By Staff

May 3rd, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The Ontario government is making it easier to take transit by giving riders more ways to pay.

Riders on GO Transit, UP Express, Brampton Transit, Burlington Transit, Durham Region Transit, Hamilton Street Railway, MiWay in Mississauga, Oakville Transit and York Region Transit can pay fares by tapping a debit card on a PRESTO device, including debit cards on a smartphone or smartwatch.

“This latest milestone for the PRESTO system gives transit riders yet another convenient payment option when travelling for work, school, leisure, and more,” said Stan Cho, Associate Minister of Transportation.

Riders can also use debit payment on paratransit services in Burlington, Durham Region, Hamilton, York Region, Oakville, and Ottawa. The new debit payment option comes as PRESTO reports a million card taps on its devices since the launch of credit card payment in August 2022.

The Ontario government is also working with the Toronto Transit Commission to introduce both credit and debit payment options for Toronto transit riders this summer.

When transit authorities add Interac Debit, they are offering riders a payment method that almost 30 million Canadians already use for day-to-day transactions. Interac is proud to play a part in supporting the needs of transit riders in Ontario.”

What the announcement doesn’t say is how much the city of Burlington pays to give Presto access to its collection system. It isn’t cheap.

By Pepper Parr

May 2nd, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

City council has a policy of saving as much of the city’s heritage as possible. Some developers work with the city – others fight them every foot of the way.

The Camero development at 795 Brant (at the intersection of Brant and Prospect) is one of the examples where the developer has dug in their heels and seems prepared to spend whatever it takes to get their way – which is to demolish the two storey house on the property and build a 31 story building on the site with 356 residential units.

Constructed in 1854, the house, according to a Staff report has significant heritage value.

On Sept. 21, 2022 the owner filed an application for an Official Plan Amendment and a Zoning By-law; The proposed new building did not incorporate the existing heritage structure. The application was deemed complete on Sept. 23, 2023.
On Dec. 13, 2022, City Council stated its intention to designate the property, and on Jan. 24, 2023 passed heritage designation bylaw No. 03-2023.

City Council did not decide on the Official Plan and Zoning Bylaw Amendment Applications within 120 days after they were deemed complete as required by the Planning Act, and on Jan. 27, 2023 the owner appealed Council’s non-decision to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT).

On Feb. 28, 2023, the property owner appealed the heritage designation to the OLT.

On Mar. 8, 2023, the owner submitted a heritage permit to facilitate the demolition of the heritage designated building.

On Apr. 12, 2023, the Heritage Burlington Advisory Committee (HBAC) reviewed the application and recommended that City Council decline the application.

Provincial Policy Statement, 2020 is very clear: Significant built heritage resources and significant cultural heritage landscapes shall be conserved.

The heritage value of 795 Brant St. has been established in two separate consultant reports. It meets six out of nine criteria for heritage designation under Ontario Regulation 9/06, whereas only two are required. The building is an early example of a brick-built vernacular Georgian house with a symmetrical three-bay façade. It was constructed by James Cushie Bent and Jabez Bent between 1854 and 1855 using brick manufactured on the site

It is historically significant in the following ways, among others:

The property is a physical reminder of the market gardening industry in Burlington; the agricultural output of the 53-acre property was substantial;

The building was prominently featured in the 1973 Centennial documentary “The Eyes of Memory and is one of only three heritage properties (1134 Plains Road East, 2021 Blairholm Avenue, 736 King Road) currently within the City of Burlington that were nineteenth century fruit farms of early settlers that produced goods for the market garden industry. It is the last visibly historic building on this section of Brant St.

Heritage Impact Statement Conservation Options
Consultants hired by the city had proposed to the owner that the new development retain the original 1854 house facing Brant St., provided the brick could be conserved; the developer claims the brick is beyond repair – Staff report that they do not see any evidence to support the claim.

The Ontario Heritage Act requires that the City approve or decline a heritage permit application no more than 90-days after a heritage permit submission is deemed “complete”. If a decision is not made in this time frame, Council is deemed to have “consented” to the application.

Staff sent the applicant a notice of completeness on Mar. 23, 2023 confirming that the application was complete on Mar. 8, 2023, which is considered “Day 1” of the required 90-day period. Day 90 will be June 6, 2023.

Once a decision is made, the owner has the option to appeal the decision to the OLT within 30 days.

Options Considered
Option 1- Decline the Application (Recommended)
Staff are recommending that Council decline the application, consistent with the PPS, 2020 and the Burlington Official Plan, which require that significant built heritage resources be conserved and their heritage attributes protected.

