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Welcome to your one-stop guide to finding the perfect online gambling platform. More precisely, we will teach you how to distinguish a reputable online casino from a shady platform. Online casinos can easily hide many secrets from unsuspecting players — predatory terms, unfair bonus policies, insanely high wagering requirements, etc. But at the same time, a lot of it is under the hood, which even trained professionals cannot ascertain upon a closer look. For example, an online casino can choose the lower RTP versions of popular games, refuse to pay out bigger wins, or close accounts altogether.
So, what do you consider when choosing an online casino platform to sign up on? Let’s look at ensuring an enjoyable gaming experience while protecting your personal and financial information.
1. Gaming Experience & Range of Casino Games
The most important factor to consider when choosing an online casino is the game catalog. Some casinos can have 100+ game providers and 6000+ slot games, but that’s by no means a clear sign of trust, quality, or reliability.
- Average RTP: Every casino has an average RTP. Sadly, there’s no way to know the exact percentage for sure. But you can check which games are being offered in their handpicked section (hot games, most popular games, or promotion-tied games, for example) and calculate their average RTP. This is what the casino is most likely used to paying its users.
- Game Providers: Check which game providers are available on the casino site. Some providers are big names, like NetEnt, Microgaming, Play ‘n GO, Pragmatic Play, IGT, Red Tiger Gaming, etc. Some like Wazdan, Relax, NoLimit City, Yggdrasil, and Evolution Gaming are known for their advantages. If the ratio of well-known providers is higher than fairly less-known ones, it’s a trustworthy platform. Also, Blueprint Gaming is a provider that rarely signs up with platforms that could even be a little bit shady.
- Game Variety: If a casino has several top providers, but not the most popular slot games from those providers, it’s a sign that the casino isn’t good. For example, if games like Book of Dead, Sweet Bonanza, Gates of Olympus, Buffalo, Wolf Gold, Big Bass Bonanza, 9 Masks of Fire, etc. aren’t available, even though their game providers are more or less there, it’s a red flag.
- High-Paying Games: How much you win in the long run is decided by the RTP, volatility, and in-game features. But it can be generalized to just the RTP for comparison purposes. See if the casino has high-RTP and reliable games such as Mega Joker, Goblins Cave, Ugga Bugga, 1429 Uncharted Seas, Marching Legions, Blood Suckers, Starmania, Kings of Chicago, White Rabbit Megaways, Couch Potato, Big Bad Wolf, Apollo God of the Sun, Jack Hammer II, Gorilla Go Wilder, Dead or Alive 2, Sugar Rush, Immortal Romance 2, etc. or not.
- Game Categories: Lastly, if you’re into specific types of games (bingo, progressive jackpots, live dealer lobbies, game shows, scratch cards, etc.), then of course, you need to ensure that games are available on a platform.
Check if the casino has the online casino games you love the most. See what kind of online gaming library it has. Playing at an online casino isn’t a once-in-a-full-moon thing. You’ll be in for the long run. So, it makes sense to pick the right one, especially when online casinos offer a wide range of options in terms of games. It’s also important to consider what alternative games are available if the top ones are missing from the list.
2. Casino Offers: Bonuses and Promotions
You can choose the best online casino in terms of games but run out of excitement if there are no ongoing promotions. There are two types of perks casinos give: welcome bonuses for new players, and perpetual benefits for current/existing players. A good online casino prioritizes both segments. Bad online casinos almost always have a very lucrative welcome offer but hardly anything for you once you’re through with it.
Thankfully, this information can be checked easily on the promotions/bonuses page of the casino, giving you a clear idea — does the casino just want new members, or does it reward its existing users equally?
- Welcome Bonus/Package: The welcome bonus (first deposit bonus) or package (multi-deposit bonuses) is the most attractive piece of advertising for any online casino. When selecting an online casino, a lot of players get lured by big promises. Always read the fine print such as the minimum wagering requirement (anything in the range of x30 to x60 is good, if lower it’s even better). If free spins are involved, see what is the RTP of the game they are tied to.
- Friendly Terms: We don’t expect players to read the terms and conditions in full. But it’s one of the key factors, nevertheless. The right online casino has nothing to hide. If you don’t read it in full, at least read the parts related to the bonuses. Sometimes, casinos will have a separate page for the terms of the bonuses and promotions. See which game categories contribute toward the wagering requirements of the bonuses.
- Ongoing Promotions: Check what ongoing promotions are there. Good casinos can offer a dozen promotions to their existing players. But that’s not a prerequisite to be a good platform. At least ensure that there’s some provision for cashback, free bets, free spins, reload cashback or bonus, etc.
