Online Bingo

How do
you chat during games of online bingo?

 

The web’s
premium online bingo parlours contain split screen games. In other words, half
the screen contains a digital bingo game, while the other half of your screen contains
a chat box (similar to messenger). Once you’re a member of your favourite site,
you’ll be able to make friends and chat to other member during games by simply
typing in the box. You can select private messaging with one or more of your
friends, people you want to be your friends :), or join in the mass free for
all!

Mastering
the bingo lingo and making friends is the key to really getting the bingo buzz
– plus, it also enables you to join in the bonus chat games (card games,
trivia, brain teasers) which payout in free bingo credits for hours of free
gaming!

 

How do
you play & win at online bingo?

Online
bingo parlours either offer 90 Ball Bingo, 75 Ball Bingo or preferably – a
choice of both the UK
style 90 and the American 75 game. Either way – the basic aim of the games
remain very similar. Every time you buy a bingo ticket – the bingo software
creates a completely randomised set of numbers. So – even if you play with 50
bingo tickets in every game…the chances of an identical ticket are virtually
zero!

Your aim
is to mark off the numbers that match those drawn by the bingo spinner. If you
match enough numbers to form a winning combo – you win a cash reward! 90 Ball
combos are generally for 1-line, 2-lines and Full House jackpots, while the American
game often delivers whacky combos and game card shapes!

Most bingo
websites will automatically indicate when you have a winning card – so if you
miss a couple of numbers (probably because you’re new to the game or chatting
away!)……you’ll still get alerted to the win! What’s more, you can use
auto-daub options to let the computer mark you card – just sit back, chat and
relax in style!

 

How
much can you win playing online bingo?

Bingo is a
game of luck – so while everyone has a chance of winning with every ticket,
some gamers get luckier than others. You’re also likely to go through hot and
cold gaming sessions – but remember to always keep smiling! If you’re one of
the really lucky bingo players, you can win big progressive bingo jackpots
worth thousands. At the other end of the scale, low level bingo wins can
deliver enough to buy a another session’s worth of bingo tickets. Bingo payouts
happen frequently, but their value depends on factors including ticket price,
game type and parlour. Most long-term gamers manage to enjoy some nice medium
sized payouts.

 

Can you
play online bingo for free?

Online
Bingo tickets range in price – but with good parlours offering ticket prices
from 5-10 pence, everyone can afford some weekly gaming sessions. The good news
is – new gamers don’t have to spend a penny to trial real bingo games. You can
easily find offers of £5 free
bingo
credits when you join, risk-free.

 

Are
bingo websites the same as online casinos?

Bingo
parlours have a much more relaxed vibe than many online casinos – so you’re
sure to find a very warm welcome from the parlour’s bingo hosts and existing
members. Hundreds of people are signing-up every week – so you definitely won’t
be the only newbie! However, many online bingo parlours have mini-casinos
offering video slots and classic, real-feel casino games.

 

Why are
so many people playing online bingo?

Everyone
seems to be playing online bingo – from office workers, to hip student, to
doctors and even a huge bunch of celebrities! The fact is bingo is great fun
and it makes everyone welcome and feel the same – just special!

21Nova

21Nova Casino

21Nova are regarded as one of the very best online casinos in the industry and they have built this reputation through a lot of hard work and more importantly by listening carefully to what their customers want. Apparently what the customers wanted was a huge number of games and great service and this is what 21Nova deliver.

21Nova are fully regulated and this is something which is very important in the online gambling world as it gives you the customer assurance that this online casino plays fair and will pay out your winning in a prompt manner and that the games at the casino are all fair and even.

The gaming software used by 21Nova is Playtech and they have been growing steadily over the years until they now rival Microgaming in terms of quality of games. The graphics at 21Nova are very good and overall the gaming experience is very pleasant, 21Nova offer the following games:

Table games: There’s about 20 table games to choose from including the following, Blackjack, Pai Gow, Baccarat, Casino War, Pontoon, Casino Hold’em and many more.

