Top Casinos

What is a Casino ?

Online Casino 

BBettiX.com is an online portal for casinos. Let’s follow up on the origins of the term. Originally, the casino was a public hall for music and dancing. It was like this by the second half of the 19th century. A simple collection of gaming or gambling rooms.

Monte-Carlo, is the World’s most famous casino, which opened in 1863. Even nowadays it is considered the classic example of a casino. Since that point, the casino has been a major source of income for the principality of Monaco.

Las Vegas Strip also named a 21st-century casino is a place where casino gamblers can play with their money against a common gambler, also called the banker or the house.  

Another location of legal casinos in the United States is Nevada, where a big number of gambling houses have been allowed to operate since 1931. Since the late 1940s, almost the entire economy of Las Vegas is dependent on the large and luxurious casinos. In Nevada, nearly 40 percent of the total tax revenue comes from gambling. During the last decades of the 20th century, a general expansion of casino gambling was observed in the United States. It continued to grow up to about $6 billion annually by the start of the 21st century. In 1978, casino gambling was also introduced in Atlantic City and New Jersey. Starting in the 1980s new casinos appeared on various American Indian reservations. During the 1980s and ’90s, several American states amended their laws to permit casinos. 

Puerto Rico is another region where casinos are also found. Also, South America is rich in casino gambling opportunities. In Havana, the casino was closed in 1959, after the Cuban Revolution.

Throughout the entire world, casinos have a uniform character. In the latter half of the 20th century, in Europe nearly every country changed the laws to permit casino gambling. 

In the United Kingdom, for example, licensed and supervised gambling rooms and clubs have operated since 1960. In gambling clubs, membership is a must. And it is very easily obtainable. In France, casinos are regulated by the Government and legalized since 1933. French casinos are considered the most popular European casinos ever known. They are located at Nice, Cannes, Nice, Deauville, and Divonne-les-Bains. 

The next most famous European casinos are found in Portugal, Greece, Estoril, Portugal, Corfu, Greece, Bad Homburg von der Höhe, and Baden-Baden and Germany.

 Today, there are estimated to be more than 3,000 legal casinos and gaming houses in the entire world.

Casinos accept all bets made by patrons within an established limit. This limit guarantees that the patron cannot win more than a casino can afford to pay. Every game has a mathematical expectancy of winning for the casino. It is almost impossible for a casino to lose money on its own games. Due to this so to-say virtual assurance of gross profit, casinos regularly offer big gamblers extravagant inducements, such as free spectacular entertainment, elegant living quarters, transportation, free drinks, and cigarettes while gambling, etc.

From the entire list of games played regularly at casinos, roulette is famous throughout the entire world. It is the main gambling game in France. Here casinos reduce their advantage to less than 1 percent to attract big bettors. American roulette appeals are more preferred by small bettors, and here the casinos' side takes a percentage from 1% to 1.4%.

 Slot machines and video poker machines ( that appeared in the 1980s) represent the economic pillar of American casinos. This is because these games' income results from high volume, rapid gameplay and gambled sums in amounts starting from 5 cents to 1 dollar. The main trick of these games is the ability of the house to adjust machines for the desired profit. 

Keno is another very common game offered in most casinos.

Baccarat, in the popular variant known as chemin de fer, is the main card game in the United Kingdom and the European continental casinos patronized by the British, such as Deauville, Biarritz, and on Riviera. 

Blackjack is considered to be a fixture in American casinos and trente et quarante in French casinos.

In casino gambling, there are other interesting card games being played. Almost all American casinos have table games such as all Poker variants. One of the most popular of these variations is the casino game called Caribbean stud. Very often they offer regular poker tables, where patrons play each other. And the casino makes its profit either by taking each pot or a portion or by charging an hourly fee. 

At Asian casinos, gamblers can find several traditional Far Eastern games. The main one is called  Sic Bo. This game spread to several European and American casinos during the 1990s.

During the same period of time such games as Fan-Tan, and Pai-Gow became famous as well in the world of gambling. 

Occasionally other games of local interest such as Two-Up can be found in Australia, Banca Francesa in Portugal, Kalooki in Britain, and Boule in France.

During the 1990s casinos dramatically increased their use of technology. Besides their use for general security, computer and video cameras now supervise the games themselves 24/7. 

In “chip tracking”, for example, the betting chips with built-in microcircuitry interact with electronic systems in the tables. This allows casinos to oversee the exact wagered amounts in a timely manner and to be informed about any anomaly. The Roulette Wheels are electronically monitored to discover instantly any deviation in the statistics of the expected results. 

There are other examples of completely automated versions of games such as roulette and dice, where there is no dealer and the players bet by simply pushing buttons.

Internet Casinos, Inc. launched the first “virtual” casino in 1995. It was operated out of the Turks and Caicos Islands.   

After that competitors, among which traditional casinos, started to offer their own online gambling games, run by computer programs. 

In virtual or online casinos, customers must deposit in their accounts with the operators of such casinos. The deposited money usually gets some wagering requirements attached. Most American credit card companies refuse online gambling transactions. About $25 billion annually was being bet at some 200 Internet casinos, by the start of the 21st century. Many of these casinos were located in off-shore tax-free regions such as Gibraltar and Antigua. And many have been criticized for a long period of time for their lack of supervision by the regulatory authorities.

Craps is possibly the world’s most common gambling game with dice. The version known as bank craps, casino craps, or Las Vegas–style craps is played virtually in all American casinos, British, Australian, and Asian casinos, and gambling houses. In this game, a special table and layout are used. All bets are made against the house. A player signifies his bet by placing chips or even cash on the appropriate part of the layout before making a roll. It is required that the dice be thrown so that players strike a wall of the table and bounce back.

