Gaming the Odds is an honest website. With that said, we take no responsibility for the accuracy of the information on this site even though we do our best to provide you with correct information. Please check your local laws before gambling online. We’ve written all the information on this site for entertainment purposes only.
Hi there–I’m James, the owner of Gamingtheodds.com. Once a decent poker player, I now spend most of my time operating websites in the online gambling niche with the goal of guiding bettors to trustworthy sites and exposing rogue sites. With the help of a team of writers such as Shane Rivers and Randy Ray, I’ve already published hundreds of articles at Gaming the Odds.
The writers at Gaming The Odds take online gambling safety seriously. In fact, more than one of us have been a victim of online gambling fraud ourselves. One of our writers suffered a loss of several thousands of dollars due to T6 Poker closing down without giving customers a chance to cashout. When some of these rogue operations close down, there’s often nothing you can do about the situation, so it’s essential to choose the right site from the start. And with hundreds of gambling operations to choose from, the likelihood of picking a rogue one is significant. Hopefully, we can help as many of you as possible to choose a safe site.
Having problems with a site? Any feedback? Just want to say hello? The fastest way to reach me is via e-mail (help@gamingtheodds.com).
Our Mission In a Nutshell
1. Provide Honest Rankings of Secure Gambling Sites
We only recommend sites we consider the safest in the world. That’s the only way we can sleep at night. In general, sites with a respected gaming license, a strong track record throughout multiple years (preferably 5+), fast reported payout times and top-quality customer service are safe bets (no pun intented). There are plenty of other factors to consider but our first priority is to ensure the safety of the site we recommend and then focus on its other aspects.
2. Expose Rogue Gambling Sites
Not only do we refuse to recommend dishonest online gambling operations (like Grand Parker, Winpalace and Virtual Casino), we do our best to expose them. Since new, unsafe operations start almost every day, it’s difficult to keep track of every one of them, but we do our best to keep tabs on the industry. An easy way to avoid rip-off sites is to choose one of the safe ones.
3. Publish Expert-Level Gambling Information
Aside from being a site with in-depth & trusted reviews and pointing out the scum of the industry, we wanted to provide you with easy-to-understand guides to gambling the optimal way, including the online betting guide. Our non-strategy information includes the jurisdictions guide.
Our Team of Writers
Dave Golokhov
Dave Golokhov writes the Gaming The Odds news columns at the moment. Dave writes one column apiece each week on sports betting odds, casino news, and poker news. He’s written for AskMen, Daily Beast, Sports Betting Dime (SDB), and Bookies.com. Dave Golokhov is the founder of WERSTARS.com and a resident of Phoenix, Toronto.
You can follow Dave on Twitter by following the link.
Shane Rivers
stand-up comedy. Life, however, is filled with numerous twists and turns.
This is one such story.
Growing up in the ’80s, he was a devout fan of hair metal, comic books, and all manner of other pop
culture fluff. Shane first attended college in 1990, intent on getting his degree in radio/TV/film. Eight
years and several majors later, he finally accomplished his goal.
Instead of heading for Hollywood, however, he accepted a more realistic position at a local television
station. During this period, he weathered the much-hyped Y2K countdown and helped guide the
newsroom through the events of 9/11. But the high stress and low pay were not to his liking, and so he
eventually resigned in order to seek more desirable career opportunities.
Shane stumbled into the world of gambling quite by accident, being hired by a high school buddy to
write content for his burgeoning online affiliate empire. Prior to this, his only real interaction with
games of chance took place at a French casino during a college vacation to Europe.
Writing about gambling gave him a crash course in the industry. The early days were filled with articles
about rules and strategies for various games, but this led to more diverse topics ranging from daily
fantasy sports to notable card players of the 19th century. [Editor’s Note: Shane has also written excellent biographies and company profiles for Gaming the Odds.]
As his friend’s network of sites diversified, Shane also crafted articles on everything from MMA and
online coupons to dating advice and cinema. In fact, he still owns and operates a movie website, as the
art of film remains one of his greatest passions.
Currently, Shane writes about the subject of gambling for Gaming the Odds, does SEO work for a
superhero website, creates supplemental material for role-playing games, and maintains his
aforementioned movie domain. In his spare time, he enjoys listening to music, exploring the Internet,
playing fantasy football, and watching any film not created by Michael Bay.
Randy Ray
Randy Ray got his degree in English from the University of North Texas in 1993. At the time, he had no
idea that his career path would lead to writing almost incessantly about gambling activities. He just
knew that he enjoyed reading, writing, and discussing what he’d been reading and writing about. The
online poker boom in the early 21st century combined with Randy’s enthusiasm for online poker led to a
satisfying and lucrative career as both an owner of sites and a writer for sites in that niche.
Since 2003, Randy has written and/or edited no less than 5000 pages about various casino gambling
subjects, from how to count cards at the blackjack table to how to decide whether or not that online
casino review you’re reading is the real deal
or just a long-winded advertisement. He also provided search engine marketing for
PokerStars and
ghost-wrote (an admittedly small amount of) content for their site. [Editor’s Note: Randy has his own websites called Randy Ray Online and Chipcage.com.]
Randy has gambled online, but he’s also spent a lot of time in the United States’ premier gambling
destination, Las Vegas. He’s also played in Reno, Nevada. Since he lives near Dallas, Texas, he usually
gambles at Choctaw or Winstar in Oklahomaboth are driving distance from the Metroplex.
Randy has two daughters and a son. Besides being a gambling enthusiast, he also loves movies of all
kinds, novels of all kinds, and roleplaying games. He’s especially interested in classic film, spaghetti
westerns, and film noir. His favorite kinds of fiction include crime writing, heroic fantasy, and military
science fiction. His favorite roleplaying games include Dungeon Crawl Classics, Mutants and
Masterminds, and Runequest.
He used to own the only all-horror bookstore in Texas, but that was not one of his better business ideas.
If they made a movie of Randy Ray’s life, he’d prefer that Christian McKay or Sam Elliott be given the lead role.
Cliff Spiller
Cliff Spiller is the current site editor for Gaming The Odds. He posts Dave’s articles to the news blog, while updating and refreshing GTO’s older pages. Cliff has written for such sites as OnlineUnitedStatesCasinos.com and VegasSlotsOnline.com. He currently edits, updates gaming laws, and posts casino game guides on BestOnlineCasinos.com, as well.
You can follow Cliff on Twitter by following the link.