Guide to Online Gambling

Gambling has existed in some form or another since before recorded history. Ancient texts dating back thousands of years have even documented gambling in humanity's earliest moments of recorded history. Modern day Keno machines are based on the Chinese lottery that was used to fund the building of the Great Wall. Online Gambling

The subject of online gambling covers a lot of ground. There are dozens of gambling games, hundreds of online casinos and countless strategies that have been devised for profitable real money gambling. Getting started doesn't have to be difficult, though. This online gambling guide will help you learn the basics with minimal startup time.

This guide to online gambling is broken up into sections for all the major types of gambling. You can read through the entire guide at once or skip to the sections that interest you the most. In any case, our goal is to give you straightforward and useful information. We want you to enjoy your time with online gambling and do well over the long run.

The easiest place to get started is to take a quick look at the best online gambling sites:

Rank	Best Gambling Sites		Deposit Bonus	Casino	Poker	Sports	Visit Site
#1		Bovada	50% up to $250				Visit Site
#2		TopBet	50% up to $250				Visit Site
#3		BetOnline	25% up to $900				Visit Site
#4		Winpalace Casino	200% up to $1000				Visit Site

Online gambling is simply an extension of gambling into the modern age. Now days anyone with a computer and a connection to the internet can log on to an online gambling site, wager real money and win real money just like in a real casino.

The biggest online gambling sites have been around for about a decade and a half and have already proven themselves to be long term business entities. In its infancy, online gambling was eyed with more than a little suspicion because people were reluctant to trust their money to offshore gambling sites.

As e-commerce became more popular, however, and the top online casinos built up their reputations, internet gambling became more of a mainstream activity. Today it is a multibillion dollar industry with customers all across the world. If you are interested in the history and how Internet gambling got started, check out our history of online gambling to learn from the beginning.

It's not always easy to find sites that are established, trusted, and offer customer support that excels most of the competition. This guide points out many of the best online gambling sites by categories such as country, operating system, and even mobile. Use any of our guides for assistance in choosing a quality site based on any of those categories.

In addition to best site recommendations, this guide also provides general gambling information. You can scroll through the various sections of this gambling guide to learn about gambling strategy, the rules of gambling and the basics of getting started. If you have any unanswered questions, then our gambling FAQ page may better fit your needs.

Finding the Best Gambling Site

It's not always easy to find the best gambling sites for specific countries or operating systems, which is what our "best sites" pages will help you accomplish. We rank to top sites for specific topics to save you the hassle of researching dozens of sites in order to find the best option.

Most of the online gambling websites ranked on here offer casino games, sports betting, poker, and more. More specific options, such as sites that offer casino games only can be found from further reading on this page.

In many cases, the all-in-one gambling sites (those that offer sports betting, casino games and poker under one roof) are actually the best gambling sites for each category. You would normally think all-in-one sites spread themselves too thin, but this does not appear to be the case. These big betting sites are run like corporations and they have a lot of money to invest in high quality gambling.

Finding the best gambling sites doesn't have to be terribly complicated. Yes, there are hundreds to choose from, but we've found it fairly easy to narrow down the list. When you stick with the biggest names in the business, you can't really go wrong. The most important thing is to make sure you only play at gambling sites that have positive reputations.

Online Casinos

Online casinos have come a long ways since the beginning of online gambling. Today's online casinos offer just about everything you could ever find in a live casino. Some online casinos have even gone so far as to hire live dealers to deal the games via web-cam. Casino Gambling

Most online casinos keep it simple and have computers handle all the dealing and shuffling of cards. Random number generators are used to ensure completely random results and every licensed online casino must submit to random audits by independent companies to ensure safety and fairness.

Many online casinos now have even more games than what you could find in a live casino. Some of them have hundreds of different slot machines, dozens of table games and just about every card game imaginable. No matter what game you're looking for, you can probably find it at an online casino. Even better - you'll never have to wait in line for your favorite game at an online gambling site.

Online Poker

Online poker was a bit of a late bloomer in comparison to online casino gambling. The biggest year for online poker came when Chris Money Maker won the 2003 World Series of Poker. It soon became common knowledge that he had won his seat to the WSOP through an online poker tournament at PokerStars and after that online poker exploded.

You can play online poker at a variety of poker sites but the very best ones can be found in our poker site reviews section. In the beginning, poker sites only offered a limited number of games at a limited level of stakes or buy-in sizes.

Over the years online poker has evolved and you can now play games with blinds as small as $0.01/$0.02. If you're a high roller, you can even play games online with $100,000 buyins. Some of the top online poker players started out as common, everyday people and have become multi-millionaires thanks to these high stakes games.

Poker Strategy Guide

Poker is closely associated with gambling, but it is not a gambling game. Poker is a game of strategy just as much as any board game. There are elements of luck in poker, but skilled players can win over the long run. Just look at the WSOP lineup every year or watch the high stakes cash games online for a few months. You see the same names show up time and time again.

The thing that separates poker from other casino games is that poker is not played against the house. Poker is played against other players. The house makes its money by charging a rake out of winning pots. If you are able to beat the other players for an amount greater than the cost of the rake, you can win money in poker.

Once you learn basic poker strategy, a whole new world will be opened to you. The basics are pretty straightforward, but they do take a little time to learn. But once you get through the early learning stages, you'll find that there is so much more to poker than just putting on sunglasses and throwing out bluffs at random. Poker is an incredibly deep game, and that's what makes the game so exciting for millions of players around the world.

Take a look at our poker strategy sections to start your journey today:

Finding the Best Sports Betting Site

Choosing the best online betting sites is a bit different than choosing the best online casinos. Quality bookmakers have a unique skill set that sets them apart from gambling operators. The best sportsbooks must offer not only safety and quality, but they also have to be able to create fair betting lines for hundreds of sporting events every single day.

