Saturday, August 11, 2012

Choosing The Internet Casino

Online casinos first became popular in the mid 1990s and ever since then the industry has blossomed. They still are not as popular as binary options. Digital options are very popular in countries like Germany and Italy and they are called Opzioni Binarie which means digital options. You could make more money with binary options than gambling but it s a little more complicated. You have to choose the right broker and so on. The best binary options brokers are anyoptions and banc de binary. Choosing one of them will take you a long way.

But back to casinos. While it took a few years for them to really become popular and draw players in, there is no doubt that online gaming is one of the most frequented type of internet activity by people around the world. This fact is evident in the hundreds and even thousands of gambling websites that are out there for you to choose from. But with so many sites, how does one pick and choose which one is the best for them?

That answer is not easy because every player is different and so too is their personal preferences and desires. Before attempting to pick the “right” site for you, you should first go over what you will be looking for in a gambling establishment. Do you want a huge welcome bonus or a massive game selection, maybe even both? You can find all this information and more just by doing a bit of research before signing up on a particular site, and trust me, the research will most definitely pay off.
Game Selection

The type of games offered at a particular site is often the biggest hinge on which a player makes his or her decision about a particular gambling site. Right off the bat you may be thinking that the better one is the one that offers hundred and hundreds of games, so many games that it is hard to keep track of them all. While sites that have a large game selection are great, they are not always the best, and maybe not the best for you individually. Before simply judging a site because it has a lot of games, you should check into the games themselves and even see what current and former players had to say about the games in player reviews, forums, etc.

Also, another key fact about game selection is the type of game the site promotes more than another. For example, if you are going to an internet site in order to hit the tables and play some intense poker, you probably shouldn’t pick a site that mainly offers slots or something along those lines. A little known fact is that many places specialize, meaning they offer one type of game more than any other. If you pick a site that has a bunch of games that are not the ones you want, you will either have to learn how to play a new game or take all the time it takes to find another site and sign up there.

Bonuses
Internet gambling sites of all types offer bonuses for new players and for players in general all the time. Bigger sites typically have more attractive bonuses than smaller sites but even small sites need to offer nice bonuses in order to gain a solid player base. As a new player you have the whole world at your hands because you can quite literally shop around for the best new player bonus and best ongoing promotions.
A typical new player bonus works by giving you a percentage of your initial deposit back to you in bonus money. So for example, if the bonus offers a 100% bonus up to $500 and you deposit $300 initially, you will then have $600 to begin play with. This is how it works on most sites and while many folks think it is just some gimmick created to get you to a particular site, it can really help boost your bankroll.
After receiving the bonus, and in most cases, doubling their initial money, a lot of players think they can outsmart the "machine" and cash out their money right away. This is where players can get themselves into a bit of trouble because if you attempt to cash out bonus monies before you are able to, your bonus money will typically be taken away. Now how do you ever cash out bonus money then? The answer is simple, you have to read the terms and conditions. Once you sign up for a bonus you are forced to agree to the terms and conditions of the bonus and within those terms it spells out what you have to do to be able to withdraw your bonus funds. In most cases a player must wager a certain amount or place a certain number of bets before the bonus money can be turned into cash in a players wallet.
Software
Software is a facet of many sites that players overlook and dismiss quickly. The type of software that a website uses will determine the quality of your games (including graphics), speed of the games, and how fast you are able to download the software itself.
You may be thinking, “I’m no tech junkie, how am I supposed to know what good software is?”, but the reality is that you do not have to be a computer nerd to know all about an internet site’s software, rather just do a little research. By looking for player reviews about a certain site’s software, you will find out all types of information and be able to better understand why or why not you should pick this one. The newest systems may seem attractive at first, but along the way you may find out that even some of the newest systems are supporting software that may be years old.
All in all picking the right casino is a must for any new player because it is good to find a permanent home as opposed to jumping around from site to site wasting both time and money in the process. Like I have been saying all along, it takes only a simple Google search to find out just about anything and everything about a particular one. By critically analyzing all of the different facets of the gambling website you will have a great understanding as to how the site works and how you can have the best player experience on the site.

