Online Gambling

Rival Casinos offer a unique kind of story-driven slot machines called I-Slots. There are seven of these I-Slots, with the newest one being Cosmic Quest: Mission Control. You can find links to all seven I-Slots on my online casino rules page under the heading Rival I-Slots.

Rival Casinos also have 20+ more traditional video slots, with the newest being Jacques Pot — a cooking-themed slot that really is a lot of fun. I recently added rules pages for all of them to my site… you’ll find all of them linked from my online casino rules under the heading Rival Video Slots.

My hand-picked recommended sites for playing both Rival I-Slots and Rival Video Slots are:

• This is Vegas - $15 FREE
• Cocoa Casino - $10 FREE
• Paradise 8 - $10 FREE
• Simon Says - $20 FREE

(Note: All Rival-Powered online casinos accept players from all US states. Please check your local, state and provincial laws before you gamble online. If your local laws prohibit online gambling then we recommend you consider an alternative form of entertainment. )

New players at Vegas Palms will receive $10, $25, or $50 FREE when downloading and registering the Vegas Palms online casino. New players select from the Mystery Vault and win a $10, $25, or $50 no-deposit bonus to get them started playing at the casino.

Vegas Palms is a member of the highly-rated Fortune Group of Microgaming casinos — in fact, Vegas Palms is one of the few online casinos that have been given a 5-star rating at The Online Casino Gambling Directory.

Give them a try — and let me know what you win!

(Please note: Microgaming casinos do not accept players from the following US states: IL, IN, LA, MI, NJ, NV, NY, OR, SD, WA, WI. Wherever you live, please check your local, state and provincial laws before you gamble online.)

Calling all online slots lovers — the Microgaming network has rolled out three more new slots this month.

• Bomber Girls - Beautiful bomber girls offering high flying rewards. 5 reels, 20 paylines, scatters, multipliers, bonus roud, free spins.
• Days of the Tsar - Join a winning revolutions with Days of the Tsar. 5 reels, 25 paylines, bonus and free spins features, gamble option.
• Lucky Shot - Take a swing at winning big with this golf-themed video slot. 5 reels, 20 paylines, scatters, multipliers, bonus roud, free spins.

These slots are being rolled out at all Microgaming casinos, but are not yet available at all of them. I know that they are available at both Grand Mondial (they offer $2008 free to try out their casino) and Intertops. Over the course of the month, you can try these games for free at any of the Microgaming sites that offer free cash for signing up with them and downloading their software!

(Please note: Microgaming casinos do not accept players from the following US states: IL, IN, LA, MI, NJ, NV, NY, OR, SD, WA, WI.)

Hi folks — steer clear of Silver Sands Casino, the newest addition to the online casino blacklist at The Online Casino Gambling Directory. This online casino has been very slow to respond to emails that I have been sending them since January 2008; and even when I do get a reply from them at all, it is an auto-response that does not address issues that I raised with their property. In addition, the site owes be approximately $114, which they also refuse to discuss.

There are plenty of accredited online casinos out there, so there is no need to take the risk of being swindled by Silver Sands Casino. Look to the 5-star-rated eCOGRA casinos for the most trustworthy online casinos in the industry.

As I have said in the past, one way to increase your chances of getting a fair shake when gambling online is to play at accredited sites. eCOGRA is one such accrediting body.

eCOGRA oversees the online gambling activities of some 120 tier one online casinos and poker rooms owned by some of the biggest and most established operators on the Internet, and makes available a dispute resolution service to players at those sites which have been awarded eCOGRA’s “Safe and Fair” seal.

Recently, eCOGRA released their report on complaints received in 2007  which showed that 68% of complaints were decided in favor of the player.

You may also be interested to know that eCOGRA also accredits online gambling portal sites like The Online Casino Gambling Directory. I am proud to say that I am one of fewer than 100 such sites, and have been since October 2006.

Just a heads-up…. many MasterCard and Visa credit cards are accepted at Interops.com — one of the few 5-star rated sites at The Online Casino Gambling Directory. Last night, I used two different Visas and a MasterCard to make deposits and they went through without a hitch.

After making a deposit at Intertops.com, you need to do a Chip Transfer to get the money into the Casino, Poker Room, or Sportsbook; you will see the Chip Transfer in the Cashier, just below the Deposit link that you just used to make the deposit. And when you want to make a withdrawal, there are a couple of options that are available; the Bank Wire works great, but there is a $30 fee that is charged by one of the banks that they use to transfer money into US bank accounts.

I’ve just created a MySpace page @ http://www.myspace.com/gamblingonline. I’ll be posting content there as well as to this blog, so if you have a MySpace account, add me as a friend.

Cheers!

I received emails asking for a short, straightforward list of gambling sites. So, here you go!

• Bingo online 
• Online casino
• Online poker
• Sportsbook

These lists display just the essential information about each site, including:

• Name
• US player policy
• Star rating
• Free chips
• Bonus percentage
• Minimum deposit to get the bonus
• Maximum deposit eligible for the bonus

Of course, you can still use the original, more extensive lists that are returned from performing a search.

I have made some major improvements to The Online Casino Gambling Directory as result of the feedback that I have been getting about the site.

• All sites have been given a Star Rating from 1 (low) to 5 (high). I assigned the ratings based on a number of factors, including length of time online, ease of deposits and withdrawals, and customer service. Look to the 5-star sites for the best in online gambling.
• I added a new Hot Search — the 5-star sites — to make it easy to get directly to the search results that will be most useful to you.
• The Narrow your search section on the left side of the search results page has been streamlined to make it easier to narrow your search results. Just pick an option from the drop-down lists, check boxes, and radio buttons, and the search results page is automatically updated to reflect what you’ve selected.
• I’ve added the ability to narrow your search results based on Language and Currency. For those players outside of the United States that would like to play at a gaming site in your native language and in currencies other than USD, now you can easily locate those gaming sites using these filters in the Narrow your search section.

Thanks for the feedback, and keep it coming!

If you would like to contribute to mankind’s knowledge — or at least contribute a data point to this survey — check out the Oxford University Gambling Survey. I took the survey in about 15 minutes, and it covered a wide range of areas directly and indirectly related to online gambling.

As a thank you, people who complete the survey will be entered in a drawing for a 80GB video iPod (they are giving away six).