Think about it - not only do sportsbook have to study dozens of sports, but they have to study a wide range of sports. They have to keep up to date on American football, multiple soccer leagues, cricket, baseball and so on. It's a monumental job and that is the reason why we tend to stick with the biggest sites in our "best sportsbook" lists.

The top online sportsbooks somehow manage to accomplish all of this while still offering their customers a quality experience. The lines that you'll find online are just as competitive as the lines you would find at any major Vegas sportsbook. The online betting industry is super competitive, so online sportsbooks have a strong incentive to keep their lines juicy for the bettors.

One other thing that makes the best sports betting sites stand out from the rest is their lineup of betting promotions. Online sportsbooks can get pretty creative when it comes to hosting promos for their customers. You will often find bet rebates, reduced juice lines, free bets, special drawings and more. Many promotions revolve around whichever sport is currently in-season.

Online Sports Betting

Online sports betting became popular at about the same time online casinos did. A lot of the earliest sportsbooks also offered casino games so both forms of gambling grew together. Just about every sportsbook today also contains a full service online casino.

Sports betting on the internet became popular because it was so much easier and safer to bet online than it was to find trustworthy bookies in person. In areas in which bookmaking is illegal, online sports betting is a welcome answer for sports betting enthusiasts.

One of the greatest advantages of online sports betting is that you have lots of options. With dozens of quality sportsbooks competing for your action, you can easily compare the odds to find the best lines for every bet that you place. Switching from one sportsbook to the next takes nothing more than a few minutes of your time. Many sports fans keep multiple accounts open for the sole purpose of comparing the odds.

Going back to the legality issue again - if you live in an area where sports betting is illegal, it can be risky to deal with underground bookmakers in person. You never know for sure if you'll get paid or what happens if you go into debt with one of these guys. Online sportsbooks operate remotely and are unable to extend credit to bettors.

Sports Betting Guide

Sports betting differs from other forms of gambling in one major way: sports betting can actually be profitable. The vast majority of sports bettors are unprofitable casual sports fans, but those that take sports betting seriously can turn a profit or at least not lose much money. Profitable sports betting is easier said than done, but it is possible.

Even if you don't dream of becoming a wealthy betting sharp, it's not a bad idea to read up a little on sports betting strategy. At the very least, you can learn how to make smart picks, how to get the most value for your money and how to limit your losses. This sports betting guide covers both general betting tips as well as sport-specific strategy.

The following sports betting articles are written by one of the most knowledgeable sports bettors that we know. If you do a little Google research, you can find thousands of sports betting strategy articles, but the vast majority of those articles are limited in their scope and usefulness. This sports betting guide goes well beyond what you'll find at the average sports betting site. If you have any interest whatsoever in sports betting, we strongly recommend that you at least take a look at these pages:

We also have a section of articles written specifically for football betting. Football is the most popular sport in the world when it comes to betting. So, we have dedicated an entire guide to successful football betting. This guide is also written by the same skilled bettor that we mentioned above. Seriously, just check these articles out for yourself. They are worth your time.

Online Horse Race Betting

Online horse betting isn't as popular as sports betting or casino gambling but it still occupies a healthy niche in the online gambling market. Most sportsbooks also offer horse race betting so if you're interested in one, you'll always have access to the other. Betting on Horses

The cool thing about online horse race betting is that the online racing sites don't mind helping you win your bets. Horse bettors don't play against the house so online racebooks supply their customers with all sorts of tips, facts, articles and horse betting advice.

The best horse betting sites keep track of all the major horse races in the world, so there's always something to bet one. Major race are always fun, but major horse racing events are just a small fraction of the betting options. Check out a few of the top horse racing sites and you'll find events that are hosted around the world.

Most horse racing sites are attached to online sportsbooks. You can visit any of the major online sportsbooks and find a section devoted entirely to horse racing. There are also betting sites that focus exclusively on horse gambling.

The bets offered at online betting sites mirror those found at live tracks. If you have ever visited a horse track in person, you'll already be familiar with the bets offered online. Wagers such as win, place and show are available online along with several other types of horse bets.

Gambling Related Articles

Before gambling, we suggest giving each of the below articles a quick read, especially if you are new to online or live gambling. Reading each article before getting started will give you a better understand of gaming in general and should help you get started on the right foot.

Problem Gambling and the Internet

Online gambling is a fun and mostly harmless pastime but some people do have legitimate concerns about online gambling addiction. Interestingly, new research suggests that online gambling has had absolutely no impact on problem gambling statistics in the UK. More research needs to be conducted but the initial findings are very positive.

Online Gambling Tips

Check out our page of online gambling tips to get solid casino advice and gambling tips straight from the pros. Some tips actually help you lower the house edge and other tips will just help you have a better time at your favorite online casino.

Gambling Games

Online casinos have an even greater selection of games than live casinos. You can find every traditional live casino game online plus many more that cannot be found at any live casino. The best part is you never have to wait in line to join in on your favorite casino game.

Casino Bonuses

One of the greatest advantages of online gambling is the plethora of sign-up bonuses you can find on the internet gaming sites. Every online casino has a new customer bonus that either gives you extra money, free plays or both. There is a lot of competition out there for your business and bonuses are one of the main ways online casinos compete against one another.

Betting Systems

Casino enthusiasts have researched betting systems for years in the hopes of gaining an advantage over the casino. There's nothing wrong with using a betting system but you should know that it is absolutely impossible to gain an advantage over the house with a betting system. Betting systems should be used for entertainment value only.