization) ruled against US regarding legal issues and sided with the Government of Antigua-Barbuda.

The online gambling market is one of the fastest growing sectors of ecommerce today. As world recession hits, it seems that more and more people are looking towards trying their luck on the horses.
But it certainly isn’t just horses anymore which people bet on. No, now it’s Football, Rugby, Tennis, the Weather, who will be the next president or prime minister!. Even the world of celebrity television is creating large betting markets as the public in the US and the UK closely follow programmes such as The X Factor and Big Brother.
When it comes to choosing on line bookmakers, it is always best to plump for one of the big names. The bigger the name then the more likely your money is to be safe, and your winnings paid out correctly. On line security for betting is an issue however and some people understandably feel reluctant to use credit/debit card details when depositing at on line Bookmakers. Some bookmakers actually demand photocopies of your credit card, front and back before they will make their first payment to you. Understandably this raises warning signs in many people. We have all heard the stories of Credit card fraud and identity theft, so emailing scans of your card does feel risky however trustworthy the site seems.
One solution to the problem is to use an online payment system such as PayPal or Moneybookers. Once signed up to one of these companies deposits and withdrawals can be made safely from online betting sites. The bonus of using one of these trusted e payment systems is that no one will be asking you for scans of your Credit and Debit cards. Also if you are signing up to several gaming sites you can avoid having them listed on your bank statement.

The pocket cards are dealt to the player and dealer, then the player makes a decision – to play or not to play, and places a bet. After that three cards of flop are dealt and again the player may place a bet; there is also a possibility to place the bet after the turn. However, there are some differences: before deal the player places the ante bet. If the player wishes to continue preflop game, he is to place the bet equal to two antes (the flop bet), otherwise he is to be dropped and to lose his ante. Nevertheless, the bets after flop or turn are equal to one ante (turn and river bets); at this stage the player may say “check” and continue the game without additional investments. When the river is dealt the combinations of dealer and player are compared according to the hold’em rules: the played away player loses all his bets; in case of draw game all bets are returned; if the player had won then he gets one-to-one payment as for the flop/turn/river bets; ante is returned in case if the combination is lower than street and it is one-to-one repaid in case of street combination. As you see, this game’s strategy is very difficult and unlike club hold’em you have to play with almost 100% hands and to drop only off-suit 23-27! During optimum game the advantage of casino makes nearly 2%. The word “bonus” in the name of game means, that there are additional bonus bets. The player can place the bet on his pocket cards. When the pocket pair or ace and jack, lady or king comes out, the player receives from three-to-one up to thirty-to-one payments. Side bet advantage of casino makes about 8%.

If you like to play blackjack and to bargain when playing club poker you need to have a look at Hold’em Blackjack (only InterPoker has it). The authors of game had swiped the rules of collection and calculation of hand points from blackjack – the player is to have the combination to the utmost close to 21 without overshoot. As the game is played not against the dealer there is no any surrenders, divisions, duplications, and even blackjack is disabled. This game is simple pontoon and has no advantages against 21 points collected from three cards. But the most senior combination becomes “Seven Charlie’s cards” – seven cards without overshoot. The rules of action are swiped from hold’em. In the first round all players receive one card each, obligatory small and big blinds are placed (in tournaments ante also can be used) and then there is an action round which is completely similar to limit hold’em in increments of big blind and three raises maximum. In the second round each of the remaining players receives the card and the second round of double bet action takes place. After the second round of action the players may continue to collect the cards (in a clockwise direction starting from the player to the left hand of dealer’s button). The player may widow the cards until he wishes to stop or until he overshoots pontoon. When the players finish to widow, the last round of action starts and the bets on this stage may vary from 2 up to 10 big blinds. When the action round is finished there is a showdown; the player with the best combination (“Seven Charlie’s Cards”, 21, 20, etc.) takes the bank and if several players have identical combinations they divide the bank. If the remaining players had overshot the player having minimum points (22, 23, etc.) wins. Casino takes the rake as it is the club poker. It is understood that there is no standard strategy against opponents, but it is possible to assume, that the player having quite good knowledge of blackjack and hold’em will have the advantage.

It should be noted, that popularity of various tournaments grows. It is more interesting for players to compete with human opponents instead of computer dealer. There are slots, blackjack, roulette, oasis-poker, and baccarat tournaments. A lot of casinos offer such tournaments and there is even a blackjack tournaments site.

