Online Casinos Blog

One of the question people have about playing at an online casino is – just how do the games at online casinos work?  Now, people don’t seem to wonder this as much with slots, which work by computers these days at casinos as well as on the web.  It’s card games and games like roulette that usually bring up the question.  But actually, they share a lot with slot games when it comes to online casinos.

Now, an online casino is offering virtual games with simulated play on a computer so they won’t have a dealer behind the scenes dealing cards for blackjack or actually spinning the wheel when you sit down to play roulette. (Well, most won’t. There are a few European casinos that do offer real-dealer play. Some even have an option for a player to take a virtual seat at a real world casino and play with the players visiting the casino. But there are usually some restrictions and time limits to playing that way.)

So, how do the games work? You might think, well, the casino could just develop a program where a certain number relates to a certain card and then use those to represent cards on the screen. And in essence that’s what they do.  But the trick isn’t just in creating the cards, but in dealing them. A computer program can’t shuffle a real deck of cards, so a process has to be developed to virtually shuffle a deck or spin a roulette wheel. That program is a RNG or Random Number Generator.  What it does is randomly generate a series of numbers for any game.

So a series of five numbers would be a video poker hand.  In black jack when you hit deal, the RNG generates another random number that determines the card you’re dealt.  Another series of number represents the roulette wheel.  As a player, you won’t notice much difference between these RNG games and games using real cards or wheels. Though there are some exceptions. Card counting doesn’t work in online blackjack because there are no real decks to count the cards in.  This doesn’t change the games fairness, but if you want to try out that cool card counting strategy you heard about, you’ll need to go to a real world casino.

Ask a expert gamblers about the best games in the casino and he may just tell you that blackjack is the best game you can play. Now, this is because a skilled player has probably practiced his blackjack strategy and knows just when to stand and when to hit to try to beat the dealer. But this doesn’t mean that there isn’t room for a novice player at the blackjack tables, particularly the online blackjack tables.

I’ll tell you one of the top reasons I enjoy playing at online casinos rather than land based casinos.  At a land based casino, I have to sit down at the blackjack table with a bunch of other players, all working under their own agendas. The guy on one side of me is going to be pissed if anyone plays too slowly and takes too long thinking over their strategy. The guy on the other side is the player who plays too slowly. And someone will get upset because they think someone else made a bad call and stole the winning card they should have gotten.

When I play blackjack online none of that happens. It’s me and the cards and a zen sort of feeling with working through strategy.  For a new player, online blackjack is the best place to learn and practice strategy. Nearly every online casino will let you play in practice mode without risking any real money and then switch to playing blackjack for real money when you feel secure enough to win at the games. So check out online blackjack and learn the best game in the casino.

Are you a high roller? Over at Club USA Casino they have a high roller special starting tomorrow, September 15^th and running through Sunday, September 18^th.  Here’s what you have to do if you want to take advantage of this High Roller Bonus.  Now there are two separate bonuses.  The first is for slots, keno and scratch cards. To claim this bonus, you’ll have to deposit $150 dollars and use the coupon code CWC500X. This coupon code is available for a one time use and will get you a $500 bonus to play with. So, you’ll have $750 to play slots with, and you can play slots for a long time on that bonus money.

The other bonus is for players of blackjack, video poker and table games.  All you have to do is deposit $200 and you’ll get an extra $150 bonus money to play with. Just use the coupon code CWC150X and that coupon code is available for a one time use between September 15^th and September 18^th.

As always, you’ll want to check out the bonus terms and conditions before taking these bonus offers, even the high roller offers.  You’ll have to wager the slots offer through 45 times before you can cash out and the bonus offer for other games through 65 times before cash out.  Bonus offers can give you plenty of extra money to play with and a wise player always knows the terms before they take the offer.

Club USA Casino is the sister site of Club World Casino and is open to players from the United States. So if you like to play, check out Club USA.

I have one complaint about Aladdin’s Gold Casino. Now this complaint has nothing to do with the quality of the casino or the games or cashing out winnings — all of which might be a big warning sign. No, those are fine.  My complaint is that the excessively overdone Flash web site might make the casino one of the most visually attractive on the web, but it also makes finding the bonus info a pain in the rear.  So, I’m taking a moment to write a blog post to tell you that the casino has a great promotion starting tomorrow and you want to check this one out.  To find it on the casino, it’s under Weekly Promotions but you have to find the Next Promo button at the bottom of that screen to scroll to it or you’ll never know it’s there.  Which is a shame because this is worth looking into.

