Online Betting – A Growing Global Business
Online betting is any type of betting conducted online. This usually includes online casinos, online poker and sports betting among other things. In 1994, the first online betting venue ever opened to the public, was ticketing in the prestigious Liechtenstein International Poker Tournament. The tournament was won by world number one player Peter Jokers, who is from Austria. Since then there have been numerous online betting venues all over the world.
These gaming companies have allowed players to play the game for real money or to wager virtual money. Most online betting venues allow the players to play for real money. There are also virtual gambling platforms that offer “free” games that anyone can play, for instance, bingo, blackjack, roulette and even video poker. However, many online gaming companies operate both types of platforms, for instance, one that offers free bingo, another that offers free roulette, yet another that offers free video poker. A major difference between online gambling venues and traditional casinos is that most casinos do not allow “instant cash”, which means that players can only wager or win after the current hand/tourney has ended.
The growing popularity of online betting venues in the United States has created a new problem. Many individuals are worried about security at these new venue since many people feel that they may be more vulnerable to fraud than at an actual land based casino. To address this issue many online gambling companies provide security for their players by using state of the art encryption software. However, the concern remains that there may still be vulnerabilities in the software, especially concerning personal and financial information. Therefore, until further testing is conducted, online betting companies recommend that people play through trusted third party websites that use state of the art security software and by conducting virus and malware scans on their client’s computers.