Nevada and New Jersey have become the two states to watch when it comes to the online gambling battle. Oh, other states like Illinois and New York are showing interest in online gambling and may even pass measure to allow it, but they aren’t the homes of Atlantic City and Las Vegas.  Because of those two cities, Nevada and New Jersey have been the two major gambling destinations in the US. What those states do when it comes to online gambling is being carefully watched by the industry because it could signal trends, either in gambling or just politics.

Nevada has already decide to legalize online poker with various regulations in place to keep in carefully controlled in the state. Companies are already applying for licenses which they should see being issued by June. But regulators in the state are saying they’ll be testing security measure for another 6 to 8 months before allowing play. So, even with legal online poker in the state, we aren’t looking at games being played until 2013.

Which would seem like it would give New Jersey a chance to jump to the front of the online gambling rush. After all, New Jersey already has a bill approving online gambling written and passed by both houses. All it needs is the governor’s signature. And that seems to be the problem. Christie has already vetoed it once. Then early this year, seemed to have a change of heart and said he’d approve it. Only to have another change of heart and say he’s not sure he can approve it.  So, online gambling in New Jersey is in doubt and rumors are that it’s a matter of politics centered around a major GOP donor who owns a casino in – Nevada.  It seems that donor is against online gambling and it might hurt Christie’s political future if he costs his party some big money.  So, Nevada may still be first out the gate with online gambling. Meanwhile, I’ve set up an alert on news.google.com to follow the issue.

Roulette is one of those casino games that can draw in even novice players. After all we’re all familiar with the look of the game from TV and the movies and really the spin of that ball around the roulette wheel can be almost hypnotizing.  Live casinos often place the roulette games to help draw traffic around the casino. One can liven up an empty corner or just catch the eye of those passing by.  And a crowded roulette table can draw in even more players.

But that’s where online roulette suffers a bit. With a handful of exceptions, most online roulette games will be played by a single player against a computer. Graphics may be able to simulate the spin of the wheel with stunning accuracy, but they can’t really recreate the crowd. I’ve always found the social aspect of the game to be a big part of the appeal. So, why check out a site like http://onlinerouletterealmoney.net and play roulette online for real money?

Well, a couple of reasons. First, if you’re unfamiliar with roulette and the layout of the roulette table, the online games can be a great guide to how some of the less familiar betting patterns work. People often know that they can bet odd or even or single numbers, but they may not know that they can bet four numbers by placing the coin on the corners. Or that certain types of roulette have different preset betting patterns that they can choose.

And yes, there are different types of roulette. Most people are familiar with American Roulette which has the 00 double zero space. European roulette drops the 00 and improves your odds. And French roulette offers a different look to the game altogether. Most online casinos offer all of these games plus some specialty games that players can check out. Playing online can increase your knowledge of roulette and make you a more confident player in any casino.

If there’s one thing we need in the US, it’s jobs. And many are saying that online gambling would bring jobs and help boost the economy.  Just take a look at dol.gov and you’ll see the Department of Labor is still looking for ways to bring jobs to America. Right now with all the online casino action taking place overseas, we’re not benefiting from it at all. Not just in the “we can’t play at some of the top casinos” type of not benefiting but also by not being part of the technology industry involved in online gambling.

When a live casino comes to town, they provide jobs, but many people will complain that those jobs tend to be low playing service industry jobs. Casinos employ dealers and waitresses and perhaps entertainers and there are far more of those than there are managers and executives. Resort casinos add maids and hotel receptionists to the list. But what about online gambling? The job part of the industry is often overlooked but it is something that the US can benefit from of we require the online casinos to operate on our shores. Online casinos bring in technical jobs like computer programmers and developers. They need support centers for customers, you know those jobs we’ve outsourced to other places. We could bring some of those jobs back. But we need to have legislation in place that establishes the United States as a friendly location for the online gambling industry. Not only so we can gamble online but so that we can take advantage of the technology and jobs the industry needs. Besides, players around the globe would probably be happy to play at online casinos guaranteed fair and safe by the US.

