Mac Casinos

For many years Mac was mostly ignored by software developers, not just in the online casino industry, also in the general commercial app industry. The reason for this was that the market share of Mac owners was just too small to justify investing all the time and effort and money into developing and programming a Mac-friendly software. That’s how Windows basically held a monopoly over the online gambling market with close to 95% of all gambling sites and software being Windows-friendly.

Mac-friendly casinos

Mac users exploded about 15-10 years ago, with the iPod/iPad/Mac market revolution led by Steve Jobs. Suddenly everybody wanted to own a Mac and the market share grew exponentially. Online casinos realized they had a new segment to cater to and started developing Mac-friendly versions of their casinos. These Mac casinos offer the same quality of graphics, video and audio and also offer the same promotions, bonuses, cashier methods, etc. as Windows compatible online casinos.

Are Mac casinos safe?

Most applications on Mac computers come already pre-installed which in a way makes the operating system safer than other operating systems. The fact that most applications are already installed from factory means that there is less risk of downloading and installing compromised software which could come riddled with malware or viruses. This made Mac popular as a safe operating system but it made it unpopular with online casino developers.

In order to circumvent this, most online casinos have decided to offer their Mac-friendly versions of the casino software as non-downloadable or rather browser-only casino client. Until a few years ago, finding online casinos which offered Mac-friendly versions of their clients was not an easy task. But the market share of computer owners using Mac operating systems has grown impressively in the last decade so online casinos have had to adapt and evolve.

Setup and installation

In order to play casino games on Mac computers, players will need to either find an online casino which offers a download version of its casino client or (and this is the easiest way to go about it) find an online casino which offers a no-download, browser-based Mac-friendly version of their games. This last option is easiest since all you have to do is launch the Safari browser and visit the online casino page, register an account, fund it and start playing.

If on the other hand you want to download and install the software then you have 3 option to do so:

• Parallels Desktop: with this application you can run both Mac and Windows at the same time. The advantage is that you don’t need to reboot or log off when switching from on system to the other.
• VM Fusion: This option is very similar to the Parallels Desktop software. It is in fact almost identical except that it limits access to USB and might be more accessible.
• Boot Camp: This Mac-native application allows you to run another operating system within Mac. It’s a virtual second computer which can be run as a normal Windows system and upon exiting you are back in Mac.

There are also open source versions of the above programs like VirtualBox and one special application allows you to install Windows program without a virtual Windows environment.

Games on Mac casinos

Online casino game developers are investing much time, effort and money in making sure the game-play experience for Mac users is just as good as it is for Windows users. That said, not only the gaming-experience is the same, the games are also the same. All games which are available in land-based casinos are also available in online casinos and are thus also available for Mac-friendly casinos. That includes roulette, baccarat, blackjack, craps, slots, video slots and any other table, card or dice game you can imagine. These games and their respective variations run smoothly with great graphics, smooth video and crisp audio with all the features available and in both real money and play money version.