Best Online Gambling Sites – February 2019

Online poker sites have seen an explosion in activity over the past decade. When Australian Joe Hachem won the World Series of Poker (WSOP) in 2005, both offline and Web-based poker began to gain widespread popularity throughout our country. Hachem became world-famous overnight, and remains a celebrated gambler and an inspiration to a whole generation of Aussie poker players to this day.

Aussies are now familiar with a whole heap of poker variants, the most popular being Texas Hold’em. Melbourne’s Crown Casino, home to Australia’s biggest range of cash games and tournaments, hosts world-renowned events such as the APPT (Asia Pacific Poker Tour) and the Aussies Millions.

But it’s the online poker industry which is evolving at a rapid pace, with players from all over the globe able to face off against one another from the convenience of their own home. With huge incentives including sign-up cash bonuses, free entry tournaments to win real money, and a host of different styles of play available (such as Sit ‘n’ Go, Pre-set and Buy-in tournaments), it’s no wonder playing poker on the Internet is such a massive market. Additionally, it is a great way to prepare for land-based poker events against top competition.

Here at AG, we review the top sites for Australians to indulge in the world’s most popular card game, provide information on how to play all of the most prevalent forms of poker, and offer crucial tips and strategies.

888 Poker Australia is our number one platform for players down-under. Lauded by cricketing legend Shane Warne, 888 Poker offers everything you would need of an Internet poker site, including exclusive promotions geared towards Aussies, weekly tournaments with over $750,000 in prize money, free passages into the Aussie Millions, a variety of games such as Texas Hold’em and Omaha, and the ability to gain valuable advice in their forums.

We also talk about where we can play offline, discuss Australian-bred poker professionals, the likes of Joe Hachem, Jeff Lisandro, Mel Judah, Mark Vos, and Gary Benson, all whom have won World Series of Poker bracelets. Billy Argyros, Marsha Waggoner and Tony G (a.k.a. ‘The Mouth from Down Under’) are also household names who we discuss, while we persistently track the rise of new Australian professionals as they appear.

Our team also provides ample content on video poker. This form of gambling, based on draw poker, is a combination of pokies and poker, quite often with a significantly lower house edge when played on the Net, so this is an important area of discussion for those who enjoy titles such as Jacks or Better, Deuces Wild, and Aces and Faces.

Few things are more quintessentially Australian than playing the lottery. A lottery draw happens every three minutes throughout the day in our country. We inform the public about all the different lotto games available within our borders, including Tattslotto, Oz Lotto and Powerball, how to play, when they are drawn, and how to purchase tickets online. Whenever there is a significantly large upcoming jackpot available, you’ll know about it.

Oz Lotteries is the exclusive distributor of Australian lottery products via the Web, and needs to be your first point of reference when buying tickets online. Australian owned and operated, this fully accredited website publishes all results, and allows members to join syndicates and earn rewards points which can be redeemed for future discounted and free tickets. Sign up for free and start enjoying the lottery from one convenient location, with millions of dollars up for grabs each week.

When someone hits it big, we publish the names of the lucky winners and their numbers, while also discussing games you can play on the Web; those which take place more often than weekly lotto draws.

We also dedicate a significant amount of our content to instant scratchies; the fastest growing type of lotto game in the country. Keno, a Chinese lottery game, is offered, on a national level, by two State-run lottery organisations; Tattersall's and SA Lotteries. Multiple draws are held throughout the day here, and punters can play and check results in lottery sales outlets. The game is also highly popular in clubs, hotels and land-based casinos, and corporations such as Crown, Tabcorp Holdings and SKYCITY Darwin play host to draws in such venues.

Online casinos do a great job of offering virtual keno in their software packages. With results generated by Random Number Generation technology (akin to results for other interactive casino games), players select their desired numbers for one or multiple draws, choose how much they wish to stake, and hope their numbers are drawn. Live dealer keno is also available.