Online Gambling In The United States

As you may or may not be aware, the industry is gaining a lot of popularity around the world and with that popularity comes a bit of turmoil. Especially in the United States, governments ,both local and national, have been fighting to make all types of websites illegal. The problem is that many people in the United States think that the gambling associated with internt is intrinsically evil and should not be allowed in the country.

While there is plenty of opposition to the legalization of internet gambling on a national level, many groups have been working hard to win the legalization of these sites in individual states. The fight for intrastate gambling has been a slow won and like any other battle has had its fair shares of victories and losses. As we look towards the future, many hopefuls envision a United States where websites and gambling is legal and state regulated, but until that day comes the fight will still rage on.
Why Is Gambling Illegal?
The first question a lot of people who are not familiar with the situation ask is about why internet palces and gambling is illegal in the first place. That is a good question but it is also one that is a bit difficult to explain because there are so many different reasons from so many different groups of people.
One of the biggest concerns amongst the general population in regards to the legalization of internet gambling is underage gambling. In brick and mortar gambling houses underage gambling is a recurrent theme and those places have live personnel checking IDs, the thought is that online any 14 year old kid can pose as a legal 18 year old gambler without ever having to face the identification scrutiny that they would face at an actual place. While this is a very big concern it is not one that other nations have not addressed. Penalties for underage gambling, in many other nations, falls upon the person who is caught gambling as well as their parents because it is usually the parents that facilitates a young child’s gaming habits. Opposition groups in the US claim that there is no full proof way to check, and be sure of, a person’s age and until there is gambling websites should be illegal.

Another major reason why these places are illegal in the United States is because people just view it as flat out evil. The amount of gambling addiction in the US is quite high, and because of that a lot of groups view webistes as a perpetrator of gambling addiction which is true to an extent but not in its entirety. Gambling addiction is a problem all over the world, but many other nations have great ways of handling victims of gambling addiction without ruining it for the other grinders and recreational players. The problem with the United States lies within the fact that they simply do not wish to entertain the thought of legalizing internet gambling. The people of the United States and their government hide behind the “we have better things to worry about” excuse when addressing the legalization.
The Fight For Legalization
Legalization in the United States is a situation that has been argued and debated over for years at this point. As soon as one group of people seems to achieve a victory, another group wins a decision against the fight so it is really starting to become a stalemate. The main plan of action for most gambling activists is to work in individual states in order to pass legalization laws at the state level instead of fighting for a national level law. The thought is that if enough states are able to legalize gambling within their state that the federal government will take notice and rethink their current ruling. In the early running quite a few states have passed laws and have bills going through their respective house and senate, but it is a slow process and it may be years before we are once more able to enjoy all of the best websites without jumping through a hundred hoops.
How Do Some Sites Still Operate?
While gambling sites and gambling in general is illegal in the United States, it is no secret that there are plenty of gambling establishments that US citizens still play on. But why haven’t these sites been shut down like the big ones were?
The main reason is because the US government quite frankly does not want to waste their time with small sites who will end up paying small fines and creating a big mess. These sites are quite literally flying under the radar and until they become the big fish the US government will not want to bother.
Another reason some sites are still able to keep running in the US even though sites are illegal is because some places are licensed and operated from different countries and the US government is legally unable to touch them. It is one of the many loopholes that exist in the current state of online gambling, being as unregulated as it is.
I have only begun to scratch the surface of the legal situation regarding sites in the United States, but there is no doubt that this is becoming quite the fiasco. Many gamblers do not understand why their country is so vehemently against online gambling while they see hundreds of other country’s citizens playing games without issue. Even knowing that they could make millions of dollars in tax revenue off of the regulation, the government still turns a blind eye.
To me, it does not make sense to pass up the tax revenue that could be earned by legalizing online gaming, especially when the United States is in a situation where any and all extra revenue would be of great help.  

