Casinos… Think of Las Vegas or Monte Carlo, bright lights, ritz, glamour, people winning money, but mostly people losing money! You may be intrigued by the idea of going to a casino but don’t really know too much about them – please read on to learn more about the fun of a night out to a casino…According to Princeton University’s ‘Wordnet’, a casino is ‘a public building for gambling and entertainment’. Don’t be overawed if you do go, relax and enjoy. You will most likely have the chance to play slot machines or one-armed bandits as they are commonly known and perhaps other games of chance and some skill. One major thing that you do need to be aware of, is the way that a casino will look to tilt the odds in its favour, which is more commonly known as the casino’s “edge”. However, some games such as poker are played with players versus players and in this case, the casino cannot get an advantage as it is not effectively playing. In these circumstances, the casino will take a “rake” on the bets that players make against each other.If you have ever been to Las Vegas and gone to one of the casinos there, the first thing that you will notice is the fact that they more often or not have the slot machines (otherwise known as ‘one-armed-bandits’ or ‘fruit machines’) right as you go in. This is because they really don’t require too much understanding to play and it’s not uncommon to see people playing these machines for hours on end. The slot machine will typically involve a lever on the side (the one arm!) and three reels with patterns of symbols on, located in the centre of the machine. The reels revolve as you pull the lever and the idea is to generate rows of matching symbols to win, having paid your required stake via the slot usually on the front of the machine.There may be times when you will play on a machine which will have extra options available for you to use, often giving the illusion that you will have more control over the reels and a better chance of winning. This may be the case over the short-term, but always remember that playing in casinos is fun, but the house always has the long-term advantage. To give you a quick example…if you were to play a game where you had to bet on what number would lie face up after the roll of a die, then you would expect to see the casino pay six times the amount bet for a win, but in fact the casino would pay five times to maintain its advantage.This system is often found in famous casino gambling games like Poker, Craps, Roulette or Blackjack.Blackjack has always been played in casinos because players will play their chips against the House dealer with the successful gambler being paid against pre-determined odds (ie by getting a true ‘Blackjack’ which in other words is a two card combination adding up to 21, the House will pay you 3:2, or 1-1/2 times your initial wager). If you play fair, the chances are that you may end up with a profit, but more often than not, the casino will win, unless you count the cards. Card counting is a black art as far as casinos are concerned and if you are caught, you will be blacklisted worldwide! Effectively, because the playing cards are only used once and then discarded, anyone with a good memory and a highly analytical mind can determine their own odds that a certain card will or will not appear again, tilting the odds in his favour.Poker is one of the most played games in the world. Its popularity has grown massively over the past couple of years and many casinos would not offer a poker game due to the fact that they were limited to taking a rake (as discussed previously). You may be aware that poker is essentially a playing card game were players are dealt poker cards face down, and then take it in turns to place bets (represented by poker chips with a specific value) based on the strength of the cards that they hold, combined with other community cards placed face up in the middle of the poker table. The player with the strongest combination should win what’s known as the pot (the combined bets of all the players for that hand), however one of the reasons that poker is so popular is the element of ‘bluffing’ where a player may actually have a poor hand, but believes that he can make his opponents believe that he has the strongest combination by means of subtle psychology! This can be as subtle as staring one’s opponent into ‘folding’ his cards, or by moving his entire stack of poker chips into the middle of the table – what’s known as ‘going all in’.Roulette is a classic casino game, whereby a croupier gently spins a perfectly balanced, wooden roulette wheel with either 37 or 38 recessed ‘pockets’ along the bottom edge of the roulette wheel. As the wheel begins to spin, the croupier will roll a small white ball the opposite way with the intention being for the ball to bounce of raised points on the wall and to finally come to rest in one of the numbered pockets. In European casinos, the wheel’s layout features pockets numbered 1 – 36 and alternate between red and black with the number one, coloured red and zero being coloured green. However in American casinos, you are more likely to see a second double-zero 00 pocket also coloured green.Again the House pays out against set odds displayed on the cloth covering the roulette table. Typically this will offer 35:1 for single number bets where you bet on one number to win, 2:1 for any column of numbers, and evens for any red, any black, odds or evens.Craps can be the most fun to play and certainly watch. It’s also the fastest game in the casino with often more than 60 bets per hour. Players will wager bets against the casino on the result of a roll of a die, or the series of rolls of two dice. The great thing about craps is that you don’t have to be rolling the dice to bet, you can bet on how lucky you (hope) the guy rolling is going to be, which is why it can be so entertaining. Essentially, the guy with the dice is called the ‘shooter’ and the basic bet in craps is called the ‘Pass Line’ bet, and by rolling a 7 or 11, the shooter will roll a pass line winner, and can play again. If he rolls 2, 3 or 12, these are known as craps and this is a pass line loss. Any other number becomes the shooter’s point and he continues. It really is a fascinating game with many more rules and options.At the end of the day, a night out to a casino can be wonderfully entertaining, but casinos have learnt over hundreds of years how to make their games very, very addictive. They are quite happy to let you win a little here and there, but they know that in the long run, it’s you that’s going to be making them happy – do take care!

