Roulette is a game based on chance.  It is popular in casinos and gets the name Roulette from the French word meaning “small wheel”.  The game is fairly easy to play with few rules.  Roulette as we now know it first gained popularity in 18th century Europe.  The U.S. game consists of a small wheel with 38 numbers on it, while the European version has 37 numbers.  It has since spread around the world and a Roulette wheel can be found in almost every gaming site.

To play, gamers place bets on an odd or even number, a specific number, a range of numbers, or a color of either red or black.  The American Roulette wheel contains numbers 1-36 in alternating red and black.  There are also two green spaces, on containing a 0 and the other a 00.  Gamblers place a marker on the game board the number or numbers they want to bet on, for example red 22 or black 11.

Bets can be placed according to the corresponding game board.  There are a number of ways to bet.  A straight-up bet is a bet placed on a single number.  A split is a bet placed on two numbers that are side-by-side on the game board.  A street is a bet placed on three numbers in a horizontal line on the board, while a corner is a bet placed on four numbers in a square pattern.  A bet placed on two adjoining streets is called a six line.  Lastly, a trio is the bet placed on the intersection of a 0, 1 and 2 or the 00, 2 and 3.

To determine the winner, a person referred to as a croupier, spins the wheel in one direction and a small ball in the opposite direction on a slanted track the runs the entire circumference of the wheel.  The ball eventually stops on one of the grooves within a number, and a winner is identified.  The bets that have been placed now belong to whoever chose the correct number.

Poker tournaments often consist of several people.  These tournaments can be played for fun between friends, with little money exchanging hands.  Professional poker players also partake in tournaments and can win and lose very large sums of money.
During a professional poker tournament, players continue play until they are out of money.  The game keeps going until there is one person left who is declared the winner.  These tournaments can take hours.  Professional poker players can have sponsors who help supply the money backing the play.
Poker is growing in popularity and professional poker tournaments are often televised.  There are names for annual tournaments such as the World Series of Poker and the World Poker Tour.  Such big name tournaments often take place in Las Vegas, as it is considered the gambling epicenter of the U.S.  Players show stoic determination and have mastered the art of hiding emotion so as not to give away what cards are held in hand.  Some players wear sunglasses or hats to help hide their expressions.
If you are not interested in playing poker professionally, there are several online options.  Many gaming sites offer ongoing poker games that you may enter in to or exit out of at will.  Most of these sites require that you are of the legal gambling age, which is 18 in most areas.  While these online tournaments may seem more like arcade games, they can be costly.  You are usually asked to enter a credit card number and your poker winnings and debts are debited accordingly.  Online poker has aided in racking up large sums of debt for numerous people.  Playing online makes poker seem like any other free game and since players don’t visually see money exchanging hands, it can be difficult to know when to stop playing.

Texas Hold’em: There are many types and variations of poker, but the game of Texas Hold’em is probably the most popular in the U.S. and possibly the most popular poker game in the world.  The game itself is fairly easy.  It can be played with anywhere from two to ten people.  The game starts with a dealer dealing two face-down cards to each player.  Through the next four rounds, the dealer deals five community cards that each player may play off of.  Each player, depending on the cards they have in their hand and on the table, decide if they want to keep betting if they want quit the hand, known as folding.  At the end of the game the player with the highest hand, the best combination of five cards using both the cards in the player’s hand and the community cards, wins.

Five Card Draw: Five card draw can be played with between two and five players.  It is one of the oldest poker variations.  Each player receives five cards and after the first round each player may discard or replace up to five cards in hopes of achieving the best hand.  At the end of the game the player with the highest hand wins.

Omaha: Omaha Hi is similar to Texas Hold’em.  It can be played with two to ten players as well.  Instead of being dealt two cards, each player receives four cards.  The dealer then deals the five community cards.  The best hand must be comprised of two cards they hold in their hand and three community cards.  Omaha 8 is similar to Omaha Hi, but players may also bet on making the best five-card low hand.

There are other variations as well, but these are typically the top three that are played in the U.S.

The Bellagio Hotel is located on the Las Vegas strip.  It stands in the location that the historic Dunes Hotel once occupied.  The Dunes Hotel was demolished in 1993 to begin construction of the Bellagio.

The Bellagio is themed after Bellagio, Italy.  The entire hotel oozes opulence, starting with the lobby where 2000 hand blown glass flowers adorn the ceiling.  The hotel also boasts of an eight-acre man-made lake in front of the hotel and dancing water fountains that are synchronized to music.  There is also a conservatory and botanical garden on premises that changes the theme five times a year to reflect winter, Chinese New Year, spring, April, summer, and fall.  Construction of the Bellagio was completed in 1998.

