Reputable online gambling sites will post their payout percentages on their Web pages, as well as their procedures for paying out winnings. Look for payout percentages in the very high 90s — 97 percent or higher. Like their brick-and-mortar counterparts, legitimate online casinos make their money by building a reasonable house edge into all their games and by taking advantage of players' mistakes in strategy. If you avoid online gambling sites with payouts of 95 percent or lower and exercise the same care in playing that you would use in a real-life casino, you should experience more or less the same win rate no matter where you play.

It also is important to understand how you will receive your winnings. In most cases, an online casino will return your original deposit the same way you made it. That is, if you use a Visa to deposit $100 in your online gambling account, you'll get that $100 back as a credit on your Visa account. Winnings, though, are usually handled differently. Instead of crediting your winnings to your credit card, most online casinos will cut a check and mail it to you; it may take about two weeks to receive it, depending on where the casino is based and which bank it uses. Some online casinos also offer a wire transfer option for receiving winnings. You get your winnings faster, but usually you have to pay a fee for this service.