Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos, are the online version of land-based ("brick and mortar") casinos. They allow you to play casino games through the Internet. Some online casinos provide various games, while others only provide only one type of game. Online poker is also very popular and there are many dedicated companies that provide this activity.
Online casinos can for certain games offer better odds than land casinos on slots and other formats where the chance of winning is determined by the house. Table games like blackjack which have an established house edge: for a given set of rules, they offer the same payout, online or offline. Reliability and trust are hard to establish. To solve this issue, many online casinos purchase their software from well-known companies such as Wager Works, Microgaming, OddsOn, Playtech and Cryptologic, though a little research into credentials of any e-commerce site you plan to use is common sense. These software companies use a random number generator to ensure that the numbers, cards or dice appear randomly. All reputable companies operating in a regulated environment use robust random number generators.
Online casinos can be divided into two groups based on their interface: web-based casinos and download-based casinos. Some casinos offer more than one interface.
Web-based online casinos are websites where users may directly play casino games without loading any software to the local computer. Games are mainly represented in the browser plugins Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave, or Java and require browser support for mentioned plugins. Also, bandwidth is needed since all graphics, sounds and animations are loaded through the web via the plugin. A very small number of casinos allow games played through a plain HTML interface.
Download-based online casinos are the most common casino web sites. On these websites, users have to download certain software to play casino games. After installing the software, it connects to the casino service provider and handles contact without browser support. An advantage of these compared to web-based online casinos is speed, since it does not need to load graphics from the Internet because all multimedia is inside the downloaded software. On the downside, there is an initial download and the need for the installation of the program, and the risk of the program containing malware (though this is very uncommon).
A typical selection of games on offer at an online casino might include: blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, pai gow poker, video poker, and slot machines.
Many online casinos offer large bonuses, often a "100% match bonus". For example, common terms and conditions for a bonus might be:
100% up to $100
Must wager 25 times the deposit and bonus before withdrawing
Wagers on baccarat, craps, roulette, and sic bo do not count towards meeting wagering requirements
For this particular example, this would mean that a player depositing $100 would start with $200 in his account. He must make $5000 ($200 × 25) in wagers before withdrawing. This can be played at a game such as blackjack.
Some simple arithmetic shows that if the player leaves after meeting the requirements, he has a very large edge. For example, the house edge in blackjack is around or less than 0.5% at most online casinos. $5000 × 0.005 = $25. Therefore, the player expects to show a $25 loss—however, he was given a $100 bonus. Therefore, the player's expected profit is $75, a massive 75% advantage. Usually, taking advantage of such a promotion is the only way to gain an edge over the casino.
This has often led to players playing at casinos to take the bonus, and leaving after the wagering requirements are met. These players are called by (and have adopted with pride) a variety of labels such as "advantage players", "bonus hunters", "bonus abusers", and, perhaps the most vulgar, "bonus whores". Strictly speaking, this behavior is usually prohibited by the casino, because their terms usually dictate that players may play for recreational purposes only. In practice, players are rarely caught doing this, and usually when they are they simply have their promotion privileges revoked.
A player who wishes to do this at a large number of online casinos must be careful. Some casinos are rogues (see below) and do not pay. Others have terms and conditions that are not favorable to the player, such as most bonuses that are restricted to slots.
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