If you play slots, you’re probably looking for tips and strategies to help you win while at the same time realizing that not much can really change the odds at slots. Well, I have a tip for you that actually does work.  Now, I’m not promising miracles but this will tilt the odds just a bit towards you. And if you think “yes, but how do I know this is true?” consider this – it’s the same math that makes a difference when determining video poker odds.

There are times when you’ll be told not to play a certain game at the casino unless you can afford to make the maximum bet. Video poker is one of these games and it’s easy to explain why. In video poker, the royal flush is the jackpot pay out, but it only pays out a big jackpot if you make the maximum bet for the winning hand. So in video poker, if you plan to be a dollar a hand, you want to play a quarter machine for the full five coins or $1.25 a hand, not the dollar machine for a minimum bet of $1 a hand.  This way, you can win that royal jackpot. And it’s when the royal payout if figured in that video poker odds tilt in favor of the player.

So, take a look at slots. Many slot games have a jackpot these days, not just the progressives. But the amount that jackpot pays out is determined by the amount you bet. Just like in video poker.  You can only win the full jackpot if you place the maximum bet, just like in video poker.  And the ability to win the full jackpot affects  the potential payout you can win, which affects the odds.  All of this is just a complicated way to say – you’ll do better at slots in the long run if you play the game for the maximum wager.

Now, fortunately this doesn’t mean you have to be the largest denomination or none of us would be able to play. Many machines let you bet $10 or more a hand and have 25 or more lines. I don’t know about you, but I can’t bet $250 a spin, even if it improves the odds.  But like video poker, you want to chose a machine with a denomination that allows you to bet the maximum number of coins per spin. I’ve used this to my advantage, even at the smallest betting level. If you doubt me, give it a try. Find a nickel machine and bet a single nickel a spin. Now find a three line penny slot machine with a bonus game and bet 3 cents a spin.  That bonus round is going to make a difference and it only triggers if you make the maximum (3 penny) bet.

If you like to play slots and are looking for more slots advice, check out http://playslotmachinegames.info

Well, it looks like Congress will have to work for their money by passing bills and such. Online poker in Washington DC isn’t likely to happen in the near future. The news has hit Rueters in this article http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/01/us-gambling-online-dc-idUSTRE81027T20120201  Now the online poker effort wasn’t killed by Congress or by controversy, though it stirred up a lot of the latter by outsmarting the former.  See, since Washington DC isn’t actually a state but rather the nation’s capital, all changes there must be approved by Congress. But since Congress tends to get a bit busy and Washington DC has to continue existing, there is a rule that if Congress doesn’t act on DC legislation in a specific time frame, the proposed legislation goes into effect by default.  So, how do you sneak something past Congress?  Well, DC sent the proposed bill to allow online poker in the district to Congress right when the Dems and Republicans were engaged in a heated budget debate. Apparently no one noticed or reacted to the poker legislation and the next thing DC knew, online poker was approved for the district.

But then they had to stop and take a realistic look at what they’d approved.  Plans were for poker to be allowed in specific hot spots, which wouldn’t include places like colleges and universities. Though I never say any info on whether or not Congress would have a hot spot.  It would have made a change from CSpan catching senators playing solitaire on their computers.

But then DC had to face the big problem — it’s small population.  The Committee of Finance and Revenue has voted to repeal the program because it really just won’t be cost effective for such a small population. So, it looks like Nevada will be the first location to get legal online poker in the US.

Today I’m dealing with the reality of those terms and conditions that restrict you when it comes to online casino bonuses. Now, I always advise people to know what the terms are and make sure that they are happy with those terms when they accept a bonus, so I have no one to blame but myself. And the truth is, I’m not actually unhappy with the situation since the offer was — here have $30 absolutely free and come play at our casino.  So, this wasn’t a deposit bonus and absolutely none of my own money is tied up in the casino.  I had a practice play account before they offered me the free money.

But this does mean that at this casino, I have to play by their bonus rules, and that means restrictions. First, there is a play through requirement. Now, when it comes to bonuses, people always talk about play throughs as if they’re a terrible burden to bear. Sure, they give the casino a fair chance at winning back that bonus money, but if you’re a dedicated player, you may be surprised at how fast you work of a decent play through offer. But then there is the game restriction. I want to play video poker, but that means each dollar I bet only counts as 20 cents when it comes to calculating the play through. And since the starting play through requirement was 50 times the bonus, well, I’ll be playing video poker for life to earn the money.

But here’s the restriction that I find does chafe. I can only win double the bonus amount.  So, with $30 free, I can only cash out $60 worth of winnings.  Okay, in this case I didn’t put any money into the casino, so I can’t fuss too much. But it’s a lesson to consider when looking at casino bonus offers. The one potential restriction that will drive me batty isn’t the play through.  It’s the restriction on how much I can win. Because I like to win.

