Online Casino Games

Online Casino Games

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Research Objectives



To all coursemates that have been following up our blog recently, we are sure that our big topic is online casino games. We are still trying to narrow down our subject discussion towards a more specific approach.
Before that, we think it is appropriate for us to state our objectives towards our research on online casino games. They include:

  1. To describe and give an overview of real cash online casino games betting
  2. To identify the business model of online gambling sites and their operative trend
  3. To understand the cause of players choosing online gambling rather than normal gambling
  4. To discuss towards the legality of the online casino games websites
  5. To highlight the impact of online gambling on the society

 Why did we chose this topic?
  • It is a fresh topic that not a lot of people knows about
  • Startup of online gambling sites in parallel with the emerging of e-commerce
  • Simply because we have a big interest on gambling !

Thursday, September 16, 2010

FOR DISCUSSION: Another Casino Game - The Online Roulette

Roulette or known as the "small wheel" in French

Have you ever seen or played roulette game before? It is a “gambling game in which the players bet on which slot of a rotating disk a small ball will come to rest in.” (Answer Corporation 2010). Well, there is no certain background for the roulette games too as there are different theories from different sources. However, it is known that it began due to the invention of the roulette wheel in 1655 by the famous mathematician, Blaise Pascal. After the modification of the wheel in 1842 by two French - Francois and Louis Blanc by adding in the number 0, the roulette game starts to rule in the gambling world (Associated Content 2010).

There are different type of roulette games but those often played online are the European and American roulette. Let us have a brief explanation about the roulette game play. First and of course what you need is money to place the bet. While what and where to bet, please refer to the diagram below:


Slot available for the bet:
  1. Numbers between 0 to 36
  2. RED or BLACK color
  3. ODD or EVEN number
  4. First or Second 18 numbers
  5. Rows-
    • Small (1-12)
    • Medium (13-24)
    • Big (25-36)

After the bet is placed, the roulette wheel starts to spin. If the ball hit and matches the numbers, color or slots same as the bet, then the money goes to the players. Simple isn’t it?

Placing bet on the slot

According to Staples (2010), online Roulette is ranked higher than other gambling games because it is popular and easy to play. Besides that, it involves less thinking and no players’ rivalry compares to other gambling games. For example, every player can bet on the ODD or EVEN slot which gives them higher chance of nearly 50% to win the game. Furthermore, some of the professional uses the “Law of Average” theory to beat the game. By looking at the number appeared previously, they calculate and estimate the probability of the next number that going to appear which boost their chance to win the bet.

So? Are you ready for the game?


Reference:

Answer Corporation 2010, roulette, viewed 16 September 2010, http://www.answers.com/topic/roulette

Associated Content, Inc. 2010, A Timeline of Roulette History, viewed 16 September 2010,
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/39777/a_timeline_of_roulette_history.html

Staples J 2010, Why Online Roulette Game is Becoming So Popular, viewed 16 September 2010,
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-Online-Roulette-Game-is-Becoming-So-Popular&id=4872646

Wednesday, September 15, 2010

FOR DISCUSSION: Introduction to Texas Holdem Poker

It is hard to determine where the history of texas holdem poker began. But it is recognised that its origin birthplace is Robstown, Texas and its history flew back to the early 1900s (Ace Up 2010). The game was then brought up and introduced to Las Vegas. Today, Texas holdem poker became one of the most played card games in the world.


Pocket Aces are the best hand you can get for your preflop
!
Texas holdem poker requires skill, knowledge, precise prediction and luck to win a game. Strong mathematical and analytical attribute play a strong role in outcasting your opponents. When you read your opponents' cards, you gain a higher chance of winning (WSOP 2010). Since this might be a new game to all, we will do a brief introduction to the game play of texas holdem poker.

Firstly, any player who wishes to join a table needs to buy-in with a minimum monetary amount. The amount would be used during the game play. During the game, you will be given two cards where opponents are not able to see. These are your preflop cards. Preflop is the stage where you receive two cards and communnity cards are not shown out yet. Community cards are the 5 cards shown on the table shared by you and your opponents to form the best card combination. Each game is divided into preflop, flop, turn, river where each time, every player is given a chance to either check, raise or call. 


Ace King suited means they belong to the same colour group ! (e.g. Ace King Spaces/Diamonds)

Here are some useful terms for your reference from Concrete Software (2010):
  1. Call - to put in the amount of money equal to the bets before you.
  2. Raise - to bet at a higher stake.
  3. Re-raise - to bet at a higher stake than the current raise.
  4. Check - When no one has bet in front of you and you do not bet either.
  5. Fold - To not follow/call a hand.
  6. All in - To put the rest of your money into the pot.
  7. Flop - The first three community cards
  8. Turn - The fourth community card.
  9. River - The fifth community card.
  10. Bluff - To act like you have a good hand and raise people.
  11. Pot - The current stakes that the players are playing for.

