We used to receive a lot of emails about winning lottery letters and lottery tickets received in the mail. Many people were suspicious of the letter and how they mentioned online gambling draws and similar promotions.

They were rightly suspicious too. In my experience 100% of these letters are scams – if you win a lottery I’m sure you’ll already know about it right? If you contact the sender of one of these letters they will ask you for a deposit to secure your winnings, and then you’ll never hear from them again.

Here’s an example email we received recently.

I recieved a letter in the mail stating that I had won $250,780.00 US dolor out of 17 other winners. ($4,263,260 Total USD)

I know that there have been check frauds and counterfeit checks going around so I want to make sure this is legit. I have been on this site before a while back but I honestly dont remember what I did. I do like betting on football and such. And every now and then Ill pick numbers. And if this is a scam then I will do everything I can do stop this because playing with people, family’s emotions is a great way to have bad karma come back to you. Never the less, have a good day and thank you for reading this email.

If you receive a letter like this, my advice is to send it on to your local law enforcement agency and let them know that the scammers are active in your area so others can be warned. Under no circumstances should you ever contact these people. Through our research, a lot of the activity seems to be coming from criminal gangs in Ontario, Canada – which is for some reason one of the biggest online fraud problem areas in the world.

Be careful out there folks, stick to the sites mentioned here at OG and you’ll always have a fun & safe experience online.

I’m going to start replying to some of the questions I get via email here on the blog so everyone can see my answers.

First up Rob from the USA asked.

“I am wondering about 5 dimes casino, is it legit, do they payout, are they reputable to play on?”

Well Rob, that’s a well timed question, because we are just about to add 5 Dimes here at OnlineGambling.com as a recommended online sportsbook.

So your answer is yes, I trust  5 Dimes, and they will be featured here at OG soon as a good place to play. But if you’re signing up to play casino games, I’d take a look at this list of online casinos first. If you specifically want to play casino games at a site that also has a good sportsbook, I’d probably choose Bodog as their casino is excellent and they often run bonus promos related to sports events that are actually worth playing. It’s where I usually play if I feel like playing casino games. Hope that helps.

Question #2 came from Pennie

“I haven’t gambled online in years and now I want to deposit into casinos and play Roulette. But the Casinos I’ve checked out want to tie up my money so I can’t even cash out my own deposit or winnings! I’ve spent the whole day searching for a Casino that will allow me to cash out when I want to and I can’t find one. Can any one here help me?  Can you name a couple good Casinos for me?”

This is a common question. If you’re like me, you probably don’t care too much about bonuses and the terms and conditions that sometimes come with accepting them. At some sites they give you a bonus to lock your money up until you clear a certain amount of playthrough or earn rewards points. Never fear though as this is easily fixed. All you have to do is email the support department and request to become a non-bonus player. Then you will be able to deposit and withdraw at will without worrying about earning points or playthrough. It also helps to use an e-wallet to deposit, as it usually makes withdrawals much easier.

Once again Bodog is a good choice as they run their bonuses differently to most casinos and have a great support department.  You shouldn’t have problem with clearing bonuses there.

Hope that helps Pennie!

I’d just like to add a footnote to that last answer. We can’t look at the casinos as bad guys for adding these terms to their bonuses – they are giving away free money after all, so have the right to determine how it is given away. All the rules that are in place with bonuses these days never used to exist back in the early days of online casinos. Bonuses used to be just like the free drinks at the tables in Vegas – given to anyone playing ! But over time players got greedy and started abusing the bonuses and casinos had to become a lot more savvy about how & when they give their money away. If you look really closely at T&Cs you might sometimes see that residents of certain countries are excluded from bonus offers (like Denmark).  This is because they became so good at manipulating the terms and conditions to obtain bonus money with little risk that the casinos gave up and stopped offering them free money!

Send me some more questions to ed @ onlinegambling.com. I like answering them – it makes me feel useful… lol

You can also friend me on Facebook now if you like. I finally gave in and set up a profile. But I need some friends!

I’m a little obsessed with 3D at the moment. No, not because of Avatar, which I couldn’t convince my girlfriend to walk out of. It’s actually thanks to things like watching Toy Story 1 and 2 in 3D, 3D football games in cinemas and the number of 3D concert documentaries that have come out in recent years. Well, with the UFC reporting that UFC 111 will be shown in selected cinemas (not 3D, but come on, it’s only a matter of time), I now want 3D in everything I watch and do.

This includes online casinos and poker rooms.

Now, it won’t happen anytime soon, I’m sure, but 3D online casinos could be a big step up in improving the experience for players at home. Right now, live dealers like those at Golden Palace are the closest you can get to a live casino atmosphere in your home. The addition of 3D would bring players even further into the action. Hell, add in some binaural recordings of casino sounds and players would hardly know they were still at home.

I will be pretty happy when UFC events are broadcast in 3D at a cinema near me, but I will be ecstatic when I can play in 3D at Go Casino or Full Tilt Poker while listening to 3D casino noises all around me. Bring on the future!