Archive for the ‘Online Casinos’ Category

7 Tips To Limit Casino Losses

Wednesday, July 25th, 2012

We all know that the house has the advantage when playing at any casino, but there are ways some things you can do to reduce the advantages that they have. Here are some things you can think about when playing online next time that will help you limit the amount of money you can lose in a single session.

1) Set a Daily Deposit Limit – You might be surprised to know that the casino gamblers that lose the most money aren’t the ones that deposit huge amounts of money in one go. In fact, many of the biggest losers in casinos are the players that make many small deposits over time. The issue is when players lose their first deposit, their emotions come into play and they start chasing that money by doing things that they normally would not do. Many of the best casinos allow you to set a limit on your daily deposits which means that if you do not make money on the first deposit then you will not be able to continue to deposit. This will allow you a cool off time where you can come back focussed the next day with a much more clear mind. If your casino of choice does not have this option you could look for a deposit option where you can limit this kind of activity.

2) Set a Time Limit – One of the casinos’ greatest edges is TIME. The longer you stay and play, the more likely you are to lose everything. If you set a timer at the beginning of your session and tell yourself you will not play past it, you can help control your betting activity better. One of the reasons for this is the longer you play, the more tired and impatient you might get which could cause your betting patterns to change. It is better to play 10 very short sessions where you are most focussed and mentally ready than 1 very long one where you could lose focus and have much more erratic play.

3) Set a Win Goal – If you don’t set a realistic goal of how much money you want to win then chances are you never will win. Everytime you start a gambling session you should tell yourself at what point you will stop playing and cash out. You can always re-evaluate your goal when you reach it, but if you do you should at least cash out your original deposit and some to ensure that it is a positive session.

4) Set a Stop/Loss – Similar to setting a win goal, you need to go into every gambling session knowing exactly how much money you are willing to lose. This is one of the toughest parts about gambling, but you need great self discipline to hold yourself to your stop loss and walk away from the tables when you hit it.

5) Keep Track of Your Play – Every gambler should keep tabs on all their gambling activity. This will allow you to keep a running tally of whether or not you are in the positive or the negative (and by how much). Many gamblers don’t realize how much money they are actually using because they just keep depositing/withdrawing more from the ATM. Keeping these numbers in front of your mind might make you hesitate from making that extra withdrawal.

6) Play in a Positive Mind State – Playing in a sad or depressed state is one of the quickest ways to watch your money fly right into the pockets of the casino. The more alert and mentally focussed you are on winning, the better your odds are of actually doing so!

7) Don’t Chase Comps – Many players chase comps that they could have just purchased many times over with the money they lost gambling to try to get them. Unless you know specifically you are only a few points off a fantastic comp, you should always play to win, not to get a comp.

Good luck, have fun, and go win lots of money!

Paying for your Gambling Pleasures

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

One of the first things I check out at a new online casino is its list of deposit methods.  This is the list of banking systems that are supported by the casino which allow you to transfer funds to your account so that you can start paying for real money. The sign of a good online casino is one that offers a good range of payment methods so that players from all over the world are able to find something that suits them.  You will want to find a banking method that is not only convenient to use, but also discreet and secure so that you can have peace of mind when it comes to paying for your gambling fund.

The best online casinos will offer traditional as well as alternative banking methods.  When I say traditional, I mean the more mainstream way of paying for things on the internet such as through credit cards like Visa and Mastercard.  The advantage of paying via credit card is that it is a very familiar method since practically everyone has made a purchase using their Visa online.

However, before you decide on paying by credit card, check out the other alternatives.  Many of the best ways to pay for your online gambling fun are through methods such as Moneybookers and Neteller.  Over the past few years, Moneybookers has become an extremely popular form of payment for online gamblers who are attracted to its great reputation and user friendly features.  There are over 3 million people who use Moneybookers today, and this number is growing all the time. You can use multiple currencies when funding your Moneybookers account, including US and Canadian Dollars, Pounds and Euros.  You’ll also be surprised by the many different online casinos that accept Moneybookers as a form of payment, with some even giving you an extra bonus for using them!

Another alternative payment system that is growing in popularity is Click2Pay, which allows for real time payments online and serve as a fine alternative to credit cards.

Check these out at top online casino sites today.

