By Jerry Whittaker

Just about anything you would like to take a bet on, can be found in gambling online; there are slots, blackjack, roulette, live dealer gambling games, bingo, baccarat, poker, sports-betting, scratch cards, pull-tabs, mobile gambling, gin rummy, and a whole host of poker themed casino games. You will even find video poker, Asian and skill games where money can be won, and lottery tickets can also be bought online. Bearing all of this in mind and the fact that so many thousands of sites offer, or purport to offer these services; if you are going to gamble online, the best friend you could possibly have is a good online gambling guide.

 It is not so much that an online gambling guide will help you to win; no matter how many hot winning tips they apparently give away, these don’t necessarily help. But, the one very important role a guide site plays is to help you not to lose. So, basically what a good guide will do is take you through the paces of the industry, and ensure that you know how to choose a great site. They will recommend the best sites, or the online casinos they have found to be best, and will also let you know which websites have been blacklisted. But what is casino blacklisting?

 This is basically the same as any black-listing, when an online casino has been naughty and customers complain; a good online gambling guide will list their name in the ‘naughty’ section at their site.  

 A blacklisting is not a formal structure; the formal regulatory and legal matters are taken care of by a licensing jurisdiction. However, when a licensing jurisdiction is not that great, a casino, poker, sports-betting or bingo website does not have to be that great either. It is better not to play at these websites. For example – any website licensed in Alderney, Isle of Man, Gibraltar, Malta and a couple of other places are really safe to play. But, and this is a very BIG BUT, we even came across one casino just a few weeks ago that was operating online and had no license. When we requested that they give us their licensing details – we were told the company was registered and licensed in the British Virgin Islands – BVI is not a licensing jurisdiction….big surprise?!

 Basically your guide will keep you on the straight and narrow, make sure you are warned against sites of this nature, teach you what to look out for when gambling online, and make sure you get off to a good start. They generally focus on the best, and this certainly increases your odds of winning, or if you prefer, lessens your chances of losing your shirt.

By Jerry Whittaker

There are thousands of casinos available on the internet; so, it is not easy for lay-people or newbie players to judge which are the top rated online casinos. With the help of a good casino portal however, the picture is painted quite differently. In this writers’ opinion, any casino on the Net Entertainment software platform is top rated, while most Microgaming sites are excellent and Playtech is pretty good too. IGT Wagerworks games are fun, Vegas Technology is not bad, and RTG has their place in the industry too.

Playtech has been expanding its gaming portfolio recently, just as much as they have been expanding their business portfolio. For example they have recently purchased Ash Gaming, another great online slots brand. Playtech is also the proud new owner of Mobenga for mobile gaming, and already own Virtue Fusion for online bingo. They have fingers in many pies, and currently much wheeling and dealing goes on amongst top rated online casinos brands. Small developers and entrepreneurs are making millions in micro-deals, but the pity of this is that it almost appears to be a war of attrition.

Since the casino industry first went online has been over a decade; for some, almost 15 years, and in this very short time it has become a mainstream industry – this basically means that the industry generates billions of dollars worth of revenue. It is a regular occurrence for IPO’s and Stock Exchange flotation to take place today, and other investor industries are keen to invest and get their share of this rather large pie.

Essentially this means that the face of the online gambling world is dramatically changing from profit raking, entrepreneur-owned private companies, to Public companies that are expected to perform for investors. The beauty of top rated casinos being publically owned companies is the fact that they are compelled to adhere to company law of the country in which they are incorporated. This makes it great for the player as there is even better player protection; for example brands such as William Hill, Bettson, Ladbrokes, Littlewoods, Gala Coral, Mecca Rank, Circus Casinos and many others. 

While many of the best online casinos may be registered in the UK, it is also interesting to note that their licenses may be held in offshore licensing jurisdictions. This does not make them any less trustworthy as the majority of the reliable licensing jurisdictions are European based. In many instances, this makes them ‘White Listed’ for UK players.  

White listing is an incredibly important feature as it allows operators to advertise to a UK audience, but it also allows the UK audience to feel more secure when they play. In other words, affords them recourse from reputable casino operators.  For these top rated online casinos, reputation is everything!