First off, online sportsbooks have always been primarily just that: sportsbooks. They provide a convenient way to bet on everything from sports to American Idol finalists while eliminating the shady old days of going through a sketchy friend-of-a-friend bookie. The best ones provide tons of options and extra juice. Still, many of the leaders weren't content with their niche earnings and sought to become a one-stop gaming hub by incorporating racebooks, poker rooms and, yes, even casinos.

In the ealy years (and through 2004 really), sportbook casino payouts frequently rivalved their casino-only competition and players were winning often and winning big (as a notable aside, online sportsbook jackpots still tend to be much larger than land-bases casinos). Of course, with the money conveniently deposited in the sportsbook account, thee winners just as frequently blew it all on scores of huge parlays and daily odds. This very fact may have helped open the door for other casinos because casino gamers increasingly moved away from the one-stop account towards dedicated accounts/memberships in sportsbooks, casinos. and poker rooms. Such diversification helped some manage their gaming funds better. Another reason for the trend away from sportsbook casino gambling seems to be the proliferation and marketing of casino software and casino-only gaming sites.

According to Net Casino Search reader polls and public research though, the main reason for decreased enthusiasm in sportsbook casinos is the decline of consistency in winnings. It seems that many sportsbook casinos have been migrating to new formats which, from popular opinion and our own tests, seem to deal out more consistent losses. While sportsbooks do continue to offer much higher payouts than both non-sportbook casinos and land-based casinos, it's also much less likely you'll win anything save a jackpot. The trend in sportsbook casinos is towards an all-or-nothing scenario, which can be great for a microscopic few (one Net Casino Search reader hit for $340,000 in January of 2004 on Sportbook.com), but usually a waste of money for the masses. Consider the Playtech software casinos Sun Palace Casino and Wild Jack Casino, both of which offer relatively tiny jackpots on Caribbean Poker but also give players a much beter chance of winning anywhere from several hundred to several thousand U.S. dollars on the strength of a single hot streak.

Sportsbook.com is one such site that has been receiving complaints here at Net Casino Search for dealing nothing but losses until it doles out the huge, quickly-generated jackpots to one lucky winner. It's sort of like plaing powerball. Furthermore, this change seemed to coincide with the site's move to a new graphical user interface that has us scratching our heads as to whether or not the software has undergone some tweaks as well.

Sportsbooks in general tend to offer paltry bonuse compared to dedicated online casinos too, but we don't really mind this. The problem with the casino-only bonuses (which offer large first-deposit and subsequent bonuses) is that you typically have to wager up to 12 times the amount of your deposit and bonus combined. That is, if you deposit $100 on a first deposit and you are awarded a matching bonus of $100, you have to wager 12 times $200, or $1,200 to withdraw that bonus. Sure, it's free money if you can get it, but the odds of doing so are so low that we don't ever get excited about bonuses above a 9 percent bonus wager amount.

The bottom line is this: when it comes to traditional table game gambling, you typically need to visit a sportsbook to have a chance at US $200K+ jackpots, but your chances of winning anything tend to reside in dedicated online casinos. We recommend opening an account at a sportsbook for sports betting and an account at a dedicated online casino for all your traditional table games. Sure, you can still grab an e-seat down at an online sportsbook Caribbean Stud table for a chance to win that really big jackpot...but don't bet on it!