Live games: I just love live games because you really get a sense of being in an online casino when you play them, 21Nova have Baccarat, Roulette, Baccarat and Sic Bo.

Slot Games: Plenty to choose from in this category in a lot of fun variations like, Video 5 Line, Video 20-line as well as classic reel games.

Video Poker: Again a very respectable selection in this category, there’s about 15 different video poker games too choose from.

Arcade Games: As the name suggest these games are a bit more light hearted but that doesn’t mean that you can’t win big money on them!

Progressive: These games offer the really huge jackpots, and when I say huge I mean huge. The majority of these games are slots games.

Asian Games: If you want to try something a bit different why don’t you try your hand at some of the Asian Games.

21Nova online casino have some fabulous promotions and bonuses to tempt you with. To start off with there is the very nice signup bonus which is paid out in three stages with the final stage offering a 320% bonus up to $320! If you make your deposits via Neteller, Bankers draft or a Wire transfer then you get an extra 15% bonus on every deposit and if you deposit with Citadel, EcoCard, FirePay, Maestro/Switch Card, Moneybookers, PaysafeCard, Solo
Card, UseMyBank or WebMoney then its a 10% bonus. They even give you €50 for every friend you introduce to 21Nova so if you are popular that could be a very nice extra bit of money. 21Nova  online casino run a very nice loyalty programme with comp points which I recommend that you join if you decide to sign up with them.

In summary I think this is top online casino and I’m sure you’ll enjoy playing at 21Nova. 

 

Advanced No-Limit STTs

It is extremely hard to become a really good player of Single-Table Poker tournaments. There is a hell of a lot to learn and of course practice practice practice! In this article we try to give you some tips to get you started on the road of Single-Table poker tournaments but if you are interested there are many excellent books available which go into the subject in much more detail.

 

If you have the patience for it then I would always recommend playing standard Single-Table tournaments instead of speed tournaments.

Good players, of which you’ll be one, have a far greater advantage in a standard single-table tournament, and the reason for this is that so much of the play occurs after the flop where tactics and strategy really come into play. At a standard Single-table tournament the blinds rise slowly enough that you will stand a good chance of knocking out the weaker players before the poker tournament enters the lethal all-in or fold stage! In addition your stack will also be far more stable and suffer less from variance in a standard single-table poker tournament compared with a speed tournament. Because the stack is more stable it will become much more apparent who the good opposition are and who are the weaker players to be picked off. 

 

Don’t be too eager to see the flop, especially in the beginning of the poker tournament. 

It’s always good to be able to see the flop and by doing so complete a winning hand but in a Single-Table tournament the blinds tend to increase very quickly in comparison with your stack, a lot more than it would in a regular ring poker game. In complete contrast to a standard poker game have draw hands really isn’t to useful, especially in the earlier rounds of the tournament.

 

Don’t get nervy when the blinds get big

Towards the end of the tournament it is essential that you play aggressively if you are to have any chance of winning the whole poker tournament. This is where a lot of average players go wrong in that wait too long for the killer hand before betting. In actual fact in the latter stages you should be looking for every possible opportunity to steal the blinds because it is such a fantastic way of building up your stack without having to go to a showdown.

 

Try and get a really intimidating stack

This may sound blindingly obvious but it ties in very well with the previous point of trying to steal blinds in a poker tournament. It is virtually impossible to steal blinds if your stack is only slightly bigger than the big blind because one of the other players in a blinds position will almost certainly call you. This makes sense because they are already committed by paying the blind and therefore have pot odds on their side but also because poker players in a tournament just love to knock each other out as that is the whole point. To have a reasonable chance of stealing a blind your stack needs to be at least 3 times the size  of the big blind and preferably nearer to 4 times as large.  Having a stack this size is almost as crucial as having chips in the first place as being short stacked  means you have to get good cards or be very very lucky. If your stack falls below this level then you really need to start taking some more risks  and playing aggressively to get it back up to  a decent level.