Hey, if you like to play with casino bonus money, check out onlinecasinoswithbestbonuses.com

One of the online casinos that I play at gave me a $20 free bonus as a Christmas present. I decided to use it as a video poker experiment. Now the play through requirements for the bonus mean that I’ll have to spend the rest of my life playing video poker at the casino to earn the bonus. So the odds are that I’ll lose all the money. But since it wasn’t my money to begin with, that doesn’t really bother me. I figure it’s a good way to observe the way the odds at video poker work over time. Now, to do this and make the twenty bucks last, I’m playing at the minimum per hand – which is 10 cents a deal.  But I at this casino, I can still win the Royal Flush jackpot at that amount.

Now, my first observation is that I’m still playing on that same twenty bucks.  I’ve been playing on and off since Christmas at ten cents a hand, I’m still in the game. Oh, the game is a basic Jacks or Better 9/6 game.  Now, perhaps you aren’t surprised that I still have money. After all, video poker is one of those games where the odds are almost in the player’s favor if you have a good strategy.  But the odds are calculated over time and in this case, take the potential winnings from a royal flush into account. The problem is that the odds of hitting a royal flush are about 1 in 40,000 hands.  I’ve been playing since Christmas and haven’t yet hit a royal flush on the game.

See, to win big at video poker, you really do have to be prepared to play forever. Okay, maybe not forever, but for a substantial time. And as you play, you’ll slowly lose money. I’m down to $10 now and haven’t made it back to $20 since I started. I’ve been down a far as $5 and up in the $16 range – sometimes in the same day.  But the amazing thing to consider is that I’m still playing on the same $20 and I have half my money left. I could still potentially hit that royal flush. Want more advice on video poker? Check out Video Poker 365

When you hear Trust Fund, poker probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. Which is why we need to pay even more attention to what Poker Stars is doing over in France. In fact, it could be influential in the debate over legal online poker in the US and the controversial online poker bill that was passed for Washington DC. You can read about the Washington DC poker bill and the opinions it’s generating in this Washingtonpost.com article.

Now, Poker Stars is one of the top online poker rooms out there and they were available to US players until April 15^th of this year. That was the day of the big Black Friday Poker Shutdown when the FBI seized the domain names and funds of 4 online poker rooms operating in the US. For those of us writing about gambling, it was one of those shocking days when we kept checking websites to see who’d been shut down because no one knew what was happening.

But what happened afterward was where the gambling world learned some tough lessons.  Poker Stars quickly worked with the Department of Justice to establish a process to pay out money owed to US players. And those players were the first to receive money from the affected sites. And so far, the only players. See, Poker Stars had the money in trust funds, so it was available to use to pay players. Full Tilt Poker unfortunately mixed player funds with operating funds, and they are stills struggling to recover and offer play again. Players are still waiting for about $300 million in owed funds.

This may bring about a change in the requirements on how sites manage player funds. Should the money a player places in their account be available for the casino to use to manage the site? Well, think about it. When you visit a Las Vegas Casino, they don’t take the money out of your wallet and hold onto it until you’re ready to leave.  When you deposit money at a casino, it should be your money until you play it and lose it in a game.

Recently the online poker room Bodog introduced a new feature that’s being debated by poker players on blogs, news sites and even Facebook.  Yes, poker folks are a sociable lot. And that’s part of the debate.  See, what Bodog did was add anonymous poker tables. These are tables that use software that supposedly keeps the player’s identity a secret.

Now, there are reasons an online poker room would want to offer this practice. Bodog wants to bring in more recreational players as opposed to poker pros and the idea is that the anonymous tables will offer more a sense of fair play for those recreational players. See, there is a little trick to online poker. Many professional players use data mining sites to study the playing styles of their opponents before they even sit down at the table.  Now, in  a real world gambling situation, players would of course know each other’s styles from playing at the same tables in the past or learn them while at the table.  But with online poker and data mining, players can access massive amounts of information about a player they have never played against.

Bodog is attempting to give players a way to escape the data mining squads by letting them play anonymously. The idea is also that while playing at these tables, none of the player’s information can be gathered and used for future games.  Now, some in the poker world are saying that this destroys the social aspect of poker where part of the challenge of the game is interacting with others.  And another group is claiming that they’ve been able to hack the software that sets up the anonymous tables so that they aren’t that anonymous anymore.  But if you want to try the anonymous tables, they are available at Bodog Poker.

You sit down to play one of your favorite games at an online casino and they you wonder — hey, how does this game really work? Not what are the rules or where do I place my bet but — how does the computer make playing blackjack like playing with a deck of cards? After all, if you’re playing with your online casino real money, you want to know what’s going on.

Now, people seem to worry about this less with slots, which is interesting because online slots and casino slots all are pretty much computer run these days. I think people often just have less trust over slot games in general, though they do have to follow fairly strict rules. But when it comes to card games, players start wondering how the computer program makes “cards” because it’s obvious there isn’t a little man hiding in there with a deck of cards.