And finally let’s have a look at innovations in the field of slots. As I said before, there is basically quantitative increase – new pictures and more lines (20-25 lines do not surprise anymore; there are even 30 and 40 lines). But there are also some innovations. The latest thing for the Internet which is known for a long time in offline games – slots with stoppage of lines and option “to push” the drum. Cryptologic casinos had gained the right to use so-called British fruit-machines which are classical slots of fruit themes, but as a bonus the players may have, from time to time, the option of either to fix 1-2 drums and to twist the remaining drums, or to shift any of drums on one symbol downwards.

Cryptologic also has another innovation – Cubis slot. The player sees three walls of a cube – bottom and two back. On each of the walls appear 25 multi-colored cubes. There are 15 lines which pass through two walls and if on one of lines there are four cubes of one color successively the player takes the prize depending on color and number of cubes. Then the winning sequence of cubes disappears and its place becomes occupied by other cubes and new winning sequence can be formed. In game there are also the cubes-multipliers increasing the prize up to six times as well as bonus cubes allowing to change the line or the whole plane.

Being a young scientist, Edward O. Thorp regularly read mathematic journals.  When he was a student, he was pressed for money. The idea of outplaying the casino on the basis of calculations appealed to Thorp and he decided to check the results of the “excellent four” and see what will come out of it. The result of his activity was a phenomenal book Beat The Dealer, now its sales are approaching million of samples.

Thorp chose the other way – he did not make analytical calculations, but with powerful at that time computer IBM (they were also called mainframe) he wrote several programs on Fortran, creating quite original methods for 60s. By the way, Thorp together with his research instructor Claude Elwood Shannon, a great scientist, were also involved in solving the problem “how to outplay the roulette?”

From his calculations Thorp understood that dead cards had a considerable affect on the gambler’s chances this or that way. His main idea was about memorizing the dead cards in somewhat simplified way and when the situation is beneficial for the player, make high stakes.  By the way, this system still remains the basis of any methods and counting systems of blackjack.

The counting system introduced by Thorp, was rather complicated for usage in real casinos, required great concentration and large amount of mentally arithmetic actions. However with good training there was nothing impossible in its application.

Thorp’s book immediately became a success and bestseller. Everyone understood that with quite simple actions you can get an advantage. Every reader dreamt of enormous prizes. However, the casinos also knew the score.

Panic seized them. And in 1962 after Thorp’s book, all Las Vegas Casinos without exception changed their rules being afraid of mass influx of “system players”. The quality of the rules worsened terribly and no counting system could ever help you to win. Though the effect for casino turned out to be quite unpredictable and reverse – people stopped playing blackjack. And during several months, all the casinos had to return to the former rules for their own survival.

Another interesting effect caused by Thorp’s book- incredible popularity of blackjack outrunning the favorite American craps. A lot of people, after reading the book considered themselves potential winners and rushed to the blackjack tables. However, most of them had a bad understanding of the mathematical principles of the game did not become winners but quite vice versa. Therefore, casino got more clients and moreover losing clients. Since then their number is only increasing.

The system presented in the first edition of Thorp’s book was quite difficult even for professionals and only the few could apply it under the conditions of a real game. Something should be simplified.

The power behind the throne.  
Julian Braun is quite a unique personality.  He had hardly ever played a deal in real blackjack. But he played millions and maybe even billions of deals on the computer. Braun was a good mathematician and programmer and he got interested in Thorp’s idea and offered him cooperation in the sphere of calculations and programming.

 He was behind the development of all modern systems the authorship of which belongs to Revere, Humble, Wong and Uston. He wrote the only book How to Play Winning Blackjack, but what a book!

Braun upgraded Thorp’s system on FORTRAN and made considerable changes and the second edition of Thorp’s book also contained Hi-Lo system in its modern form. It was quite a revolution in gambling world. Braun worked in IBM corporation and had access to probably most powerful computers of that time. This fact helped to build simple and efficient tool in struggle with casino.

The casino’s electronic versions of the regular games are also quirky and fun. There are serious video poker players who stake out the high-paying machines, and gamble only on them. Those who watch a serious video poker player long enough will learn some of their strategies, like the “Jacks or better” version where players favor hands, as the name implies, with a face card in it.

Casino dice games are exciting, but sometimes complicated. Variations include “street craps,” “bank craps” and what some people call “Grand Hazard”. It’s good to know what version of game is going on at the table before you lay your money down. Is the casino paying winners who roll seven or eleven? Or are you gambling, roulette style; on the numbers that come up on the dice roll?

Roulette is said to be one of the most challenging games in the casino. The roulette wheel has up to 38 numbered positions for the little ball to land in. You can start your gambling on a single number, odds or evens and other combinations. If you are a beginner, it’s best to research this one online or at your local bookstore first, as the game can be not only mesmerizing, but also expensive for a beginner.

Casino games are fun, but sometimes it’s a good idea to research first, learn the rules, and then go to the casino armed with your understanding of the rules.