The numbers 1-80 are utilised for keno draws, and 20 individual numbers are drawn per game. The numbers which players select are called spots, while the winning numbers are called catches. Depending on how many catches match your spots, you are paid out according to a specific pay-table (table displaying odds), valid for the game you are playing. The less numbers you select, the more you are paid out for your catches, but your chances are slimmer; the more numbers you select, the less you are paid out, but the chances you hit are higher.

Odds are offered from one catch to 20 catches, and while the chances of hitting all 20 catches are astronomical, the opportunity to grab a ‘solid catch’ (hitting several numbers), is quite possible. Bingo is similar in style to keno and is a well-liked pastime among many Australian gamblers — but it’s no longer limited to large halls and charity events.

Internet real money bingo is a rapidly emerging activity, and sites such as True Blue Bingo offer us the chance to join online bingo communities. Players can purchase one or multiple cards to different scheduled live games, for the amount they desire (free games are often available with cash prizes), and partake in this social event over the World Wide Web, chat with others, and win big jackpots. True Blue also offers monthly promotions, along with a first-time welcome bonus. True Blue offers 90-ball (played with 5×5 cards) and 75-ball bingo (played with 9×3 cards), with the overall goal to mark off either a specific pattern of numbers, or all of the numbers on your card, from the random numbers drawn. Be the first player to check off the desired pattern and win.

Online casinos also offer a range of diverse virtual bingo games, changing up formats and styles to create hybrid versions, appealing to all kinds of people. Titles such as Super Bingo Bonus and Ballistic Bingo allow us to play independently, where we select our own numbers on however many cards we wish to play, are awarded pay-outs if our numbers are drawn, based on certain pay-tables.

The team at AG works around the clock to deliver the most pressing and important Australian gambling news and stories. You’d be hard-pressed to find any other site as dedicated as we are in supplying the latest updates about anything remotely related to betting that affects our country.

When a scandal rocks the horse racing industry; when Crown or Echo Entertainment Group is involved in a new land development; or if James Packer or Tom Waterhouse are in the limelight, we publish the latest updates here. These types of headlines might get submerged beneath global topics on other international gambling sites, but we strive not to miss a beat.

When new betting markets open up for sporting events, when bookmakers find themselves embroiled in controversy, when lotteries reach sizeable jackpots, and punters win big in poker tournaments, we are on the scene to report about it.

We also thoroughly cover the legal side of things: gambling laws across Australia are constantly changing – politicians are proposing new betting rules, seeking specific bans on interactive gambling advertising, and State and National Governments are attempting to introduce new policies, including gaming venues changing the way they offer their services.

So we are on our toes when it comes to reporting these issues and regard ourselves as the leading supplier of material about Australian gambling legalities. We have a unique page dedicated to the current on and offline gambling policies in Australia, detailing what is kosher and what is not. We present the facts and figures about the gambling scene down-under, but also offer our own analyses and commentary to place the news in a broader context; detailing how it actually affects us punters. We get straight to the point and don’t beat around the bush, or pussyfoot around.

Like our target audience, the owners, operators, editors, journalists and all contributors to this site are Australian, with one American who knows this industry like the back of his hand. And just like our audience, we have opinions on stories which we will share, but as ethical writers, we also promise to present both sides of any debate or story.

We endeavour to be comprehensive and informative here at AG. This site provides a complete analysis of all subjects, including a gambling glossary for all types of wagering. Definitions of bookie terminology, lists of casino gambling slang, poker abbreviations and jargon like sit ‘n go, freeze-out, free-roll, and re-buy are all discussed here.

We also provide answers to frequently asked questions (FAQs) about gambling, to expose any misinformation and myths, provide the truth, and educate you on the facts. Much is misunderstood about gambling probability, too. Our content allows punters to understand the odds, calculate probabilities in any given situation, and make informed gaming decisions; we provide much of this info in Q&A format, aiming to make you an educated and well-informed gambler to your maximum potential.

We welcome and value audience participation. We want to hear what our readers have to say about gambling topics, what you are thinking, recommendations you may have for us, and anything else of relevance. You can post questions and comments at the foot of every published article, and engage with us and other readers about the things most important to you via our Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and YouTube pages, and our LinkedIn profile for corporate requests.

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