Online casinos allow players to gamble over the Internet as well as in the comfort of what ever place they may be in rather than traveling to wherever their favorite establishments happen to be. They are often known as Internet casinos or virtual casinos due to this.

Much like their tangible "brick and mortar" counterparts, online casinos have ratings within the form of payback percentages and odds. A lot of them even publish payout percentages on their own 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 run." This parameter will be programmed into whatever game the virtual casino could be running and is set in accordance with the owner's specifications.

Because of its very nature of being virtual and intangible, online casinos have trust problems with prospective and also regular clients. In light of this many casino owners have purchased and/or leased proprietary software produced 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 line 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 by way of a wide variety of Internet browsers. Some of them require Flash or Java for a player to participate in games however. The advantage of this sort of casino is the fact 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 type of casino involves downloading a client installer needed for players to access the virtual site. The benefit from this sort of casino is the fact that it generally runs considerably faster than Web-based ones. The disadvantage is that interested players need to download the client and the risk of installing malware from shady parties can be very much real.

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

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