With Thanksgiving near and Christmas a month away, people are already looking ahead of the deals many retailers are about to offer come Black Friday and the shopping frenzy surrounding Christmas, the online casino this time around do also plan on participating heavily in this All-American tradition. The economy may be getting better if you ask the Wall Street guys but it will be years until Mainstreet gets back to prosperity and people are looking for the deals this year more than ever before. Bottom line - expect long lines in front of the major retailers this Friday and maybe even a few server crashes online come next Monday.
And reflecting the though times, the online casinos are also planning on boosting their bonus offers and free money bonuses this year. Gambling, often regarded as a recession-proof business, is also hurting from the poor state of the economies world-wide, perfectly illustrated by the many casino bankruptcies we have witnessed over the past couple of years. And while the most popular online casinos show no signs of deteriorations, the smaller outfits are clearly seeing decreasing profit margins, compared to the bounty a few years back. And small bonuses around Thanksgiving and Christmas was a given with the online casinos, but this year quite a few of them are planning on introducing some really big offerings, especially when they have to compete with the holiday sales and dwindling entertainment budgets across the board.
Online casinos, especially no download casinos, are expected to come with big promotions for the holidays this year. Details at this point remain to be decided, but we expect a lot of free money for existing customers of the online casinos, as well as sweet deals for the first-time players at the casino. As usual the customer is the one to benefit from the deals that will be offered at the online casinos this year turning a small entertainment budget into days of good time. And with the progressive jackpots at those online casinos still growing by the minute, someone may have a really happy New Year.
With thousands of online casinos on the internet, it can be very confusing as to which ones are safe and reputable, and which casinos are not. So many of them are beautifully designed, look very professional and offer great signup bonuses, so how does one go about choosing the "reputable" online casinos while avoiding the "dodgy" ones?
When choosing an online casino to play at, one should always take into consideration the following points:
Licensed casino: Is the casino licensed? While many online casinos are licensed, a significant number of casinos are not. There are plenty of unlicensed, illegal gambling casinos which are nothing more than money scam operations. One should always avoid these casinos at all costs.
Where is the casino licensed?: While online casinos licensed in Antigua and Barbuda, Australia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Kahnawake, Netherlands Antilles, United Kingdom and the West Indies are recommended, online casinos licensed in Eastern Europe should be approached with extreme caution.
24/7 Support: Does the casino offer 24/7 phone, fax, live chat and email support? Test the casino's customer service department by asking them a few questions about their games, bonuses, etc and measure how long it takes to receive a decent response.
Professional Recogition: Is the online casino officially recognised by various gaming bodies and authorities? For instance, are the payout percentages of the online casino independently reviewed by auditors such as PricewaterhouseCoopers? Is this information made publicly available?
Blacklisted: Is the online casino blacklisted for any reason? There are many casinos which have been blacklisted by several gambling portals for one reason or another. Although not all blacklists are credible sources of information, one should avoid online casinos which appear in several blacklists.
Software: Casino software providers such as Microgaming, Playtech, Random Logic, Real Time Gaming and WaterLogic are very popular and have excellent reputations in the online gambling industry.
With so many online casinos coming and going, and with so many cons and scams surfacing on the internet everyday, one needs to be especially careful when registering one's credit card with or transferring money to an online casino. The above set of guidelines may not completely safeguard a player's money, but they are nevertheless a good set of common sense points to go by when choosing an online casino to play at.
Paylines have long been an integral part of online slot games. They define the paths across the reels on which the combinations appearing in the payout tables are eligible for wins. If a combination appears on a path that has not been defined as a payline then there is no payout awarded. The number of paylines in a slot game varies from a single payline in many 3 reel slots to 100 paylines in two 5 reel slots offered by Microgaming.
Microgaming was the first to introduce an online slot game that did away with the concept of paylines altogether. In these games wins are calculated by symbols appearing from left to right starting from the first reel, irrespective of on which row the symbol appears. Another way of looking at the concept is that a 5 reel slot will have 243 paylines with all paylines enabled. Therefore Microgaming refers to the slot as having 243 ways to win. Microgaming’s online slot with no paylines was called Burning desire. It was released in February 2009 on the occasion of Valentine’s Day. Players can bet from 1 to 10 coins in the game. The payout table for the line combinations gives the payouts for 1 coin wagered. If the player wagers 10 coins then the stated payout is multiplied by 10. The total bet per spin is taken to be 25 times the coins wagered. Therefore when a player selects 10 coins he will be charged 250 coins per spin. Since the maximum coin denomination is $1.00, the maximum total bet per spin is $250. The scatter symbol payouts are multiplied by the total bet.
In the competitive world of online slots other online gaming software providers are quick to pick up on innovations. Last week Vegas Technology released Grail Maiden and Cryptologic released Savannah Sunrise, both based on the no paylines or 243 ways to win concept. Both these software providers refer to this concept as All Ways. Grail Maiden follows a similar pattern as Burning Desire. Players can bet 25, 50, 75 or 100 coins. The payout table gives the payouts for 25 coins wagered. In Grail Maiden the total bet per spin is the same as the line bet. Therefore the line payouts and scatter payouts are multiplied by the same multiplier.
Savannah Sunrise has players wagering 1 coin for the line payouts and 25 coins for the total bet. Hence scatter payouts are multiplied by total bet. However the scatter combinations win with left to right combinations as the other symbols. However Cryptologic has introduced a twist in the Savannah Sunrise online slot. Players can choose the number of reels to play with. When players choose all five reels they get 243 combinations with all 15 reel positions coming into play. If players choose only 4 reels then the first four reels will display 3 symbols and the fifth reel only one symbol. Therefore only 13 reel positions come into play and the ways to win is 81. The total bet accepted is 15 coins. For three reels, 11 reel positions come into play, with 27 ways to win and a total bet of 9 coins. For two reels, 9 reel positions come into play, with 9 ways to win and a total bet of 3 coins. For one reel, 7 reel positions come into play, with 3 ways to win and a total bet of 1 coin.