For years gamblers have tried over the years to outwit casinos by using many cunning and ingenious gambling systems. The online casinos on their part tempt you to play with colourful layouts, catchy tunes and mouth watering bonuses.

Although playing online can be tremendous fun, think about this. If you add together all of the numbers on a Roulette wheel (1 to 36) you get 666, the mythical number often associated with the Devil!

* The first opened in 1996 but since then many of them have come and gone faster than the click of a mouse. However they remain very popular and when 'online casinos' was typed into Google it came up with over 34 million pages at the time of writing. No doubt by the time you read this, the number will have grown even more!

* Online casinos have many advantages over land based casinos. You do not have to travel to them with all the expense that may involve. You don't have to dress up and can even play in you pyjamas. You can play whenever you want and anyone can learn how to play before risking any money.

* During the first year of online gambling around 17 million dollars was wagered but by 2000 this had risen to over 3 billion dollars. Research shows that nowadays more than one trillion dollars are spent at online casinos with 6 billion of this coming from U.S. gamblers alone.

* Although every looks different they mostly buy their software from only a handful of software companies. The best known ones are Microgaming, Cryptlogic, Starnet, iCrystal and Boss. Most of these companies have their games tested for randomness by Price Waterhouse Coopers, a respected, independent auditor.

* At the time of writing it was estimated that there were around 1700 online casinos. Although running an is less expensive than a land based one it does not mean they are easier to run. The sheer number makes competition between them fierce. This means better service for the player and so they strive to provide a variety of games and conditions. If a

player doesn't like the experience of one casino there is always another no further away than the click of a mouse.

* Casinos offer the usual games found at land based casinos. These include among others:

Baccarat
Blackjack
Craps
Roulette
Slot Machines
Video Poker

Because of the intense competition between online casinos they are always trying to come up with new games, especially new slot machine games.

* Perhaps because of this intense competition many online casinos offer bonuses to new players making their first deposit. These bonuses normally match a percentage of the player's deposit but almost all sign up bonuses require a minimum amount of wagering before the bonus can be cashed out.

* Of course the casino makes its money because it has a built in advantage or edge for each game. For example the casino has around a 0.63% edge for blackjack. For single zero Roulette it is 2.7%. For Craps even the most advantageous bet offers the casino a 1.4% edge. Baccarat gives at least a 1.17% edge while Keno offers the casino a massive 25 to 29% advantage!

* Fraudulent behaviour on the part of online casinos has been well documented. This normally takes the form of delaying withdrawals in the hope that players will continue to gamble until the casinos have won the money back. Although less common some casino software has also been known to cheat by producing non random events. This is less likely to happen with the major software brands mentioned earlier. Many casino portals maintain a blacklist of these rogue casinos. Fraudulent behaviour by players is probably more likely. The most common fraud is to attempt to use different identities to sign up for multiple bonuses.

* A recent survey conducted by Virgin Money reveals that British people wager around 5 billion pounds a year on online gambling and that 93% of the people who were asked and had access to the internet said that they had gambled at an online casino. The survey also revealed that although the normal British gambler wagers 10 to 20 pounds while gambling online, the 'high rollers' reside in London with one in ten gamblers wagering between 300 and 500 pounds.

So, now you have the facts and figures. Now you decide. In the words of Shakespeare 'To play or not to play, that is the question?'