 

Pot Odds are incredibly important towards the end of the poker tournament 

You shouldn’t expect to have any great advantage when you go all-in against an opponent in a single-table poker tournament. Having said that even if you just have a slight positive edge then you should call the opponent player. Let me illustrate this with an example. Lets say that you are seated in the big blind position with a 10,7 spades. The blinds are 200-400 and some player in a middle position goes all in for 950 which the other players fold to, should you make a call?

The answers is a huge resounding yes. By making the call you are only putting in an extra 550 chips in what now totals a very respectable pot of 2100. You therefore only need a 26.1% chance of winning to make this good pot odds and because your cards are suited and close to each other you easily have this. Even if your opponent was sitting with A K spades you would still have a chance of winning.

It is very important to know what probability of success each pocket card combination will give you in comparison to other hands pre-flop. Lets say that you have 2 high cards, A heart and K clubs, this will give you a 66% chance of success compared with 2 low cards like 6 spades 5 diamonds. A small pocket pair gives you roughly a 55% chance against 2 high cards so as you can see this kind of information is crucial for you to be able to make proper decisions.

 

It may be impossible to make reliable money out of high-stakes Single Table Tournaments

For the vast majority of players this really isn’t an issue, when I say high stakes here I am referring to games upwards of $200+$15. Most players never play in anything bigger than a $100+$9 buy in tournament. It is especially the high-roller speed Sit & Go’s which are tough to win money at. The first reason is fairly obvious and it is that at the high-stakes games you typically find very good players, a large proportion are professionals or at least very serious amateur players. To be able to have a consistent edge over these players is extremely difficult.

The second factor is that opposite to regular ring game there is no upper limit to how much a single table tournament will cost you! Players in a $5-$10 ring poker game pay virtually the same rake as players in a $50-$100 game because most online poker rooms cap the rake at $3.

This is not the case in poker tournaments where the rakes increase all the time. A player at a $200 St & Go tournament pay almost $15 in rake per tournament and players at at $500 poker tournament pay $30 each time they do a buy in.

If you add all these points together it is easy to see how it can be very expensive in a single table high stakes poker tournament!

888 Online Casino


888 have an outstanding track record when it comes to treating its
customers in a fair way. 888 aren’t content to rest on their laurels,
they are always adding the very latest features and gaming technology to
their online casino. 888 looks fantastic and runs on very good gaming
software offering a lot of high quality games. I always think that
whilst big bonuses aren’t essential for an online casino they certainly
give a clear statement that the casino is serious and 888 is in this
respect at the very fore front of online casinos.

Below are the main sections of casino games offered by 888, I could list
every single game they have but I fear I don’t have enough space on
this page!

– Progressive Games: At 888 the majority of the progressive
jackpots are slots games but there are a few others as well, all
offering huge top payouts.

– Slots Games: For some people Slots games are their favourite
casino games and it is certainly the area where online casinos excell as
they can offer such a massive choice. 888 is no exception with a superb
choice of games

– Table Games: In this category 888 offer Craps, American Roulette, European Roulette and a whole lot more.

– Video Poker Games: I know some players who are absolutely
hooked on VideoPoker and I can see the attraction, they offer a lot of
excitement and you also have very good odds compared to many other
casino games. 888 have many different types of VideoPoker for your
gaming pleasure.

– Card Games: 888 have a really great selection of card games,
and it is card games which most people associate with online casinos.
Games like Blackjack, Baccarat, Casino Hold’em and many more.

In addition to the games listed above 888 also have the following sections of games, Arcade style games.

