Many Americans play the slot machines at local restaurants and bars so playing online is pretty popular too. The high tech video slot machines you find at many local businesses are more closely related to online slots than the old-style slots with reels that actually spin. Online slot machine laws in the USA are pretty confusing. In the last year several states have been pushing for online casino gambling regulation so if you look at legality on the state level you will find not find a definitive answer. Luckily if there are specific laws against real money slots online no one has ever enforced it. Millions of Americans play slot games online for money every day and this number is growing.

The federal government might say that online slots are illegal but it is just one of those things that they don’t waste their time on. In most states you can gamble on video poker and slot machines at both casinos and many other businesses so the question of if gambling is wrong or right isn’t even relevant any more.

There are two things that the U.S. government does care about when it comes to slots and other forms of gambling. They want to keep underage players away from the machine and they want to collect taxes on it. The recent push to regulate online gambling across the US is sound evidence that both state governments want to cash in on Internet gambling because everyone is doing it anyway. Why send the untaxed money overseas?

Some US states have even bigger plans than just taxing online gambling revenues. They want to dominate the U.S. gambling market in the same way that Las Vegas dominates the brick and mortar casino market.

I have not been reporting on all of the online casino related bills recently but there have been quite a few states making headlines. You can read more about the push for legal online casino gambling at SlotsinVegas.com. They do a much better job of reporting on the current events.

Taxes & Slot Machine Winnings?

If you play online slots and win a lot of money you are going to want to pay taxes on it. If you won a slots jackpot at a brick and mortar casino they would tax you right then and there in some states. That can be a curse and a blessing. It is best to pay it right away but who wants to see 30-40% of their jackpot disappear into Uncle Sam’s pocket?

The thing with US taxes and online gambling profits is that online casinos do not send you W2′s. They do not report anything to the state or federal government, at least not directly. Most US online casinos in 2013 will handle large payouts via bank wire. Every bank is different but they are obligated to report bank wires that are around $10,000. Some banks I know report wires as low as $5,000.

You certainly don’t want to not file taxes on your online casino winnings and then have the IRS audit you. Even if you only get the occasional check for $200-$300 you still want to report it.

Online casino gambling is pretty different from live casino gambling. Some of the games may have the same rules but you will be playing them differently online. I will use game speed as an example. At a brick & mortar (B&M) casino you may play 50-100 hands per hour but at an online casino you can easily exceed 500 hands per hour. This is just one of many differences that live casino players will have to get used to when they start playing online. Other differences include marketing and game variety. I will start with a more detailed overview of the differences in game-play speeds.

Game-play Speeds At Online Casinos

Online casino gamblers do not have to wait for other players to decide if they want to hit or stay. They do not have to wait while the dealer explains the finer points of the game to a novice. They do not even have to wait while the dealer shuffles the cards. Online casinos also allow you to change the speed of the deal. I suggest lowering the game-play speed if you are new to Internet casino gambling. Even if the game is simple you may make costly mistakes by going too fast. You are used to live casino gambling so just play like you would at your local casino. Once you get the hang of it you can always increase your speed later.

I should point out that there are two types of casino online. The most common and the one I am talking about in this post are the traditional online casinos. These casinos are all computerized and use random number generators. The other type is the live dealer casinos. Live dealer casinos are almost exactly the same as B&M casinos; you are just watching a feed instead of being there in person. The most notable live dealer casino can be found at William Hill, a leading European casino. To learn more about this type of casino visit the link below:

William Hill Casino – bringing the rush of world-class online casino gaming to new and unprecedented heights!

Online Casino Marketing – Bonuses & Promotions

My local casinos send me coupons for free hotel rooms and buffets. Online casino gamblers have it much better. You will receive a large bonus when you make your first deposit. Many will give you additional bonuses on future deposits too. A typical online casino bonus may be a 100% match up to $500. These bonuses have some basic rules that prevent you from simply withdrawing them but you do get to play with the bonus money right away at many casinos.

Online casinos also run a wide range of promotions. These can be anything from a slots tournament to a cash give-away.

Online Casino Game Variety

Online casinos tend to have many more unique games than live casinos. If you think about it B&M casinos do not have many games at all. They have many machines but few games. Online casinos do not need duplicate games. The largest online casinos have over 300 games but on average I would say that most have 150. This is still several times more than brick and mortar casinos.