There are almost 4,000 rooms in the hotel, with 116,000 square feet of gaming space.  Cirque du Soleil permanently performs their aquatic production of “O” at the hotel, and the hotel contains an art gallery and a popular night club.  The original construction cost was estimated at $1.6 billion, and the hotel was renovated in 2006.  The Bellagio employs about 10,000 people.

The Bellagio poker room is famous among poker players.  It is often called the home base by many professional poker players, or “The Office,” referring to the high table limits to play there.  The Bellagio has deals with the World Poker Tour to host some of the tournaments they put on.  There are also 2400 slot machines.  The price to play the slots ranges from a penny to $1,000.  The owner of the hotel, MGM Mirage, also provides games on the floor that are exclusive to MGM Mirage properties.
The Bellagio is rated Five-Diamond by AAA and Mobile Five-Star rated.  Without question the Bellagio is one of the most trend-setting, elegant hotels on the Vegas strip.

The recent rise of online poker has led to the birth of many web sites dedicated to this popular card game. These sites can serve as a great spring board for those of us who do not know the game that well.

If you are invited to a friendly poker night with friends, don’t be concerned. All you have to do is go into one of these sites and catch up on what you have yet to learn.

These sites usually teach you the poker rules and a little bit of strategy, which you will probably have to learn the hard way. In addition, you can read about famous players and examine winning hands, which may certainly come in handy during your own game.

As poker is getting more and more popular, the professional players of the game are gaining fame.  Televised poker tournaments are helping to promote not only the game, but the players as well.  Here are a few well-known professional poker players that may someday soon become household names.
Brett ‘gank’ Jungblut:  Brett was raised in a poker community and in fact is named after a poker player from a TV show.  He rose to stardom in online poker tournaments, but has also found success in live tournament play.  At only 30 years old he is quickly making a name for himself and has earnings of around USD $400,000.  Brett plays up to 16 hours of online poker a day.
Gus Hansen:  Born in Denmark, Hansen was not raised playing poker but instead was an ace at backgammon and tennis.  He first joined the professional poker circuit in 1997.  He did not begin playing poker until 1993, but has quickly mastered the game.  He is known for his aggressive and unpredictable style.  To date, he has made over USD $5 million in live poker tournaments.
Annie Duke:  Annie is one of the most famous and most notable women poker players in the world.  She has won both the World Series of Poker and the World Series of Poker Tournament of Champions.  Annie was a psychology major and attributes that in aiding her to read her opponents.  She enjoys mentoring other poker players, one of whom was Ben Affleck.
Amarillo Slim:  Amarillo Slim’s real name is Thomas Austin Preston Jr.  At over 70 years of age, Slim is one of the most colorful characters in poker.  He won the World Series of Poker in 1972 and his career earnings have been monumental.  Slim is known for being a hustler as well, and has hustled money out of Willie Nelson, Larry Flynt and Evil Knievel.  The tales about him are legendary including how he won a bet playing ping pong with an iron skillet and shooting billiards with a broomstick.

Gambling in the US is a billion dollar a year industry.  In 2006, gambling revenue came in at USD $90.96 billion.  Gambling falls under federal jurisdiction, but each state is allowed to ban or regulate gambling as the state so chooses.  Almost every state has some form of lottery so therefore almost every state has some form of gambling.

Nevada is the only U.S. state that allows gambling on a statewide basis.  Other states restrict gambling to certain to certain cities or Native American reservations.  Still other states confine gambling to riverboats.  Online gambling is an exception to most state policies.  Online gambling is difficult to regulate so even if gambling is outlawed in a state, residents of that state can still partake in online gambling. Read more about poker rules, tips and strategies at launchpoker.com.

There are 19 states that allow commercial casinos on non-reservation land.  There are approximately 450 of these casinos.  With the exception of nine states, every other state in the U.S. allows a lottery.  There are different forms of lottery and the forms are based off of the purchase of a ticket for a small amount of money.  The ticket either requires you to choose numbers, pull tabs, or scratch off circles in order to reveal if you are a winner.  In the variation of the lottery where you choose numbers, the winning number combination is later revealed in a random drawing.  The winnings from lotteries vary from a few dollars to millions of dollars.

Reservation-based gambling began in 1979.  Such gambling is controversial, as some Native Americans do not want non-Native Americans on reservation land.  However, the casinos create thousands of jobs and generate revenue in the community.  Under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988, all revenue must be used for the government or to better the community such as by building schools, houses, roads or funding healthcare.