Some times it can almost seem like there are too many promotions and
bonues to choose between, but is that such a bad thing! 888 have some
very nice bonuses for you to choose from but as always check the small
print before you sign up for them. The bonuses at 888 kicks off with a
fantastic welcome bonus of £/$800. Now that’s a nice way for any online
casino to say hello! Online casinos take player retention very seriously
and with good reason as the online casino market has never been more
competitive. The loyalty scheme offered by 888 is amongst the best I’ve
seen. In addition to the signup bonus they also have many other
excellent promotions and I recommend you check out their promotions page
for the very latest info.

888 is a great online casino but don’t just take my word for it. Click
on the link on this page to take a look for yourselves, you have nothing
to loose as they offer free money games so that you can test the games
before you desposit any money.

Poker Chips

If you only play poker online,
the importance of poker chips being used in the games might not be all that
obvious to you, but you should know, that besides being an integral part of the
whole casino atmosphere and environment, there are a few very solid reasons why
these tokens are being used instead of real money.

They are much more convenient to
use, counterfeiting them is almost impossible for several reasons: real casino
chips are specifically made in a way that makes counterfeiting very difficult.
The markings and prints on the chips are quite difficult to reproduce, and the
trained eyes of the casino employees mean nothing short of a perfect copy will
slip past their vigilance. Even if someone does manage to come up with perfect
copies, casinos have other ways to catch counterfeiters red-handed too. One
Canadian casino replaced all its chips and replaced them with alternative ones,
when they suspected counterfeiters were around. That allowed them to catch the
crooks in the act and have them arrested.

 

Chips are also much easier to
count when they’re stacked up, and the dealer has a much easier time paying out
players. The possibility of errors slipping into the payout is also much
reduced. Last, but certainly not least, it’s been proven that people find it
much easier to gamble on chips than on actual money.

Most authentic and/or quality
poker and casino chips are called “clay chips”. Make no mistake though, these
chips are not 100% clay by any means. If they were made of pure clay, they just
wouldn’t be resistant-enough to withstand the wear and tear they’re subjected
to, every day. This is the reason why – when making these chips – manufacturers
use a combination of clay and resin, plus sand or chalk. The actual
manufacturing process is a secret, but there are a few things, common to all
quality poker chips: The inserts, (aka edge spots) are not painted on. The maker
punches bits and pieces of the actual material the chips are made of, out, and
then fills the space with a different color, same consistency material which is
then molded together with the rest of the chip through thermal compression. The
extreme heat and pressure, the chip is subjected to, means the spots will mold
into it perfectly, and they will look like they’re painted on, but if you break
the chip, you’ll see the cross-section of it exhibiting the different materials
it’s made of.

 

Poker chips also have “inlays”,
which bear the graphics and artwork unique for every single casino and poker
room. Inlays are usually made of paper and/or plastic, and they’re applied to
the chip surface before compression, so once the chip’s done, they become
impossible to detach without breaking the chip first.

The fact that “clay” chips are
the most popular with casinos, doesn’t mean there are no chips made out of all
sorts of exotic materials. There are ceramic chips, wooden chips, leather chips,
aluminum chips, and let’s not forget about cheap old plastic chips. For these,
injection molding technology is used, and ABS plastic. Sometimes, you’ll find a
metal disk at the core of a plastic chip like this, which is there to lend it
weight.

 

With home poker games gaining in
popularity, poker chips manufacturers are also seeing a boom in business. If you
host poker games yourself, you should know that purchasing such chips (and other
home-poker accessories for that matter) is no longer a challenge. You can find
just about any quality and price-range online, what’s more, you don’t even have
to settle for what manufacturers have on stock, just place an order and have
your chips custom made.

Custom poker chips are not only
great to have around to play with, they make excellent gifts, too.

 

"Download some poker videos (there are plenty around on poker torrents) and see how the pros deal with certain situations. Don’t forget to sign up for a rakeback deal to further increase your odds."