If you enjoy reading about the online casino gamblers who hit big progressive jackpots you will likely have heard about Netent many times. Netent isn’t as well known as many other casino software developers and networks but if you look at a list of the largest slots jackpots ever hit online you will notice that Netent is well represented. Playtech and Real Time Gaming may be more common online but the jackpots offered by Netent are much better in my eyes. I will just be going over the Netent jackpots and games in this post but you can check here for a list of Netent casinos online today. Netent was created in 1996 by a live casino company in Scandinavia. They have been specializing in progressive jackpots but they also rank highly in regards to software quality, game variety and unique features.

Historic Netent Jackpot – Mega Fortune

One of the most popular Netent casino games is Mega Fortune. This slot game is responsible for many of the largest online casino jackpots ever hit. In the beginning of 2013 one lucky gambler won a €17,860,868 progressive jackpot playing this game. That is roughly $23.3 million (USD) or £14 million. Before this record setting hit the highest was only €11.7.

Current Netent Game Jackpots

Most progressive jackpots at online casinos using the Netent software are for slot machines but Caribbean Stud also has a decent jackpot. The thing I like most of their jackpot is how quickly they grow. Jackpots at other casinos can take twice as long to grow to a certain amount when compare to Netent’s. Here is a list of some of the current progressive jackpots at Netent casinos:

• Mega Fortune – $1,500,000
• Arabian Nights – $1,700,000
• Hall of Gods – $25,000
• Caribbean Stud Poker – $320,000
• Super Frog Bonus – $284,000
• Mega Joker – $24,000
• Gold Rush – $140,000
• Icy Wonders – $17,000
• Cash Bomb – $51,000

This list can be misleading though. Netent casino games like Mega Fortune do not have just a single jackpot. There are actually three distinct jackpots for this slot game. The Mega jackpot is the one in the news all of the time but there is a Major jackpot that generally ranges from €10,000 to €100,000. Obviously this jackpot is hit on a regular basis but there is a third that seems to get hit multiple times per day. This is the Mega Fortune Rapid jackpot. I just checked and the last several hits averaged around €400. This may not seem like much of a jackpot but when it hasn’t been hit in a while it can change the house edge on the game.

There are other casino games that have three jackpots like Mega Fortune. I enjoy this better than simple jackpot games because it gives everyone a chance to win.

Just to give you an idea of how fast these Netent progressive jackpots grow here is a story. When the €17.8 million jackpot was hit it only took 24 days for the jackpot to reach over €3 million. Usually there is a much longer time span between hits but after the €17.8 hit there was a massive increase in the number of people playing this game.

Online casinos have literally exploded in popularity since 2005. The trend will undoubtedly continue, since mobile phones are steadily becoming the centerpiece for gamblers from all around the world. Back in the early 2000’s the fact that you could play a game of blackjack or roulette with other players from around the world by using your cell phone, was a very distant possibility. Thanks to today’s advanced smartphone technology, mobile gambling is an extremely popular alternative to other conventional gambling methods.

Eventually, gamblers will not have to hurry down to the race track or sports match in order to place a bet because their smartphone will allow them to conveniently and easily place their bets online. No travel required. Experts from inside the online gambling industry suggest that mobile devices will shake the industry down to its roots. In certain areas of Asia and Europe, the majority of casinos are already getting more than 16% of bets through users with mobile devices. Many big name casinos that are already online also provide mobile gambling apps to make things even easier for their clients. Conventional gambling methods will probably become secondary to virtual gambling in less than a decade.

Even though it is evident that mobile casinos are quickly gaining a following inside the gambling industry, there are many groups of people that don’t want to embrace this new trend. Some of these gamblers have their own set of concerns that keeps them from trying mobile versions of their favorite games. Those that have difficulty with self-restraint worry that the convenience of mobile gambling will make them bet a lot of money in short periods of time.

There is little doubt that mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are an excellent way to make Internet-based casinos more accessible to anyone that wants to enjoy their favorite gambling game on the go. There are many websites dedicated at providing the best online and mobile casino information with their visitors. You will find many live online casino bonuses here.

With a tablet or smartphone, anyone with internet access is able to enjoy a quick gambling game while taking the bus to work, traveling, waiting for an appointment at the dentist or simply relaxing at home. As long as there is a steady Internet connection, mobile devices will be able to provide hours of endless fun to those that love gambling games.

