Most online casinos offer players a choice between download casino and instant play casino. Therefore, it is essential to know the differences and relative advantages of each type.
Download Casinos
The download casino requires you to download the entire free software. It consists of all the games on to your hard drive from the web site of the online casino. However, when you want to wager at the online casino, you still have to connect to its server through the Internet. The game applications are run from your computer, but there is a need to record the financial and gaming outcomes on the server of the online casino.
Cherry Jackpot Casino is one of the few remaining casinos offering you a chance to download the lobby to your desktop computer. The process in itself is quite easy. You just need to visit the site, download the setup by clicking a button, and then run the program installation. Once it's finished, you will see it on the desktop. The installation will place an icon on the desktop. And this way, you can find the lobby easier.
Here is how that installation process looks like.
Instant Play
Instant play casinos are also referred to as Flash casinos or no download casinos. Well, they used to, at least. Flash technology is very, very outdated now, and most online casinos run on HTML5. Still, the principle is more or less the same. You do not have to download any software. You can select the game you want to play from the website of the online casino after logging in. The game then opens in the browser of your computer using the software from the server of the online casino. Obviously, you would need to be connected to the server through the Internet.
Instant play casinos have become infinitely more popular than download sites, mostly because they are more convenient and easier to access. However, some players argued about the perks of playing on the go – which is not something you can do with a desktop version of the site. Hence, iGaming companies refocused on mobile apps. And even those fully downloadable casino apps are all the rage, there's nothing better than a simple casino browser visit.
Here's how the Cherry Jackpot casino lobby looks when you visit it via desktops. You can get a similar look and outline both on desktop and mobile browsers.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Download Casinos
When online casinos hit the Internet space in the mid-1990s, they operated exclusively on download casinos. At that time Internet speeds were not large enough to transmit the video movements of gaming features, like the spinning of slots reels. Because of this head start, the number of games in download casinos is much larger as compared to instant play casinos. Many of the earliest games are not available in the instant play format. This wider choice is one of the main advantages of download casinos today.
This large number of games can also become a disadvantage. The size of the download folder can be very large, and will increase further as new games are released every month. If you play at half a dozen different online casinos you may have to devote a significant portion of your hard drive space to the software of download casinos.
The biggest disadvantage of the download casinos is that they are not compatible with operating systems other than Windows. Therefore users of Mac or Linux would have no access to download casinos.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Instant Play Casinos
Because there is no downloading of software involved in instant play casinos, your system will remain uncluttered and your hard drive space will not be used up, no matter at how many different online casinos you wager. This is one of the major advantages of instant play casinos. The first instance a game is downloaded can take some time depending on your Internet speed. However, at the instant play casinos the game opens in the browser instantly every time. This quick start is another advantage of instant play casinos. The instant play casino software is compatible with a wide range of operating systems, including Windows, Mac and Linux. Therefore this system caters to a much larger user base and you will not be left out if you are not using Windows.
If you are using the latest computer you should not encounter any technical problem in using the instant play casino. But if your system is more than about five years old, you may encounter freezing of the screen and jerking in the movements in the latest feature-rich games. In that event, you may be constrained to use the download software.
Conclusion
Many online casinos offer both download and instant play software. This does not mean that you have to make a permanent choice from the two. You can play at whichever casino you want using the same username and password. A useful strategy is to opt for the instant play casino if it offers the desired game, otherwise use the download casino.