Musings of a Midnight Gambler

Saturday, November 5th, 2011

I love this time of the night. The rest of the household is sound asleep and I have decided to unwind at my favorite online casino site before calling it a night.  I love the initial blink of the computer screen, bringing the quiet office space to life and love the way I am whisked off to the excitement of Vegas – some many thousands of miles away and yet so near.

I love the way I am welcomed to the casino like an old friend.  I’m offered news about the latest promotions, including a new casino bonus which I am definitely interested in taking advantage of after I fund my casino account again.  Within minutes, money has been transferred and I’m ready to go.  My first stop is the blackjack table and a couple of buddies are already playing there.  They greet me warmly through the casino chat features, and I’m soon playing happily with Toki from Japan and Juan from Argentina.  After hitting a good run at the blackjack tables (practicing free blackjack paid off, yeah!), I head to the slot machines to check out the new releases.  The best online casinos update their slots often and I’m pleased to see several new themed games with big payouts and lots of special features.

I do OK at the slots, and now it’s time to try out the video poker games. I stick to my favorite,  Jacks or Better and do so-so.  I know it’s ‘you-win-some-you-lose-some’ and I don’t try and chase my losses, being the responsible gambler that I am!

I decide to round off my midnight gambling session with a few rounds of keno. Nothing is as undemanding as Keno – all you need to do is select your numbers and wait for them to come up.  The more correct numbers picked, the better you do!  My gut instincts must be working well tonight because I land up winning a sizable amount on the keno games – enough to surprise my family with a weekend away, which I pay for immediately online.

After an hour of play, I’m sleepy but satisfied, and ready to  hit the sack. G’night all!

Making Contact: Live Online Casino Support

Sunday, October 30th, 2011

Those of you who know me, realize by now how important I think customer support is at online casino.  I’ve advised before – and I’ll say it again – that before you start playing at online casino, test drive the site’s customer support lines.  Don’t simply take their word for it that they offer good support – give it a run by sending in a real question through the various channels and see what type of response you receive.  Ask yourself whether the answer is satisfactory, whether it reached you in reasonable time and whether you’d be happy with this answer if you really had a problem.

In recent years, online casinos have been offering live support.  This means that all you need to do is go to the live support field at the online casino and you could be chatting to a support worker within seconds.  I’ve always been a fan of instant messaging, and this type of support seems to be the perfect solution for players who need an answer here and now.

Say, for example, that it’s 2 am and you are set to join an online slots tournament at your favorite online casino.  For some reason, your credit card is being denied as you try to transfer funds into your casino account, and you want to know what types of alternative payment methods the casino will accept.  True, you could write an email and the chances are that you’d receive a response pretty quickly.  But you need an instant reply because your slots tournament is about to start and you don’t want to miss THAT.  This is where live customer support comes in.  The advantages are first and foremost that this type of service is instant and you are assured of an immediate answer.  You’ll be able to get your reply on the spot, credit your account and start playing within minutes.

Live chat is usually available around the clock at top online casinos, which means that there is no waiting for opening and closing hours of a casino to get your reply.

If you’re deliberating about joining a particular online casino, check to see if it offers live customer support – that’s definitely an advantage over other sites!

Making Sense out of a No Deposit Bonus

Tuesday, October 25th, 2011

I’m a great fan of online casino bonuses in general, but my favorites have got to be no deposit casino bonuses.  It’s not hard to guess what these bonuses are, just from their name.  They are special perks offered to online gamblers, usually new members, where the player is not required to make a deposit into their account in order to get free cash.  Of course, cynics out there may say that these are just marketing tools to get the player inside the door, but from my experience, they are worth the effort, especially since nothing is required of you!

No deposit bonuses are essentially like a trial run for you to figure out whether you like the casino or not, and whether you want to spend your own cash here eventually.  It’s a great way to test drive the site without risking your own cash.

There are two types of no deposit bonuses I’ve come across in my online gambling adventures.  The first is a cut and dry free cash bonus, which sees the online casino depositing a certain amount of cash – usually $5 – $100 into your account once you’ve opened it.  There are some restrictions, for example, which games you can play at the casino (usually those games with low house edges are excluded from the bonus), and also when you can withdraw the cash.

The other type of no deposit casino bonus found is a freeplay bonus, which sees you rewarded with a much larger sum of money – sometimes into the thousands.  You are then given a restricted time to play the games at this casino – usually an hour or two – and after that time has passed, you get to keep a portion, or sometimes all, of the money.  These casino bonuses are another example of a zero-risk perk which the casino wants you to have to discover the games and software, and make an educated decision for yourself based on your gaming experience at the site.

