Online casinos allow players to gamble through the Internet as well as in the comfort of whatever place they can be in rather than traveling to wherever their favorite establishments happen to be. They may be better known as Internet casinos or virtual casinos because of this.

Just like 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 sites, vaunting higher payback and better frequency than their competitors.

Payback percentage is defined as "is the overall percentage that a machine will return to the player in the long term." This parameter may be programmed into what ever game the virtual casino could be running and is set in accordance with the owner's specifications.

As a result of 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 made 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 and the stability of their random number generators.

Online casinos are classified into three types based on how players interact with each other. They are:

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

Live-based casinos - Inside this sort of casino, players can hear, see, and interact with other players. The net is simply 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.