If you are a casino enthusiast, or are just interested in online gambling in any form, here's an interesting thing to consider; how do you view online casinos and what they offer?
It is an interesting question because if you ask 10 online casino regulars this question, you may well receive ten very different answers.
Our attitudes towards online casinos, their offers, the games and how they conduct themselves vary from one player to the next. For every player that understands why they may lose on a spin of a slot, or a game of blackjack, there is another who believes that somehow they have been conned out of winning by less than fair casino software or practices.
Some users will receive a bonus when joining and be delighted about receiving it, others will receive the same bonus and feel it is greatly unfair and unjust and that they should be allowed more, or that the bonus should not come with so many rules and regulations regarding its use.
One user may be thrilled at receiving 20 free spins to play on their choice of slot, a different player may be annoyed that even if you win with the 20 free spins, you can't easily access your money until you have spent a whole lot more at the casino and claim that this is grossly unfair.
So is the cup half full, or is it half empty?
To answer the question, let's take a look at five key things you need to know about the online gambling industry. These are simple, sometimes obvious facts but understanding them will help give you a wider, more considered perspective about all aspects of online gambling.
And perhaps through understanding them, if you've ever felt frustrated about an aspect of online gambling, this will explain why the rules that so frustrated you, have to be in place.
Let's start with arguably the most obvious thing to remember about all online gambling sites:
1. Online gambling sites are a business; ergo they need to make a profit to be sustainable
Reading this may seem somewhat obvious, but there are players who assume that because they have signed up to a casino, then that casino is simply their own fun bank account. There are many players who begrudge playing games at the casino and losing because they feel that this is unfair or that the casino is cheating players out of their money.
That is not the case at all. Casino's operate in exactly the same way as any other business. If they do not make money, then they are not viable. Therefore, the casino has to be set up to ensure that while players can enjoy financial rewards when playing, that the casino makes enough to pay this and still record a profit.
Then there is staff to pay, licenses to procure, costs for game development and bug fixing, advertising budgets, budgets for new player offers and similar. All of which eats into the turnover from a casino and that is before you even start thinking about net profit for the year.
Casinos run a fine line between generating enough money to pay their way and maintain a profit, while at the same time offering players the great deals and big payouts they want to win. That is a delicate balance to maintain.
2. Online Casinos will ALWAYS win and it has to be that way
As players of the slots, table games, poker and even when making sports bets, we are often fixated by how much we can win. We assume that by luck and/or skill, we could make a profit on our play.
For the fortunate few, that may well be the case but for the vast majority of players of online gambling entertainment, they will end up enjoying themselves, but losing money.
That isn't down to any trickery, any falsehood, any lies or deceit; it is simply how these games and operations have to be in order to guarantee the establishment in question a profit.
This is why sports book odds are so carefully selected, this is why slot machines and tables games are weighted in favour of the house, it is why poker rooms take a registration fee for some games, or a slice of the action in cash table games.
Yes, you may have a big win and be up but the likelihood is over time, the casino will make a profit from you. That's the payoff for enjoying some of the world's best online entertainment you can find and it is a price most are more than happy to pay, for the chance of winning it big.
3. The amount of profit a casino makes from a typical game is much smaller than you think
How much of the money a slot typically earns in a year, do you think goes to the casino in profit? 10%? 20% 50%?
Well, it is easy to see how much a casino is likely to make from any slot by checking the payout percentage. This percentage tells you how much of the money the slot takes in over a sustained period of time and over millions of spins, will be paid out to players of the slot and the remaining percentage is what the casino takes in profit.
What you'll find however is that most slots offer between 93% and 97% payout percentages, which means that a casino earns only 3% to 7% profit on a typical slot.
Therefore if a 97% payout slot made 1 million credits in a year, then 970,000 of those credits would be paid out to customers. The remaining 30,000 would be the casinos profit, out of which it has to meet its overheads, costs, advertising etc. Therefore the actual profit the casino makes on that slot, is much, much smaller than you would believe.
4. In terms of security, possibly only online banking offers the same level of security as the best online casino establishments
Security is always a key issue for casino users. Passing on your personal information, home details, phone details and of course, financial details is a real concern for many users who are worried about the security of this data from hackers and other Internet fraudsters.
The good news is that online casinos, along with banks and ewallet services such as PayPal, offer arguably the strictest and highest levels of online security you can find online today.
Of course, they have to. They are responsible for millions and millions of dollars, pounds, euros worldwide and as such, people's information and account details need protecting to the highest standards.
So next time you are pausing over an online casino and wondering if you should join, simply think that the casino is likely to have security standards in excess of the online shop you have just purchased something from.
5. Unrestricted Free Spins and other offers are a risk for the casino, hence they need to reduce the chances of them facing a big payout.
One of the biggest gripes people have with casinos comes over bonuses. Many feel that the terms and conditions that come attached to bonuses, specifically to do with play through requirements, mean bonuses are in effect worthless as even if the player wins, they can't withdraw the money.
But examine this a little more closely. What have you actually lost in the deal if you are using free money, win more free money, then spend it. How much money have you lost in real terms?
Nothing.
There is a reason casinos have withdrawal requirements and such like and it is to protect them against people abusing the offers, or the offer being so open that it ends up costing the casino too much to run it.
So if you have a 30 or 40x playthrough on your bonus of 100, then if you win don't complain that you can't withdraw the 200 you won, think of it as having an extra bonus to spend at the casino.
Continue to be lucky, or land a big win, then you may be able to lift playthrough requirements and withdraw your cash, but that is not likely to happen for very many players and that is precisely how the offer needs to be for the casino to offer it to players.
If every online gambling site offered a deal that saw players walk away with 100 or 200 profit each time, they would be in business a matter of days before they went bust.
Online gambling sites may exist online, but they also exist in the real terms and have the same needs and requirements as every other business. Reminding ourselves of this from time to time can help give you a fresh perspective on what online casinos offer and why.
Next Post: What has been the impact of the 2014 UK Gambling Act?
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