New to online gambling?
Most people automatically think of casino-style gaming, when they hear the words "online gambling", but casino gaming is only a moderate slice of the Internet gambling pie. Poker sites, Sportsbooks, Lottery sites, and Bingo halls are also a part of the ever-evolving online gambling scene. Many online gambling sites are combination sites - offering multiple types of betting venues.
The most important factor of online gambling, is to select a site that is reputable and provides excellent customer service.
Use DrGamble´s Beginner´s Guide to find the sites and info you need to make a good and safe decision on where to play.
We stronlgy recommend to take a few minutes to review the articles below. Good luck!

Also see our new DrGamble Forums for tips and experiences from other players.

Important Articles for Beginners:

The 10 Commandments of Online Gambling
Frequently Asked Questions

Choosing a Casino:

TopPicks
Online Casino Directory and Reviews
Best Online Casino Bonuses
Best Online Casino No Deposit Bonuses

Casinos
What exactly is an online casino?
Online casinos enable gamblers to play and wager on casino games through the Internet. Simply put, they are online versions of traditional casinos. In online casinos you can expect to find all of your favorite casino games, just as you would find them when you walk into a casino in Las Vegas.
Because reliability and trust issues are often questioned, many online casinos use software from well-known companies like Microgaming, Wager Works, Playtech, and Cryptologic to ensure game fairness. These software companies use random number generators to ensure that the numbers, cards or dice appear randomly.

Poker
Online poker is the game of poker played over the Internet.
Online poker rooms are often viewed as more player-friendly than their traditional "brick and mortar" venues. For example, they allow the players to play for very low stakes (as low as a quarter) and often offer poker freerolls (no entry fee), which is very attractive for beginners.
Poker sites have quickly become an online gambling mainstay, with poker players of all levels flocking to them in droves. Many Poker sites host free and qualification tournaments with prizes that tip well into the millions. These poker tournaments offer skilled players a great possibility to leave the table with a lot of cash at little risk.
The major online poker sites offer tournaments called satellites by which the winners gain entry to real-life poker tournaments. Chris Moneymaker won his entry to the 2003 World Series of Poker through such a tournament. He then won the main event causing shock in the poker world. In 2004 at least four players in the WSOP final table won their entry through an online cardroom. 2004 winner Greg "Fossilman" Raymer also won his entry at the PokerStars online cardroom.
Of course Poker sites feature more than just tournaments. Players can get a chair at any number of tables with varying betting limits. Some tables run as low as a quarter while others cost really large amounts to get in. All games are played exactly like in a real casino, with players vying against one another for the pot while the house takes a small cut. The most prominent games are the Hold 'em and Stud games.

Sportsbooks
A sportsbook is a place where a gambler can wager on various sports competitions, like football, basketball, baseball, hockey, soccer, horse racing and boxing. Online sportsbetting allows bettors to place a bet in a matter of minutes from their home computer. The event offerings of online sportsbooks are usually quite large. Betting is possible on thousends of events daily. Some sites even allow wagering on everything from presidential elections to the winners of television shows!
Winning bets are paid when the event finishes, or if not finished was played long enough to becomes official, otherwise all bets are returned. There can be a difference between what the sportsbook considers official and what the sports league consider official. Customers should carefully read the sportsbook rules before placing their bets.

Lottery Sites
Online lottery sites work exactly the same as a typical lottery. Players pick their game, choose their numbers, and hope they hit the jackpot. The winning numbers are generated randomly by a computer.

Bingo
Online Bingo site players simply log on to a site, register as a player, pick their card(s) and start playing. After selecting the game and buying the cards, players wait for the results, and then start the process all over again. Many online bingo sites offer a chat feature that allows bingo players to converse while playing. Since bingo is one of the more social of online gambling games, most players like to play where their friends from all over the Internet are playing. Bingo sites that provide chat room environments are very popular with repeat players.
Online bingo is usually very inexpensive to play. Most sites have a low minimum deposit, and games can start as low a 25 cents a card. There are also sites with larger fees involved. Most online Bingo sites have multiple games going at once, and new games starting every few minutes. Some sites even have jackpots based on the number of players and cards per game being played.