Online casinos allow players to gamble over the Internet and in the comfort of what ever place they can be in rather than traveling to wherever their favorite establishments are located. They're also referred to as Internet casinos or virtual casinos as a result of this.

The same as their tangible "brick and mortar" counterparts, playing online casino slot casinos have ratings in the type of payback percentages and odds. Some 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 in the long run." This parameter can be programmed into what ever game the virtual casino might be running and is set in line with the owner's specifications.

As a result of its very nature of being virtual and intangible, online casinos have trust difficulties with prospective and even 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 and also the stability of their random number generators.

Online casinos are classified into three types in accordance with how players interact with each other. They are:

Web-based online casinos - these kinds of virtual casinos do not require downloading files; they readily play through a wide variety of Internet browsers. Many of them require Flash or Java for a player to participate in games however. The benefit from this kind 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 - Taking part in this sort of casino involves downloading a client installer needed for players to access the virtual site. The benefit of this type of casino is that it generally runs faster than Web-based ones. The disadvantage is that interested players need to download the client and also the risk of installing malware from shady parties can be very much real.

Live-based casinos - Inside this sort of casino, players can hear, see, and connect to other players. The web is just 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 games.