Playing with online casinos is only fun if you know that you’re playing somewhere fair and safe. If you’re new to online casinos, or you’ve never really paid attention before, you might not know what to look for to ensure you’re playing somewhere worthwhile. Well, if that’s you, you’re in the right place because I’m going to explain the top five things to look for in an online casino.
Stay safe and have fun when gambling online by paying attention to the following five areas.
No. 1 Thing To Look For From An Online Casino: Regulatory Body
The internet is global. That means anyone anywhere can open an online casino, and, because different places have different laws, you aren’t necessarily protected.
In regulated gambling markets, such as the UK, there are strict rules in about how the casinos operate. This means that, even though anybody can set up a casino, it is illegal for them to so unless they follow the law.
Unlike the UK-based casinos, some online casinos will fall outside good regulations and this means they are probably dodgy. This dodginess can take different forms:
- The casino may be a front for money laundering operations
- They may be out to phish for your personal information
- The games may be rigged to scam your money
You don’t want to get yourself involved with any of that, so make sure you only use casinos that operate in regulated markets and make sure they have a licence.
Our article, “How to Check an Online Casino’s Gambling Licence” will show you how to find and check if a licence is genuine.
No 2 Thing To Look For From An Online Casino: Fair Play
We are lucky with the UK licences because they include the condition that the casino undergoes regular 3rd party auditing. In other words, they need to have their games and payouts checked to make sure they’re in-line with the figures they advertise.
For example, if a casino advertises an RTP of 95% for their live poker games, a third-party has to check the wagered and payout amounts to make sure they’re roughly 95%.
Because they’re games of chance (even if there’s a skill in some games like poker) the percentage is likely to be slightly off each audit, but over time it should be 95% and it should rarely be more than a couple of percentage off. If it is, casinos can find themselves in big trouble. Although I don’t know of a casino licence suspension for this particular issue, UKGC isn’t afraid to suspend licences for casinos that break the rules.
But there are other ways a casino can be unfair. They can follow all the rules but still treat players badly. The easiest way for them to do this is to give you terrible odds and a low RTP.
They aren’t doing it to pick on you so much as doing it out of greed.
Still, you want to avoid these casinos and/or individual games. If a game has an RTP of 85% or less, my advice is not to bother. But if it’s a game you love, play, but without any expectation of winning; this should be the general rule when you gamble, anyway, but especially with low RTPs and odds. It’s all about the game and not the gambling once you get below 85% RTP.
No 3: Game Progression
Like I said, a general rule in gambling is to enjoy the game over the gamble. When you start to get overly involved in the act of gambling, that’s when you can get into dangerous waters.
When you’re focused only on the winning and losing, only on the loss, that’s when you can develop a gambling problem.
Instead, you need to make sure you’re enjoying the games themselves. This means that the games are interesting and allow you to progress through levels.
Games like poker are excellent here. There’s plenty of learning involved and a healthy dose of fun!
