 Info
about gambling and online casinos in general
Topics:
Online
Casino
Online casinos, also known as virtual casinos or internet casinos,
are online versions of traditional ("brick and mortar")
casinos. Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino
games through the Internet.
Online casinos generally offer odds and
payback percentages that are comparable to land-based casinos.
Some online casinos claim higher payback percentages for slot
machine games, and some publish payout percentage audits on their
websites. Assuming that the online casino is using an appropriately
programmed random number generator, table games like blackjack
have an established house edge. The payout percentage for these
games are established by the rules of the game.
Reliability and trust issues are commonplace
and often questioned. Many online casinos lease or purchase their
software from well-known companies like Wager Works, Microgaming,
Realtime Gaming, Playtech and Cryptologic in an attempt to "piggyback"
their reputation on the software manufacturer's credibility. These
software companies either use or claim to use random number generators
to ensure that the numbers, cards or dice appear randomly.
Online
casino types
Online casinos can be divided into three groups based on their
interface: web-based casinos, download-based casinos, and more
recently live casinos. Some casinos offer multiple interfaces.
Web-based
online casinos
Web-based online casinos are websites where users may play casino
games without downloading software to the local computer. Games
are mainly represented in the browser plugins Macromedia Flash,
Macromedia Shockwave, or Java and require browser support for
these plugins. Also, bandwidth is needed since all graphics, sounds
and animations are loaded through the web via the plugin. Some
online casinos also allow gameplay through a plain HTML interface.
Download-based
online casinos
Download-based online casinos require the download of the software
client in order to play and wager on the casino games offered.
The online casino software connects to the casino service provider
and handles contact without browser support. Download-based online
casinos generally run faster than web-based online casinos since
the graphics and sound programs are located within the software
client, rather than having to be loaded from the Internet. On
the other hand, the initial download and installation of a download-based
online casino client does take time. As with any download from
the Internet, the risk of the program containing malware does
exist.
Live-based
casinos
Live-based casino gaming is a way to interface with a real world
casino while playing online. Recent advancments in communication
technology now allow land-based casinos to open a real-time window
via the web for players to game tables in an interactive, live
environment. With live gaming players can see, hear, and interact
with live dealers at tables in brick and mortar casinos worldwide.
Games
offered
A typical selection of games offered at an online casino might
include:
Baccarat
Blackjack
Craps
Roulette
Slot Machines
Video Poker
See also casino game.
Signup
bonuses
Many online casinos offer signup bonuses to new players making
their first deposit. These bonuses normally match a percentage
of the player's deposit with a dollar maximum, and almost all
online casino signup bonuses require a minimum amount of wagering
before allowing a cash out. Gameplay at specific casino games
might be excluded from the wagering requirement calculation.
A fictional signup bonus offer follows
as an example:
The online casino offers new players a
deposit matching bonus of 100%, up to $100
The player must wager 25 times the total amount of the deposit
plus the 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. The player must make
$5000 ($200 × 25) in wagers before being allowed to make
a withdrawal.
Advantage play in casino signup bonus situations
is mathematically possible. For example, the house edge in blackjack
is roughly 0.5%. In the example above, $5000 in wagering with
a house edge of 0.5% will result in an expected loss of $25. Since
the player received a $100 signup bonus, the player has an expected
profit of $75.
Advantage players who use bonus offers
for an expected profit are often called "bonus hunters",
"bonus abusers", "bonus baggers", "bonus
whores" and "casino scalpers". Some online casinos
have restrictions regarding "the spirit of the bonus offer"
which they sometimes use as a deterrent to what they consider
"bonus abuse".
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.
Fraudulent
online casino behavior
Fraudulent behavior on the part of online casinos has been documented.
The most commonly reported behaviors are refusal to pay withdrawals
or cheating software. An online casino with multiple confirmed
cases of fraudulent behavior is often called a rogue casino by
the online casino player community.
One commonly reported behavior related
to refusal to pay withdrawals is the refusal to pay withdrawals
promptly. A rogue casino may intentionally delay a withdrawal
in hopes that the player will continue gambling with the money
in the account and lose it all back.
Cheating software appears to be less common
than payout problems.
Some casino software has been mathematically
proven to cheat, such as Casino Bar (evidence by Michael Shackleford
and others). Elka System/Oyster Gaming software is known to cheat,
also confirmed by Michael Shackleford. Statistically non-random
video poker has been reported at Playtech, see article "OCA
STATS". Screen shots from the back office of an older brand
of software indicated the odds could be adjusted by the operator.
Much of the speculation about casino software
cheating is usually the result of a player finding a pattern in
a statistically small set of results. Most people in the online
casino industry believe that most of the major casino software
brands offer odds and paybacks that are the same as their land-based
casino counterparts.
Many casino gambling portals and player
forums maintain blacklists of rogue casinos. These can easily
found in any major search engine, but most of them constitute
individual webmaster and player opinions rather than anything
official from any type of regulating body.
Fraudulent player behavior
Common fraudulent behavior from online casinos players includes
the signing up for multiple casino accounts using different identities
in order to claim a bonus offer multiple times. Another form of
fraudulent behavior might be the use of a graphics editing software
like Adobe Photoshop to create a false winning slot machine game
screenshot in an attempt to tell the casino they hit a jackpot
and didn't get paid for it.
Online casinos usually lock the player
accounts for these people, and it's widely believed that online
casinos share fraudulent player blacklists.
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