Multi-Table No-Limit Poker tournaments

Multi-Table No-Limit Texas Hold’em Tournaments

POKER STRATEGY

The Popularity of Texas Hold’em tournaments continues to grow and grow. This is to a large extent due to the increasing popularity of the WSOP (World Series of Poker) and also the WPT (World Poker Tour) and EPT (European Poker Tour) etc. These tournaments are now regularly shown on TV and a lot of people watch these high money tournaments and reckon that since they are OK poker players they’ll give it a go themselves, playing through the satellites. In fact these days most Texas Hold’em is actually played in tournaments instead of the more traditional single table games, "ring" games.

No-Limit Texas Hold’em has a truly exceptional amount of variance in terms of the size of the players stacks. The stacks go up and down far more than they would in a standard ring game and the reason for this is that the bets are so large preflop especially towards the end of the tournament. It is very common to see a battle between for example Ace King and a high pocket pair later on in a tournament.

Now I’m not suggesting that you don’t play in Poker Tournaments, in fact I encourage you to as they are great fun. The thing to bear in mind though is that effect of luck is far more pronounced in a Poker tournament than it is in a traditional single table ring game. The reason for this is that you have to take big risks and win plenty of 50-50 hands to have any chance of winning the tournament, if you play conservatively it will not work!

 

Beginning of the poker tournament

The strategy of Texas Hold’em tournaments is quite different form a standard Texas Hold’em ring game. For one thing there is far less value in bluffing, mainly because the other players stacks are smaller compared to the size of the pot. Another reason is that loosing chips hurts you far more than winning chips in a poker tournament.

This can seem quite a confusing concept so let me explain further. Lets say you try to bluff your way to 1000 chips in a 2000 chip pot and you expect that you have a 50-60% chance of success. Now in a ring game this would be fairly good odds but not so in a tournament. The reason is that the 1000 chips you can win are worth much less than the 1000 chips you stand to loose if it all goes wrong. If your stack is 2000 and it falls down to 1000 it will seriously affect your game whereas if it grows to 3000 it won’t really make all that much difference. Another way of looking at this is that chips in a poker tournament don’t equate to money, you can’t cash in your chips whenever you like, the only way chips count are either if you loose them all or win them all. If you loose half of your chips then you are halfway out of the tournament, whereas winning 1000 only moves you a little bit closer towards winning and isn’t worth these type of big risks, at least not in the early stages!

This doesn’t mean that you should play overly tight just that you should avoid any unnecessary risks. In a poker tournament the blinds go up very quickly so if you don’t regularly win pots, at least one every rotation, you will wind your chip stack reducing very rapidly and eventually you will get knocked out. Towards the end of the tournament you can maybe consider winning pots to win the whole poker tournament but in the early stages you just want to win pots to stay in the game.

To sum up, in the beginning of a Texas Hold’em Poker tournament you should avoid taking any unnecessary risk, in the majority of cases the potential win will not justify the risk. Of course if it is cheap to see a flop with decent pocket cards then do it or if someone goes all in preflop when you are sitting with AA then call but otherwise caution is the watchword. I would also strongly advice against bluffing in a poker tournament, the other players will quickly figure this out  and in any case players naturally play more aggressive in a poker tournament so the chance of being called and beaten is to large, in other words it is far too risky.

 

Middle of the Poker Tournament

As you approach the middle of the poker tournament you will need to increase the tempo a little bit and start taking a few more risks. The blinds at this point will be larger which makes it easier to steal a few of them and it is here that the "GAP" concept comes into play. It takes a much weaker hand than usual to do a raise and steal the pot and a much better hand than usual from another player to call that raise. The middle of the tournament also introduces a kind of survival mode in most players where they think that because they have gotten this far they don’t want to get knocked out now.

The majority of the time in the middle part of the poker tournament you are just trying to survive as before and increase your stack where possible. You should shy away from situations where you have to go all-in except if you are fairly certain that you are sitting with the best hand, the "nuts". The majority of the time you should play consistently and just try to occasionally steal the pot and try and get as much money as possible from your opponents when you do get a good hand.