Option 2- Approve the Application (Not recommended)
Approving the demolition of a designated heritage building, which multiple heritage professionals have confirmed is worthy of protection, is not consistent with provincial and municipal policy and is not recommended.

The Heritage Burlington Advisory Committee recommends that City Council refuse the application for a heritage permit to demolish the two-storey Georgian- style brick house at 795 Brant St.

John Reilly, the Staff member with the best understanding of the file and is understood to be one of the team talking to the developer set out for Council where things stood and why he brought forward the recommendation to not approve a recommendation to demolish the heritage designated property

The file has an extensive history.  The city did not act on the OP amendment or the Zoning Bylaw Amendment which were then appealed to the OLT for a non decision.  The applicant then submitted a heritage alteration permit requesting permission to demolish the building which is the application before Council today.

Built between 1854 and 1855. Staff believe the property has historical value as a local landmark and would like to see some part of the structure built into the tower they want to build.
Reilly explained that the team on the project has done their best to convince the developer to work with the city to incorporate changes.

Nothing so far.

Reilly explained: “Situated on the property in a way that makes it relatively easy to conserve, the applicant objects to the designation and is planning to demolish the building because there is some damaged masonry on facades of the building. Staff have considered these objections. the areas of damaged brick are fairly minor. We’re not looking at 100% or anywhere close to that 100% of brick being damaged or stalled or cracked.

“We’re looking at specific areas of each facade that where there are some bricks in need of replacement or repair many of the alterations or you know evidence of age that the applicant is citing are repairable these are the alterations many of them are reversible windows are easily replaced. For example, paint can be removed from brick or a building can be repainted in a more sympathetic colour or historically appropriate colour. Staffs view, is that this building is not beyond repair . The building occupies less than 3% of the site and we haven’t been presented with any new evidence in the form of an engineer report that would tell us that the building is about to fall down or is past the point of saving.”

Staff are recommending that council refuse this heritage permit application to demolish the building.

The development is in ward 2 however the Mayor was the only person who asked questions.

“Your report mentions that refusing the demolition will create another appeal opportunity and can you just specify what that is?

Reilly: “There would be an opportunity for the applicant to appeal to the Ontario land tribunal.

He imagined that all the appeals would be merged into one hearing, assuming the developer actually appealed the decision council was about to make when the report gets to Council later in the month.

“Our goal is for them to incorporate this into a development” which, we have seen take place at other development; the Beausoleil at Pearl and Lakeshore and the Core development on old Lakeshore Road that has included the Carriage House restaurant into their development.

Reilly – there are many conservation options and we’ve signalled flexibility throughout every meeting that we’ve had with the applicant.

The Mayor moves the motion and comments that “your rationale is entirely defensible”, adding “We have seen how well development can be incorporated into heritage redevelopment and the best example currently which is really exciting to see in real time is the Pearl and Lake Shore redevelopment adding that she has “never believed that it’s either preserve heritage or have redevelopment.”

“I believe there’s a win win here. And staff have been very clear about encouraging the applicant to go for the win win. “I continue to encourage them to incorporate this into a redevelopment and redo their plans. So fingers crossed, but I certainly support what we have here.”

With no further comments the vote was called to refuse the heritage permit application for demolition of 795 Brant street

The hands were raised – it passed and that was it for the day.

It was a short agenda that ran for less than an hour.

By Pepper Parr

April 30th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

If the sun comes out and things warn up a bit you might want to spend some time walking along the Naval Promenade and taking in the public art now in place.

It is a combination of Indigenous work and items from the Dan Lawrie collection

There is a story behind the Lawrie Collection – we are working on that.

By Pepper Parr

April 28th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

They can be looked upon as photo ops, elected officials getting their picture taken – helps keep then in the public eye.

From time to time there is a photo op that is also a statement; a drawing to the attention of the public an issue that certainly isn’t pleasant to think about – but is important and needs to be addressed: Violence Against Women.

There isn’t a day that goes by that a woman is abused, struck or diminished and has to seek shelter.

Adan van Koeverden said recently, is as he stood wearing a pair of pink high heal shoes that: “Being an effective male ally in combating Gender Based Violence requires us to acknowledge something and articulate it clearly. The prevailing issue is men’s violence against women. Terms like “gender based” and “domestic” violence may be more acceptable, but the onus is on men.

