Some Objectivity and Some Subjectivity
Is it really possible to compare online casinos? The answer is: absolutely!
Why an Online Casino?
Let’s first establish why you’re looking for an online casino. The first obvious aspect of gaming at an online casino over a land based casino is convenience. Now, convenience is not always the decisive factor in our decisions. Flying is certainly more convenient than driving but flying has many secondary hassles that make it more and more unpleasant.
When you fly, you’re compartmentalized. When you drive, you can choose the super highway or you can drive through small towns looking for gems along the way that you never would have known about otherwise.
Two Gems
In Maine, there’s a small store that features home-made sauerkraut. They also have a large selection of excellent cheeses and a six table restaurant. A gem off the main highway.
In Northern Virginia, there’s a small grocery that serves the public by offering ground yak and other ground meat delicacies. A gem. You would miss both of these gems by flying over them in a superjet.
Other Benefits of Online Casinos
So, convenience is just one, maybe not the most important, aspect of gaming.
You incur no travelling costs when you play at an online casino. Even today, when many people live only a few hours away from a land based casino, there are extra costs.
There are no ancillary distractions when you play online. Sometimes those distractions may be the primary reason for going to a land based casino, but most players like to play and go on to something else when they’re done without all the other distractions.
At home, no one will try to ply you with alcohol, free or otherwise.
When you play online, you never have to wait for a seat. The game you like is always available even if a million other people are playing the same game at the same time.
A corollary of the benefit of the limitless space at an online casino is that they offer unlimited free play. Try playing for free at a land based casino!
Online casinos offer a larger variety of games because they have virtually limitless space. Land based casinos have walls.
Online casinos have higher average payout rates because they have much less overhead. Imagine distributing to players all the money saved by not having to cool a casino in Las Vegas in the summer!
At an online casino, you can use a strategy card when you play the decision-making games like blackjack and video poker. Imagine trying that at a land based casino!
Online casinos can offer many variations of the most popular table games such as blackjack – many more varieties than a land based casino.
Comparing Online Casinos
Online casinos should offer an instant play platform so you don’t have to download a heavy casino. Instant play allows you to play the best games from more than one online casino.
Online casinos offer several ways to deposit money. While most prefer credit or debit cards, there are many who like to use ewallets to make their transactions. Ewallets offer an extra layer of privacy than do credit cards. The best online casinos have smooth procedures for withdrawals. A good modern online casino will accept bitcoin for deposit. If a casino has a limit on withdrawals per month, it might not be the best choice for you.
All online casinos offer many types of bonuses for deposit. Every bonus has a play through requirement. The best casinos keep their play through requirement small and fair. This makes a big difference because only after you’ve completed the play through requirement can you withdraw from the bonus pool.
We find that the best online casinos are easy to read. There are amazingly many online casinos that use a tiny font and have bad color contrast between text and background. We give these casinos a few seconds and then it’s hasta la vista, baby.
The top online casinos have blogs, a database of articles, and, possibly, tutorials. Online casinos have daily promotions and some have monthly games.
Online casinos can offer many variations of the most popular table games such as blackjack.
A good online casino has a mobile platform. Mobile platforms were introduced many years ago but the quality of the interface was poor. Any good online casino has the best graphics and sound quality so you never feel short-changed playing either at the desktop or at the mobile platform.
Some online casinos should have games from more than one provider. There are over 150 game providers and many good online casinos feature games from at least two of them. However, there are a lot of excellent casinos that feature games from one provider. Check to see if they have 600 or more games or just about 200 or so. The latter casinos feature the best from that particular provider.
Finding a Comfort Zone
When you look for an online casino, even if you already play at one, you ought to check it out in these and any other aspect that is important to you. The most important overall criterion is whether you feel comfortable playing there. There is really no reason to play at any casino, online or land based, where you don’t feel that you’re in the necessary comfort zone.