Those of you who have ever been involved in the establishment of a web site with which to promote your business and communicate with your customers will understand the importance of the software that is used to operate the site. Online casinos are no different, in fact many would say that the casino software they use is by far the most important element of their success. The provision of online casino software is a very specialised field, dominated by four major companies plus a few smaller organisations, who between them supply software to most of the major online casino operators. The big four are Wagerworks, Microgaming, Chartwell and Playtech, which is actually owned by William Hill. Amongst the smaller companies are Cayetano owned by Paddy Power and Netent which is the software chosen by the new recently opened All Irish casino. The online casino software is what defines the site layout and graphics, which is also why some of the major sites look very similar, plus the site security and privacy procedures which are essential to any online web site, and particularly an online casino web site. The casino software is also instrumental in the casino games that are available on the site, particularly the slots, and this is perhaps where the most obvious influence of which casino software company has been used are noticeable to us, the customer. Those online casino sites which offer casino slots based on high profile cartoon characters or popular television programmes, will be using a software company who have negotiated copyright agreements with the media companies who own the rights to those characters or programmes. Other casino software companies prefer to be more inventive, but again it is usually in the range of slots that we would probably notice the difference. As we have commented before, these online casino software companies will probably never be household names, but their importance to the online casino market cannot be overstated. Whichever online casino you choose to play your casino games, it is the casino software which will have the greatest influence on your enjoyment of those games.