Now, the Aladdin’s Gold 500 promotion is a bonus promotion for the high rollers in the crowd. All you have to do is deposit $150 and you’ll get a $500 bonus to play slots on. Just use the coupon code 500GOLD. Now you can only use the coupon to claim this bonus one time between Thursday, September 8^th and Sunday September 11^th.  So, gather all your deposits for September and go for an extra $500 in playing money.  But remember this is just to play slots games and as always you want to check the terms and conditions before taking advantage of any casino bonus.

If you don’t feel up to the Aladdin’s Gold 500 promotion, the casino does offer an ongoing promotion for 65% on slots and keno using the coupon code SLOT65 or a 55% promotion for blackjack, video poker and table games using the coupon code OTHERGAMES55.

See you round the tables!

Perhaps it’s a move that shows that people are more open to the idea of online gambling than the politicians would have us believe. And a move that shows the openness to online gambling by those who spend time on the web.  Facebook, the massive social networking site that has until now refused to allow online gambling ads — at least in the US — is going to start permitting them.

Now, what affect will this have on gamblers?  Well, possibly not much. I know I seldom pay any attention to Facebook ads except to report any that reveal my age as offensive and a violation of my privacy.  (really, Facebook, what business do you have revealing my age to people?) And Facebook apparently isn’t going to make it cheap to advertising gambling with them since what I’ve heard is that ads will start in the $30,000 range.  I don’t know how much advertising you get for $30,000 but that cost is going to knock a number of smaller casinos and most affiliate marketing folks out of the ball park.

But is gambling or online gambling and Facebook really a good mix?  I have problems with it.  What worries me is the privacy issue. Facebook tends to share what details about people that people may not want to share or know they’re sharing.  I keep having to fight with about every application I use to tell it — no, I don’t want to share my TV watching on Facebook. No, I don’t want to tell everyone which IM application I use. No, I don’t want to share my location and my phone number if I look at Facebook on my phone.  So, while I have no problem with people gambling online — I do it myself, I really don’t want to share my gambling habits on Facebook. So, how will Facebook know to market a gambling ad to me? Well, if I don’t have anything about gambling on my account, they probably won’t.  Which is sort of a bummer for someone paying $30,000 to advertise to me.

Whether online or in a land based casino, my game of choice is video poker. So, why would someone who writes about and follows the news on all sorts of gambling games play video poker over the other games?  It’s a balance of good odds and a playing environment that works for me.  Now, all of my fellow gambling friends and experts will gladly recommend games based on the odds.  I take that as a good starting point.  There are certain casino games where the odds are better than other games.  So, I’m going to take three of these and talk about how the game environment affects the play and the player.

Let’s start with poker. Not video poker but real cards on the table poker such as Texas Hold’em.  Now here we have a game where skill affects the odds and good players can make a living at the game. But to win, you have to be serious about the game and ready to lay it all down on a hand. It’s a confrontational game and the best players enjoy that confrontation.  Which means if you enjoy confrontation, this may be the game for you.

Next we’ll look at blackjack. Now blackjack is a game where strategy really counts. But at a casino, you’ll be sitting down with other players though you won’t be playing against them. You play against the dealer. But still, the players at the table watch each other’s moves and wagers at a blackjack table generally start at the $5 range and go up. Even online. So, it’s probably not the most affordable game for the casual player.

Which is where video poker games come in.  In video poker, it’s player versus machine. So the confrontational aspect of poker isn’t there.  And most casinos offer at least some nickel machines, so it’s a good game for a casual player on a limited bankroll.  And unlike slots, video poker allows players to learn and use a great playing strategy to boost their odds. And with the right game and the right paytable, the odds can be with the player instead of the casino.  Me, I’m a quiet person and video poker lets me relax into the game.

Let’s talk about casino signup bonuses for a moment. Almost every online casino out there is going to offer you bonus money to play with them. But you need to carefully consider the bonus offers and the terms and conditions before accepting any offers from the casino. Now, this isn’t to say that the offers are bad.  Casinos will carry through on what they promise, but they also carefully plan those bonus offers so they won’t lose money.  So, I’m going to give you a few things to keep track of when it comes to terms and conditions.

What games can you play? This is the first thing I always check. Most casino bonus offers are good for slots, keno and scratch cards — all games where the casino has a better chance of winning than you do.  But if you play slots, you’ll still have more money to play with.  And some casinos do have bonuses for games like video poker and blackjack. It’s just that the amount of the bonus is usually less than the slots bonus or it may require and higher play through.