“Men need to talk to one another, commit to being better ourselves, act like an ambassador for change and actively listen to women, survivors and those working in the sector for practical solutions to ending men’s violence against women and children.”

van Koeverden spoke at a reception organized by the Halton Women’s Place and the Women’s Centre of Milton/Halton for their work in organizing today’s reception, “adding it was a privilege to “walk a mile” in your shoes today – though it was considerably less than a mile this time.

By Pepper Parr

April 27th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

It was the best day we have had, the weather was really nice – even though many people were out wearing winter jackets. Dozens and dozens of women out pushing carriage – some seemed to be travelling in groups of eight and ten carriages – almost in a convoy.

Small groups gathered around the cherry trees that were really a welcome picture.

As one strolled along the Naval promenade there were welcome opportunities to look at some really amazing art. The Dan Lawrie collection is on display – some really exciting art.

The Lawrie collection shares the space with some interesting Indigenous art.

There are a few of the pieces included in this story- we will follow up with more later.

By Pepper Parr.

April 24th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

The staff from the Communications and Engagement department showed up at a Standing Committee recently with a long report that set out everything they’d done since their last report – one list was 15 pages long.

Kwab Ako-Adjei Director, Corporate Communications & Engagement  and his team spoke of the “extraordinary amount of engagement that was done by the city which includes council as well” and then went on to take council through what had been done since their last annual report.

We are a “ very data driven department” and we will start sharing a lot of that with counsel in the near future”, said Kwab

The phrase “giving people a choice for their voice” was the way Communications explained the decision to continue in person or online engagement or a combination of both.

The question Kwab may have wished he didn’t ask was: “What is the will of council for having the Food for Feedback event as an annual event? And what about the locations?

He and his team were before Council to get reaction on various city communications issues, however the Food for Feedback initiative quickly became the focus of the meeting – that and the desire on the part of every member of council for access to all the data collected and a plea that the event be held in their ward at some point.

The Food for Feedback idea was you got a ticket to get something to eat from a Food Truck that was parked nearby – but you had to “engage” with city staff at one of the booth set up in the Band Shell park next to the Library.

It was a popular event – two Food for Feedback events were held – Covid did get in the way of their longer term plans, but it worked and that was the premise behind the report.

Kwab wasn’t prepared for the reaction. He explained that these events were expensive.

Council didn’t seem to care – what they were interested in was doing more of the Food for Feedback events and asking if they could be held more often and in their ward would be nice.

Councillor Sharman explained that it would cost next to nothing to do a Food for Feedback event in his ward and tied it into events that were already scheduled – his annual Appleby Line Street Festival was his angle.

The first event was held in 2019, 1000 people were reported to have attended. COVID knocked out 2020 and 2021. An event was held in 2022 at Brant Hills where 640 people are reported to have attended.

The criteria for these events was put together by the communications department – their recommendation was to hold the event at Central Park band shell because it met all of the criteria.

That criteria became an issue – first because Councillors didn’t think it was accurate and second – they didn’t like the criteria.

Kwab said “… we know you have questions – we have a lot of documentation about how we came up with this criteria, adding that not all wards actually have a suitable location based on this criteria.”

That’s where the differences of opinion began to become evident – almost every member of Council was able to explain how the event could be run in their ward.

First up was Councillor Nisan who said “great work, expecting less and you more than exceeded expectations adding that he was “ basically really happy with everything else but was having a sports field as a criteria is a good thing or a bad thing ?”

Kwab: “We often cannot use a sports field – some other group may have booked the space but not the rest of a park area.
The staff member who had worked in the Events depart with the city for 10 years, explained “we are not permitted to have events on sports fields. We can be in a park but not use the sports fields that are adjacent to and within a park.”

Nisan, no fool when it comes to bringing opportunities to his ward, offered to have the Food For Feedback event at Brant Hills every second year asking “Is there a willingness to rotate – have it at Brant Hills … do you have any issues with doing so?

Kwab responds: “Our first choice would be Central Band Shell however, we are obviously open to the will of council to have north- south alternate every year and our suggestion would be Brant Hills would be the North location because it does meet all of the criteria.

Mayor Meed Ward followed Nisan saying she had few questions – mostly comments and asked if “You have social stats for other channels; there’s the City of Burlington and then there’s the rec one. Are there other city channels out there that we can get data on ? The only other data source I can think of off the top of my head is transit; I am very interested, if you gather those stats, to see any other city channels that are out there.

Kwab: “Recreation has a number of accounts as well as Instagram accounts – we do work with them with to make sure that they are properly engaging with the community. We could share the stats and data on that.”

