A lot of people wonder about the security and honesty relating to online gambling due to the fact that everything you do from initially signing up to actually playing the game is controlled by a computer or software program of some kind. So, really how secure is online gambling?In today’s world with most things online being run by a computer program of some kind, the risk of online fraud is a very serious threat. In fact, I’ve met many people who outright refuse to buy anything online, and that’s not just talking about online gambling, that’s anything.As far as online gambling is concerned, there are a slew of companies online that offer betting and gambling facilities where you have to enter your credit card details or have some other method of payment before you can actually play their games. The most frequently used method is credit card, though many offer payment by other methods like check.Most online casinos are extremely reputable and you will have absolutely no problem spending money with them, however there have been many recorded cases of online casinos blatantly ripping people off, though is most of those cases legal action has been taken resulting with the casino being shut down.There’s not much you can do before entering your credit card details to into an online casino’s system, however my only advice is that if you do feel in any way suspicious of the casino or something just doesn’t feel right, don’t do it. You can do some research on the casino online if you like and this can be a great way of finding out if they’re reputable or not.The best way is to just stick with a very well know casino which has a reputation and long standing history in the online gambling community.

Those interested in online video poker might be interested to know that video poker itself actually predates the World Wide Web and the Internet (at least as it exists today) by over twenty years. Poker and its many variants has long been one of the most popular of all casino games of course, and online video poker has brought that venerable form of card play into the computer age.A Short History of PokerNo one is quite sure where poker originated, although a similar game, known as nas, has been played in Iran for thousands of years. It may have been introduced in the U.S. by Persian sailors making port in New Orleans back in the 1820s. The earliest references to poker in America are from the memoirs of an English actor who played in that city in 1829. From there, the game spread northward aboard the famous Mississippi riverboats, and eastward and westward along the Ohio, Cumberland and Missouri.Not surprisingly, video poker is perhaps one of the earliest “computer games,” and its development was parallel and contemporaneous with that of the personal computer in the 1970s. Online video poker is a direct descendant of those early (and relatively primitive) electronic games. Video poker went online at the beginning of the Internet Age in the early 1990′s, and was actually played between real people in real time over Internet Relay Chat (IRC) networks.Today, online video poker is perhaps one of the most popular of all online casino games. Since 2003, the number of video poker players in virtual, online card rooms has grown exponentially.How Does It Compare to the “Real Thing”?Aside from the fact that you can play alone using your personal, private Internet connection, the video poker casino game as it is played online is no different than playing in an actual casino or card room. Just like “real” poker, online video poker has a dealer – in this case, a “virtual” one – who hands you your initial hand. You can then discard and receive new cards, ante, raise and call the same way.Will I Be Ripped Off?If you’re worried that online video poker is “rigged,” you should know that video poker is the most honest of all online casino games. One of the reason is that the major online video poker sites are publicly-traded companies, and therefore subject to many S.E.C. regulations, and are accountable to shareholders. Such a company that attempts to “rig” a video poker casino game and is discovered may find itself heavily fined and its corporate officers facing felony charges.Online video poker is one of the best established, well-regulated and user-friendly forms of Internet gaming, providing the same excitement and pleasure of real casino games – and best of all, you don’t need to worry about maintaining a “poker face.”