Online casino games - All the Games You Should Know About
Almost all online casinos will have a massive number of games available. Most casinos will have a wide variety of them displayed on their front page for you to choose from. You are probably familiar with many of the more popular game types like slots, blackjack, and roulette. But there are many more game types available, and it is in your interest to know about them. One of them might even become your new favourite!
The Broader Picture
Most gambling sites will divide up their sites into sections based on the types of gambling in them. A common partition of the available gambling is sportsbook, poker, and casino. Of these, sportsbooks and poker are usually reserved for the bigger players. Smaller sites generally only provide casino games. Horse racing and lotteries are often handled by sites catering primarily to these subjects but can sometimes be found on casino sites as well. Horse racing might be folded into the sportsbook for example.
Sportsbook
This vertical handles betting on sports of all kinds – anything that the bookmaker will let you bet on basically. Soccer, football, hockey, rugby, cricket, basketball, name a sport, you can probably bet on it. The principles are the same for most of them, bet on an outcome on set odds and wait for the outcome. We won’t go into more detail here.
Poker
A card game where you play against other players. This is available on fewer sites. Simply because, in order to be profitable for the provider there needs to be a certain number of players playing each other. This necessitating a focusing of players to fewer sites to reach the needed player levels. There are many types of poker, like Texas Hold’Em, Omaha, and Seven card stud. Most of them will be available on these sites. Both cash games and tournaments are played.
Casino
This is where we will go into more detail, as it’s what the article is about. There are quite a few different types of games lumped into the casino category. Most of them are classified as casino games because at some point they were played in physical casinos, like slots, blackjack, and roulette.
Online Casino Games - A list
A strictly luck-based card game where you try to guess in which out of two boxes a ‘joker’ card will be played. A game round starts by drawing a ‘joker’ card. The dealer then draws a card into each box until a card with the same value as the ‘joker’ card is drawn. If you bet on the box where the ‘joker’ card was drawn, you win. A very simple game where you need no skill, just place your bet on one of the boxes and let the dealer handle the rest. In many ways this game is similar to baccarat.
Baccarat
One of the big three table games. A card game which, even if its card drawing rules are somewhat complicated, is very easy to play, especially online where the dealer or the computer will handle the complicated parts (when to draw a third card). Bet on the banker or player hand and wait for the dealer to decide the outcome by dealing the cards. Baccarat is available both in RNG and live versions, with multiple variants and tables available.
Bingo / Slingo
Bingo is a game where you get a playing grid – often three 5×5 ones – filled with numbers and then balls with said numbers are drawn randomly. If you have a matching number on your playing grid when a ball is drawn you mark it and wait for the next ball to be drawn. You win – get a bingo – when you have five numbers in a row. Available in both single and multiplayer variants.
Slingo is a bingo variant with multiple different games available with roughly the same game mechanics as bingo. It has a single 5×5 bingo field and some added game mechanics like wilds and ‘free spins’, depending on the game. Check out our selection of best bingo sites in Canada.
Blackjack
Another of the big table games, probably the biggest of the three. A card game where the goal is to get as close to 21 as possible without going over because then you lose. It’s a skill-based game where the player gets to choose what to do with their hand. It can take some time to learn how to play well. If you are skilled, it’s a game with a very low house edge so if that matters to you this could be of interest. We made a selection of best blackjack sites in Canada.
Craps
A dice game where you try to guess the outcome of rolling two dice and adding them together. The game rules are somewhat complicated to learn but once you get into it it’s easy to play. There are quite a few different bets available, many of them revolving around rolling the ‘point’ or 7, or not, as there are mirror bets for many of the bets. It is not that common to find online tables for this, but there are both RNG and live casino versions if you look around.
Crash Games
A game type where there is an increasing multiplier that can ‘crash’ at any time. The goal is to cash out before this happens. You then win a multiple of your bet equal to the multipliers value when you cashed out. If the multiplier crashes before you cash out, you lose. Crash games are a relatively new game type. Aviator, the first game, came out in 2018. Want to know more? Read all about these games in our Crash Games at Online Casinos article.
Dragon Tiger
A very simple card game, where the dealer will deal one card to the dragon and one card to the tiger. The highest card wins. You win if you bet on the box with the highest card. Not very far from coin-flipping but it is fast and simple to play.
Gameshows
This category holds quite a few different games with varying gameplay. The thing they have in common is that they use themes from TV gameshows like wheel of fortune and deal or no deal and the like. The wheel-based games are the most common. These games will often have a gameshow host keeping the action and the banter going. They often take place in extravagantly designed studios. At least the live casino versions, which are the ones to go for in my opinion.
Keno
A lottery style game where you pick a set of numbers and then 20 numbers are drawn by the game provider. The better your numbers match the ones drawn by the game provider, the better your payout. Since you can vary how many numbers you pick and the payout varies depending on that, there is some merit in checking out what the optimal number of picks are in the Keno game you’re playing. The house edge in Keno is high compared to most other casino games so if that is important to you, I’d suggest picking some other game.
These games are easy to understand and are a surprising amount of fun, making it an easy recommendation to beginning players.
Poker
This is a catch-all term for poker-like games that are played against the house, not against other players. There are a multitude of different games in this category, but they can all be distilled down to trying to get the best possible poker hand in the variant of poker that the game provides. There are both RNG and live casino variants available, pick the one you like most and hope for that royal straight flush.
Do you like Roulette? We made a selection of best roulette casinos in Canada for you!
Scratch Cards
A virtual version of physical scratch cards. Generally, these have a 3×3 playing field and you win if you get three matching symbols. Most people have scratched at least one scratch card before and know the drill. It is basically the same general idea as slots but in a different package, and I have to say that slots have the better package, so I’d recommend playing slots instead if you’re already online.
Sic Bo
The other big dice game after craps. Three dice are rolled, and players bet on different combinations appearing in the results. The payouts are higher the more unlikely the combination bet on. The house edge varies quite a bit depending on the chosen bets so if this game catches your fancy, we recommend researching the bets available to see which ones are “bad”.
Slots are by far the biggest game type on online casinos, both in profit to the casinos, playtime, and number of available games. They will probably stay at the top unless something new and revolutionary reshapes the gambling landscape. Check our our best online casinos in Canada for slot games.
Ending Words
See you in the next one!