Mayor: “That’d be awesome. And I assume that there’s some sort of technology tool that you possibly pay for to get all these stats. Can you run it for council channels, so we can see what our own engagement levels are? Other than just you know, looking at them?

Kwab: I’d have to go back and chat with Kevin (City Clerk) about that. There would be an additional cost, because it’s Sprout Social that we use and they are limited in the accounts. But we can see if there is a way to do it. I mean, it does do comparisons to neighbouring municipalities and as you can see, generally speaking in terms of engagement or impressions, we are well above the industry so it does do those sorts of comparisons but to pull specific Councillor data; I’d have to check on that and get back to you on what the potential cost of would be.

Mayor Meed Ward: “We can talk about that offline. I’d be really interested to look into Sprout.

Councillor Stolte noted that the event held in September 2022 had a total of 640 people attending and was told that approximately 1000 people attended at Central Park in 2019?

“When I attended the one at Brand Hills I asked if they were feeling there was representation from across the city and asked: “ Did you take any stats on where people were hailing from when they came out? I certainly got the impression that most of the attendees of 640 were from the north ward 3 area.

Kwab: “Some might have asked but as a whole we didn’t ask – but that’s something we can definitely implement for the future.”

Councillor Kearns: “Can we think about or bring back something to have a more thorough discussion on regarding Food for Feedback during the election year? There was quite a lot of conversation out there around the appropriateness of sitting councillors and or candidates attending – wondering if we can have a further discussion on that at some point.

Kearns also wanted to know more about the social media – “wondering if you can provide some additional insight on how does the information garnered through social media get back to council or help with decision making?”

Kwab – Do you mean the kind of feedback that we get?

Stolte piped in with: “ I don’t think I’ve ever received something from social media through the city to help with decision making, whether that be in a report or anything to that effect goes out, or how it comes back in?

Michelle Dyer, part of the Communications department team: “ We know we do want to make sure we’re sharing more information with counsel in terms of our social media, posts and content. So stay tuned – we’re developing a toolkit that will point to some of the information that we share on social media that will be coming to council very soon.

“In terms of feedback. I mean, we get a lot of comments on social media, a tonnes of comments. I mean, if we compile it all there would be reams and reams of pages. Kevin (City Clerk) and Victoria do a great job of going through those comments. And if they do pertain to a particular department or anything like that we do share it with them. If there’s anything specific to council I think you need to see I’m fairly certain that’s something that we would share directly with members of council but there are many instances that we share the feedback that we get from social directly with staff, which couldn’t make its way into reports or memos or any of that information. They’re also very looped into our social media channels and what we’re doing but if there’s anything specific, I think that counsel needs to be aware of we would definitely share with you directly.

Ward 6 Councillor Angelo Bentivegna wanted more detail on the criteria that was used to choose locations for the Food for Feedback events. He pointed out that the ward 6 Arlene Park and Millcroft Park;, two fairly large parks in his ward “but the criteria says no in terms of parking and I don’t understand that.”

Kwab: ” In regards to the two parks in your ward, the reason it was no is because based on the other amenities that are in the park and the attendance that we expect for the event we don’t believe there would be enough parking for the event to occur as well as the regular Park activities. So that’s why we put no just to kind of prevent any potential parking issues.”

Bentivegna:. “We’ve got parking lots including two massive parking lots next door to each other. My other question would be choosing the location and the question about which wards they come from. I agree with Councillor Stolte I think people sometimes assume okay, it’s in central that means it’s downtown stuff. I know food trucks costs money but you know, maybe we don’t do the food trucks. I think the neighborhoods would walk. I mean, if you’re having it in Alton Village, they’re going to walk to play in the Doug Wright park. I do believe the criteria as to where and why people go to these events is very, very important.

Kwab: “I think if we just step back for a second, we had a clear interest from counsel to make sure that we would move this around. So that’s where we started from knowing that this is what counsel wants. Let’s look at the location. If counsel says they want to have this ongoing feedback every year; my opinion is that they would be in September and as we stand right now, it will be with food trucks, because I know they’re very popular. So we said okay, let’s go and let’s look at where we can actually have this. And when we take all these things into consideration – we could live with moving around; sure we can, but I think we have to consider that there may not be enough parking. If it rains, we may have to move it indoors. We can’t get on the sports field, these are all the things that we need to consider.

This is our recommendation, council wants to move it around. That’s why we presented those options for Council to consider and ultimately direct us to what you what want us to do.