This casino magic is all done with a little program called an RNG or Random Number Generator. Now programming an RNG to be truly random and making sure it is properly tested is part of what goes into making a casino a fair play casino. But if you want to quickly understand how an RNG works, try this.   Write the numbers 1 through 52 on slips of paper. Now associate each number with a specific card in a card deck. Say 1 might be the Ace of Spades and 2 the deuce, and so on.  Now instead of dealing cards, draw the numbers from a hat and use them to arrange the hands. The results really should mimic the results of a well shuffled deck. In fact an RNG probably shuffles even better.

Ready to deal another hand? You just toss the numbers you’ve already used back into the hat and draw again. Now this little detail is important to blackjack players because it’s why card counting doesn’t work online. Every single hand starts with the same 52 cards and the previous hands have no effect on it.  Basic strategy works with an RNG, but card counting doesn’t. Which is why it is important to know how those casino games work.

It seems that the bwin.party merger is now making news outside of gambling circles.  So, here’s what’s going on. Not long ago two major gambling companies – bwin.com and Party Gaming (aka Party Poker) merged and formed what is considered to be the largest gambling company in Europe.  A company so big there was only one thing it didn’t do — offer gambling to residents of the US.  Now, Party Poker had once been the largest online poker room in the US and well, probably the world. But when the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was passed in the United States, Party Gaming pulled out. Bwin also made sure to steer clear of the US market. These two companies were following the same bit of advice – stay out of the US market because of the US does legalize online gambling, companies that stayed while the UIGEA was in effect won’t be allowed to offer legal gambling.

But recently gambling companies from Europe and the UK have begun showing interest in forming partnerships with US gambling companies, partly perhaps because the current wisdom is that US gambling companies will be the first to be able to take advantage of any change in the gambling laws. So the recent announcement that bwin.party is merging with Boyd Gaming and MGM Resorts International has created a frenzy of interest and caused stocks for the companies to soar.

But some stock analyst are advising caution. Not that the combined mega gambling company will be a bad investment for long term investors, but those looking to make a few short term dollars might want to consider that it may be sometime before we see legal online gambling in the US and until then, the new company may not be able to recognize its full potential.  If you want to follow the news out this merger, you might want to use  http://news.google.com/ to set up an email alert that will deliver news to your mailbox.

I was talking with a gambling friend the other day who likes blackjack and the subject of slots cam up. His response was “I hate slots. I have no control over the outcome.”  I’ve found this is a common split in the gambling world.  Those who like strategy games, such as blackjack, often don’t enjoy playing slot machine games.  While those who enjoy slots, may consider blackjack unappealing. But for some, when they play a game may depend on their mood.

What draws many players to slot games is that they can be played casually, without worrying about card values or remembering strategy. Slot games also feature various themes with great graphics and even interactive bonus games.  And it can’t be denied that slot games, particularly the Progressive games, are usually the biggest jackpots in the casino.  All of which make slot games the most popular casino games.

The problem is that casinos also have full control over how much a slot game pays out.  Which is why at land based casinos or online casinos, you’ll find the slot games prominently placed to catch your eye.  At land based casinos, they’re usually the games closest to the casino entrance and the biggest, flashiest games with the best jackpots are placed most prominently.  At online casinos, the slot games will usually be featured right on the front of the casinos home screen, usually with graphics and screen shots to attract a player’s attention. But there is one thing that you want to keep in mind about online casinos. Since there is more competition in the online world to keep players who can easily change casinos with the click of a mouse, the online casinos often have slightly better odds for their games than land based casinos do.

Do you wonder which casino game is the best to play? What may surprise some people is that the best overall game may be one that doesn’t offer a jackpot or progressive or massive payout but one that offers players decent odds based on their playing skills. Yeah, it sort of sounds like real life doesn’t it – the best long term career goal comes from acquiring a skill and then dedicating yourself to working hard.  Though checking out the economic news, it’s easy to convince ourselves that life is just a crapshoot. But that isn’t the game we’re talking about here. After craps really is a game of chance where the best strategy is actually just to place bets with the closest to even odds. Rather like roulette.

Nope what I’m talking about is blackjack. Now, most people are familiar with the concept of blackjack. Why? Because it shows up in so many shows and movies that have a gambling theme. It’s a game with a relatively simple concept – come as close to 21 as you can without going over. But the real players don’t go on gut instinct on this one because there are mathematical strategies developed that really will tell a player what the best move to make with any hand combination is going to be.  So the strategy can turn the odds in the player’s favor. But it takes work, practice and skill.  Just like, oh, a good job.

The good news if you’re interested in looking at blackjack is that you’ll find the game at every online casino and all the top casino software brands, like Microgaming, have been tested for fair and safe blackjack play.  Just keep in mind that while strategy will work in any blackjack game, card counting doesn’t work when you play blackjack online. Virtual cards cannot be counted.