5 crazy facts about online casinos

The world of online casinos is extremely fun and exciting. It is full of fascinating secrets, myths, and history. Online casinos and games have been around nearly as long as the internet itself, with the first-ever online casino opening its virtual doors back in 1994. There have been some pretty crazy facts established around online casinos since then, and we've put together a list of 5 of the craziest and most interesting we could find.

The Devil's Game

Few things sound quite as ominous as 'The Devil's Game'. This is the moniker that many players have given to the roulette wheel. The reason? If you take all of the numbers and add them together, they come to 666. This is the case regardless of the version of the game being played, with only additional zeros being added to the reel and not changing the overall total. Funnily enough, roulette is actually one of the games where the house has a lower edge. In European roulette, the house edge sits at around 2.7%. This is increased somewhat for the American version of the game, with the additional zero shifting the favour more.

Counting Cards Online is Impossible

Few things have been mythologised as much as counting cards. In every single movie or TV show about gambling, there is a card counter who is portrayed as some sort of genius. While card-counting is an extremely difficult thing to learn, there are actually more people who are capable of doing it than popular culture would have you believe. Another myth surrounding counting cards that have come from the movies is that it is illegal. Counting cards takes place entirely inside a player's head and is perfectly legal. However, before you rush out to learn how to do it, you should probably be aware that it can't be done online. Online casino games use a randomised card selection that is impossible to keep track of or count, something which definitely helps give the house a significant edge.

Online Poker is a Felony in Washington

Online gambling is still illegal in many states in the United States, but it is operators that will face the punishment for providing the service, as opposed to the player. That is not the case, however, in Washington. In 2006, Martha Prentice, a state senator, took a stance against online poker in particular, making it a class C felony. Class C felonies in Washington are violence-induced crimes, which means that the simple act of playing poker sits in the same group of acts as manslaughter, arson, and murder. That's right, poker players are just as bad as murderers in Washington. Just why Prentice took such a strong stance against poker is still unknown, but the law still stands, despite having been met with plenty of objections from other senate members and the general public. Those who break the law could face up to five years in prison or a $10,000 fine. Whether this law will change in the future remains to be seen. America continues to embrace online gambling as a form of entertainment, but this does seem like it is going to take some moving.

Canadians Love to Gamble Online

While it is not the country with the highest revenue or the highest amount of traffic, Canada does score the highest when it comes to the percentage of the population that gambles online. According to research by the Guardian, 75% of the Canadian population gambles online. This puts it miles ahead of plenty of other countries. For those wondering, Brazil is said to bring the most traffic from online gambling, though, there is some dispute in these numbers, while the USA has the highest revenue from online gambling, despite it not being legal in every state. As for slot action, Japan is actually home to the most slot machines, coming in quite far ahead of any other country.

No Hot Streaks

A common idea that has spread among slot players, both online and offline, is that slots have hot and cold streaks. The general belief is that games are on a run and are 'due' to pay out at specific times. Put plainly - this is nonsense. Slot games do not have hot and cold runs. They use random number generators to determine their outcomes and as such, each spin is just as random as the last. Your chances do not change from spin to spin, and you have just as much chance of winning and losing on one spin as you do the next. Author - Nerijus Grenda