Your preflop cards would be combined with the five community cards on the table to form the best combination of cards available, so does your opponents. Whoever with the best card would win the game. Combinations may include:

Texas holdem poker doesn't end here. What professional players do often is to bluff and cheat you when they do not even have a hand or merely a small pair. Therefore, besides being good at raising people with a good hand, a good poker player must also be diligent to bluff people at appropriate times. This is what made texas holdem poker lively with so many possibilities and combination of cards and bluffs.

Bluff by re-raising your opponent when you know they don't have a good hand !

So, are you into texas holdem poker now? :DD

Reference
Texas Holdem Moves to Las Vegas 2010, Ace Up, viewed 15 September 2010, http://www.texas-holdem-poker-history.com/texas-holdem-to-vegas.html.

World Series of Poker 2010, viewed 15 September 2010, http://www.wsop.com/how-to-play-poker/.

Concrete Software 2010, viewed 15 September 2010,

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

FOR DISCUSSION: How much do you know about online casino?



    Online casino or e-casino is a channel which enables people from different places to gather and gamble by using their own electronic devices with the accessibility of the internet. According to Aranda (2006), the first e-casino, Internet Casinos, Inc. (ICI) was established in 18th August, 1995 by Microgaming. The operation of the e-casino was limited within certain area outside of USA to prevent from the government intervention. Plus, only few games were available on that time due to the lack of technology advancement. As time passed, more news games were introduced and brought into the online casino. The most common game is the online poker, a card game introduced in 1998 which only involves gambling between the players. Another popular game is the online roulette where players get their chance to win the game if the ball hit the numbers they bet on when the wheel stop to spin.We'll be giving a brief introduction to the games later on


Casino games are different from other types of gambling. Gambling can include betting, bingo, casino games, gaming machines, lotteries and pools (Gambleaware.com 2010). Casino games are just one small segment of gambling and what we are focusing to our topic is online casino games. Casino games are different for normal bettings such as betting on football matches and also lotteries where players have a small chance of winning with their luck. Casino games allows probability calculation mixed with certain amount of skill and luck to win a game. According to May (2000), the top ten casino games that are most preferred by players can be sequenced into:

1)Poker
2)Blackjack
3)Video Poker
4)Roulette
5)Baccarat
6)Gaming Tournaments
7)Craps
8)Carribean Stud
9)Let It Ride
10)Pai Gow Poker

 
The online casino had earned large amount of revenue in the passed year. Based on the statistic diagram above provided by the Online Poker Channel (2010), the annual revenue has increased stably since 2001 which nearly hit $25 billions this year. This indicates that the online casino channel is so attractive and keeps on growing due to the increasing number of customers/players and the improvement of technology. The drastic increase in revenue also invites in more competitors and more online gambling websites who wish share the wealth of operating a gambling website. One question here is that the actual revenue earned or could it be more? IS every single revenue earned from these websites taxed? Could some revenue had been hidden from transparency and not taxed? Discuss.


Therefore, such a area is a very interesting topic to explore and so, do come to our blog often to follow our updates on online casino games.


Reference:
Aranda N 2009, History of Online Casino, viewed 13 September 2010, http://ezinearticles.com/?History-of-Online-Casino&id=135546

Gambleaware 2010, Types of Gambling, viewed 15 September 2010, http://www.gambleaware.co.uk/seek-help/types-of-gambling.

May, J 2000, Top Ten Casino Game Profit Opportunities,  viewed 15 September 2010, http://may.casinocitytimes.com/article/top-ten-casino-game-profit-opportunities-1129.

Online Poker Channel (2010), viewed 14 September 2010,

 

Friday, September 3, 2010

Online Casino Games

Since our interest is on gambling games, we decided to work on online casino games as our topic.
As a brief introduction, we would love to share two videos on texas holdem poker.

World Series of Poker (WSOP) is a international poker event that gathers all professional players throughout the world to find the one and only champion to win the bracelet and REAL cash prizes!!

You can look for more information, latest news and interesting stuffs in the poker world through its distinctive website



2010 WSOP event introduction



2009 WSOP main event final table with champion Joe Cada.

Hope these videos do ignite your interests towards online casino games !
Enjoy the videos before we update our blog real soon !