Online casinos allow players to gamble throughout the Internet and in the comfort of whatever place they can be in rather than traveling to wherever their favorite establishments are located. 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 in the form 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 in the long term." This parameter will likely be programmed into what ever game the virtual casino could be running and is set based on the owner's specifications.

Because of its very nature of being virtual and intangible, online casinos have trust problems with prospective and even 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 also the stability of their random number generators.

Online casinos are classified into three types as outlined by how players connect to each other. They are:

Web-based online casinos - these kinds of virtual casinos don't require downloading files; they readily play through a wide variety of Internet browsers. A number of them require Flash or Java for a player to participate in games however. The advantage 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 - Taking part in this sort of casino involves downloading a client installer needed for players to access the virtual site. The benefit of this kind of casino is the fact that it generally runs faster than Web-based ones. The disadvantage is the fact that interested players need to download the client and the risk of installing malware from shady parties is quite much real.

Live-based casinos - In this sort of casino, players can hear, see, and connect to other players. The net is simply 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.