Type Of Casinos

Web-based

Web-based online casinos are sites at which players can directly play casino games without having to download and/or run any software from their own computer. Games are mainly represented in the browser plug-ins Macromedia Flash, Macromedia Shockwave, or Java and require respective browser support. So, users actually must have considerable bandwidth to load the graphics, sounds, and animations since these all come from the site itself and require the web-browser plug-ins (which most internet users already use anyway for all kinds of other websites; online newspapers, entertainment sites, etc.).

A very small number of casinos allow games played through a plain HTML interface and the graphics on these sites are generally quite inferior to those provided through down-load based casinos. Another huge difference is the speed of games. This is generally hampered by bandwidth restrictions, traffic, etc. Disconnection problems can be a huge disturbance as well. Generally speaking, most of the bigger casinos prefer to use download-based software and you'll find a much larger choice of games and options with these sites.

Download-based

Download-based online casinos are the most common and popular casino sites on the web. Here, users have to download certain software in order to play that casino's games. Once the software is installed, it connects to the casino service provider and handles contact without browser support. The biggest advantage here is SPEED. All the graphics and animations are included in the software and run from the computer instead of the internet.

The only downside, of course, is the initial download and the need for the installation of the program. Some people worry as well about the risk of downloading a virus and/or spyware but so long as you're acquiring software from reliable sites and use a solid anti-virus program, this shouldn't be a problem. In any case, read the fine print before downloading any of this software and if you find something you don't like, choose another casino - there are MANY out there!

Another form of technology which is relatively new isFlash' based software which offers the same benefits of downloaded software without the download. However, for the time being, download-based sites remain the most popular and strongest choice among players and it's hard to beat the benefits (better graphics, increased speed, reliability, etc.) associated with these type of sites.