Types of Online Casinos

Up until today, only three categories of online casinos can be found on the Internet according to the interface they offer: web-based, download-based, and live-based casinos. Although some casinos will limit themselves to just one particular interface, the best names in the industry do offer a combination of some of the three options, and sometimes even all three of them. Following, you will find a concise explanation of each of these types of online casinos.

web-based casinos

Casinos that present their games through an interface dependent on browser plugins. In other words, users play the casino games directly on the Internet without downloading them to their computers. These kinds of online casinos offer immediate access to their games without downloads, but require from the users browser support for the plugins as well as a bandwidth connection to the Internet in order to be able to properly enjoy the graphics, sounds and animations of the software. Nonetheless, all the plugins necessary for these games (like Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave, or Java) are readily available from the Net or already present in most personal computers. Although these kind of casinos are convenient and do not take up any memory space in the computer, they could be somewhat slower and less varied than download-based casinos. web-based casinos may also be more problematic than any other kind of online casinos in the sense that disconnection problems can become a nuisance depending on your Internet provider and the kind of service you hire from them.

Download-Based Casinos

Casinos that operate after a full download of their software client has been executed to a local computer via Internet or CD. These sorts of online casinos exchange and handle information between the user’s computer and the casino service provider without browser support. What this means is, that instead of loading graphics, sound, animations and information from and to the Internet, the a includes these programs within it and connects directly to the software provider without browser plugins or intermediaries. This fact translates in greater varieties of games and options offered and in faster interaction with the software. On the down side, many people observe that downloading a program may take some time and include the possibility of viruses being transferred to the computer. However, this is an inaccurate observation since the download and installation of casino software should only take a few minutes (unless your computer is extremely slow) and viruses will very unlikely be part of the program. In fact, you run far many more chances of getting a virus while playing online at a web-based casino than while downloading casino software from a reputable source. In any case, the security measures applied to both types of casinos are bulletproof when talking about the big names in the industry.

live-based casinos

These are the new breeds of casinos taking hold on the Internet. Thanks to these types of casinos, the users are able to participate in a brick-and-mortar casino atmosphere via Internet. Just like people connect “live” to many other online services through the Net (virtual classrooms, business conferences, messenger, etc), many casinos are implementing casino studios from which gaming tables and dealers are available worldwide to their costumers. Although very exciting and promising, this novice option is still to withstand the passing of time and public acceptance.

Article Submitted by:
Harry Cohen, Editor.

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