Crime Associated With The Casino Industry

Whenever there is a flourishing industry there is crime that comes with it. It happens with banks, government, and even churches which means that there should be no surprise when you find out that there is plenty of crime involved with both internet casinos and brick and mortar ones. The crimes are different but nearly all of them carry the same type of undertones.
Sometimes it is the players that commit the crimes whereas sometimes it is the house itself that is committing the crime. Unlike a lot of other crime, most of the law breaking involved with websites is nonviolent and not as tragic as things like murder, hunger, and other common plights of our society.

When playing at an online gambling site a lot of folks will wonder how on earth they can be the victim of a crime. In actuality, being the victim of a crime is easier than it is when playing at a brick and mortar establishment. The reason is because all of your money is being handled electronically, most of the time with little involvement on your part. For example, you deposit money into PayPal, then that same money is transferred to the internet site you are playing at and is moved around by the online cashier. Since a lot of players do not keep track of their bankroll down to the last penny, there have been instances when websites were stealing from their players. While the thievery may have only been a penny or two at a time (eg. An unnoticeable amount), once a casino steals a few pennies from their hundreds of thousands of players the amount of money which they have stolen really begins to add up.

A gambling house could repeat this same practice day in and day out and while you may not realize that pennies are being taken out of your bankroll, you are slowly losing money while the site that you are loyal to is illegally raking in profit. This is not something that you can stop on your own, but by paying close attention to the amount of cash in your bankroll you will be able to catch the problem before it becomes too big and alert the appropriate authorities. Countless places have been shutdown in the past and have faced major penalties all because they couldn’t simply play by the rules.
Another type of crime is hacking, which involves third party criminals hacking a particular website in order to garner the personal information of any and all the players on the site. The information that these hackers are going after includes bank account and credit card information, but you must also realize that your home address and contact information is also likely at the disposal of these hackers. Once again, there is little you, as a player, can do to thwart hackers because you probably do not even realize that your account has been hacked. The one preventative measure that you can take is to play with a good reputation. A good reputation means that the site is probably hard to hack and therefore your information will be safe. I cannot speak to which sites are easy to hack and which sites are not because I am not a computer hacker. Becoming the victim of a computer hacker via a site is rare, but it has happened before and will probably happen again.
Heists
We have briefly gone into the details of how crime happens and just how you can be affected by it, but now we will explain how crime develops in and around actual houses as well.
Anyone with half of a brain will know that a gambling house obviously has stockpiles of money in order to pay players and keep games running, and anywhere there is a pile of money there is a bunch of people who would like to take that money. Throughout history there have been countless stories of people who tried to overrun these places and make away with the cash that they have. Some houseshave been successfully robbed, but most thwart criminals before they are able to get too far.
Nowadays the amount of security, coupled with the full-proof nature of that security, are all most places need in order to prevent people from even thinking about robbing a brick and mortar gambling house.
Card Counting
In the game of blackjack, people have discovered that there is a mathematical procedure you can follow to be able to quite literally “count” the cards in play and be able to determine which card you will get next as well as the cards other players, including the dealer, have currently. Card Counting is not allowed in nearly every place but in order to catch card counters places have to pay incredibly close attention.
For those of you thinking that you may want to try card counting for yourself, think again, because only those gifted with superb mathematical skills will be able to count cards effectively and subtly enough to avoid being discovered. All in all, card counting has paid off huge for those that have succeeded, but has ended up with big penalties for those who have failed…and there are plenty of folks who have failed.
Crime is going to be a part of nearly every industry, that is an inevitability, but being able to understand the type of crime that affects online these places can be your first step in avoiding becoming a victim of such a crime. If you, at any point, think that you may be a victim of an crime you should alert authorities or the website itself. These are no laughing matters, especially because these palces have access to loads of personal information that you would not want to be falling into the hands of people who will take advantage of it.