The world of casinos, gambling and high-stakes appears very glamorous. It really is no wonder that there have been so many movies made about casinos and the fabulous goings-on within. For decades, movies have been themed around or set in casinos. Many of these movies are well-known, household names.
In recent years, movies such as “21” have brought fame to gambling sites. In this movie, university students are taught by a professor how to count cards. The students are then flown out to Las Vegas to win big and split the profits with their instructor. The lavish lifestyle that the students are thrown in to could make gambling appealing to anyone.
‘Ocean’s Eleven’ is a 1960’s remake, released in 2001, about a planned heist involving Las Vegas casinos. In the 1960’s version, the “Rat Pack”, made up of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, planned to rob five casinos. The 2001 version starred George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts among other big names and was updated to involve robbing the (non-existing in real life) vaults that lie beneath the Bellagio Hotel.
A more comedic casino-themed movie was the 1992 ‘Honeymoon in Vegas’. Nicholas Cage plays a man who takes his girlfriend (Sarah Jessica Parker) to Vegas in order to get married. James Caan portrays a gambler who spots Parker and wishes to spend the weekend with her, thus ensues attempting to win her away from Cage through poker.
Multiple James Bond movies have been staged in casinos or have the character spending time in a casino. The ambiance of mystery, smoke and glamour that portrays the stereotyped gambling rooms is a perfect backdrop for such an illustrious character. The most recent of these movies is ‘Casino Royale’. The film stars Daniel Craig who many critics have reviewed to be the best James Bond ever, or at least since Sean Connery.

Online poker is really fun to play, and you can win (or lose) cash at the same time! Many online poker rooms offer bonus codes, which may offer a wide variety of different kinds of incentives for signing up with them. Each bonus tends to have its pros and cons, but most people agree it is much better to go into a poker room with one instead of without one! One type of poker bonus is called a deposit bonus. A deposit bonus typically ranges from 5-100% of your first deposit, it is rare, but you can find bonuses more than 100% sometimes.

A deposit bonus is great; you get free money to play with! This should be particularly appealing if you are a novice at poker, because you get a chance to learn poker a little better before you start taking losses. One of the cons of of this type of bonus, is that you are restricted by what is known as a wagering requirement. A wagering requirement is a restriction on your account that says you can’t withdraw any of your money until you have wagered a certain amount of it. Usually, a wagering requirement is 5-20% of the amount you deposited plus the bonus they gave you for depositing. It is understandable why they do this, if this restriction did not exist everyone would just deposit 500 dollars, get a 100% bonus somewhere, and withdraw 1000, they would be out of business in under 24 hours.

The type of bonus above is known as a cashable deposit bonus, you can withdraw everything including winnings and money left over from the bonus once you have completed your wagering requirement. The other type is known as a sticky deposit bonus, this means the amount of bonus you receive can be used to wager, and you get to keep winnings from it, but you can not withdraw the amount of the bonus no matter how much you have wagered. Another type of bonus is called a free roll bonus, which is usually used for poker tournaments. The rules for a free roll are different at ever different room, but they give you a free entry into a poker tournament(s) and give you a chance to win the big prize without putting up cash!

Online poker is certainly fun, and with time and patience, you can get very good at it. Every bonus has it’s downside, but it is far better to play with one, than without one. Not all types of poker bonuses are listed here, just remember to check all of the terms and conditions before you choose to take advantage of a bonus.

A lot of amateur poker players are content playing poker with friends for petty cash or poker chips. Such games often take place in a garage or a basement card table.  For people a little more serious, playing poker in a casino is the next step up.

Many states do not have legalized gambling and if gambling is legal, there are only certain areas where it is allowed.  These areas are usually specially licensed casinos.  While there is not necessarily a fee to enter the casino, there is a fee to partake in the games within.  Casinos have set dealers for each table.  The dealer’s job is to make sure each player abides by the rules, as well to deal the cards for the game.
In order to play poker in a casino, you must contribute some amount of money.  Your money is then converted in to chips, with certain colors of chips denoting an amount of currency.  When you decide on a poker table, you are dealt two cards and from those two cards you decide whether or not you want to continue with the game.  If you decide to continue, you put a set amount of chips in the middle (pot) and you will not receive the chips back unless you have the winning hand.  There is also a contribution to the pot called a “blind”.  Eventually, each person at the table has to pay the blind, which is a set amount you pay in to the pot without ever seeing the first two cards.  You then can decide if you want to continue with the game and make another payment after you see your first two cards.  Big blind and little blind are also used in private, non-casino poker games.  The stakes at a casino are higher though, since you are playing with real money.

Another popular spot to play poker is in an online casino. There are several advantages to online casino gaming: you can play 24 hours a day from your own personal computer, you do not have to leave your house or even get dressed for the occasion. With online poker, you play against other players and not against the house. The way a poker room makes money is as follows: the room deducts a certain percentage from each pot – called the “rake” – which is normally between 3 and 5 % of that aforementioned pot. On the internet, you will find companies that will give you up to 33 % of the paid rake back. No matter if you win or lose, you can receive your rakeback paid into your bankroll account on a monthly basis. This is another great advantage of playing online poker.