Casinos have been a popular part of global culture for centuries, since the earliest days of the gaming houses that were created to provide somewhere for the upper classes to meet and make merry. With a few regional variations, the games played at casinos are relatively consistent, meaning that avid gamers can go into a casino almost anywhere in the world and play the games they are familiar with.
When video games were becoming more popular, casino games were a natural choice to be digitised as the probability and gameplay can be replicated in digital form. Online gaming quickly became a popular option for casino fans, and soon there was a new generation of players enjoying casino games who had never set foot in a land-based casino.
Many people are familiar with the idea of casino games, but for those who have never played before, there are some games that just have to be played, including:
Slots
A perennial favourite, slots are fast and fun and offer the chance to win big for minimum effort. The cost of playing is relatively low, so anyone can have a go, and although some games are more complex, the basics are simple enough that anyone can play and win.
For those that appreciate the familiar, there are plenty of themed slots that are designed to appeal to fans of almost anything, from history to popular TV shows and everything in between.
Roulette
While this may seem like the simplest game in the casino, there is a lot more to roulette than meets the eye. Roulette is often shown on TV and in films as the giant wheel has achieved an iconic status in the world of gambling, but the media portrayal of how the game is played misses out a lot of what makes roulette fun.
Although you can simply place your bet on ‘red or black’, as almost any protagonist in a film would do, the secret to making roulette really fun is to understand the complexity of the betting options and develop a strategy to win. As well as choosing a number or opting for a single colour, there are plenty of other bets you can make, giving you an array of options for a fun spinning session, including:
Corner – betting on four adjacent numbers that meet on the same corner
Street – betting on three numbers on a horizontal line on the layout
Low or high – betting that the winning number will either be low (1-18) or high (19 – 36)
Dozen bet – betting on twelve consecutive numbers (either 1-12, 13-24, or 25-36)
Column bet – betting on an entire column of twelve non-consecutive numbers
Calculating the odds for these bets and establishing which you want to play makes roulette a lot more fun than it might first appear and a great introduction to the world of online casino games.
Craps
Using a combination of luck and skill, craps is an exciting game that you can pick up relatively easily and win without needing any particular strategy. Players simply roll two dice, hoping to get a winning combination, but, like roulette, the secret to craps lies in the betting.
There are plenty of different options, and because they all rely on the roll of two dice, it is possible to calculate the odds of any given combination and bet based on the likelihood of it appearing. This is what makes craps so fun and, although plenty of people overlook it, once you begin playing you will start to understand the appeal.
Blackjack
One of the things that makes blackjack a great game for beginners is the fact that everyone at the table is playing against the dealer rather than competing with one another. The basic rules of the game are relatively simple, although it can get more complex which is ideal for those wanting to take it to the next level.
Trying to get to twenty-one without going bust is the simplest way to play blackjack, but there are millions of potential hands and options that players can learn as they develop an understanding of the game. Players can calculate the probability of winning with every possible hand, so there’s always more to learn for blackjack players, making this one of the most popular casino games.
Poker
It’s not for the faint-hearted, but poker is one of the most exciting casino games around and even newcomers to online gaming will probably be familiar with some of the terminology of the game. Poker strategy can take a lifetime to refine, but even the best players have to start somewhere and if the psychological element of the game appeals to you, then it can be hugely fun to identify opponents’ ‘tells’ and use them to win.