Which is the next detail you need to check on when it comes to bonuses. What are the play though requirements. A play through requirement means you’ll have to wager the money you deposit a certain number of times before you can cash out any winnings. Now, it may not seem like much for the casino to require you to play through the money they give you extra times, but keep in mind that you’ll probably have to play through your own money multiple times. So a bonus means your money is tied up for an extra long time.

So, don’t pass up those casino bonuses but do check out all the requirements. Make sure you’re happy playing the online casino games you need to play.

Do you play single hand or multi hand video poker?  I’m often a single hand player, perhaps just because it lets me play longer if I have a limited bankroll and I don’t always have the biggest bankroll. And, hey, a lot of readers probably don’t have a big bankroll either.  Now single hand or multi hand poker won’t change the odds or the strategy you should use when playing your favorite video poker game. There’s really only one advantage to playing multiple hands at one time — it increases the speed at which you through the hands. So, to break this down. If you have a 1 in 40,000 chance of hitting a royal flush, the faster you get through 40,000 hands, the sooner you might hit one.  Which is why plenty of people play the multi-hand games.  They’re the impatient players.  But let’s take a look at how a multi-hand video poker game works.

Yes, you get through more hands in a shorter time frame, this doesn’t change the actual odds. It just makes the cards move faster. So if you hit a run of bad hands, you’ll go through those and your money faster too. Here’s how a multi-hand game works. The video poker game deals the expected number of hands, which can 2, 3 or 100, with 1 hand revealed. You choose the cards you want to hold in the revealed hand and those same cards are held for all the hands. So, if you’re holding a pair of jacks, you’re holding a pair of jacks in all your hands. And a pair of jacks isn’t going to turn in to a royal flush, though you can hope for 4 of a kind. Of course, if you have three to a royal, you also have more chances of one of those turning into a royal flush.

But remember, none of this changes the overall odds or strategy of the game. Look at your bankroll and consider the amount of time you want to play.  One hand at a time might be better for the patient player.

Have you played at Bodog casino yet?  If you haven’t, you’ll want to check them out. They’ve been a solid casino and online poker room for some time. Of course if you live in the US, you have a limited amount of time to enjoy the Bodog experience since they will be leaving the US market at the end of this year as part of change to be more inline with the UK market.  But if Morris Mohawk Gambing, the current license granter of Bodog, will be opening their own casino brand at the end of the year and Bodog players will be able to transfer to the new site.  So sign up with Bodog now and you can enjoy all the Bodog fun through 2011 and then the new MMG site as soon as it opens.

And Bodog has some great offers to make you want to play with them this month.  They’re giving away a hot vacations for two and you could win. All you have to do is play the suggested games each week and earn tickets for the drawing. Each week is a different destination so play for your favorite or play for them all.

Play any Bodog slot game August 8^th through August 14^th and for every $10, you’ll get 1 ticket to the drawing for a trip to Las Vegas. Earn 100 tickets and get a $25 cash prize.

Play Let ‘em Ride or Video poker August 15^th through August 21^st and  you can win a trip to Cancun. This time you’ll earn a ticket for every $100 gambled and once again 100 tickets will get you a $25 prize.

And to close out August, Bodog invites you to play any game in the Bodog Casino for a trip to Ibiza in the Mediterranean.  For every $100 gambled you win a ticket and 100 tickets will get you a $25 prize.  Plus every ticket is a chance to party!

I haven’t been able to check every Vegas Technology casino out there, but it does look like the majority of the Vegas Technology casinos have closed their door on August 1^st as they said they would.  Which makes this a sad month for online gambling.  I always enjoyed playing at English Harbour and some of the other casinos for their freeroll slot tournaments.  Sometimes I would even win a couple of dollars in at freeroll slots, which gave me a couple of extra bucks to play with.  But it seems that English Harbour and other online casinos in the group have been victims of the US crackdown on payment processors.

English Harbour and the other casinos in the group ran into trouble processing payments when the US Feds froze the funds from one of their payment processors. While the Feds didn’t go after the online casinos themselves, they did make it difficult to get money to players.  Now the casinos have been able to pay players or are going through the process of getting money to players. But rather than fight through the problems that other casinos are facing in the US, it looks like they decided to close their doors.  I have heard that members of the group that didn’t have a US facing operation may have remained open for UK players, however since I’m in the US, I haven’t been able to check that.

There are still great online casinos open to US players and some of them do offer freeroll slot tournaments. So there are places available to play.