In Bank Craps the player throwing the dice is also called the shooter, or anyone wishing to bet that places his bet “on the line”. On various layouts, there are areas marked with “Pass”, “Come,” or “Win”. The one who bets against the shooter places his bet in the area marked “Don’t Pass” or “Don’t Come.” The shooter wins if he throws 7 or 11 (called “a natural”) on his first throw (called “the come-out roll”) and can lose if he instead throws 2, 3, or 12 (craps). Bets are settled. If the shooter first throws 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10, that number is considered his point. He continues to throw until the moment he rolls the same number again ( also named that he makes his point) and throws or wins 7 (misses out, or craps out), and loses both the dice and his bet. When the shooter loses (or wins but declines to shoot again), he must pass the dice to the next player who is on his left. If the shooter wins, he is allowed to keep the dice and has to place the next bet. Side bets may be laid with or against the shooter before he has a point or after. Anyone wishing to bet on a special outcome, such as which number will or will not be thrown, bets in the appropriate space on the layout. Such bets are called “proposition bets”. Depending on the type of bet, the house has a mathematical advantage of between 1.4 and 11.1 percent. A different version of bank craps, known under the name of  Eastern or New York Craps, and with another type of table layout (also called a double-end dealer), can be found in casinos in the eastern United States and the Caribbean.

Money Craps, or Open Craps, are found in simpler or illegal gaming houses and are mostly played for cash on a table without the layout found in Bank Craps. The players may gamble with each other on the shooter’s point numbers. While other wagers must be placed with the book ( who are the organizers of the game), for which the players must pay a fee of a minimum of 5 percent. In Private Crap Games the rules are even more informal. The players bet against each other, proposing and, or accepting any bets they wish.

Craps is derived from the English Hazard which is also a game with dice. The private form of craps played in the United States started to evolve in the mid-19th century. The author of bank craps and the forerunner of the present table layout in casinos is considered to have been an American bookmaker and dice manufacturer named John H. Winn, who supposedly developed the game in 1910.

Blackjack - also called Twenty-one and Pontoon, is a gambling card game popular in casinos throughout the whole world. The origin of this game is disputed. However, it is certainly related to several Italian and French gambling games. Since World War I, in Britain, the game has been called Pontoon.

Players need to get a total card value of 21 or at least, to come closer to it. This is done without going over the dealer, against whom all betting is done. In this game, the aces count as 1 or 11, face cards as 10, and the rest at their index value. A hand counting 21 on the first two cards (an ace and a 10 or face card) is called Blackjack or Natural hand. Suits have no relevance. In almost all varieties of the game, a player who receives two cards of the same rank may split them. Receive a second card for each, and at the same time play the two hands independently of each other. The second common rule is to allow “doubling down” with two cards that total 11 (in some variants it is 11 or 10)—the player can double the bet, turn up the cards, and take one more card face down. In some game variations, a player wins extra by getting five cards without “going bust” (meaning he went over 21).

In American casinos, house rules vary. In a casino, each player places a bet, and then the dealer gives two cards to each player (both down, both up, or one down and one up, depending on the casino rules) and two cards to the dealer’s own hand (one up and one down). In British casinos the dealer waits until all transactions are over then he can deal the last card faceup. In turn, each player calls for more cards dealt face up one at a time until they bust or “stand.” Anyone dealt a natural win immediately unless the dealer is showing an ace or a 10. If all players bust, the dealer wins without any further play. The dealer’s downcard is revealed, and, if the dealer does not have a natural, then any player’s natural is paid off at one and a half times the bet. The dealer who has a natural wins all the bets except when there is a tie, also called a “push,” with anyone else holding a natural as well. With a count of 16 or less, the dealer draws cards one after one until there is a count of a minimum of 17. A dealer who busts loses. Otherwise, the dealer pays anyone who shows a higher count (without busting). And a push occurs for players with a matching total. Before the next hand is dealt, all cards are collected and taken out of play.

Blackjack as a casino game offers players huge scope for skill, and very dedicated players have had big success in combating the house edge by a laborious system of card counting. This has been forbidden from playing in major casinos. Nowadays, in order to deter card counting, casinos now use multiple decks. They often reshuffle them long before the stock of cards held in the shoe has been exhausted. To minimize any change in the relative proportions of high and low cards.

Baccarat - is a card game outside Great Britain and the United States. It is also spelled as baccara, a casino card game resembling, but at the same time simpler than, Blackjack. In the initial baccarat, the house is the bank. In chemin de fer, or chemmy, which is a related game, the bank passes from player to player. In punto banco, it passes from player to player but is held by the house.

Casino play involves 3 or six 52-card decks shuffled together and dealt from a dealing box. The box is called a “shoe.” Players aim to have cards with a total count of nine, or as close as they can get, in a hand of two or three cards. Face cards (court cards) and 10s are counted as zero. All others take their index value. The cards in each hand are added with the scope to gather the necessary value. But only the last digit is significant. This means that if the two cards in a hand are 8 and 5, the count is 3, not 13. A hand with a face card (zero) and a 6 wins because it is closer to a count of 9.

The banker has to deal two cards to the “punters'' and to himself, facedown. If anyone has a count of 8 or 9 (a “natural”), they turn their cards faceup and win. Except when the banker has a natural of the same count. In this case, it is a tie.  Consequently, a new hand is dealt. With a count of 6 or 7, a player must stand. With less than 5 a player must call for a third card, which is dealt face-up. With exactly 5 a player may do either (while in American casinos must draw). The banker must draw to a point under 3, must stand with a point above 6, and may do either with a point of 3 to a player’s third-card 9 or with a point of 5 to a player’s third-card 4. If not, then the banker must draw or stand as dictated by the most favorable odds. Stay tuned for more information on online casino games.