If you have managed to build up a large stack in this middle portion of the poker tournament then you can start putting some big pressure on your opponents and exploit the "survival mode" instinct. You should take control of the play and put the other players into all-in situations through your raises, where they risk getting knocked out compared to you just loosing a few chips. You should be careful of doing this too often though as players will soon get fed up and you might end up with several players going all-in in which case there is a good chance of one of them winning and increasing their stack at your expense. There is also a risk in this middle part that you will have a few maniacs left, more through good fortune than good play, and they will call everything so beware!

 

Towards the end of the poker tournament

Towards the end of the Texas Hold’em poker tournament is where you are going to have to start taking some bigger chances if you are to have any chance of winning the whole thing. At this stage the blinds are usually so large that short stacked players often go all-in preflop. In general if you want to go all in or see these all-ins you should have an Ace with a good kicker or a pocket pair. If you have an Ace with a good kicker you will have a small advantage over most hands which are smallish pairs and dominate hands which are not pairs. If you yourself have a pair you will have a small advantage over hands which are not pair, except Ace King etc, and a big advantage over smaller pocket pairs.

Generally if you have a decent hand towards the end of the poker tournament you should play and just push all your chips in to the pot preflop. This is especially true if you find yourself short stacked where the blinds will very quickly drain the rest of your stack anyway. There is a good chance that the flop won’t help you but because of the survival mode there is a good chance that you can steal the blinds anyway and you avoid the chance of someone bullying you off the pot after the flop.

 

If you do all of these things and have a very generous amount of luck on your side then you might win the Texas Hold’em tournament. In any case you will get much further than you would otherwise and in a poker tournament the taking part really is fun.

Bonus High Roller Casino

La
plupart des casinos et salles de poker en ligne ces jours-ci offrent
des bonus pour attirer les joueurs et offrent des bonus supplémentaires
et des promotions pour les garder sur le site de jeux.
Il ya aussi beaucoup de casinos haut rouleau qui offrent des bonus High Roller et ce sont ce que cet article est d’environ.

En
bonus Casino standard que je veux dire le type de bonus qui vous sera
normalement sur la page d’accueil du casino ou un site de poker, par
exemple à Joyland Casino ils ont un bonus de bienvenue standard de 300 €
ce qui est formidable, mais ils ont aussi une haute
bonus rouleau de 850 €!

Il ya cependant des différences majeures dans la façon dont ces bonus sont payés sur. La plupart des bonus de casino standard fonctionnent sur le principe d’un bonus correspondant. Par exemple, à Joyland Casino ils correspondent à votre dépôt initial de 30% jusqu’à un montant maximum de € 300. En d’autres termes, si vous déposez € 1000, puis ils mettront un € supplémentaire de 300 dans votre compte de jeu. Le montant minimum que vous pouvez déposer pour obtenir ce bonus est de 20 €. Le
pourcentage qui est adaptée et les limites maximales et minimales
varient casino casino formulaire pour mettre le principe de base est
presque toujours la même.
Maintenant,
pour empêcher les gens simplement en prenant le € supplémentaire de 300
et le fonctionnement du casino de certaines conditions de mise qui
doivent être remplies avant que l’argent peut être retiré.
Au
Joyland Casino vous devez miser 30 fois votre dépôt et le bonus si vous
avez déposé 100 € et a reçu une caution de 30 € vous auriez besoin de
parier pour € 3900 avant de pouvoir retirer 30 € de bonus.
Cela
ressemble beaucoup, mais en réalité, vous verrez que vous allez bientôt
avoir misé pour ce montant, il faut en moyenne que de prendre environ
150 jeux pour atteindre la limite et en supposant que vous avez la
chance de votre côté vous devriez toujours avoir un peu d’argent
gauche. En
plus de l’exigence de mise, vous trouverez également que certains jeux
sont exclus de la prime de casino, en fait, aux jeux de machines à sous
ne peuvent bénéficier Joyland vers le bonus, mais certainement la
quasi-totalité des bonus de bienvenue exclure blackjack par exemple.

