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

Just 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 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 run." This parameter is generally programmed into whatever game the virtual casino might be running and is set according to the owner's specifications.

Because of its very nature of being virtual and intangible, online casinos have trust issues 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 as well as the stability of their random number generators.

Online casinos are classified into three types in line with how players communicate 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. A lot 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 - Participating in this type of casino involves downloading a client installer needed for players to access the virtual site. The advantage of this sort of casino is the fact that it generally runs much 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 is very much real.

Live-based casinos - Inside this kind 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 world environment.

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