Online gambling is a huge industry, with an
almost infinite number of services and game types to choose from. You’ll find
companies offering sports betting, casino games like poker and blackjack,
traditional popular betting pastimes like horse betting, and many others. There
are lots of things you might already know about online gambling, but there are
some fascinating things you might not. Let’s have a look at 10 things you
(probably) didn’t know about online gambling.
How Much is the Industry Worth?
It’s probably no surprise to you to learn
that online gambling is worth an enormous amount of money, but just how
enormous? Try almost $50 million US dollars a year. That’s not all though, it’s
also growing at a really fast rate. Some analysts report year on year growth of
more than 10% for online gambling, so it’s no small market.
The Random Number Generator is Everything
Apart from sports and horse betting, the
traditional casino games need their machines to be simulated online. To do
this, a special piece of computer code is used called
a random number generator. Everything about the games needs to be random –
from the cards drawn in poker or blackjack to where the virtual slot machine
stops spinning and using this random number generator this is achieved.
It keeps the online casino honest too,
since if everything is random, it’s not possible to cheat.
The Games Aren’t Rigged (Probably)
Gambling is mostly luck and just like in
real life, this applies to online casinos too. The way casinos win is by using
clever and complex mathematics to ensure they have an edge. There’s more maths
involved than we can explain here, but understanding that the odds are already
in the favour of the house, even when the game is legitimately using the random
number generator, there isn’t really a need for the gambling site or service to
cheat, so why would they? It just means they have the risk of getting found out
and going out of business for being too greedy.
The Biggest Game in the Industry
Think of a regular casino and picture
yourself walking through it. What game takes up most of the floor space and has
the most people engaged with it? That’s right, just like traditional casinos, the
biggest game in online casinos is the humble slot machine. By some accounts, it
accounts for over 70% of profits made in the online gambling industry. It’s not
particularly surprising given that it is accessible and easy to play.The actual
technology and odds of winning are surprisingly close to its real-life
counterpart too.
Choosing a Gambling Site
Research. It’s the only thing that you can
do to ensure you choose a legitimate gambling site. You can also check that
their merchant service is reliable which will guarantee that your payments to
credit your account are processed safely. A smart online gambling site will speak
to gaming experts to choose the best merchant service with advice from
industry experts like the Merchant Advice Service.
Traditional Cheating Methods Don’t Work
This one might seem obvious, but most
traditional ways of cheating at your local casino aren’t going to help your
chances at winning with an online casino, particularly when they rely on physical
pieces of a game. This is because of our friend, the random number generator.
Blackjack, for example, uses physical cards
in a casino, which are periodically shuffled. This allows for adept players to
know when a deck is in a promising or less promising position based on what
cards have already been played, and whether to bet high or low at any time. In
the electronic version, you best believe that the card stack is ‘shuffled’ using
the random number generator after every hand, so counting cards isn’t going to
get you anywhere.
Don’t Be Fooled by Signup Bonuses
Almost every online casino or gambling site
you visit will offer you some form of signing up bonus. Of course, these
bonuses, as with everything else in the gambling world, favour the house.
Without going into too many complicated maths equations, just know that there
will be rules in place to prevent you from taking advantage of this sign up
bonus.
No Game (Other Than Card Games) Pays Out More Than Any Other
There are no games that are easier or give
you a better chance of winning than any other. You can confidently play your
favourite game without fear that you’re missing out on an opportunity for an
easier win somewhere else.
That is, until you start playing games
where some skill is involved. Poker is a good example, where a lot of what
happens is luck, but a lot is also skill and deception. Blackjack too, actually
might in some cases have a slightly higher win rate when played correctly.
Don’t Trust Online Advice
This is probably true for almost
everything, and not only online gambling, but you should never trust the advice
of anything you see or read online, particularly those that are presented as if
they come from fellow players, like on a forum or message board. Casino
shills are everywhere, and so are online casino competitors trying to bring
down their competitors’ reputations. Rather make up your own mind or accept the
advice of people you know and trust.
Is Online Gambling Safe?
Yes, online gambling is definitely safe,
provided you’re using a legitimate website. There are very few scam sites
online, as they get found out and word of mouth eliminates them quite quickly, but it’s always worth doing your research before
fully trusting one.
These are a few of the things we found
interesting about online gambling you probably didn’t know about. Online gambling
in its many forms is a behemoth money-making machine, and millions of people
around the world enjoy playing one or more of the games on offer, or betting on
sports or similar. Provided you’re responsible about what you have to spend
(and potentially lose) it’s a fun hobby that can provide a lot of
entertainment.
