By Samantha Williams

There are many ways to learn, practice and play casino online games, and most of the best games can be played at absolutely no cost to the player. In other words the games may be played either in demo mode or with free casino credits; some sites even offer a certain amount of time for free play, and allow the player to keep a specific amount of their winnings (this is generally capped at about $100) – should they win. There is a straightforward process involved with any of these offers, and learning the basics of the internet and these gambling websites is all anyone needs to get started.

It also helps to learn the rules of the popular casino games that the player fancies playing, and do this before they play; a good casino website or guide will provide copies of all of the rules. Even poker sites provide poker schools, so, there is nothing stopping anyone from becoming a winning player. Simply play for free first, get the hang of the games, then play for really low stakes – this is possible – before going for the big time.

It is very important to remember that no player should approach casino online games with the single-minded intent to win. If you need to make money online, there are many ways to do this, but gambling is not one of them – get a job or create a business like everyone else! Gambling online is about entertainment and having fun, with winning as an added benefit, provided of course that one wins! It is completely pointless approaching casino games with the wrong attitude, and no player should ever spend more than they can afford to lose.

If you believe you have a winning strategy right in the palm of your hand, it pays to remember that the online, and in fact any casino, is designed to win in the long term. However they invite you to try out your winning strategies on their casino online games, and if you win so be it. But remember that they win too, or they would not be in this business. Learn more about house edge, and practice games where the house edge can be minimised. This is the key to changing the short-term winning expectations of the online gambler, into long-term gains.   

For  example casino games online such as blackjack, may offer small returns with the possibility of long term gains, and strategy cards are allowed; in fact their use is encouraged online as well as in land casinos. Essentially knowledge is key to winning gambling online and that means, learn as much as you can, practice as much as you can for free, and play with care, common sense and good background knowledge. Do this and you will soon understand the true concept of playing casino games whether online or not.

By Samantha Williams

Party Poker is one of the most popular online poker games sites serving the UK and European-facing marketplace. But they were not always serving this market and were once top of the heap – the largest internet poker offering in the USA – this all changed after UIGEA was promulgated and in 2006 Party Poker and in fact Party Gaming exited the US market after taking legal advice. The reason being that they are a publicly traded company, at which time, private owned companies PokerStars and Full Tilt amongst others, were only too happy to fill the gap left by Party Poker.

They obviously have been keen to get back into the USA, and have basically been biding their time for the US to once again become an emerging marketplace. In the meantime, just last year, Party Gaming and European online gambling giant Bwin, entered into a merger agreement to form one of the most powerful publicly traded online gambling forces in the biz.

Much of this gambling giant’s strategy is based on entering into a newly emerging German and USA marketplace, but the problem is that both of these countries are procrastinating big time. Is this a bad beat for them? Well…it could be if something doesn’t give soon – they are such a big company that they need to keep growing to stay afloat.  

The German government has announced that they are going to be issuing online gambling licenses to seven operators, but the problems is that taxation is so high at 15.7%; that it makes it virtually impossible for this newly merged company to make online sports betting for example, affordable for their customers. Although Party’s big business is in poker, Bwin’s is mostly sports betting; and they have been betting on getting into Germany with this business.

Again, in the USA, should the market be made legal, the tenets of the Wire Act will not be allowing any online sports-betting, but we can be sure that online poker will be allowed. Bwin.party has already entered into a joint venture in the USA with Boyd Gaming Corporation and MGM Resorts International. This is of course in anticipation of the marketplace becoming regulated – nothing concrete has taken place yet.

In another bad beat for Bwin.party, they have been ordered to stop all advertising for online gambling in the Portuguese market. This came about as a directive following a court ruling in which the gambling giant has been told they have an unfair advantage against land gambling concerns.

The sad thing about this situation is that sporting teams which receive their sponsorships from this online poker games and gambling brands are going to suffer the most. The only winners in this case will be land casinos and other land gambling concerns. It is unfortunate, but European sporting teams are struggling to get sponsorships in a weak economy, and this move has been a bit stupid actually – like the Government of Portugal throwing out the baby with the bath water.