Category Archives: Global Gambling

Chances are you’ve already got a subscription to Netflix – the incredibly popular online video streaming platform which provides users with hundreds, if not thousands of movies and TV shows available for legal streaming. Alongside great classics such as “Breaking Bad”, the program also offers numerous original series that aren’t available anywhere else, such as “Orange is the New Black” and “Daredevil”, and it’s slated to release several original movies in 2016. It’s a very cool service that anyone without a subscription should seriously consider. But I’m not trying to turn this into a Netflix ad. The reason why I’m bringing it up at all is because only a few weeks ago Netflix went global and became available around the world. While up until 2016 the service was only available in some markets, such as the US, Canada and UK, since January 2016 the company is officially operating in almost 200 markets. With some exceptions (such as China, which Netflix promised to rectify as soon as possible), the whole world can now enjoy their service.

So that got me thinking. What would a global online casino look like?

Now, that’s obviously just a pipe dream. Online casino isn’t legal globally, and even if it was, it’d be impractical to just have one global brand, not when individual online casinos could be specialized with their selections of games and the bonuses they offer in order to suit the individual country. We’re talking about a purely hypothetical scenario – let’s say I was hired to come up with a concept for globalization by one of the big brands. What would I do? Well, first of all, it’s important to note that while to an outsider brands like Netflix or even McDonalds may seem global, they’re really not – it’s really just the branding and basic structure that’s shared. Each McDonald’s restaurant is owned by a different subsidiary which more often than not has little to do with the main McDonald’s company, which mostly profits on licensing. Similarly, Netflix is just a collection of smaller services banded together under the same name – that’s why certain movies you can watch in, say, Bulgaria, are not available in the US.

So a global online casino would need to be just a collection of smaller casinos branded under the same name… But the average consumer doesn’t need to know that. Special measures could be taken to unite the site a lot more than possible. To solve the currency problem, users could be required to buy chips instead of bet with money (with different prices for chips depending on the economy), and furthermore all progressive slots accumulate chips based on all players’ contributions from around the world. In addition, all games that are available in one region (say, slots by American developers) should be available to everyone worldwide. I could go on and on, but overall, the message is simple – if a global casino was to be created, it would have to take full advantage of said globality and provide everyone everywhere with a full, complete and truly global casino experience.

UK players have a myriad of great online casinos to choose from, but each player might find a different casino to be the very best for them, depending on their personal preferences. When it comes to playing roulette on the go, there are, in my humble opinion, three very clear frontrunners: 888 Casino, Leo Vegas and Betfair. You can read short overview of these casinos below.

888’s Mobile-Friendly Casino

888 is hands-down the best online casino on the UK market but also one of your best choices for playing roulette on the go. There you can play the following roulette variations from a smartphone or a tablet: European roulette, European Roulette High Limit, Low Stakes Roulette American Roulette and American Roulette High Limit. If you have an Android device, then you can play directly in your mobile browser while if you’re an iOS user you’ll have to download the casino app from iTunes. An interesting fact about 888 is that it’s the only casino that has a special mobile roulette app. Unfortunately, that app is only compatible with iPhones and iPads. Still, it’s quite the nice treat for the roulette fans. Other than that, it’s important to also mention that 888 has a great live casino app developed by Evolution Gaming, where you can play roulette in the company of real human dealers also on your smartphone or tablet.

Leo Vegas Mobile

While 888 is considered to be the overall best online casino on the UK market, Leo Vegas is said to be the best when it comes to their mobile platform. They, in fact, have an unprecedented number of mobile-friendly games – over 500. Among those, you’ll also find 7 roulette variations plus many live dealer tables. The live casino app is again provided by Evolution Gaming which is always a guarantee for a great experience. You can access the casino directly from your mobile browser no matter if you’re using an Android or an iOS device while for iPhone and iPad there’s also a native app which can be downloaded from iTunes for quicker and easier access to the casino.

Betfair’s Mobile Platform

Betfair is one of the top online casinos that are powered by Playtech – the most popular casino platform in the world. As such, they have a huge selection of games, many of which are also compatible with the most popular mobile devices. There you can play two virtual roulette games on the go, Roulette and Premium European Roulette, and also live dealer roulette. The live dealer games are especially suitable for the low rollers as the limits they start from the humble £0.10.

More Great Roulette App Suggestions

All of the above-mentioned casinos are great for playing roulette on the go, but if you’re not sold on any of them, then you should definitely check out this overview of the best roulette apps by mobileonlinecasinos.co.uk. Though their suggestions differ from ours, they are still recommending legal online casinos with great reputation and rich game selections, so whichever one of the apps reviewed on that site you choose, you can be sure that you’ll be in safe hands.

