The Start Of Something Big?

Following the introduction of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Act in the USA in late 2006, few would be forgiven for thinking that online casinos would become illegal in the USA. And expecting to find any Las Vegas casino online immediately following the Act and the subsequent fallout would have been reserved for the eternal optimists. But the UIGEA stopped short of making online casino gambling illegal and merely focused on imposing restrictions on banks and credit providers to police online gambling. Consequently, the decision as to whether US residents can gamble online was left to individual State regulators.

In 2010, news filtered through that Harrahs had employed ex-Partygaming CEO Mitch Garber to head up their online operations division. Tasked with handling the Harrahs brand and their much coveted WSOP (World Series of Poker) product, Harrahs subsequently announced that they were teaming up with the long time estalished online gambling operator, 888, to deliver their products to an online world.

However, there are caveats. Most notably, Harrahs are starting out by purely targetting the UK market. With the gambling laws in the US sufficiently grey and keen to ensure they protect their lucrative land gaming licences, Harrahs have no intention of touching this market. 888 have long been out of the US and there is a clear fit between 888's target markets and Harrahs ambitions.

The Harrahs online casino wiill be the first Las Vegas casino online, but is very unlikely to be the last although after somewhat abortive attempts to penetrate the online market in the early 21st century, other Las Vegas casinos will no doubt be looking on with interest.

As far as the games go, 888's software is a pretty decent offering and will have most of the table games that regular land-based casino visitors will expect to find. As far as slot games go, then 888 do not currently have licences from the manufacturers of the "kiosk" style games you will find on Harrah's gaming floors, although a recent tie in with IGT means they do now have one familar face: Cleopatra is arguably one of IGT's most popular slot games and while it can't be found in the Harrahs online casino, it can be found in the Flash-based "Games" suite on their website and of course, you can play it free here at Online Casinos Vegas with a stack of other IGT games that you'd normlly find in Las Vegas casinos.

Because of restrictions in the USA, the current choice of online casinos and slot games that can be played online is limiting. I would suggest that you check out three of the free spins slots I have here which can be played online for real money: the Cleopatra's Gold slot which is a clone of IGT's Cleopatra slot - a favourite in Vegas casinos - the Aztecs Treasure slot with it's free spins bonus and stacked wilds and finally, one of my personal favourites, the Ronin slot which has no less than 3 seperate free spin bonus rounds.