Introduction to online gambling

What are online casinos?

Online casinos are gambling websites that host popular casino games and enable you to play for real money. Among these games are slot machines, table games such as roulette or blackjack, and more.

Online casinos cooperate with game providers and are not typically the creators of the games. The casinos provide the bankroll, while the game providers provide the games. This unique cooperation between the game providers and the casinos enables this industry to grow rapidly. New online casinos are opening daily. All the casino owners need to open a new website is to have the money to back it up. And not all of them even have that. This is one of the things to watch out for when selecting an online casino, but we will get to that later on in this article.

Essentially, online casinos are websites with games on which you can place real money. There are thousands of these websites, and it is crucial to choose a reputable one, to have a good experience. 

How to choose the best online casino

There are thousands of online casinos already out there. Our team has taken the time to handpick a few dozen and review all of them. With every passing day, more and more online casinos are emerging. We do our best to review as many as possible and add them to our top online casino lists. 
We do that to save our readers precious time doing research. However, we can't review them all.

We will give you a general idea of finding the best casinos on this page.
It is hard to choose the best casinos because of many reasons -
Not all casinos are available to everyone. Not all operate in every country. 
Not all have the games you want to play. Not all take the deposit method you wish to use, etc.

However, it is safe to say that you can find a vast selection of casinos to choose from, no matter where you live. Now, this is a good thing. 
A large selection of websites means they have a lot of competition, and you have a lot of choices. That's good. However, it also gets confusing. And choosing the best online casino is not a task you want to take carelessly. So, how do you choose an online casino?

Casinos may vary in many different things. Among them are payment methods, game selection, bonuses, and other features. Yet the most critical factor of all is whether or not they treat their clients, us players, fairly. Many online casinos are not fair, and we don't recommend them. There are many ways online casinos can rig players, and often these tactics are only revealed when players write reviews online. 
These bad tactics are why the most important thing to check before looking at games or bonuses is reputation. Check the casino's reputation thoroughly. Read reviews, forums, and anything you can. There is a lot of information online. Make sure to go through it.

We created the review section on our website for that purpose, and we urge you to write us for anything that has gone bad. The online casinos we recommend have the best possible reputation out there. If you want more information on making the best choice, check out our guide on how to choose the best casino. In addition, you can read more about our casino review process and learn what we do. You can easily mimic everything we do on your own, and we recommend you go and do it.

Introduction to online casino bonuses

Bonuses are the primary way that online casinos have to attract new players. There are two more common bonuses and many others less common, which we will talk about more thoroughly in our online casino bonus guide. 

One of the two more common bonuses is the no deposit bonus, which allows you to play without making any deposit. And the second is the deposit match bonus, which typically increases the amount of money you have in your balance on top of your deposit. 

When you first sign up to an online casino, you might be able to claim such a bonus. Claiming a bonus can be great, but there are a few things to be aware of.

Online casino bonuses come with strings attached. Each bonus has its terms, and you have to read them to make sure you want to take it. These terms can be destructive, and we urge you not to take any bonus without first reading the terms and conditions. These terms vary and change, and we can't explain just what to keep an eye on. We will cover the basics in a minute - we want to be precise - not playing by the rules written in the terms can mean not getting paid the money you won(!). So keep an eye out for that. 

Some of the most common things to look for in the terms: 

Minimum wager requirement - Receiving free money doesn't mean you get to withdraw it. You first need to play for a certain amount of time, measured by the amount wagered. Let's assume, for example, that you have a 20x wager requirement on a bonus worth $10. You would need to wager a total of $200 before withdrawing the money. You could stay on a total balance of $10 and still meet the requirement. The logic behind this rule is that you don't get the money for free. You use it to play and, hopefully, even win.

Maximum win - Believe it or not, the amount you can win with bonus funds might be limited. This rule is often valid for no-deposit bonuses. Let's say, for example, you get 50 free spins and win $1000. If the maximum win is less than $1000, let's say, $100, you will only get $100 of your winnings.

Maximum bet - Many times, the max amount you can bet when you have active bonus funds is limited.

Restricted games - Another thing that's often restricted is the game selection you can play. Some bonuses are only available on specific games. If you play restricted games using bonus money and win, your win may not be paid out.

Restricted countries - Not all bonuses are available to anyone. You have to make sure that you are in a country where the bonus is available.

We talk more about online casino bonuses in our comprehensive guide on bonuses. We recommend reading it before taking a bonus for the first time. One thing we always say to anyone asking - remember that online casinos don't just hand away money. They give out bonuses to lure players in, not to be generous. And unfortunately, some use the fact that people don't always read the terms and advertise bad bonuses, such that you are better off without them. In one sentence - if you don't understand or read the terms, you are better off without the bonus. Remember that.

Gambling mathematics

To understand online casinos better, you must realize that casinos are businesses. And as such, they look at the profit at the end of the day. So, what makes a profit for casinos? It's called the 'house edge.' 

The house edge means that while you can win jackpots and have a winning streak, gambling will lose you money in the long run. It's a form of entertainment, not a way to make a living. This 'house edge' is also referred to as the return to player (RTP). The RTP is the percentage of the money you can expect to get back in the form of winnings over time. 

RTP is always lower than 100%, which means that statistically speaking, playing any casino game over time will lose you money. For example, blackjack has an average RTP of around 98% when played by experienced players. This RTP means that for any $100 wagered, you can expect to get $98 back. Of course, you can have a winning streak and win more. But that's the statistics. Online casinos don't care about the performance of one player, as long as he is playing by the rules, of course. 

This fact helps us give you a crucial recommendation -

You can get lucky and win big, but you will eventually lose over time. That is why we recommend stopping playing after a big win. Please don't get carried away by the belief your winning streak will never end because it will. Get out with profit!

Guides to specific casino games

Online casinos offer a wide variety of game types, with many variations on each type of game. For example, you can play European roulette, American roulette, and even French roulette in an online casino. Not all games are suitable for beginners. And it is vital to know the rules of the game before playing it. 

Another example, 3-reel slots are straightforward. However, video slots are complex and require you to take action. These actions can change the RTP from 97.5% to a much lower percentage. To help inexperienced players with this issue, we created a guide specifically for each type of game. And we tried to cover as many games as we could in them. We try to include strategies, tactics, and anything else useful about these games :

• Slot machines
• Roulette
• Blackjack
• Video poker
• Baccarat

How to gamble responsibly

Gambling addiction is a severe issue that can destroy anyone's life and family and have tremendous and devastating impacts we all want to avoid. It is essential to be aware of that and approach gambling with caution. 

The first important thing to keep in mind is that gambling is a form of entertainment. Have some free time on your hand and want to have a few roulette spins? That's great, but it's not a way to make a living. In the gambling mathematics section of this page, we explain how online casinos make you lose, so keep that in mind at all times. 

We created a complete and comprehensive guide on how to gamble safely. Fortunately, there are a lot of tools out there that can help. Some are available right inside the online casinos themselves, while others are available as external tools. All exists to help you. 

We have also covered how to recognize and treat a gambling addiction problem in our guide on gambling problems, in which we talk about:

• How to discover and diagnose a gambling problem
• Why is gambling addicting
• How to stop problem gambling
• What can you do if your friend or family member is addicted
• Where can anyone find help

The simplest way to prevent a gambling problem is, of course, not to gamble at all. However, if you still want to play, it is crucial to limit yourself. Always have this sentence in your head - when the fun stops, stop.