Online casinos allow players to gamble throughout the Internet as well as in the comfort of what ever place they may be in rather than traveling to wherever their favorite establishments are located. They can be generally known as Internet casinos or virtual casinos because of this.

The same as their tangible "brick and mortar" counterparts, online casinos have ratings in the type of payback percentages and odds. A number of them even publish payout percentages on their 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 haul." This parameter is frequently programmed into whatever game the virtual casino might be running and is set in line with the owner's specifications.

As a result of its very nature of being virtual and intangible, online casinos have trust difficulties 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 also the stability of their random number generators.

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

Web-based online casinos - these types of virtual casinos do not require downloading files; they readily play through a wide variety of Internet browsers. Some of them require Flash or Java for a player to participate in games however. The benefit of 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 - Engaged in this sort of casino involves downloading a client installer needed for players to gain access to the virtual site. The benefit from this kind of casino is that it generally runs much faster than Web-based ones. The disadvantage is that interested players need to download the client as well as the risk of installing malware from shady parties can be very much real.

Live-based casinos - In this kind of casino, players can hear, see, and interact with other players. The net will be relatively an unobtrusive medium of communication as players participate in a real life environment.

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