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

Much like their tangible "brick and mortar" counterparts, online casinos have ratings within the form of payback percentages and odds. Some 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 in the long term." This parameter will likely be programmed into what ever game the virtual casino could be running and is set in line with the owner's specifications.

Due to its very nature of being virtual and intangible, online casinos have trust issues with prospective and also 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 and the stability of their random number generators.

Online casinos are classified into three types in accordance with how players communicate with each other. They are:

Web-based online casinos - these types of virtual casinos do not require downloading files; they readily play by way of a wide variety of Internet browsers. A number of them require Flash or Java for a player to participate in games however. The good thing about 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 type of casino involves downloading a client installer needed for players to access the virtual site. The benefit of this type of casino is that it generally runs much 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 the kind of casino, players can hear, see, and connect to other players. The net will be 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.