Key Differences Between Online Casinos and The Real Thing

When people consider playing at an online casino for the first time, they often wonder what the main differences are between a live casino (or brick and mortar version that you can physically walk into) and the growingly popular online version.  To help you understand some of the benefits and drawbacks, here are a list of the key differences between the 2 types of casinos:

Dress Code – ADVANTAGE: Online Casino – Going to a real casino is often a big event for many people.  They get dressed up to the nines acting often trying to mimic their favorite Hollywood stars like James Bond.  Though you can still walk into most casinos in pretty much anything (within reason), one of the things a lot of people prefer about online casinos is the fact that you can play in your pajamas (or in your birthday suit if you so chose) from the comfort of your own home.

Gaming Experience – ADVANTAGE: Live Casino – As much as online casinos do their best to mimic the live experience, nothing tops actually throwing the dice in a game of craps, or seeing your cards dealt right in front of you.  Online casinos are getting better at this by adding things like live dealer casinos, but the reality is live casinos will always provide a much better playing experience than any online casino ever will.

Travel Time – ADVANTAGE: Online Casino – One of the main reasons for the popularity of online casinos is you no longer have to leave your house to get to one.  Many people live quite far from a physical casino which means by playing online they could cut down on hours of travel time, gas expenses and much more.

Social Aspects – ADVANTAGE: Live Casino – Most humans are social beings and enjoy interacting with one another.  This is one of the biggest problems that online casinos have failed to solve.  One of my favorite things about going to a physical casino is the camaraderie amongst the players.  At any craps table you will see players cheering one another on as at most table games.  In fact the only game in live casinos that isn’t very social is slots.

Odds – ADVANTAGE: Draw – With the growing competition between online casinos the odds continue to get better and better.  For example, Betfair Casino offers a zero house edge section of their casino called the zero lounge where games have practically no house edge.  The reason for this category being declared a draw is because the difference in the speed of play.  With online casinos you can play easily 20x more hands or pulls on a slot machine than you could ever do in a live casino.  Since odds are impacted over the time you are playing even though the games have a better win percentage, they are probably coming closer to breaking even in odds with their live version because of the increased play volumes.

Security – ADVANTAGE: Live Casino – The main reason that we have given the advantage to live casinos for security is because in most places if there is an issue you can take this to your local law enforcement.  The reality with online casinos is if anything did ever go wrong it would be much more difficult to get the problem resolved as you might be dealing with a company that operates in a different country from yourself.  For the most part if you stick with well known online casinos like the ones listed on our site you have nothing to worry about, but there are some casinos with very shady operations that might not be there when you go to get your money out.  The key here with online casinos is to do a lot of research before trusting your hard earned dollars on their site.  Don’t just take one casino over another because it has a bigger bonus or prettier logo.  When choosing an online casino pick one that is publicly traded or government regulated as these casinos are 100% secure.

Bonuses / Comps – ADVANTAGE: Online Casinos – One of the greatest things about playing at casinos in somewhere like Las Vegas is the free drinks and comps that you can earn for playing.  Unfortunately this isn’t the norm for most live casinos and even those free drinks or comps you are typically paying for anyway.  The reason online casinos dominate this category is this is often one of the things that separates them from their competitors.  With so much competition it often comes down to the casinos offering the best bonuses, or with the greatest comp programs.  Since most live casinos don’t typically have much local competition they can set forth whatever comps they want which often require a substantial amount of play before you earn anything.  With online casinos often you will get comps instantly just for making a deposit on their site in the way of an instant bonus which is something Bodog Casino does quite well.

As you can see from above, depending on what you look for when playing at a casino there are many key differences between the two.  To determine which is best for you pick the things that are most important to you and see which type of casino does them best.