Let’s start with Google the internet search engine. Type in online casino and it brings back more than 27 million websites. The shear volume for the term online casino reflects how many people have vested interests in the gaming industry and how popular online casinos have become. The first online casinos first made their appearance during 1996 and a mere US$17 million was wagered, compared to US$3 billion by 2000.

It is estimated today that more than a trillion dollars gets spent online each year with online casinos worldwide. Bear Stearns, a leading worldwide investment banking and securities trading and brokerage firm, estimates that during 2003 more than US$ 6 billion had been spent on online casinos by US gamblers alone! With the growing adoption of broadband internet this online pool of gamblers increases each year.

With online casinos there has also been the expansion of online advertising to gamblers, which according to the BBC places gambling advertisers as the fifth largest advertisers on the internet. Online casinos make use of two types of software. Those that you can download and install onto your computer and the true online casinos where you gamble on the interface of the online casinos web page. Each party makes their choices of how they wish to interact online. With all this sophisticated software, how do online casinos compare to your average brick and mortar casino? Each has their advantages. In an online casino you can play more than one poker game at a time or even gamble on more than one game at a time. In a normal casino this would not be physically possible. The advantage of any real casino compared to an online casino is that you can always judge the physical reaction of the players around the table.

With an online casino it is impersonal and you would never be able to guess the cards the other person is holding. Online casinos have made great strides in trying to mimic the feel of a real casino in the fashion of the bricks and mortar casinos. They have flashy web pages and music to lure you to play. Domain names in it self have become a big issue with the purchase of misspelled domain names for online casinos.

A recent dispute with the domain name of Sportsodds springs to mind. This domain name was registered by their competitor to drive traffic to the competitor’s webpage’s. This ended in a legal dispute. Online casinos are big business judging from the amount of money that gets placed on bets and by the amount of money being spent on it. Where there is big money, there will always be disputes.

Casinos use to be down the road or in your next big town. That has changed in the 21st century. With the advent of online casinos the casino is now in your home. Better yet, if you are reading this, you are already at the casinos doorstep.

Online casinos have many ways to “trick you” into gambling. One of the most common ways is offering casino bonuses, which can be divided into several categories. Let’s talk about match bonuses (or online casino sign-up bonuses) today, as it’s the most common online casino bonus.

Match bonuses are often seemingly big in numbers (sign-up bonus as big as $3000 is not a rare thing to see nowadays). Many of these bonuses are very tricky, making withdrawing your winnings as hard as possible. Several players have quit playing at those casinos after they’ve understood that there’s no easy way to gain profit with this bonus. They feel that they’ve been tricked. Hell yeah, I can’t blame them!

Some of these match bonuses really are absurd. Even though, players in these days are not retarded – many of them know that the $888 “free money” means cosmic deposits and serious betting activity with real money, leading us to a fact that in the end you’re probably back to ZERO, angry and have no plans to return there.

Online casinos and poker rooms are extremely cautious giving bonuses away. Usually you as a player are not allowed to play blackjack, roulette and craps with your bonus money. And often you can’t withdraw your winnings if you have less than 10x bonus gathered on your casino account. My personal best has been 134 dollars with $16 dollars no deposit bonus money… of course, I gambled it down to zero. I was 26 bucks short to withdraw.

Some casinos (not the ones I prefer!) can afford those high bonuses only because they have low payouts. Not many online gamblers look at payouts when choosing a casino, so beware!

In some cases match bonuses can be used against casinos, but be sure to learn the rules before you start any monkeygambling.

However, it is the casino version of the game that gives Craps its reputation of being a fast paced, exciting game. Players often begin with this game in the casino because of its ease of play. The basic concept is this: you place a bet on what is referred to as the “passline bet.” You make your wager before you roll the dice. If you roll a 7 or 11, then you win. If you roll a 12, 3 or 2, you lose. Any other number becomes the point number, meaning that number must be rolled again before the seven for you to win anything. If you roll the seven before you roll the point number, then you lose.

However, you do have the option to bet again in addition to your original bet. It is known as the odds bet: meaning the casino (online or real) does not have their usual house advantage and it also hedges on true odds. Many casinos and online casino sites offer lessons for Craps as it is one of the most popular and exciting games played. There is usually a great amount of money riding on Craps games and the atmosphere around the Craps table is filled with cheering spectators, all vying for the opportunity to see a player win big. This is the best way to get in the game when you are checking out a casino.

Most online casinos will allow you to play the game for free before offering you the option to play for real money. So what are you waiting for? Stop by at an online casino today and see for yourself what the fuss surrounding a game of Craps is all about.