By Jerry Whittaker

We cannot stress enough, how vitally important it is for newbie real money gamblers to use an online gambling guide. While the remnants of the US online casino industry is basically in tatters, the UK and European marketplace is faring very well and still growing in popularity. More new markets are opening, particularly in the EU arena, as with Italy and France, and regulation is in place for various new licensing jurisdictions. Although the UK industry is still licensing the majority of its business offshore, this may all change quite soon. However, and this is a big however; online casinos licensed in jurisdictions such as Malta, Cyprus, Isle of Man, Alderney and Gibraltar, are compelled to fall in with EU law, and this means they are both regulated and safe (in the majority).

A good online gambling guide is worth a Kings ransom to the new player, particularly if the player lands up at a winning site. These casino listings provide us with tons of useful (and some useless) information, comparisons, news, reviews, strategies, tips and tricks, and all of this data comes free. Any informed gamer will fare better than the uninformed!

There are very many variables which factor when playing at an online casino, and quite honestly we prefer the big brand or well-known names. The reason for this is quite simple – in a word – “recourse”. The player has recourse to dispute resolution mechanisms such as eCOGRA follow-up, and this essentially means even safer and more pleasant play. Websites in the big brand category are not going to cheat their members, they know on which side their bread is buttered, and they never fall into the class of rogue casinos.

Payment and withdrawal methods are tried and tested, encryption technology is used to secure sensitive information, and random number generators are tested for fairness. Sound customer service infrastructures are in place, and payout percentages are also independently audited. In essence all the steps are in place to ensure a fair, equitable and fun online gambling experience. An online gambling guide, provides all of this information and more, and they are there for a very good reason, not only to act as affiliates for the casino website.

Certification from socially responsible – problem gambling associations also lend an air of responsibility to a site. It means the business has been assessed for self exclusion and under age gambling checks. These are all very important variables which need to be taken into consideration. Surfing from site to site, checking out all of these details and more is an incredibly time-consuming, as well as tedious task. Let the online gambling guide do this for you, it cuts out tons of trouble and effort, and also makes sure that the site or sites where you choose to play will be fun, free from hassles and hopefully winning too. Now that the important boring stuff is out of the way, it is time to have some fun – race you to the casino, let’s play!

By Jerry Whittaker

There are so many different online casino games that it is difficult to choose what to talk about first, so, I thought I would talk more generally for a change, about the various gambling modes we find on this particular channel (internet). There are also many other ways to gamble too; on television, by mobile, live, by telephone, between your friends, and if you are so inclined – even illegally, although we wouldn’t advise this.

When looking at the online gambling industry, we find bingo, sports betting, lottos, betting exchanges, financial and financial spread-betting, skill games, virtual games, live online games, mobile, poker, arcade, Vegas, day trader, scratchies and other stuff too. These games are generally sectioned off from the combination type sites to provide one particular sector of games.

The principle behind ‘Specialty’ type gambling activity is to interest the player, who only has an interest in this one gambling game. These punters might be fastidious or picky what they play and don’t want to be distracted. It means special offers and promotions are designed for what they enjoy playing best, and they get to take advantage of less combination offers, where there might not be too much that interests them. Although most combinations sites offering online casinos games, will offer specialty promotions for at least slots, blackjack and roulette. Some may diversify wider, depending upon the demands of their regular customers.

Expert players often prefer a specialty site, they can concentrate on their game, skill and strategy as well as qualify for competitions with more attractive, and usually, highly lucrative rewards. The best example of specialty sites, and of which there are many – is online poker, others are online bingo and sports betting. There is also quite a valid reason for specialty site, and this is the software platform, but again technology is one step ahead, and software such as Microgaming Quickfire allows all games to be played on all platforms.

In a brand new turn out for the online casinos games books, P2P play is also becoming popular; although not many sites offer this form of gambling, and it may be easier to find P2P at a combination site. The concept of P2P online gambling is rather like the betting exchange. What happens is players gamble against each other, rather than against a fixed structure like the house. It is a novel concept and hasn’t quite caught on yet – but you know how things catch fire online. It may take off, it may not, but often gamblers are driven by the size of the prize and not necessarily by the skill of the competition. We shall have to watch, wait and see what happens.