In the main article for this site, I briefly mentioned a handful of misconceptions and false beliefs about gaming, such as how supposedly all gamers are lifeless teenage boys (they’re not), or how board games only cover fun, lighthearted, mindless subjects (they don’t). Inspired by that post, I decided to write an entirely separate article that’s specifically dealing with nothing but misconceptions in the world of gaming. Keep in mind that I’m going to be talking about ALL of gaming – videogames, roleplaying, gambling, you name it. So, without further ado, let’s get down to business!

Misconception #1: Board Games Are Party Games Only

I already spoke about how not all games are just mindless fun – some can cover some pretty heavy subjects, for example “This War of Mine” (an adaptation of the videogame of the same name) which deals with a group of ordinary people trying to survive in the middle of a bloody civil war that has torn their country apart. Aside from a very intriguing premise, the game is also peculiar for one other thing – it can be played by as many as 6 players and as few as one. That’s right – you can play the game all on your own, without anyone else. In fact, there’s plenty of game which, while offering the chance to team up with friends, also allow you to play by yourself. I’m not going to give any more specific examples because there’s literally dozens of them, but Googling “single player board games” should give you a whole ton of results.

Misconception #2: Online Gambling is Fake

We’ve all heard the rumors – online casinos aren’t actually random, like they proclaim to be. They all run on complicated algorithms that decide whether or not you win and ensure that you get just enough winnings to keep playing while also losing more money than you gain. It’s a complete sham, right? Well, actually, there is a little bit of truth to this misconception – there is, in fact, an algorithm in place to ensure that players lose more money than they gain, it’s how the casino stays in business. Between 2 and 5% of all the money invested in a game go to the casino… But how the rest of it is spread out is entirely random. You could invest $1000 and go away with nothing, or you could play 25 cents and become a millionaire. In fact, there’s numerous non-government organizations (different for every country) which put online casinos to the test and make sure they’re not cheating before certifying them as legitimate. Trust me – as long as you go to the “big” online casinos in your area, you’re going to be fine.

Misconception #3: Gamebooks Are Dead

Throughout the 80s and 90s, gamebooks were all the rage – series such as “Fighting Fantasy” and “Way of the Tiger”, among many, many others, were extremely popular and beloved by kids and teenagers everywhere. But as videogames became more advanced, gamebooks were kind of left in the dust. Most weren’t really all that well-written, and with the interactive element being no longer a novelty, gamebooks slowly went the way of the dodo… Until a few years ago, when they made a gigantic resurgence and are now once again a prominent genre of interactive entertainment. The secret is that they didn’t return on paper – most are now on your phone, and they are beautiful! They combine the best of the genre from its prime with the advances in modern technology, and let me tell you as an old-school fan of gamebooks, combining the best of both worlds is an experience unlike any other!

Today, we look at games as little more than mindless entertainment. Board games that aren’t called Chess are seen as either children’s entertainment or exclusively for sweaty virgin nerds who like to fantasize about slaying dragons. Videogames are nothing more than just a sign of our never-ending consumerism, with non-gaming people frowning about the fact that gamers (which, again, are mostly personified as the aforementioned sweaty virgin nerds) are willing to pay up to $60 for the opportunity to sit on their ass, push some buttons and pretend like they’re shooting aliens in the face. People who play casino games are seen as desperate drunks who gamble away their earnings and are like a cancer on their family, putting them in debt for their own addictions. And online gambling is worst of all, since it not only puts people in debt, but there isn’t even a chance to win! Games are horrible, ruin people’s lives and wipe children’s brains… Or so a lot of people over 45 would like to believe.

The truth, of course, is very far from that. Board games have become more complicated and engaging in ever, such as Brenda Romero’s “Train”(a game where you and your friends are tasked with transporting passangers via train to their destination, only to discover at the very end of the game that you’ve been transporting them to Auschwitz). Videogames are currently the most successful entertainment industry of all, blowing movies and music out of the water and earning hundreds of billions in revenue every year. According to recent studies, roughly 50% of all gamers are female, and people who play games at least once every few days can be as young as 6 or as old as 60. The casino industry is also successful, racking in over 160 billion dollars this year alone while making hundreds of people millionaires. And the online casino industry has been on the rise, earning progressively more and more every year.

Like it or not (and I see no reason why you shouldn’t), we’re right in the middle of a global revolution when it comes to entertainment. Three of the top 10 highest grossing movies came out this year – all except two came out in the last 3 years. Thanks to services such as iTunes, revenue from music is at an all-time high, and comic book movies have raised that industry to previously unseen success. With every passing year, people spend more and more money on entertainment. You could see this as them trying to escape their boring lives, but honestly, I see it as more and more people trying new things and learning to have fun! That’s why the Global Gambling & Gaming Magazine was created – as an effort to monitor and celebrate the global entertainment revolution we’re in! We hope you’ll follow us and enjoy the ride just as much as we will.

-George Sykes, Editor-in-Chief