Councillor Sharman : “Thank you very much for the report. Lots of complexity. So with respect to the Orchard, it is probably the urban area furthest away from downtown and Orchard people don’t come downtown very much. Orchard Park has a school right in the middle that has washrooms and has parking. We did a 2000 person event in Orchard Park last summer and there was no problem. My question is it possible that the school board properties can be used?

“This is a Sunday event? no kids in the schools; there’s plenty of space and there’s even public washrooms paid for by the city.”

Kwab – “We can certainly work with them, Again, we do have those risk factors to take into consideration .”

Sharman: “The other question I have is Sherwood Forest Park. It has everything Why is it not on our list?”

Kwab: “We tried to kind of pick two locations per ward that have had events in the past. Sherwood is such a well utilized space. We wouldn’t want to take that out of the inventory for the community if there was already bookings there in regards to the different amenities they have.

Galbraith: I’m just gonna jump in here first time. Thanks for the report. Really, really good and congratulations for creating such a great event that every counselor wants it in their ward including myself.

Looking at the two parks available for Ward 1 – Can you explain the no because of parking at LaSalle?

Kwab: “I think we’re hearing what counsel wants. So we can take this away and come back with our recommendations and we’ll move this around, or we can certainly wait for direction at this at this point in time. I mean based on based on the discussion that we’re hearing, – I will certainly leave it to counsel but I think we’re getting the message – loud and clear.

Galbraith: I think if it was moved around the city and then came back to Central it would be even better because everyone got exposure to it.
Stolte: “Back to Food for Feedback – there’s no doubt that having it in a park with green grass is ideal. But the real ideal is getting as many people out as possible and having it at the right location.

“Could we consider other city facilities and I’m thinking in Ward 4 maybe the Mainway arena?”  “Can we consider venues other than just parks? If we’re going to look at moving it around?”

Kwab: We didn’t plan it that way initially and we have the indoor space more as a rain area in case there’s inclement weather; if there was too much separation between the booths and the food trucks people may eat but not take part in the purpose of the event – let’s be honest, they’re giving out food, some wouldn’t be doing the feedback.

Stolte: Food trucks could go inside the arena. Would it be the least bit feasible to consider hosting two food for feedback events, whether it be two on the same day, or subsequent Saturday’s holding one in the south and one of the North?

Kwab: The short answer: anything is possible. The logistics and the costs would have to be taken into consideration and how you would determine which staff you send North versus the South, which engagement opportunity that you that you had so simultaneous – that would maybe be a challenge.

“Let me reiterate we’ve only done this twice. So we are definitely open to feedback and in terms of how we improve this.

Nisan: “I am open if there’s more questions about Food for Feedback but let me just put it on the table at this point. And then they can have questions and answers. That’s what I would suggest. The motion was to approved the continuation of Food for Ffeedback as an annual engagement event to be rotated between different suitable locations across the city each year.

“I think that gets us landing what we want of this This leads us to essentially a report back

“I would assume staff would come back to us through a CIP which would allow us to, to review and make modifications if we wish, but give them the opportunity to do some more work on it and look at some of the different options that we’ve all raised today.

Certainly would love to have Brant Hills park back again.”

Stolte: Thank you just speaking to this proposed amendment, which I certainly agree with about it being rotated between different suitable locations. Staff. Do you feel the need for us to add in things like and consider two events or a weekend event or anything like that? Or do you feel as though you have enough feedback from the conversation?

Kwab: “We would have to have more resources to look at multiple events.

“The recommendation is to have it in at Central Park for 2023 .”

Sharman: “I really appreciate the hard work that goes into the annual event. That is a big deal. But actually, you don’t need to put a lot of work into doing it in existing events. And it doesn’t need to cost us a lot of money. We don’t need to pay bags of cash for food, because we’ll have people that we can do other incentives.

“I’m also suggesting that we don’t necessarily limit this to an annual event and you don’t need to make it a big deal. Perhaps you could just put that into your thinking, because you can have as many as you want. It may be a booth and it may be some incentive but I think there’s opportunities to do a lot more.

“Last year, we had 14 or 16 booths and I think it was similar in 2019. So I mean, we would have no issue. Our staff if it was just you know, having a booth on engagement and communication, but I think maybe where it might get tricky is is having the number of events if in fact we wanted to have that many booths to garner feedback, that would possibly be the only issue.

“The other thing too is the timing of projects that require feedback, right? It changes throughout the year. So those would be the only some of the cautions that I would add please, for that, you’re gonna have the north end of our Appleby Line Festival – and you can have as many booths as you want.

