Play IT Forward

Given the history of some games starting in China around 2000 B.C., the question naturally arises as to what makes any game popular. The first games to achieve success were based on dice. It probably all started around the fire in the cave when, having stuffed themselves with dinosaur rib at the bar-b-q, they moved on to a little action with a few carved bones. But, as time progressed and money was developed, the idea of money changing hands based on a throw of the dice caught on. In this, you see all the key elements making any game popular. The concept of gambling is seductive. You place a small wager on the outcome of an event outside your ability to control.

If you win, there’s a big profit and this is a compelling reason to carry on playing because you believe you will win again. The second feature is the sociable nature of the playing environment. There’s a crowd watching. Sometimes it’s only other players but, more often, gambling is a spectator sport. This creates a community and it supports and encourages the players. Rich backers appear and bankroll the best players for a share of the expected profits. Add in good customer service from whoever provides the playing environment, and the honey pot nature of the exercise is complete. As to the game itself, it must be fun to play. It must be easy to understand the rules. Everyone must be able to see the skill or luck of the winners. And, the organizers must make realistic attempts to prevent or control cheating.

So where does this leave us? In the modern casino, both online and real world, the most popular games are probably blackjack and poker on the card tables, craps and roulette on the other tables. All four are simple to understand. The cards must add up to 21 or a limited number of card combinations makes you the winner. Or you bet on the throw of dice or the spin of wheel. It takes only a few minutes to explain. You watch for a while and then you feel confident enough to play. It’s almost immediately exciting. You handle the dice and throw. You finger the chips and play the cards. All with money riding on the outcome. If your luck is in, you end up a winner and most are hooked. The problem with more complicated games is people do not want to put in the effort to learn. They must see it, see others win and feel confident they can start winning immediately. Any game where it looks easy to win big money is popular.

Now when you transfer the experience on to the small screen of a computer and strip away everything about the experience of being in a casino, the true popularity of online casino games is revealed. Slots are slots. You click on “play”, the animated reels spin, and you win or lose. It has a hypnotic quality. Click, spin, win. It’s the same with blackjack, craps and roulette where you are betting on the results produced by the random number generator. Poker remains interactive where you bet on the cards and your skill in playing them. In all, it’s the belief you will win big that makes casino games popular.

More or less any place you go on the internet, you can see goods or services you want and pay for them. Most sites accept credit cards. Those that do not, deal with the other players in the banking world to make sure the funds get where they are supposed to go. This works whether you are buying clothes for your newborn baby or hard core pornography. E-commerce is the new life blood of trade. Yet, when it comes to online gambling, something dramatic happened in the US. If you are resident anywhere else in the world, all the standard methods for transferring money work with online casinos. You can open an account using a credit card and your winnings can be transferred to any bank account you nominate. But, if you are resident in the US, the world was turned on its head by the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). The history of this is revealing.

A bill dealing with security in our ports was working its way through the legislative process and, at the last moment, the internet restrictions were added. They had nothing to do with the security of ports. It was a device to slip the law through without real debate. As a result, it suddenly became illegal for any financial institution to transfer funds to an internet gambling operation except for horse racing, online lotteries and fantasy sports. So states protected their revenue streams with lotteries and the racing industry gained an edge over all their competitors. This law is probably unconstitutional but, so far, the courts have been reluctant to give clear rulings. This leave US players with real problems. No matter where the online casino is based, it’s still difficult to open an account and recover winnings. So how do you get round the law?

The first option is to use eChecks. This produces an immediate electronic funds transfer between your bank account and the payee casino. They work in exactly the same way as paper checks. But a word of caution – one company providing this service was recently shut down by the Attorney General of New York. Although other companies continue to offer eChecks, this method is risky with winnings being seized in the New York court action. The alternatives are the following. A limited number of casinos including Rushmore accept American Express, bank drafts, wire transfers and checks for opening an account and making deposits. But these methods cannot be used for withdrawals. This brings us down to Central Coin, Citadel, Click2Pay, CLICKANDBUY, NETeller and others. Online casinos pick and choose which methods they accept. Alternatively, you have to set up a third party account outside the US and transfer the funds into and out of that account instead of directly to the casino.

It should not be this difficult to play your favorite casino games and there are various moves in the pipeline to encourage the lawmakers to repeal this oppressive law. While there’s no constitutional right to gamble as such, this law chills the banks and achieves prohibition by the backdoor. While we wait for either a definitive court ruling or Washington to act, find the online casino with the payment methods you can access and set to enjoying your favorite online casino games.