Online casinos allow players to gamble through the Internet as well as in the comfort of what ever place they are in rather than traveling to wherever their favorite establishments happen to be. They are also referred to as Internet casinos or virtual casinos as a result of this.

The same as their tangible "brick and mortar" counterparts, online casinos have ratings within the form of payback percentages and odds. Many of them even publish payout percentages on their own sites, vaunting higher payback and higher frequency than their competitors.

Payback percentage is defined as "is the overall percentage that a machine will return to the player within the long term." This parameter may be programmed into whatever game the virtual casino might be running and is set based on the owner's specifications.

Due to its very nature of being virtual and intangible, online casinos have trust problems with prospective as well as regular clients. In light of this many casino owners have purchased and/or leased proprietary software created by reputable software entities like CryptoLogic Inc, Realtime Gaming, Microgaming, and Playtech. They then peg their online casino's trustworthiness with the programming companies' reputations as well as the stability of their random number generators.

Online casinos are classified into three types in line with how players interact with each other. These are:

Web-based online casinos - these kinds of virtual casinos don't require downloading files; they readily play by way of a wide variety of Internet browsers. Many of them require Flash or Java for a player to participate in games however. The benefit from this kind of casino is that sound clips and graphics needed for the game is streamed directly to the client over the Net. This dispenses the need to download relatively huge files.

Download-based online casinos - Involved in this sort of casino involves downloading a client installer needed for players to gain access to the virtual site. The benefit from this type of casino is the fact that it generally runs considerably faster than Web-based ones. The disadvantage is the fact that interested players need to download the client and also the risk of installing malware from shady parties is very much real.

Live-based casinos - In this particular sort of casino, players can hear, see, and communicate with other players. The net is just relatively an unobtrusive medium of communication as players participate in a real life environment.

Online casinos may offer any one or all of the following gambling pastimes: online poker, roulette, blackjack, baccarat, craps and online slot gacor games.