Online casino gambling in the USA has been a popular activity for over a decade. It started off very slow but enjoyed a large popularity boost during the big online poker boom. In the last couple years the number of Americans who play at online casinos for real money has been growing but not as fast as it used to. Things have slowed down slightly because many Americans have a hard time funding their accounts due to online casino laws for the US. Many people are also put off because of the slow payout times at some online casinos. This is not always the case however. There are still quite a few US casinos that Americans can deposit at and withdraw from both easily and quickly.

I won’t be suggesting one casino or another. If you want to find a list of casinos that accept Americans you can visit: http://www.unitedstatesgamblingonline.com/legal/casinos.html. I will be providing some tips for Americans who want to gamble at an online casino in 2013.

US Casino Deposit Options

Depositing at online casinos can be difficult for Americans. Many methods that worked great a few years ago – like Mastercard – are not viable today. Visa still works well at most casinos though. If for some reason your Visa debit or credit card does not work you can use the following trick as a work-around. Most major retailers sell pre-paid Visa cards. Not every single kind will work at an online casino but most do. Two other deposit methods that seem to be very popular at casinos, poker rooms and sports book are Moneygram and Western Union. These money transfer services can be done on the Internet. These options have two major short-comings. The first is that the casino may take a day to pick up the funds and credit your account. The second is that the fees associated with these methods can be pretty high. If you are depositing a lot it won’t that big of a deal. Recreational gamblers who only want to deposit $50-$100 may want to try another method because there is a minimum fee of $10-$15.

Some online casinos will cover the deposit fees on a certain number of deposits per month or on deposits of $200-$300 and up.

US Casino Payout Options

Americans will also have trouble withdrawing money from their accounts at some casinos. The major options include checks, Moneygram, Western Union and bank wires. Check casino payouts are generally the slowest for Americans. Some casinos have a 1-2 month backlog on this type of payout. The two money transfer services are much, much faster but there are the fees to consider. Bank wires can take anywhere from a week to a month depending on the casino. At some casinos there are fees associated with every kind of withdrawal but you can usually get one or two free per month. My best tip would be to plan your cashout requests carefully. Try to avoid excess fees on both deposits and payouts. This can save you a lot of money and turn a losing month into a winning month.

Most bookies use the spreads and lines issued by Las Vegas but online sports books handle things differently. The Las Vegas sports betting experts are widely known as the ultimate source for lines but Internet bookies will tweak the odds a bit in a way that favors the bettor. They do this because they compete with other sports books and they want to have the best lines. It generally doesn’t add up to much but half a point here and half a point there can really impact your bankroll over the long term. They cannot beat the Vegas lines for every game so each sportsbook will usually pick one or two games to adjust the spreads on.

Online sports bettors can do very well by holding different sports book accounts to take advantage of this. By shopping for lines you can usually increase your chances of making a profit by at least 5%.

Some online sports books offer a certain kind of wager called a teaser. These innovative bets are not available everyone but the best online sports books tend to offer them. On a teaser bet you can adjust the lines by a certain number of points. This ability comes at a price though. You will have to successfully pick the outcome on several different games or matches. If you get one wrong you will lose your entire bet. On the upside the payouts are usually pretty good. They are not quite as high as a parlay bet but being able to tweak the lines gives you a power that sports bettors have always dreamed of.

The trick to finding lines with value comes from years of research or an innate ability to predict outcomes. Some bettors, myself included, rely on hunches. Others will simply bet on their local or favorite team. For many type of wager it really doesn’t matter because the lines even things out. This includes point spreads, money lines and over-under bets.

If you are going to seriously bet on sports and you do not have the time or the ability to analyze the Las Vegas or online sports book lines you can always take the easy way out. There are hundreds of sports betting picks web sites and services that will tell you who to pick. Many of these people publish their results and accuracy rating so you can take a look at the historical pick ratings to find out if you want to risk your hard earned money on their advice.

I would suggest staying away from picks provided by news web sites and their sports reporters. Even major sites like ESPN tend to be fairly inaccurate. You are much better off searching Google for a sports betting site that has been praised on sports and betting forums. Paid picks services and sports betting systems can work well when it comes to finding bad lines and spreads but you also should use caution. If a service if charging a lot of money and guaranteeing great results I would avoid it.