If you are new to Internet betting, chances are you’re wondering what the best casino games are, or what everyone is playing. This is a difficult question to answer; because everyone’s inclinations are different, everyone will have a different opinion on just what constitutes the best casino games; accordingly, the most popular casino games will vary according to players’ tastes, the particular casino, and even what new casino games may currently be in vogue.All About SlotsThe old “one-armed bandit” is practically iconic of Las Vegas-style casino gaming, and has a heritage going back over 120 years. Although the best online blackjack tables attract many of those who enjoy card games, slots currently seems to top the list of the most popular casino games.One reason that casino gamblers consider slots to be one of the best casino games is because it is entirely based on chance; no particular skills are needed, therefore “newbies” are frequently attracted to the best online slots. It’s also very non-threatening; since one is playing by, and against one’s self, there’s no outside pressure or judgment when losing.The main attraction of slots however is the adrenaline rush and resultant flow of endorphins. Playing the best online slots can be highly addictive, due to the fact that when they pay out, they can pay out bit. The opportunity to win a million dollars or more in one fell swoop is irresistible to most of us. This is one reason that the best online slots are also considered to be the best casino games, whether land-based or online.Card GamesTraditional card games such as poker and blackjack are also among the top casino games played online. There is little agreement as to which site offers the best online blackjack, but some sites allow one to download “practice” games that can simply be played for pleasure – or used to sharpen one’s skills in preparing to play for real money at the best blackjack online casino.Other Top Casino GamesVideo poker is the original cyber-version of one of the top casino games in the U.S.A., dating from the 1970s when the first personal computers arrived on store shelves. Like the best online blackjack, video poker allows the skilled player to have an edge over the house – although bluffing will probably not work as well as in the real world.New casino games online include roulette, baccarat and keno. The online gamer will even find virtual bingo parlors on the World Wide Web. Whatever you consider to be the best casino games on the strip in Las Vegas, chances are you’ll find them online as well.

Live dealer games are one of the more interesting and noted trends which have been happening in the last few years in the online casino industry. Live casino games were initially developed about 10 years ago as a niche type game primarily targeting the Asian markets, who expressed a demand for such a type of games. In the time that has passed since then, live casino games have changed, developed and evolved quite a lot, making them as popular, exciting and lucrative in the Western world, especially in the UK and Europe.Live dealer casino games are in fact online casino games where the player is actually engaging in a real live game hosted either at a real B&M casino or at a studio. The cards are dealt by a real live dealer who has been especially trained to host such games and players can see exactly what is happening in the game and enjoy as much as possible the excitement and action similar to what they would experience at a bricks and mortar casino.In the early days of the internet, many land based casino players, eager to try out the new medium of gambling online, didn’t do so for two main reasons. The first being that they did not feel comfortable with providing their credit card details to some online entity they could not see or touch. The second was that players generally didn’t trust the random number generators (RNG), which are the “engine” behind all online casinos. Many people believed that the RNG was fixed and in the favor of the online casino, thus making the chances of you losing all your money almost certain. At a land based casino, players could see the cards and the dealers and feel the action on the casino floor. The fact that they were dealing with real live people made the whole business believable. Having a machine deal the cards instead of a person was unthinkable in those days! This forced the online casino software providers to come up with a solution; live dealer games where the player could see the dealer and the action at the casino, just from the comfort of his own home while playing at an online casino.The first live dealer casino games were rather limited and didn’t quite offer the player experience the online casino software companies hoped for, especially due to technical and technological reasons. Video streaming was extremely slow due to narrow the narrow band width that existed in those days and the result on the players’ end was not the excitement and glamour on the real Vegas casino floors. Due to this, live casino games did not become as popular as the developers and casino operators hoped for. Luckily, developments in bandwidth and video streaming have contributed largely to the ability of software providers to improve and enhance live casino games closing the gap between the dream and vision to reality.Most online casinos don’t develop their games in-house and purchase a license from a company that develops the software for online casinos. The leading software developers that offer live casino games are Playtech, Microgaming and Evolution Gaming and they generally operate them for their licensees, either from a TV studio or from a real land based casino. This means that you will probably see the same live casino games at different online casinos. The reason for this is that the operating costs are higher than the standard RNG powered games. The result is that this is the only business model so far that has proven itself profitable to both the software developers and the online casino operators.Online casinos generally offer a narrow selection of live dealer games, namely roulette, blackjack, baccarat, sic bo and casino hold’em. Roulette and blackjack are the most popular by far.When getting started with live dealer casino games you are required to choose the table and dealer you prefer. Dealers are usually very good looking women; however there are also a few handsome men around to keep the ladies coming back for more. The live dealer manages the game, just like at a land based casino and they are all extremely well trained and knowledgeable as they need to deal with many things at the same time. If you have the sound on the computer turned on you will be able to hear all the ongoings in the studio and even the live dealer wishing you luck.Almost all live dealer casinos are regulated and are based in the UK, Ireland and Eastern Europe. The hands dealt to players are random and the game is super fair just like at a land based casino and you can see everything with your eyes.Bonus and promotion wise, there are rarely any offered by online casinos, however the regular bonuses and promos apply to the live casino games, just like any other.