If you want to find out more about an online casino but don’t want to spend your own money, no deposit bonuses are a great place to start.

Why Alcohol and Gambling Just Don’t Go

Sunday, October 23rd, 2011

If ever there was a more unlikely match, it’s alcohol and gambling. Sure, casinos want you to think that the two go hand in hand, blissfully into the sunset, giving you the ultimate gambling experience.  But the fact of the matter is that drinking alcohol while gambling affects your good judgement, and the chances are that you’ll make some very bad decisions because your wits are simply not 100% about you.

Casinos will always have a bar conveniently placed near its center, with waitresses on hand to take your orders before you can even stop to think what you want. Salted nuts are conveniently placed around the casino to make you want to drink up.

So let me jump down from my high and mighty soapbox for a moment and make a confession: I won’t argue with the fact that there is something really great about sports betting and a cold beer, or blackjack and a whiskey. Somehow, these things seem to go together and I’ll be the first to admit it.  Also, if you can handle your drink (I mean, REALLY handle it), then a drink or two won’t make you gamble away the family home.  But when push comes to shove, you really should be trying to avoid alcohol when gambling.

One trick I have found that really works is simply taking my gambling online. That way, I am never tempted by the free drinks offered by the land casino and I am sure that the only drink that passes my lips is water from my own fridge.  Obviously, that doesn’t mean that I will never drink alcohol when I play poker with my buddies or when I’m in the mood for something stronger than a soda.  I am far from being a gambling teetotaler.  However, I make a conscious effort to remember that when I’m after a few drinks, my inhibitions are down, my decisions are slightly more daring and I may not have made them had I not drank the second beer.

Cheers!

Keeping Up with the Online Gambling Joneses

Friday, October 21st, 2011

Once in a while, I share anecdotal incidents that relate to me and my online gambling entertainment, and this is what happened to me a couple of weeks ago.

A buddy of mine called me up to ask if I wanted to out for drink. Sitting nursing our beers, he mentioned that he was having a great time playing at online casinos, and that his gaming sessions were going fantastically.  Now I’m not sure whether it was the beer that had gone to my head or that male ego that my better half is always talking about, but I countered him, albeit in a buddy-like way, that mine was also going exceptionally well, and that I was discovering some amazing new games at my favorite online casino.  Buddy then tells me that not only has he also discovered some amazing new games, he had also won a fair bit of money playing them.

By then, I was feeling tingly and downright competitive, and so I brought out my trump card – not only were my gaming sessions going well, I was discovering amazing new games and I was winning well: I had also won the jackpot on a progressive slot game.  OK, now between you and me, I wasn’t going to be able to retire on the minor jackpot which I had won, but I wasn’t willing to tell him that.  Buddy just smiled and said, ‘hey, welcome to the club.’

By then I had nothing on him. All we could do was make some minor conversation and head our separate ways after a while.

But I couldn’t get our conversation out of my head.  How was it possible that he had gotten me so green with envy even though my gambling sessions at my favorite online casino were going so well? Even after they were fun, even after I was playing great games, and even after I was winning well.   I was dying to know where he was playing and how come he still managed to do better than me.  After a whole week of suspense, I could take it no longer.  I called my buddy up and practically blurted out: “What’s the name of the site you play at?”  His response: The exact same site I play at….

Moral of the story: Don’t try and keep up with the online gambling Joneses.  Enjoy your gaming entertainment, treasure your wins and  don’t start comparing yourself to anyone else.

The Ultimate Baccarat Tips

Tuesday, October 18th, 2011

A popular casino pastime is baccarat and this card game can be enjoyed at land casinos and online as well.  While baccarat may have originated in the middle ages, there is nothing medieval about this game if you check out the amazing technology used to bring realistic gaming to players at top online casinos.  There are several variations of baccarat, with varying degrees of skill involved, although the the more popular punto banco variant is strictly a game of chance.