The best online casinos share a few things in common and knowing what these things are will help those who are looking for a new casino in 2013. If you want to take the easy way out you can simply check the lists at www.bestcasino.biz or similar casino guides that feature the top online casinos. I prefer to do my own research and many others do too. Obviously Bestcasino.biz is a trustworthy source or I would have mentioned them but many other casino guides will promote low quality casinos so you should know what to look for before you risk any of your money. I personally think that the best online casinos all have great software, quick payouts and fair bonus rules. I will go into details about each in this post.

If you want to take the easy route you can learn more about Mike Buchanan, an author at BestCasino.biz and an experienced industry expert. I will start with online casino software.

Best Online Casino Software

When I say “best” I am not talking about which software looks the best or which has the most bells and whistles. Even the number of games isn’t that important. Good online casinos always work with independent agencies that test their software for fairness. These companies will find out the exact payout percentage for games like Blackjack, slots and video poker. If the numbers are not similar to that of a brick and mortar casino they will suspect the casino of tampering with the software.

The online casinos that go through this testing will generally have a seal on the bottom of their homepage. The best casinos will link to this seal to their certificate page on the tester site.

Best Casino Withdrawal Policies & Speeds

Slow paying is a common complaint at new or small online casinos. If a player wins a $100,000 jackpot they may only pay $2,000/week, forcing the player to wait almost a whole year. I suggest checking with a casinos payout policy before depositing. All casinos have withdrawal limits but that doesn’t mean that they are slow paying in the hopes that you will lose some back. I would say $10,000 or the equivalent currency per week would be a reasonable amount.

Best Casino Bonus Policies

Casino bonuses are by far the best indicator on if a casino is safe. Many shady casinos will give you a 200% bonus and then void all of your winnings if you try to cashout before clearing the bonus. They use unfair rules like 200X the bonus amount. That means that if a player claimed a $100 bonus he or she would have to wager $20,000 before being able to cashout. Online casinos have to protect themselves from bonus abusers but the best casinos generally have a 50-60X playthrough requirement and they do not void all winnings when a payout is requested early. Read through the casino’s bonus T&C before you even create an account. This is probably the fastest and easiest way to tell the difference between low quality casinos and the best casinos in 2013.

If you want to beat online casinos in 2013 you will need to know more than just how to play certain casino games successfully. Taking advantage of casinos bonuses, promotions and VIP programs can easily reduce the edge the casino holds. Games like Blackjack have a very small house edge so if you can squeeze some money out of deposit bonuses and other perks you may be able to swing the edge in your favor.

• Best online casino for U.S. citizens in 2013: The Bovada Casino.

Five Tips For Beating Online Casinos

Here are five tips on beating online casinos in 2013. These tips will help you avoid the usual mistakes and teach you about some small changes that can improve your odds of winning.

1. Take advantage of all bonuses, especially reload bonuses.

2. Do not drink while you play. Also, get rid of any distractions.

3. Read the rules and play a new casino game in play money mode before playing for cash. This will give you some good experience and reduce the chance of making a rookie mistake.

4. Do not use the fast-play mode. Playing 800 hands of Blackjack per hour is not a recipe for success. You should play at about the same speed as you would at a live casino.

5. Set strict limits for losing and winning. Many online casino gamblers will win a lot but lose it all back. Perhaps they stop viewing it as real money since they cannot see it. I have been guilty of this before.

All you have to do is lock your door so you are not distracted by your scantily clad spouse or significant other. Take regular breaks when you feel sleepy.

Mastering specific casino games is also important. You want to reduce the house edge to as low as possible. Avoiding games like Keno is a good idea because the edge is so high and cannot be reduced with skill. I would suggest playing only Blackjack but I know that it is not for everyone. You can play skill based games but be aware that the house edge will be a little higher. If you opt to play Blackjack you can find plenty of tips for improving your strategy. I will provide one Blackjack tip to get you started.

In the early days of my playing Blackjack I always committed the cardinal sin of splitting any pair I received and I am sure many of you still do this.  Time to stop this!

Here is a specific rule used by most smart blackjack players.Never ever be tempted or encouraged to split when you have a pair of 10’s or when you have a pair of 5’s. You should always split when you have a pair of Aces or when you have a pair of 8’s. For all other pairs, the choice to split is up to you, there are no advantages either way.

There are dozens of little tips like this that you will have to know if you want to beat online casinos in 2013.

