Other Online Gaming
While most of our site is dedicated to poker, I’m aware that many of you out there in internet land like to gamble on other stuff too (we can all grant that online poker is our first and best love). I can think of a few things that I look for in an online casino.
Security
If you’ve been playing long enough, you’ll remember the Paradise Poker disaster. The short story here is that the random number generator of the Paradise Poker site wasn’t random enough, and some smart folks were able to crack it. Now this isn’t quite as big a deal for casino games, but it still matters, a lot. First, in a game like online backgammon, you are actually playing against other human beings. And second, even if you aren’t playing against other players, what do you think is going to happen to a site if a group of players figure out how to guess the right number on the roulette wheel every spin?
I suppose my larger point is really about legitimacy. Big rooms are good. They’re good because they won’t do anything shady (they’ve got the most to lose). They’re good because they have the most players (as verified by my Gallic friends mucking around the poker en ligne and casino en ligne sites). And, they’re good because they’ve got the most money to give back to players.
Fun
I actually wouldn’t list fun as a requirement for a poker site, because when I play poker I’m looking to win. Winning is what’s fun to me. However, if I decide to donk off a few chips playing blackjack, I’m not taking quite as strict of an approach to my results. To me, what makes a casino fun is the overall experience. So for an online casino, I’m looking for good software (something that’s clean with some nice bells and whistles ) and ‘intangibles’. To explain what I mean by ‘intangibles’, I was at an online betting site the other day, and, through a series of unfortunate events, had lost my initial 300 deposit. A few weeks later, the site sent me an email saying they’d put ten bucks in my account. It wasn’t a bonus, I hadn’t deposited any more money or anything– they just figured that maybe if I had a little win there I’d do business with them in the future. Think that ten bucks was worth it?
So, I’m recommending Party Poker’s larger casino network, Party Gaming. I’ve always been a big fan of Party Poker, and I think they’ve gotten their various other gaming sites right. They’ve also got some of the best variety of any omnibus site out there (come on people– they’ve even got online bingo).
Unfortunately in the U.S. there is the UEIGA, but hopefully soon that ship will have sailed (get it?). Anyway, if you’re lucky enough to live outside of these great states of ours, Party is the best option.