So you’ve discovered the joys of online betting. You love the fact that you are going to be able to sit at home in your underwear, yet still be able to bet on that basketball game. It’s great that you want to bet online, but do you know who to look to for help? You are going to want to find a sportsbook, (online bookmaker), where you can place your bets. Here are just a few things you need to look out for when you find your online sportsbook:1. Reputation. Obviously, you want to make sure you check out any site thoroughly before signing up with them.2. Financial condition. You want to check out their financial background. You want them to be able to pay you if you win, right?3. Ease of use. You don’t want to have to be a rocket scientist to maneuver through the site.4. Expense. There’s going to be expense involved, at least 99% of the time, but it doesn’t have to be a large one.5. Variety of events. Just as you may not always want to bet on football, or always bet on golf (yes, people do bet on golf), you don’t want an online sportsbook where you can only bet on certain events.6. Variety of location. Same theory as above, you don’t want to only bet on events taking place at one arena or even in one country. With online betting, you have the world at your fingertips. Make sure that you can take advantage of that fact with your sportsbook.7. Rule Knowledge. When you go with an online sportsbook, you still have to obey the betting rules set forth by the arena, track, etc. For instance, you don’t have to be at the horse track to bet, but you still have to abide by the rules of that horse track.8. Availability. You want your sportsbook to be available by email and phone, preferably 24 hours a day.9. Free stuff. Yes, this is important to many. Does your sportsbook match a percentage of your opening account balance, or offer a sign up bonus?10. Comprehensive site. This can cover many things, but basically, you want a sportsbook that does more than take your bet. You want one that offers up to the second information on players, events, odds and even results of all events you may bet on.For top gambling website reviews visit www.sportsbook-watch.com

From about 2001 to 2006 the online gambling industry was booming. Players could easily deposit with Paypal, credit cards, or using the online wallet NETeller. Money was flowing everywhere, and the Internet casinos were making a killing, especially off of players from the United States. However, recent actions by the U.S. government have put a hold on that, and cut off a lot of the players from the United States.In late 2006 Congress passed a bill called the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA for short) that was an attempt to shut down online gambling for players in the United States. Instead of targeting actual players, the government targeted the banks that processed transactions for the gamblers. It became illegal to process payments related to online gambling, so no banks would send money to NETeller. Also, previous to this Paypal had dropped out of the e-gaming market, so players couldn’t use them either.Credit Cards also no longer worked, because the credit card companies are in the United States so they were forced to stop processing payments from US players. This left players with basically no options for depositing money onto a casino website. A few other e-wallets entered the market including Click2Pay and ePassporte, but they never caught on with the fire that NETeller once had.One hang up though is the fact that many online casinos will no longer allow players from the USA, because they want to comply with the USA’s demands. Places like Casino Tropez have dropped out of the US market, so players haven’t been able to return even after they found a deposit option.However, new options have surfaced that now allow USA players to play at the best casinos. Credit card payments have returned at many online casinos and poker rooms, and other methods such as e-check payments have allowed most players to return to their previous sites.The overall effect of this is that about 60% of the USA player market has dropped out, because the casual player doesn’t want to jump through loops just to make a deposit at an online casino. This crippled many online casinos, and evidence of this is the image of PartyGaming’s stock prices on the day that the UIGEA was passed. For those of you who haven’t seen it, basically the stock went from a high soaring price to pennies within hours.