A few years ago, casino gaming used to be a pastime for the relative few – those people who would travel to their nearest casino to play, or perhaps book a holiday to a casino resort such as Niagara Falls or Las Vegas.

Today, many of us prefer to stay home to play rather than go to a land-based casino

These days, ask anyone you know and it’s likely that they’ll have tried out casino games, but not necessarily at a land-based casino such as Fallsview. Today, millions of people play casino games whenever they feel like it at online casinos. So wherever they might be, as long as they have an internet connection, they can click in and start to play at their favourite site. Of course, for most people it’s just an occasional pastime, but it’s the convenience of being able to play at any time whenever you have a few minutes to spare that makes online casino gaming so popular.

What to look for in a casino site

If you’re interested in trying casino games out for yourself online, you’re most likely to do a quick internet search for something such as ‘online casino’. What you’ll discover straightaway is that there’s an absolutely huge choice of different casinos to play at, and that Canadians have access to hundreds of different off-shore casino sites as well as some local ones. With such a plethora of choice, you may wonder how to choose where to play.

The bonus

As there are so many casino sites to play at, there’s a lot of free cash up for grabs for new players. The welcome bonus is an incentive to get a player to sign up and players can typically get a 200% bonus or more on whatever they put down as a first deposit. For example, if you open an account with $20, your account will be topped up to $60 in total.

For a quick head start and to save shopping around between different individual sites, take a look at Bonus.ca, a website that searches for the best online gambling bonus offers for Canadian players, and presents a round-up of the best deals on its home page. On just one site, you not only have a list of the different available bonuses, but also objective reviews of the different casino sites, so you can see at a glance what each has to offer in terms of games and playing experience.

CAPTION: There's a huge range of games available on most casino sites

Some sites specialise in particular games such as poker, and if that’s your main interest, then you might choose a poker-only website. However, most casino sites now offer the full gambit of games – from table games such as poker, blackjack, craps and roulette through to slots, bingo and keno games. For the majority of recreational online casino players, a site that offers variety is probably the best choice. Then you can switch from one type of game to another whenever you want to, but have your gambling fund all in one place, so you can keep track of exactly how much you’re spending.

Most novice players will probably start off playing the easy games such as slots, where there’s no element of skill required. The hundreds of different slots are all themed differently – around superheroes, TV programme tie-ins or all kind of miscellaneous subjects such as the Egyptian pharaohs, pixies and leprechauns and outer space. With yet more superhero movies being released this year, there are bound to be more tie-in slot games in the pipeline. Online slots can be really entertaining as the graphics are so impressive, yet they’re also good to unwind with as there’s no need for the player to do anything but spin the reels.

When you want to get a little more involved in a game, though, you probably want to try out a couple of the table games. Roulette is a good one to start with, as you can keep your betting strategy really simple – choosing red or black or a particular number on the wheel to back. But you can develop some more sophisticated betting systems, too, placing a mixture of bets before you spin the wheel.

Similarly, with a game such as blackjack, although there’s a certain element of chance in the hands you are dealt, you have greater control on what to do with each hand, deciding whether to take more cards, split the hand or double down, or simply stick with the hand you’ve got and see if you can beat the dealer that way.

One of the best strategies for playing a new game is to switch to fun mode, so that you make virtual bets rather than using up the bonus and other funds in your account. This allows you to get a feel for how a game is played and you can switch to real money bets when you are confident you know what you’re doing.

Have fun but be responsible

Whatever site you decide to play at, there’s one thing that all online casino gamers should bear in mind. When you bet with real money, there’s no telling if you’re going to win or lose, so it’s important that you should only ever play with money that you can comfortably live without.