If you want to try out something new like baccarat at online casinos, here are a couple of tips to help you get on your way:

  • The house edge in baccarat is relatively low, making this a profitable game if you play your cards right – literally speaking.  If you want to make sure that you are getting the best odds, bet on the bank, because if you’re playing with an 8 deck shoe, the house edge is a little over 1%  in this instance.  The next best bet is a wager on the player, giving the house a 1.24% edge.
  • Avoid betting on a tie because out of the three possible main wagers, this is the one that offers the worst odds for you, the player.  Yes, the 9-1 payout sounds tempting but your chances of landing it are low.
  • You can also improve your chances in online baccarat by getting to know the game and software. The good news is that you don’t need to use up your own cash on practice games because online casinos let you try out the games for free.  Play-for-free options mean that you are able to try out the different betting options, get to know the different features of the game and also build up your confidence for the time when you switch to real money play.  Baccarat is a game of chance but if your skills are honed enough and your confidence grows enough, the next natural step will be profitable play-for-real baccarat.
  • Don’t forget to keep an eye on your bankroll. Stick to the tried and tested tips: Don’t chase losses, decide ahead of time how much you can afford to lose and put aside a portion of all winnings so that you can build your bankroll up slowly by surely.

Keen on Online Keno

Monday, October 10th, 2011

If you enjoy the lottery, then one particular game at online casinos should really appeal to you – online keno.  There is probably no simpler game to play online and even if you’ve never picked numbers on a lottery card, you’ll be understanding the rules of this game in absolutely no time.

First a bit about keno:  The game has its origins in ancient Chinese  history and has transformed from those days into one of the most popular online casino games in the world.  Keno is a game of pure luck, which means whatever you are told, there are no particular skills that can be learned to improve your chances of playing.

The rules of keno are very simple – you pick numbers out of those presented to you, mark them on a ticket and then wait for numbers to be drawn.  If a certain number of your tickets match those drawn, then you are paid out.  The more correct guesses you have, the higher the payouts.

There are a number of different ways of playing keno at an online casino, the most basic being the purchase of a straight ticket.  All you need to do is mark off which numbers you think will come up in the draw and wait for them to be picked.  Alternatively, way tickets can be used, whereby you use one ticket to mark off two or more sets of numbers that you think will come up in the draw.  It’s important to note that both offer the same odds, the same chances of winning and the same payouts.  Combination tickets mean that you are essentially combining the groups that were considered separate on the way tickets.

You can also play Top or Bottom where you mark off which of the two areas on the ticket you wish to bet on, or left or right which uses the same concept.

The bottom line is that Keno remains a very easy game to play, without much thought needed and with plenty of entertainment and winning opportunities.  No wonder, then, that this game remains one of the most popular at top online casinos out there.

Celebrating Multinationalism at Online Casinos

Sunday, October 2nd, 2011

The internet is probably one of the most significant inventions of modern times, breaking down international barriers and creating a global community of players from around the world who share one thing in common – the love of gambling online.  Where else would you be able to play against a businessman in Tokyo, a housewife in England, a student in Australia and a mechanic in South Africa – all at the very same time?  The fact that you can chat to them about the rules of the game, the strategies they know or simply about the weather is quite an amazing feat and I sometimes have to stop and marvel about this incredible invention.

As a result of the need to cater to so many different nationalities, online casinos are definitely multinational in character when it comes to the games being offered.  Of course, certain online casinos will find a niche and cater to their particular markets (such as Asian games), but, in general, casino games – especially online slots – carry themes that appeal to players from all around the world.

To celebrate multinationalism at online casinos, here is a list of some of my favorite games found at top online casinos across the board:

Mexican Slots - Aztec Treasures, Gonzo’s Quest, Paco and the Popping Peppers, Salsa

French Slots – A Night in Paris, French Cuisine, Voila, Secret Code

USA Slots – Sevens and Stripes, The McMurphys, Texas Tea, Vegas Baby, Red White and Win, Heavyweight Gold, Alaskan Fishing

German Slots – Steinfest, Roll out the Barrels, Beer Fest

Italian Slots - Gladiator, Da Vinci Diamonds, Pinocchio, Belissimo, Crazy Pizza

Canada Slots – Eagle’s Wings, Northern Lights

Australian Slots – Aussie Rules, Diamonds Down Under

Russian Slots – From Russia with Love, Russian Attack, Day of the Tsar

Spanish Slots – Slota Bonita

British Slots – Robin Hood, Phileas Hog, Mule Britannia

Indian Slots  - Cash n Curry, Kathmandu

Irish Slots – Celtic Crown, Rainbow Riches, Shamrock Isle

Egyptian Slots – Fortune of the Pharaohs, Cleopatra, Treasure Room, The Last King of Egypt

As you can see, each of these slot games have taken the very best that their countries represent and brought them to online gamblers to enjoy fun, international gaming across the reels.

 
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