Now we wait to see how the Communications department reacts. It is clear council wants the Food for Feedback events to happen.

Equally clear is that Communications didn’t appear to have brought much in the way of imagination or innovation to revising the event.  All the good ideas came from members of Council with Kwab saying he would “look into that,”

What was all too evident was that the engagement people don’t do engagement very well.  But they do collect data – ‘tonnes of it”.

 

 

By Aleksandar Angelov

April 25th, 2023

BURLINGTON, ON

 

We as human beings always have the endless desire to satisfy our curiosity for the enjoyable things in life. We want to enrich our lives with colourful moments, memories, and new experiences as often as possible. This counts for all aspects of our life including our hobbies.

What has always been in fashion since the very beginning of civilization is the passion for gambling. Now, that our reality has changed due to the pandemic, we can all observe a massive transformation of the whole industry into a virtual one. Now that we can gamble from the comfort of our place, it is easy to explore online casino games.

Why online casinos?
Online casinos have many benefits that we cannot just ignore. We can all agree that in the 21st century, they are not only similar options to the physical ones, but they even exceed them with all their advantages and with no disadvantages on the table.

1. Comfort
We all love the physical betting institutions with those dim lights, the soft carpets, the sound of every single machine, and the beautiful women walking around and taking care that you feel at home. However, Gambling on the web has another level of comfort to offer! You can enjoy the games and win jackpots right from your couch, wearing comfortable clothes and eating chips while spending time with your pet. Nothing can beat this!

2. Convenience
Gambling has never been this easy. Online betting websites can give you the option to bet from everywhere around the globe. You can live in Ontario and still bet. You just need an electronic device and an internet connection. Gambling required no download if you decide to do it through a browser.

However, gambling applications are available to you to set up on your desktop or your phone. You can be stuck in a traffic jam in Toronto, Canada, and even though you cannot use Canadian betting services, you can still play and win jackpots, a reward, or a bonus through your phone by using the services of a foreign website.

3. Accessibility
If you have ever been to a physical betting institution, you have probably noticed that when it comes to the bigger games, not just slots and spins, nothing comes for free. You have to invest a significant amount of money so you can join the game. This is the complete opposite of what happens when gambling online. Website services with more serious games are unique as they do not require such a massive initial deposit. This makes these games much more accessible to the general player group.

4. Bonuses
Many people believe that in casinos you play and either lose or win. However, this is not the case with online casinos. You can lose in a few games, but the website can give you another chance to try your luck by giving you a bonus. It can be a small one such as a few more free spins, or it can be a great welcome pack that doubles your initial deposit. With the VIP programs that most casinos offer, you can enjoy bigger rewards with every step of your gambling experience on the web.

5. Crypto
You can use crypto as a token instead of money and this is clearly out of question in physical gaming institutions. Now almost all cryptocurrencies are accepted. The biggest favourites such as Bitcoin and Ethereum are always accepted but even simpler ones like Stellar would do you just as well!

What are the best games to play in an online casino?

1. Slots
Slots are one of the most popular options for both beginners and passionate gamblers. It goes this way as it insists on no preparation and you do not have to put a lot of effort and thought into the game. You just press the button and watch the images roll around.

2. Blackjack
This one is one of the most preferred games in online casinos as well. It is usually a live tournament game. This means that it happens in real time and you have a live dealer at your disposition. The game can be very strategic if you decide to explore statistics and numbers. However, this is not a requirement to hit a good win.

The nice about this game is that you, as a beginner, do not have to fight with those crazy passionate gamblers who are ready to eat you alive. You are plating with the dealer. The dealer picks a number, and you have to pick another number that you should always pick smaller than 21 and hope to win!

3. Roulette
Roulette is very popular for two reasons. First, it is easy and you need no preparation or strategy. Second, it is very popular for its winning rates. You can pick a number and bet on it, but the even easier way to play is to pick between two colours – red or black. If the ball falls on your number or your colour, you win. What makes the winning rates go up high is playing by colour. When you do this, mathematically you have the biggest chance to win – 50%.

4. Baccarat
Baccarat is one of the games that beginners love when they are just stepping into more serious games. To play this game you have to know the ruler very well and have a strategy. Most websites offer a demo version of the game so that you can try your luck and strategy there at first.

Before you choose a game to focus your efforts and money on, we suggest that you try different ones from the great variety in online casinos. You may be surprised by the good experience of trying new things and you will surely find a new passion of yours.