Online Casino Safety: Part 4 (Licensing )

safe online casinos

Since the inception of the concept of online gambling, roughly back in the early 1990’s, the online gambling industry has been responsible for hours and hours of hitherto unprecedented entertainment for all (those aged 18+ anyway). The main reason for such high-octane fun is principally due to the advances made in technology in recent years. The bad news however, has been that with every new advance, potential and unseen alleys of exploitation have opened up, and the unsuspecting, ill-informed individual/casino can find themselves getting jumped.

Online casinos abound on the internet today, and with many new ones being created daily how can the online gambling community know which casinos are safe to use? This article discusses different issues that should be considered when choosing an online casino, these include; trial periods, sign-up bonuses and payouts.

But we are going to delve deeper in this article and consider some of the legal issues that can be used to establish whether a casino is legitimate, and to what standards they adhere. Legal issues can seem like a bore, or too difficult to understand, but this isn’t necessarily the case and it is vitally important to understand the legal concerns if you want to truly protect your online gambling experience from being ruined by unscrupulous, or badly managed, websites. And the greatest concern is....................................................LICENSING!!!

A BREIF HISTORY OF ONLINE CASINO LICENSING:

Because it is fairly new as an industry, less than two decades old, the online gambling industry lacks many regulations that other forms of business have in place, and there are very few, if any, international laws to govern the industry.

This meant that there was a need for some kind of formal regulation to be enforced in order to secure players confidence, without this the casinos would have no customers as the vast majority of people would not be irresponsible enough to waste money on ventures that had no financial security in place and no legal recourse for when disputes arise.

Amongst the first licence issuing jurisdictions were Antigua and Barbuda, who began licensing as far back as 1994. Another prominent license provider Kahnawake was set up in 1999, Kahnawake is a region of Quebec in Canada, following their entry into the realm of online gambling licensing, the British followed suit, with both the Isle of Man and Gibraltar now major names in the online gambling licensing arena.

Thousands of online casinos and other gambling businesses (-such as sports betting, bingo, poker rooms) have popped up all over the place, targeting a global market which now operates in many languages and currencies, ranging from Japanese to French, in ¥ € $ & £, if you are looking for a gambling experience that you can enjoy from the comfort of your sofa, then you may find a website or two thousand to cater for your every need.

However, gamblers need to be aware of the risks- you must know as much as possible about the gaming company you decide to keep, knowing that your hard earn cash will be protected from all risks, except maybe your own impulsiveness, is imperative. When you play at a casino, you need to know where your money will be regulated, it could be that you are playing in England, but protected by Maltese laws, or Costa Rican or Antiguan laws, knowing which one and the individual reputation they have is of primary importance.

WHO LICENCES ONLINE CASINOS?

Can the type of licence that an online casino holds tell you anything about that casino? The answer is yes, whichever country or jurisdiction that issued the licence will have specific laws and regulations determining how that casino must conduct their business. In doing this, the casino earns the issuing jurisdiction’s approval and this conveys the message that they adhere to the levels of fairness, reliability, credibility, security and trustworthiness pre-determined by the issuing body.

There are numerous countries and jurisdictions that may issue online casinos with licences, each of these will have slightly differing laws that regulate their gambling industry within that country/jurisdiction. Because there are some countries that have banned online gambling entirely, this means that online casinos originating from these countries will look beyond their frontiers in order to find a licence issued by an offshore provider.

The particular issuing body can also reflect on the quality of the online casino, just as a 1^st class degree from Oxford University carries more weight than a 1^st class degree from The School of Hard Knocks, a licence from a country such as Antigua, which happens to be one of the most popular gambling licence issuing countries, carries a lot of weight in the online gambling industry, it is well known and well respected with a reputation for fairness and reliability. So, if you know that a casino has a legitimate Antiguan gambling licence then you can play at such a casino safe in the knowledge that you are well protected in all respects, from fairness to transactional security.

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT OFF-SHORE LICENSING:

Strange as it might sound, even though an online casino may be regulated outside of the country in which you are located, this is no reason not to play with them or to feel secure in doing so. In reality, some of the largest online casinos, ones that are traded on the FTSE 100, are often licensed in other countries.

The reason that this happens is because the laws that are governing online gambling in various countries differ, although they are more uniform today than they ever have been before, so for example, the UK allows its citizens to gamble online, and as such their government recognise various licensing jurisdictions as they understand the global nature of the internet and the problems of regulation, they accept the legal systems of various other countries.

When a website is well licensed, they will generally state this prominently on their websites as this will prove to their customers that they can play there with confidence. The licence icons are usually located somewhere along the bottom of the homepage.

SECURITY= A LICENCED ONLINE CASINO:

Many players are concerned with licensing issues; it is usually the first thing that they check for when choosing a casino to play at. They do this because of the reputation that surrounds any gambling establishment; the necessary checks must be undertaken prior to making any deposits or leaving any banking details. The age-old association of gambling with gang culture has not dissipated completely, so players approach any new casino with this perception and then attempt to disrepute their prejudice, by checking such things as licensing.

It is also a good sign if a casino has been around for a while, a couple of years is good, if the casino is still in business after that long, they must be fairly legitimate, if not, they would not have managed to survive for so long. Because the internet can spread news like wildfire, and inkling of bad practice will soon be broadcast to a global audience. The casinos who which to make a business of their venture will not risk bad practice, they will ensure fairness and security as they still make profit without the need to rip people off. The rule for them is to play the long-game, “you can fool some people some time but you can’t fool all the people all the time”- staying in business for longer will earn more profit in the long-term, than making a one-off killing by ripping people off in the small window of opportunity that exists before they get a reputation that means no one will play there again.

SAFEST CHOICE OF ONLINE CASINO - LADBROKES

If your number one concern is safety then Ladbrokes Casino is your best choice. Ladbrokes are a publically traded UK company and the biggest gambling and online casino operator in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. As they are a UK company they are subject to the tightest financial and security restrictions in the world and must regularly pass rigorous integrity, anti-fraud, banking security and money laundering tests. This is why it remains the number one choice for high rollers.

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