There was a time when if you wanted to play casino games, you had to travel. Whether it was a vacation to Las Vegas, a weekend jaunt to Atlantic City, or a visit to an Indian Casino, you were going to make a special trip if you wanted to play Blackjack, Craps, or Roulette. Those days are long gone. Thanks to the Internet and the proliferation of online casinos, you can play any of these games and many others right from the confines of your own home. But how do you get started?

Downloading an online casino is incredibly simple. First, you have to find one. In addition to the numerous sites you may find advertised online or in gaming magazines, you can simply type casino into your web search engine and instantly be presented with myriad online gaming portals to choose from. Click on one that looks interesting and you will be transported to a site that will have a button saying Download Casino or Free Casino Download or something of that nature. Just click on the button. You should then see a button asking if you want to run the installation. Go ahead and click on that too. After a few moments, the installation screen will appear. You may be prompted to click next to move through the process, or a button indicating you agree with the conditions for playing on the site.

Because online casinos recognize you have limited space on your computer, some sites offer you the option to download only certain sections of the casino. Most of todays computers have enough memory to handle the whole site with little difficulty, but if you are only going to be playing, say, Blackjack, you may not want to waste space downloading Roulette software. If the casino you are using offers this option, simply click download (the game of your choice) rather than download entire casino and your software will be limited to the game or games you like to play. You can always go back and download more if you change your mind.

Once the download is complete, you will have an icon on your desktop relating to the site. Click on this icon. You will be taken to a screen where you will be asked to provide some personal information, such as name, e-mail address and the nickname by which you wish to be known on the site. Fill in all of this information.

At this point you will have to choose how you will transfer money to and from your casino account. There are a number of options for this, including credit cards, direct transfer from your bank account and use of an intermediary site. Once youve decided and loaded up your account using the method of your choice, youre ready to go! Simply click on the icon corresponding to your chosen game and you will be taken to a screen that will direct you on how to start playing. Good luck and have fun!