Online casinos are exactly what the name suggests, casinos that are available to play via the internet. You may play the same games when you would expect to find in a bricks and mortar casino.

You can expect to find similar odds that you would find at a land based casino; alternatively, some online gaming sites claim better odds with their slot machines than bricks and mortar counterparts. Some publish their payout percentage audits on their own websites, trusted gambling (via http://www.longisland.com) this is something you should check out, if possible, when deciding upon an online casino to join as you can chose the one with the highest payout percentage thus increasing your chances of winning.

Online casinos may be split into three groups based on how the player can play their games. These groups are:

Web-based
Download-based
Live

Web-based Casinos enable the player to play the casino game of their choice directly on the web, with no need to download any of the casinos software to their computer. The casino games are often delivered in Macromedia Flash, Java, or Macromedia Shockwave and can require your web browser to have the relevant plug-in. The plug-ins are free to and easy install should you not already have them enabled on your web browser. Most browsers already have the plug-ins installed. You will also need a decent bandwidth as the casino games are made up of sounds and animations requiring decent band-with to run properly.

Download-based Casinos require the player to download the internet casinos software onto their computer in order for them to play the games. The online casino software connects directly to the internet casinos service provider and allows the games to be played without the need of you using your web browser. The good thing about this really is that the game-play runs faster as the software uses the graphics and sound programs from the casinos software, as apposed to it being run through your browser on the web. Obviously the software shall take a little while to install itself on your computer and there’s always the risk (as with downloading any software) that the on-line casino software contains malware and potentially infecting your computer.

Live-based Casinos is relatively new and allows the player to communicate with games played in a real life Casino environment. The players are able to see, hear and connect to live dealerships in casinos worldwide.