A Betting Guide: A few things you just have to know about online gambling
In the past few years, online gambling has flexed its muscles in a quite an unusual manner, and even though U.S. lawmakers have dealt quite a serious blow to it through the 2006 UIGEA, the phenomenon is still booming and attracting thousands of players every day.If you are one of the people intrigued by the possibility of making money through online gambling, there are a few things you need to be aware of, before you actually hit the tables.
First of all: the nature of casino games. Make no mistake about it, casino games are all negative expected value ones. Unlike poker, which is a game of skill and which can be turned over into positive EV through skillful play, casino games remain negative EV ones no matter what you do.
What exactly does that mean for you? It means that if you were to play on forever, you’d certainly end up losing money. The negative EV is created by the house edge, which is quite tiny on individual bets, but it takes its toll in the long-run. That is how the casino makes its money, and not by winning it from players.
Does negative EV mean you won’t ever be able to win any money? It certainly doesn’t.
By taking advantage of the variance, you can easily win a fortune in just a couple of spins of the roulette wheel, or the slots reels, but you can lose a fortune just as easily. This is what the magic of the whole setup consists in.
You can win indeed, you can lose too, but always remember that you’re playing negative EV games.
The second very important thing is about casino bonuses. All online casinos offer their patrons some sort of bonuses and promotions these days. While some of them have carefully crafted bonus systems that do indeed aim to provide value for customers, for most, the whole arrangement is a necessity imposed by an increasingly competitive market. It is for this reason that I advise you to double check the bonuses offered by the casino you may decide to play in. Most bonuses offered are not what they appear to be at all. For instance: you may see a casino advertise $500 in signup bonus. When it comes to sums this big, you can almost always be certain that it is in fact a 50, 100 or 200 percent match on your first deposit they’re talking about, up to a maximum of $500. That is one big difference from the get go, but things get even more complicated.
In order to understand how online casino bonuses work, you need to understand the reason behind them first. These bonuses are usually given as an enticement, but in the same time, they’re always double edged. They intend to keep you playing, for several reasons: fist of all, it is in the casino’s interest that you play there as much as possible. Then it is meant to prevent bonus whoring. Just imagine, if bonuses came without any strings attached, people would just sign up, cash in on them and then be on their way with the casino’s money. That wouldn’t be fair, and as such, it cannot be allowed to happen.
This is why you can never really cash out a bonus (or any money for that matter) until you’ve fulfilled the required “playthrough”. You aren’t actually forbidden to cash out your own money, but in that case you forfeit any bonuses you might have received.
The primary requirement to unlock your bonus is to wager your bonus money a set number of times. If you do that, you’ll be allowed to cash everything out: your initial deposit, your bonus plus your winnings. Be careful though. Not all casino games count the same way towards your wagering limit. Some will only be worth 50% in that respect, others (like wagering on black or red, or odd or even on roulette) will not count at all.
"All the good online poker players know about rakeback. What about you?"
<< Back to Home Page
© sportingways.com since 2005