Le
bonus High Roller Casino est dans le même sens que le bonus de casino
de bienvenue, sauf qu’il est pour beaucoup plus d’argent.
Au Joylands Casino, vous devez déposer € 5000 pour recevoir le bonus High Roller, qui s’élèvent à 850 €. Les mêmes restrictions existent comme pour le bonus de casino standard, mais le montant de la prime est beaucoup plus élevé. Le bonus standard de bienvenue est seulement jusqu’à un maximum de 300 € tandis que le bonus High Roller Casino est de € 850.

En
bout de ligne avec des bonus est de toujours vérifier les termes et
conditions avant de signer à eux, par exemple à Joyland Casino, il est
inutile de signature à l’une ou l’autre bonus de bienvenue € 300 ou le
bonus High Roller casino, si vous n’avez pas l’intention de
jouer
sur les créneaux horaires que vous ne rencontrerez jamais les
conditions de mise pour pouvoir retirer l’argent mais si vous aimez
fentes, puis il est Avery bon coup de pouce à votre bankroll et par tous
les moyens que vous devez prendre part.

Blackjack Basic Strategy Table

This chart is for blackjack games where you play with between 4 and 8 decks of cards. The dealer must stand
on a soft 17 and doubling after splitting is allowed.

 

Dealer’s Hand is on top

Player’s Hand on left side.

Hard Totals

Hard Totals 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T A
8 H H H H H H H H H H
9 H D D D D H H H H H
10 D D D D D D D D H H
11 D D D D D D D D D H
12 H H S S S H H H H H
13 S S S S S H H H H H
14 S S S S S H H H H H
15 S S S S S H H H H H
16 S S S S S H H H H H
17-20 S S S S S S S S S S

Soft Totals

Soft Totals 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T A
A 2 H H H D D H H H H H
A 3 H H H D D H H H H H
A 4 H H D D D H H H H H
A 5 H H D D D H H H H H
A 6 H D D D D H H H H H
A 7 S D D D D S S H H H
A 8 S S S S S S S S S S
A 9 S S S S S S S S S S

Pair Splitting (DAS)

Pairs 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 T A
2 2 P * P * P P P P H H H H
3 3 P * P * P P P P H H H H
4 4 H H H P P H H H H H
5 5 D D D D D D D D H H
6 6 P* P P P P H H H H H
7 7 P P P P P P H H H H
8 8 P P P P P P P P P P
9 9 P P P P P S P P S S
10’s S S S S S S S S S S
A’s P P P P P P P P P P

* HIT = If double after splitting  is not allowed.

Action: H = Hit  
S = Stand  
D = Double  
P = Split

A History of Online Casinos

Online Casinos have been a part of peoples lives for so long that it’s almost impossible to imagine a time when you couldn’t just sit down in front of your computer and play exciting casino and poker games but they have in fact only been around since about 1996.

It all started back in 1994 when the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbucda passed a law called the "The free trade and processing Act" which for the first time allowed online casinos to be operated, and there are still a lot of online casinos based in Antigua and Barbuda today.

In the same year, 1994, 3 pivotal companies were established, Microgaming and Starnet Communications who were the first companies to make specific online gaming software. They were very closely followed by the two brothers Andrew and Mark Rivkin and their company Cryptologic. One of the early goals was to create software which could handle payments to online casinos in a safe and secure way both for the casino players and the casinos themselves. 

Over the next few years their was an explosion in companies offering software and online gaming solutions, especially in Canada but it was still Microgaming and Cryptologic who were the innovators and leaders in this emerging market. The innovations of eCash and money management systems were all thanks to Cryptologic and their software. In 1996 Cryptologic branched out into online casino game software with its subsidiary WagerLogic.

It probably won’t come as any real surprise to discover that the oldest online casino still operating is InterCasino, for more information on Intercasino you can read our review of it.

