Our choice of online gambling games continues to grow

There are many reasons why online gambling has been so successful, but apart from the obvious factor of convenience it is the huge increase in gambling options that is most likely to be the most significant. The first online gambling sites were all introduced and operated by the big bookmakers and were focused almost entirely on sports gambling, but it wasn’t long before they decided to add a few gambling games to those sites and in turn create what we now know as the online casino gambling sector. During those early years the online sports gambling and the online casino gambling options were all featured on the same site, but both forms of internet gambling had one thing in common, they both offered far more gambling options than any of us had ever seen before. The sports gambling sites allowed us to bet on almost every sport and sporting event you could think of, wherever in the world it was taking place, but it was the online casino gambling sites which really exceeded all expectations. From very small beginnings with just a few gambling games being added to the big online sports gambling sites, the idea of playing gambling games online became so popular that every site operator desperately wanted to add more and more gambling games to their sites so that it almost became a race to be the biggest and therefore perhaps the best. Nowadays most online casino gambling sites offer their customers at least two hundred different gambling games to choose from, and some offer considerably more than that. We have also seen several new specialist online casino operators join the big bookmakers in the casino gambling sector, leading to an even bigger choice of gambling games being available online. Clearly the vast majority of the gambling games we can now play online are slots games in various forms, but we can also play a full range of the more traditional casino games on most online casino gambling sites. Many would argue that it was in fact the option to play some of the more traditional games which had never been available in Ireland before that kick started interest in playing casino gambling games online. Many of us had been able to play games such as roulette and blackjack before the online casino gambling sites came on stream, but very few had been able to play craps or baccarat, let alone the interesting and skilful game of backgammon.

All of these traditional casino gambling games have been available in other parts of the world for many years, but most games enthusiasts here in Ireland had rarely if ever had the opportunity to play them. Most observers actually believe that it was probably the option to play these games which first attracted us to the idea of playing gambling games online and led to the popularity of online casino gambling today. There is of course another contender for being the main reason for the immediate success of online casino gambling, and that is the game of bingo. Not that many years ago bingo was probably the most popular gambling game in Ireland and almost all our bingo clubs were thriving, but whether it was the result of the smoking ban or due to another reason entirely, the attendance at those clubs had fallen quite sharply over recent years. The game of bingo itself however was still very popular so when bingo and a variety of other numbers games became available online they also attracted many new fans of online casino gambling.

Any discussion regarding the resurgence of interest in the traditional gambling games resulting from the introduction of online casino gambling would not be complete without considering the game of poker. Of all the traditional gambling games which have received a boost from the introduction of online gambling, the game of poker has to be the biggest success story. The increased popularity of online poker has been extraordinary, and has resulted in several new specialist online poker platforms being established alongside the standard online casino sites. These poker platforms allow serious poker enthusiasts to test their luck and their skills against other players from all over the world, so that there are virtual poker schools happening twenty four hours a day. The new found popularity of online poker has also been transferred to the real world, and almost every major poker tournament is now oversubscribed as more and more enthusiastic amateurs vie to take on the professionals who used to have those tournaments to themselves. We certainly hear more and more people in Ireland claiming to be semi-professional poker players than ever before, and according to several reports that number appears to be still growing. Unlike during the early history of the game of poker however, it is not the 5-card draw version of poker that attracts the greatest interest. Serious poker players now concentrate on the Texas Hold’em format of the game, which is also the version of poker played at most of the major tournaments around the world. Texas Hold’em poker involves the use of five community cards dealt one at a time and face up in the middle of the table, in addition to the two hole cards dealt face down to each player. The community cards are available for every player to use with their hole cards in forming their showdown hand at the end of each game. There is also a betting round after each community card has been dealt, so that the size of the pot is always likely to be bigger than for any other version of the game which is of course the main reason for the popularity of this version of the game.

When it comes to the huge range of slots and video slots which are now available on every online casino gambling site it would be impossible to pick out individual favourites. The ever expanding selection of these gambling games covers almost every theme you can think off, including amongst others several sports, film characters and even cartoon characters.