Germany may not be one of Europe’s casino meccas but gambling has always been very popular there. They have relatively few brick and mortar casinos in Germany when compared to a place like France but Germans have made up for this by playing at online casinos. The Best Online Casino for German players is hard to pinpoint because there are so many of them available and casino gamblers have different tastes. Live dealer casinos seem to be very popular in 2013 but not all Germans are into this new kind of casino gambling. Germans do not have the same restrictions that many Americans have to deal with so their options are virtually limitless. I’ve spent a long time working in the online poker market and I can tell you that poker is especially popular in Germany. This is relevant to online casino gambling because many leading online poker rooms also offer poker and sports betting. You will find many German casino gamblers playing at these multi-product online gaming companies.

If you want info about the top online casinos for Germans you can search around online or here at www.deutscheonlinecasinos.org. That web site has reviews for the leading German online casinos and their lists include live dealer casinos, multi-product gaming companies and traditional Internet casinos.

Tips For German Casino Gamblers New To Online Play

Germans who want to play at an online casino for the first time will want to avoid making several mistakes that beginners all over the world make. The vast majority of online casinos are perfectly safe and fair but like any business that involves large amounts of money there are a few exceptions. The banking industry is a good example. Online casinos that accept Germans will accept a wide range of deposit methods. You should review these options and the withdrawal methods. Germans can usually receive their winnings in less than 24 hours using an ewallet or an e-check. If getting your winnings quickly is very important to you I suggest opening a Moneybookers/Skrill account.

This ewallet is perfect for Germans and is comparable to Paypal. Online casinos generally only take a few hours to send the money and if you opt for the ATM or debit card you will have access to the cash instantly once the payment has been sent. Some online casinos are not so prompt when it comes to payouts so my best tip is to thoroughly research a casino’s banking options and what other players have to say about them online. Many US online casinos can take a month or more to send the money and they put limits on how much you can cashout. As a German you do not need to bother with casinos like this since you have so many better options.

My next tip involves online casino bonuses. It doesn’t matter where you are from, every new player should be wary of the terms and conditions associated with the new player bonus. Online casinos attract new players by offering large bonuses that seem too good to be true. Many are perfectly legitimate but some casinos place unfair requirements on these bonuses. You could end up having to wager a lot of money before you are able to cashout so read the fine print before you deposit.

Online casinos, poker rooms and betting sites have been operational for around 15 years but the major boom of global legalization and regulation only started around five years ago. Millions of people around the world may have been doing something that was frowned upon by many governments but that is no longer the case. In Europe many countries have created online gambling friendly laws. Many experts believe that Asia is going to be the home of the next big online gambling boom but due to recently developments I believe that it will be located on the other side of the world. Many US politicians are introducing bills that would legalize and regulate poker rooms and casinos online. There are some positive laws in central and South American countries as well. In this post I will look at the online gambling laws from one big country in Europe and the USA.

French Online Gambling Laws

In 2010 the French government passed the French Gambling Act (Law No 2010-476). This bill regulated most Internet gambling activities but there was one left out. Poker, sports betting and race betting were covered by this act but playing on casinos online, or casino en ligne, was sadly left out. Their reasoning was that the other activities are skill based but most casino games are luck based. They also said that casino gambling was more addictive than poker or sports betting. I really don’t follow that logic but fortunately there are still millions of French citizens playing at online casinos every day. It is one of those things that are officially frowned upon but no real action is ever taken.

American Online Gambling Laws

The online gambling market in the USA is a lot different from France. The government has never taken any direct action against poker players, sports bettors or casino gamblers but they have targeted the companies and banks that help make these activities possible. In recent years they seized the domain names and assets of some of the largest online poker sites. In 2012 there were some major changes though. Many state governments have been trying to pass regulation laws for online poker rooms and online casinos. New Jersey is a good example. A recent bill has passed both the House and the Senate there. This bill will legalize both poker and casino gambling online.

The bill is currently on the Governor’s desk and some expect him to sign it into law soon. I’m still holding my breath and crossing my fingers though. Once states start passing these types of laws the federal government cannot be too far behind. The same is true in reverse. There is a strong push for online casino regulation on the federal level and if this were to happen it would have a domino effect throughout the USA. Many state legislatures are simply holding back and waiting to see what happens. They don’t want pass a law on something that is illegal on the federal level. By the end of 2013 online gambling is expected to be booming in the USA again. Even the most pessimistic agree that it will happen very soon.