Friday, August 10, 2012

History Of Gambling Establishment

Nowadays we hear the word casino and automatically picture the flashing lights, loud sounds, and grandeur associated with the great places of Las Vegas and Atlantic City. But like many other industries, this industry arose from humble beginnings, so humble in fact, that no body truly knows where gambling first originated.
Now this mean much more than a game of poker or a spin of the slots. Gambling houses of today are enormous for one, and have so much to do that you could spend a week at without hitting the tables even once. Today you can go to a gambling place and see a show, go shopping, or simply to relax by the pool. Back when gambling houses and the idea originated, things were not quite so extravagant. In fact, the original places were no bigger than the typical house and most definitely did not give you free nights at the hotel just for playing.
The history of gambling is not easy to pinpoint or to track because just about every group of people that has ever existed has participated in some form of gambling. To credit one particular person or group with the creation of gambling would be erroneous. Leave it to the Chinese though, because at almost 2300BC they recorded some of the earliest forms of gambling.
The first place originated in Venice, Italy and back then was not referred to as being a real gamling house, although it fit the bill quite well. In 1638 Italian authorities were looking for a way to regulate the gambling going on in their city during Carnival, and this need spawned the creation if the Ridotto, the first palce. In 1770 the place was shut down because it was blamed for making the townspeople poor.

Cross the Atlantic and then we have to discuss early American places, more commonly known as saloons. The original saloons, which were the impetus for the following saloons and eventually the plethora of saloons we see today were not nearly as large as the saloons we witness nowadays. Back then, four cities were behind the saloon movement and these cities were New Orleans. Chicago, San Francisco, and St. Louis. Saloons were so attractive because they gave travelers a place to go and rest and meet new people. While at the saloons travelers of all types would chat, drink, and most importantly, gamble.
Saloons were doing just fine up until the turn of the 20th century when activists groups and state governments began to slowly but surely do away with gambling as many people viewed it as being a social evil. 1931 proved to be a breakthrough year for gambling all over the world, and this breakthrough happened in a small Western US state known as Nevada. In that year Nevada’s state government legalized gambling within the state and before you could even blink, Las Vegas and Reno were bustling cities full of life, and most importantly, gambling. Fast forward a few decades and we find ourselves in the year 1978 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. It was in 1978 that the first legal ones were able to be formed in the beach town of Atlantic City, New Jersey. Gambling proved to be great for these two towns as they still flourish as the two biggest gambling cities in the United States.
The history of internet saloons does not stretch back quite as far as brick and mortar ones for obvious reasons. But if you can remember back to 1994; that is where the origins of online gambling occurred.
In 1994, the Caribbean country by the name of Antigua and Barbuda passed what is known as the Free Trade and Processing Act which essentially allowed for the creation of internet gambling websites. Before the websites that we know today were able to created and even before Antigua passed their law, the only form of online gambling that existed was from a company called Microgaming which was licensed out of the Isle of Man.

In 1996, the Kahnawake Gaming Commission was formed and began issuing licenses to many websites that are still around today. The use of licenses for internet saloons was popularized by Kahnawake and it made the saloon industry seem more like a functioning business model than it ever had before. Between 1996 and 1998 is when online gambling and gambling at internet began to really become popular. In 1996 there were no more than 20 gambling places in existence; by the next year there were over 200. In 1998 the industry was boosted even more because online poker was introduced and revenues from saloons in that same year exceeded $800 million.

In 1999 there was a bill created that attempted to make online gambling illegal but it did not pass. Also in 1999, software made it possible for multiplayer games which allowed players to chat with and interact with other players all while playing their favorite games.

A year later, in 2000, Australia’s government made a bold move and passed a law that would make the creation of any new places illegal. To this day, any saloon that was not licensed and running by the month of May in 2000 is not allowed to offer its services to Australian citizens. As the 21st century has progressed we have seen a mix of websites innovation while at the same time seeing a big push for the illegalization of any form of online gambling. The United States and many other countries have large sums of people who despise websites and brick and mortar saloons and would like to see the entire industry crumble. The fate of online casinos going in to the future is nothing short of uncertain, but for those of us who enjoy it, we know that there should be absolutely nothing illegal about playing games and risking our own hard earned money.