Online casinos run using a program known as a random number generator or an RNG and people often wonder if that makes a difference when it comes to playing the games.  So, let’s take a look at some online casino games and the potential differences between the online and offline (or land based) versions.

First, let’s look at slots because these games are the top draw into the casino. Does the RNG used online make a difference? Not really. Not unless you frequent casinos that still run old manual machines because these days the spin of the slot games in most casinos is controlled by a computer. So no matter where you play, you’re up against the computer.  Also the casinos set the odds for their slot games, and those odds are what you really want to focus on.  Online casinos often have better payout odds for slots than land based casinos since online casinos are competing against other online casinos for players who can change games on a whim.

So what about video poker?  Nope, like slots, video poker machines are run by a computer no matter where you play. Now in the case of video poker, casinos can’t change the odds of the game itself since it is dependent on the card deck, but they can limit the best pay table. Except they are seldom likely to enforce that limit online where you can also pop over to another casino.

What about black jack or baccarat?  Here’s where the debate becomes a little trickier.  You can’t card count online when the site uses a random number generator, so you can’t predict the outcome based on what came before.  Even if you don’t card count, in a land based casino, you are likely to be somewhat influenced by what has just been dealt.  If the last round gave everyone at the black jack table an ace, you’re less likely to expect an ace this time around. Now this change doesn’t make the game less fair. It just makes it play a bit differently, which is why your online strategy might now always be the same as your in casino strategy.

Would you gamble on Facebook? It’s a question some of the world may soon be facing. Perhaps not the US for some time, but the UK may see real money poker coming to Facebook via Zynga in the near future. Now for those who don’t know Zynga, they are the folks who run Farmville where Facebook players can waste time growing virtual crops and sending gifts to each other. They also run Zynga poker, a popular fun money poker game that boosts millions of players.

So, will Zynga Poker and Facebook be able to convert those fun money players to real money players? I have my doubts. See, I’ve checked out Zynga poker and the play there is very different from the play in a real money online poker room. It’s the type of play that demonstrates that you can really practice playing poker for real money if you play for fun money. On Zynga, there’s no real drawback to making a bad bet. There’s every reason to bluff when you have terrible cards. And there’s lots of efforts on just forcing the others at your table out of the game by betting the chips up until they don’t have the fun money to stay in.  Because those are just fun money chips.

I don’t think Zynga poker players are ready to jump in games where bets have real consequences to their bank accounts. In fact, I’m not sure that the fun money players really want to play real money games. Which doesn’t mean that real money poker wouldn’t succeed on Facebook, just that they’ll find themselves competing against established real money sites where the real players are already hanging out.

Welcome to 2012! I’m taking a look an online poker for the New Year. In some places, nothing has changed. In other news, everything has changed.

Full Tilt Poker was a hot topic in last year’s online poker news, ending the year with the news that Groupe Bernard Tapie, a French company, was interested in acquiring them and would hopefully oversee paying back players. Something they need to do if they want to get the license re-instated, and an online poker room without a license, isn’t much good to anyone. The news for 2012? Well, so far – nothing has changed. Oh, talks are ongoing. Don’t they say talk is cheap? GBT is discussing the process of acquiring Full Tilt assets with the DOJ. It may all eventually work out. But it looks like it’s going to be a slow process.

Nothing changed – Bodog Poker became Bovada Poker for US players. And really nothing changed since both run the same software, including the hated “anonymous” tables.  Early in the year, Doyle’s Room became Americas Cardroom and is working to draw in US players. The good news for them is that they don’t have the hated anonymous tables.

And then the Department of Justice changed everything! Everything folks! See, the DOJ (formerly the bad guys) have to enforce the UIGEA, Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act. So they decided that it made sense to look at what they’re being asked to enforce. Because the UIGEA actually doesn’t make online gambling illegal. Everyone just assumed that the Wire Act of 1961 did that. But the Wire Act was written 50 years ago and applied to sports betting. So, does it apply to other betting?  Well, the DOJ took a good look at it and decided, nope. It applies to sports betting. This is the type of news that hits the New York Times. So, now the door is open for the states to consider their own online gambling laws, which could include online poker. Because we don’t have a federal law forbidding it.