Starnet Systems International started up a franchise scheme whereby Casino operators could use their patented online casino software in return for a cut of the casinos profits. Starnet used these profits to set up their own online casino, World Gaming Net.

It was early 1997 when Microgaming proudly unveiled the first ever progressive jackpot slots game called Cash Splash, at the time this caused quite a stir as for the first time players could win really big jackpots at online casinos in the same way as they could in for example Las Vegas.

The whole time online casinos were becoming more and more popular, in fact by the end of 1998 the industry was worth a staggering $835 million!

Many of the players enjoying online casinos at that time were from America and there have been repeated attempts over the years to ban online gambling, although curiously not that many to ban Las Vegas or Atlantic City! One of the first to try and stop online gambling was senator John Kyle from Arizona who failed to pass his bill "Internet Gambling Prohibition Act"  through the senate, but he didn’t give up and over the next few years he continually tried to get online gambling and particularly online casinos banned in the USA, but in the meantime online casinos were becoming more and more popular, not only in America but the whole of the world.

Australia have only ever given out one license for an online casino and that was awarded to Lasseters Casinos, who were already an established Casino chain, in 2000.

Around this time, 2000, there were about 700 online casinos in operation and the dominant online casino software companies were Microgaming, Cryptologic, Playtech, and Boss Media, much as it is now in fact.

Also around this time Argentina gave out a few online gambling licenses followed by The British Channel islands of the Isle of Man and Gibraltar. Of these Gibraltar has gone on to be a popular home for online casinos and many well known online casinos are based there.

Since 2001 there have been many attempts by various countries to ban online gambling and this has been a major factor in the establishment of many alternative online payment systems such as Neteller, Moneybookers, Paysafe etc. Unfortunately the USA has at this present time virtually killed off online gambling in America via the passing of the law called UIGEA in 2006 which was tagged onto the homeland security bill at the eleventh hour. This makes it illegal for Credit Card companies and other online payment operators to handle payments from US citizens to online casinos which in effect means it is impossible for US citizens to enjoy online casinos. There are however plans in place to challenge this law and we all hope it can get overturned when some sanity returns to US politics!

In 2001 the UK passed the Gambling Bill which makes it far easier for online casinos to operate directly out of the UK plus paved the way for the construction of super casinos to rival Las Vegas in size and grandeur.

Every country which hosts online casinos keep a very close eye on the online casinos in their territory to ensure that they operate in a fair and ethical manner and do not attempt to defraud players.

We are now in 2007 and online casinos have never been more popular, even though the market has all but vanished in America there are exciting developments for online casinos as they are having to focus on non english speaking countries and consequently online casinos are now available in a variety of languages. The future is looking very bright for online casinos, they have never been as professional and well run as they are these days. 

 

House edge on Craps Bets

Craps is a fantastic game but it is also a very strange game in many ways. One thing to be particularly aware of is that Craps offers some of the best bets in a casino with the lowest house edge at the same time that other best have extremely high house edges and are therefore amongst the very worst bets you can make in a casino. The table below shows you which bets to put money on and which you should only go for if you are really feeling extremely lucky!

Craps House Edge

Bet House Edge (Percent)
Pass Line/Come Bet 1.41
Don’t Pass/Come 1.40
Pass Line/Come Bet 2X odds .85
Don’t Pass/Come 2X odds .83
Place 6 and 8 1.52
Place 5 and 9 4.00
Place 4 and 10 6.67
Buy 6 or 8 4.76
Buy 5 or 9 4.76
Buy 4 or 10 4.76
Lay 6 or 8 4.00
Lay 5 or 9 3.23
Lay 4 or 10 2.44
Field Bet 5.56
Any Craps 11.11
Hardway 6 or 8 9.09
Hardway 4 or 10 11.10
Yo or 3 11.10
2 or 12 13.90
Any 7 16.70