This is one of the most annoying factors when it comes to online gambling websites.  For some reason, 9 times out of 10, when you try your credit card it’s declined.  If it’s a debit card, it could be linked to an account with millions of dollars or a credit card with a limit that you could never imagine being able to spend!  Regardless, it’s declined.  Now what?

First, it’s important to understand WHY it’s declined because it has nothing to do with you or your financial situation.  I mean assuming that you’re not trying to use a maxed out credit card or a debit linked to an overdrawn account. ?

Banks don’t like online gambling websites.  It’s as simple as that.  There is too much risk involved.  Personally, I think that’s crazy because if they knew me (or most of my girlfriends) then the same rule should apply to any shoe store. However, we’re familiar with the many wonders of society, so this shouldn’t really faze us much.   Is it infringing on our personal freedoms? Hell yeah.  Am I going to call for an online gambling revolution? No. Not quite yet.

The good news is that online casinos are really accommodating because it annoys them about 1000 times more than it annoys us.  (We can leave the revolution thing to them…) That’s why they offer normally about 10 to 20 alternative ways to deposit money into your casino account.  You can use methods that work with your credit card (sort of like a loophole because the banks don’t block those companies) or you can use companies that can access your checking account, you can also wire money.  And there are usually 2 or 3 of each type to choose from.  Since some of them charge nominal fees, the online gambling site will offset that with a bonus for using one of these deposit methods.  The bonus is usually 2 to 3 times the cost, I guess they factor in the whole “inconvenience” thing.

So point is, if you card declines, relax.  It’s normal, it’ll take you about 5 minutes to fix it, the casino will make a big deal of it and give you even more bonus money so in no time you’ll be playing with more than you had originally budgeted.

Too bad it doesn’t work the same way for shoes.

Many people approach a backgammon board and become intimidated by its setup.  If you’ve been considering trying out backgammon but have had this feeling, you’ll be happy to know decoding the backgammon board is a very simple task.

First off, let’s understand the object.  Backgammon is a two player board game where players each have a set number of checkers which they race to get around and off of the board first.  When you look at a backgammon board, you’ll see it is divided into 4 sections with a bar halving the board, creating two halves with 2 sections in each half.  The bar is simply a place for holding checkers that have been hit and for placing the doubling die.  It does not affect the movement of checkers around the board.

You and your opponent will start from the same side of the board but opposite sections.  Each section of the backgammon board has 12 long triangles which are called points.  These points are the spaces your checkers will move on.  Don’t worry about the different colors of the points, this has no affect.  You can land on any point that is open to land on.  You and your opponent will simply line up your checkers at the starting section according to the rules (they will tell you how many checkers go on each point of your section before the game starts).  From there you simply roll the dice and choose where to move your checkers on the backgammon board in order to win.  You and your opponent will race opposite directions around the board.  The backgammon board is simply that easy to understand.

A casino bonus is a many varied and wonderful thing. No two online casinos will have the same casino bonus and that means that if you are selecting one to register with, you will be spoilt for choice.  Of course sometimes, too much choice can be a debilitating thing, especially when there seem to be fine margins between what is being offered.

The online casino that you choose will not only be determined by the casino bonus, but inevitably it will be this that will probably first attract your attention. So what types of casino bonus can you expect?  There are sites that will offer you 100% of your initial deposit, perhaps even as much as 150% i.e. you put in $200 and in the second case; you will actually have $500 to play with.  Some sites will just offer a cash incentive and by signing up on a particular day could net you up to $500.  Look around though and find what is most attractive to you.

Also take into account that the casino bonus is not (or at least should not be) the be all and end all of your decision to join a particular internet casino.  Do you feel comfortable there, are there casino games that you’d like to play, what is the security like; all these are important questions and should be high up on your list of priorities.