Internet Slot Machines
There is no casino game more like its live version than Internet slot machines. These are the exact same games played with the exact same type of random number generator. If you're a live slot machine gambler, you've been playing slots against a computer for a generation now. So it's only natural to play the slots on a computer at home. Truly, online games don't get much more fun than this.
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Live Slot Machines Versus Online Games
Think about the live slots experience. You get to the casino, find the slot machine games you want to play, then sequester yourself away from the rest of the gaming public to enjoy a personal, private time of slots gambling. If you deal with people, it tends to be a negative experience. Maybe the person next to you talks too much. Maybe the person next to your smokes. Maybe the pit boss or the waitress hassles you. The point being, slot machine players tend to prefer their privacy, which is what online games are all about.
Online slot machines save on gas money to get to the casino and expensive food and drinks on the way there and while you're at the gambling hall. At your house, you can eat and drink what's in the fridge, and you don't even have to start up the car. You don't have to get dressed up. Heck, you can play online slots in your pajamas. So if you've never tried online gaming, you should at least give it a shot.
Is Online Gaming Safe?
Yes, if you play at a licensed
casino online that is certified and
audited by outside services. Most of the big name online casinos and
online gaming software providers deal only with these types of
operators.
When you go to an online gambling site, look at the bottom of the home page for their licensing and certification information. Legitimate licensing bodies include the Kahnawake Gaming Commission (Native American tribe found near Quebec, Canada), the Government of Antigua and Barbuda (Netherlands Antilles) in the Caribbean, Gibraltar, Malta, or the Isle of Man. There are others, but these are the main ones for English-language gaming.
Online Casino Licensing
There are also certification information, which shows a casino is
audited by another corporation, organization, or association to see
whether they run a fair game. You'll see many online casinos are a part
of
eCogra, a fair gaming advocate, while Bodog uses
TST Labs to test
its gaming equipment. There are many other ways to prove an Internet
casino is offering fair gaming.
The fact is, operating a legitimate and successful online casino is a license to print money, because of the low overhead and the ever-present house edge. To make an Internet casino successful, all that site has to do is drive customers to it. So it's bad business to drive customers away with unfair gaming, and it's insane to risk getting the operation shut down for fixing games. Stay at the big name-brand casinos and you're in good shape. If you want to try a lesser known Internet slots casino, I suggest you look at a quick review of the casino at Casino City Online, which recommends casinos or warns people about them, depending on their licensing and online reputation.
Internet Slot Machine Software
Online casinos use particular casino software by a number of different online casino software designers. When you hear about an Internet casino being "powered" by some software, all that means is they use that particular company. If a gambling website has "proprietary" software, that means they use their own, instead of licensing software from one of the major designers. In the US, you'll see companies like Realtime Gaming (RTG), Rival Gaming, and Vegas Technology as major casino software providers. Outside the US, you'll see companies like Microgaming, Playtech, and Cryptologic.
Each of these companies markets their own slots games. This means a lot of the shopping for new online casinos for slots gaming might involve a search for a particular game, and therefore casinos powered by a certain Internet slot machine software designer. I should mention that most of these companies design quite similar games, in order to better compete with one another and to better please the slot playing public.
Let me give one example of what I'm talking about. It seems like every slot machine software company has to have its Egyptian-themed slot machine title, and Cleopatra is the most popular Egyptian icon for companies to invoke. Each of the three casino software companies that accept US players that I listed above have their own slots game based on Cleopatra.
- Vegas Technology Software - Cleopatra's Pyramid Slots
- Rival Gaming Software - Cleopatra's Coins Slots
- Realtime Gaming Software - Cleopatra's Gold Slots
That is not going to be the case with licensed slot machines, of course. If a company has a license to make Addams Family Slots or Hee Haw Slots, you won't find other companies producing the same title. Wheel of Fortune Slots are only going to be found at certain online casinos, and so on.
Beyond that, the different in many Internet slots casinos may come down to the types of slots you want to play: classic slots, 5 reels, 7 reels, bonus slots, multi-line slots, interactive slots, and (of course) progressive slot machines. If you want to find the biggest progressive jackpots online, you can hunt for that, too.
Downloading Internet Slots Software
Once you know which casino you want to play at, you'll have to
download the online slot machine software which lets your computer
interface with the online casino site. This is a simple process with a
few point-and-click steps. Downloading casino software should be a
one-time process (for a particular casinos) and should only take a few
minutes, if you have a highspeed connection and a later operating
system. Most online casinos support Windows 7, Vista, and XP, and I've
seen some that still interface with Windows '98 and '95.
Many Internet slots casinos do not support Mac or Linux downloads, though they offer browser virtual slot machine gaming to those users. The graphical interface might not be as clear and the sound effects might not be as neat, but Mac users and Linux OS users should be able to get their slots fix with no trouble, otherwise.
Playing Internet Slot Machines for Money
Just about any online gambling room you come across is going to offer
freeslots gaming, if that's what you want. I'm pretty sure there's some legal
reason that casinos on the Internet are required to offer free versions
of their games, which allows them to advertise online and on commercials
that "We are not a gambling site". Most people come for the money games,
of course.
The last step before you can start playing Internet slot machines is to find a deposit method to deposit some funds in an online casino account. Each casino you'll play at will have its own account, and you can deposit money via credit card, prepaid gift card, or one of the online money transaction companies. The list of these seems endless, but ones you see often are NETELLER, Ecocard, Moneybookers, and Click2Pay.
Once that's out of the way, you are ready to start gambling on the Internet slot machines. One last word of warning: the odds aren't much better online than in live casino slots, and the strategy is just the same (that is, non-existent). So get ready to take the same beating you do at the brick-and-mortar casinos, and get ready to take way too much hope away anytime you get lucky and walk away with a big win. I'll be cheering for you.
