Frequently Asked Questions

What Is Online Gambling?
Online gambling (also called Internet gambling) is usually the placing of bets on sports or casino type games over the Internet. Sometimes it is also used for telephone sports betting which means many advertise through the Internet.
Real online gaming, however is when the betting, playing and collecting of money is done through the Internet. The nature of betting can range from Sports bets taken over the Internet to casino style games to lotteries, bingo or keno.

What Is An Internet Casino?
An Internet (or online) casino is an Internet site where you can play one or more casino type games, such as blackjack, for real money. While some will let you play for free, the real reason to play is the same as Las Vegas - To win money.
Generally, Internet casinos are of three kinds. The first kind are those that require you to download a program for free. These casinos are usually the most fun to play, but you will have the program on your hard drive. This means that you have to wait for the application to download from the Internet and then install it on your computer. Once installed, these programs typically offer great graphics, sound and animation.
The second type is a casino that uses JAVA instead of a downloaded program. These JAVA applets run through your WWW browser. Some of these casinos offer sound and animation, and all of them offer some pretty good graphics.
The third kind of Internet casino uses all HTML and do not require any download time. Although these Casinos do not offer the sound and animation of the other Online Casinos, they do have great graphics and fast gameplay.
The best way to find an Internet Casino that suits your computer and needs is to look at the list at Bet Sports Guide for a complete breakdown of casino type, system requirements, prices, locations etc.

Where Are They Located?
All Internet casinos are located outside the U.S. They are generally licensed in the country they are in and have to report to the local government to some extent. Costa Rica, Antigua, Curacao, St. Kitts, Grenada, Dominican Republican, Gibraltar, Cook Islands are just a few countries that license them. Having said this, though, most of the companies that run casinos offshore are actually operated from the US - it is just their servers that are located offshore.
The reason these small countries allow Online Gambling operatiors to set up is because it can help boost their economy. Companies pay anything up to $100,000 to gain a gaming license in these countries, as well as paying ongoing taxes to the local Government.

How Do I Start Playing?
I suggest looking around at a number of casinos before making any decisions. Especially look at the deposit requirements, minimum bets etc. There is quite a variety of Internet Casinos out there. Many will let you visit for free and even place some bets without signing up (You won’t win any money, but you can play for free). The best way to find a casino that suits your needs is to take a look at the list at Bet Sports Guide. They have the majority of Internet casinos listed with a lot of background information.
Once you pick a casino that you like, you will be asked to sign up. Usually this will mean filling out an online form. Many will not even require that you give your name and address. You will end up with an account number and a password. (Remember, if you only have an account number and password on file with them, and you forget them, you have lost your money)

The next step is an important one - depositing money into your casino account.

How Do I Make Cash Deposits and Withdrawals?
In all cases you will have to deposit money up front before you can gamble online. This will mean sending online casinos money via Western Union, Moneygram, cashiers checks, money orders, wire transfers, credit cards, etc. Most of them will take money almost any way you want to send it. Most will not take personal checks as they would have to wait up to two weeks for the checks to clear to the overseas location. Having said this, you can normally use personal checks with prior approval from the casino, but your money will not be available for play until your check has cleared. Nearly all casinos now accept credit card deposits. In fact, these are highly recommended due to the low cost and speed of the transactions.
All casinos operate on the account system - you send them money and your account is credited for that amount. As you gamble, money is credited or debited as you win or lose. When you wish to withdraw money from your casino account (you don't have to, you can leave it in for future gambling) you can do so in nearly all of the ways that deposits could be made.

Many operations now allow you to have money withdrawn directly placed back onto the credit card that you first deposited money into your account with. This option is recommended as you can access your winnings within days. Casinos charge reasonable fees for other withdrawal options.

How Safe Are Internet Casinos and Sportsbooks?
How safe is anything. So far there have been almost no problems with casino payouts and deposit security, but that is not to say there will never be. Many of the jurisdictions require that the licensee posts bonds of cash or insurance as part of the license requirements.
As an example, the groups licensed in Curacao have to post an amount of money equal to the average win in a special account in order to guarantee that they can pay winners. To even get a license, those who apply have to go through some extensive government checks.

Your personal security (including credit card details and other personal information) is also guaranteed under license agreements in many, if not all, jurisdictions. Most casinos and sportsbooks use secure servers to conduct all of their transactions, and all information about you is held offline. Many also take out insurance against fraud.

How Fair Are Internet Casinos and Sportsbooks?
Online Casinos are fairer than many people realize. The "house" is happy making the normal profits of gambling. In many of the countries, the computer programs must be submitted to the government for thourough checking of fairness toward the player, and the firm also has to be guaranteed by one of the big eight international accounting firms.
In all cases with casino gambling the odds for single deck blackjack, for instance, are exactly the same with an Internet casino as with the real thing. The same is true for baccarat, roulette, etc.

As for the gaming machine type games (slots, video poker etc) the player payout percentages are determined by the casino, and many will post what the percentage of payout is online.

Internet Sportsbooks and Terminology?
Internet sportsbooks are pretty much the same as telephone sportsbooks. Instead of calling in your bet to a bookie, you fill out an online form. In most cases, sportsbooks have the same deposit and withdrawal options as online casinos - some sportsbooks are in fact an extention of an online casino.
The more imaginative Internet sports books have quite a variety of Bets allowed. Here is some of the terminology used to describe the different bets available:

Parlays:
A parlay wager is betting on the outcome of two or more selections bundled together. The payoff on a parlay is higher than the payoff for wagering the selections separately. All selections in the parlay need to win for the parlay to win. A tie on an individual parlay selection brings the parlay down to the next lower parlay of the remaining action.

Teasers:
A teaser wager is where you move the Side or Total by a selected number of points for all selections in the wager. For football you can tease for 6, 6½, and 7 points; for basketball 4, 4½, and 5 points. A teaser can have between 2 and 9 selections. The teaser is a winner if all the selections win against the teased line.

Round Robins:
A Round Robin is a series of parlay-type wagers built from all possible groups of the specified round robin group size. The selections can be any combination of sides, over/unders, money lines, run lines, or puck lines. Currently, up to 9 teams can be grouped by either 2's or 3's. Each round robin series has the "Grouped By" number of teams in it and some series can win and other series loss. Each individual series is graded like a parlay. With 4 selections (A, B, C, D) grouped by 2's then you would have the following groups of 2's: A&B, A&C, A&D, B&C, B&D, C&D.

What Else is Out There?
As the industry expands, who knows what will be available - Mah Jong for money? There are already Online Lotteries where you can win over $1 million. Perhaps in the future online gambling will move away from the traditional casino games and concentrate wagering on the users participation in an arcade-type game like the classic, Doom - the more "badies" you shoot, the more money you make. Only time (and the marketplace) will tell!