Real Money Casino Games
One of the ways Canadian real money casinos compete with one another is by regularly expanding their games libraries. Since gambling is a form of entertainment, the best real money online casinos will be the ones that do just that – entertain. This goes beyond simply hosting a single version of any one casino game, and you can expect a wide range of variants too. Here are the most popular types of games you’ll likely find at real money casinos.
Blackjack
Having migrated to North American shores during colonial times, blackjack quickly developed a life of its own on this side of the Atlantic. Blackjack is known as a table game, which is defined as a casino game in which players compete against the house as opposed to one another.
Each player is initially dealt two cards and, through a series of bets – hit, stick, split, and double down – players aim to attain a hand as close to 21 as possible without exceeding 21 and going bust. Aces can be worth either one or 11, cards 2-10 equal their face value, and picture cards are all worth 10.
Roulette
Another casino game heavyweight with a long and fascinating history, the roulette wheel emerged from a failed attempt by Blaise Pascal to invent a perpetual motion machine in 1655. Roulette is entirely a game of chance, with players wagering on the outcome of which of the wheel’s 36 pockets the metallic ball will eventually land in.
Each pocket is numbered 1-36 and coloured either red or black; the green zero pocket (and there may be more than one of these depending on which variant you play) belongs to the house and ensures its edge. In American roulette, there is an additional green pocket marked ‘00’, meaning this version gives the house a slightly greater advantage.
Slots
Real money online casinos are dominated by computerized slot machines. These work in exactly the same way as their mechanical cousins, with players spinning the reel — or in this case, pressing the button — and hoping for the best. The biggest software developers in the business concentrate their efforts on producing dazzling slot titles, inspired by stories and mythologies of the ancient world, along with themes, figures and films from modern pop culture.
Slots vary in terms of potential payouts, and there are a few ways to assess this. The return to player (RTP) percentage states the amount a slot will pay out on average over millions of spins, but this isn’t much to go on in a single playing session. The variance, or volatility, of a game, meanwhile, refers to how risky it is: with a low volatility game you’re likely to see small but reasonably frequent payouts, while a high volatility slot is more likely to pay out big wins, but may also bring some long winless runs. Progressive jackpot slots bring some of the largest payouts — with these games, a percentage of players’ bets is added to an ever-increasing jackpot, with one lucky winner taking home the fortune.
Live Casino
Most online casinos will host free-to-play versions of the games listed above on their site, but you won’t find the equivalent for live casino games. Live dealer casinos can be seen as a hybrid between online and brick-and-mortar casinos, where players use video streaming technology to place themselves in an authentic casino environment from the comfort of their own homes. Live casinos follow the customs of a physical casino, with professional croupiers running the games at a slower pace than you’d find at a regular gambling site.
Baccarat
Another table game that dates back centuries is baccarat. While it became popular in the 19th century among the French noble classes, some sources suggest it emerged much earlier than this. Today, it’s a popular game both at real money online casinos and land-based casinos.
There are several variants of baccarat, including punto banco, baccarat banque and baccarat chemin de fer, but punto banco is the simplest and most common form of this card game. In this variant, the player bets on which hand will result in a score closest to nine — the player’s, or the banker’s — or they can bet that the round will be a tie. Tens and face cards have a value of zero, aces are worth one, and the rest of the cards score at their usual value. Baccarat is popular not only due to its simplicity, but its low house edge of 1.06% to 1.24%.
Craps
In craps, players bet on the outcomes of rolls of a pair of dice. The game dates back to the late 18th century and first developed in London, before making its way over to New Orleans and the rest of North America. In casino craps, players bet against the house, while in street craps players bet against each other.
The first roll of the dice is called the comeout roll — here, players can make a pass or don’t pass bet. If the roll adds up to 7 or 11 in this phase, the pass bets win, while 2, 3, or 12 means the don’t pass bets win. Any other number becomes the ‘point’. Players then keep rolling so long as they don’t roll the point, in which case pass bets are paid out at even money. There are lots of other types of bets that come into play, helping to make craps one of the most unique and exciting table games at Canadian real money casinos.
Video Poker
Video poker is based on the poker variant five-card draw. The game shares similarities with slots, although there’s a degree of skill to video poker, whereas slots are purely luck-based. That said, video poker is very different to the complex bluffing and betting of Texas Hold’em and other traditional poker games — in video poker, it’s just you against the machine.
The game is played on terminals at real money casinos and online, and starts by pressing the deal button. You’ll receive a five-card hand before choosing to discard as many cards as you wish ‒ these will then be swapped with new ones. The aim is to form a five-card poker hand — there are higher payouts as per the traditional poker pay tables, so if you can land a royal flush then it’s happy days. The key is to be shrewd about which cards you discard, although there are different strategies — some players may go for the big payouts while others will look to sure up a pair.