- Loyalty/VIP Program: Every good casino operates on the philosophy of return business. It wants to retain its users. And the VIP program is the #1 feature to ensure this. A good VIP program will have multiple levels with increasing levels of cashback, rakeback, reload bonuses, maximum limits, or other perks. If there’s no considerable VIP program, the casino won’t be ideal for long-term use.
3. License, Security, and Fairness
Another key consideration is the safety of the platform. This is not a single metric and often includes multiple deliberations. Review all these aspects thoroughly before signing up. It’s a crucial factor to consider an online casino’s licensing and regulation, first of all.
Gambling Licensing Authorities
Many countries have gambling commissions or authorities (in the US, it’s less federal and more state-level). For example, the UKGC is a prominent gambling controller. But casinos serving international markets are generally owned by gambling operators registered in overseas tax havens, where signing up for a casino license is child’s play (compared to something like the UKGC). This isn’t necessarily bad. Just double-check if the license is truly held by the casino in question and is an active one.
Major gambling commissions/authorities that offer licenses to trustworthy international casinos include:
- A Curacao eGaming License costs around €20,000. It’s one of the more trusted licenses.
- A license from the Malta Gaming Authority is also quite legitimate and a lot of leading casinos have one. It offers a comprehensive licensing process with fees starting from €2,330 and annual fees of €8,500. Gaming taxes are €4,660 per month for the first six months and €7,000 per month thereafter, in most cases.
- Antigua and Barbuda provides an Interactive Gaming License with a non-refundable application fee of $15,000 and a yearly renewal fee of $5,000. The application procedure is extensive, and a reserve of $100,000 is required before the casino starts operating. This is a major commitment for many and it’s highly likely that the casino is trustworthy.
- Licenses from Cyprus, Gibraltar, the Philippines, the Isle of Man, Greece, and Montenegro are lower on the list.
Make sure that the casino is licensed and regulated by a known entity. Ideally, look for online casinos with a Curacao or Malta license.
Most of these gambling commissions provide some way to check the authenticity of a license number. The commercial body overseeing company registration in the country also often provides some kind of a searchable database. Ideally, you want to confirm both the registration and license. Make sure that the license or registration is really owned by the casino (or its parent company) and hasn’t expired.
There’s often an annual renewal fee or a commission that these authorities charge. The Isle of Man gaming license has an application fee of just £5,000 but an annual fee of £35,000. It also taxes the casinos anywhere from 0.1% to 1.5% depending on the turnover. Similarly, a Curacao license will incur something like €15,000 per year of fees. Smaller casinos that aren’t really making much money will not be able to hold an active license for long.
Other Considerations
- Platform Security: Getting an SSL certificate is basically free today. Still, make sure there is one (check for HTTPS in the URL bar). If you cannot ensure the casino platform’s security, stay away from it.
- Fairness Policy: Casinos that don’t have a fairness policy in 2024 are just a terrible choice. And out of those that do, many just go with boilerplate, plagiarized text. You can go through the policy and see for yourself if the casino has a solid one. Unfortunately, there’s no way to confirm if they really stand by all that’s said in the fairness policy. Still, having a detailed one is a good sign.
- KYC Requirements: If a casino explains its KYC and verification process in detail, it’s always a good sign. Casinos that just want to take your money won’t have a detailed process to begin with, let alone describe it on a page on the website.
4. Community Reputation & Casino Complaints
Read reviews from other players. Well, easier said than done. There are several online resources that you can use to research the online casino’s reputation. But there are caveats in all of them.
- Review Websites: Leading casino review platforms like AskGamblers and Casino Guru offer detailed guides and real user ratings/comments, but they can promote unsafe casinos in one-off cases. Still, make sure the casino has an entry on both and that it’s rated well by the users of the platform. Explore the key factors here such as complaints, payment issues, and safety concerns. But it’s not enough to just look at these sites to find the casino that meets your needs. Any casino that is licensed by a proper authority can be rated high here.
- UGC Forums: A post on the r/Gambling subreddit or a question on Quora might have an extremely negative experience described in detail. But often, it’s not the general situation, unless if there are a lot of posts and complaints about the casino. Still, you’re recommended to read reviews from such sources.
- Trustpilot: Even a poor or bad score on Trustpilot doesn’t necessarily mean that the casino is bad. You’d be surprised to see just how many people don’t fully comprehend withdrawal or bonus policies and register a complaint even on the slightest delay. A claimed Trustpilot profile will often solve these problems, but the user won’t come back to fix the rating. Still, better casinos take their reputation seriously and will approach the user multiple times to fix their rating after dispute resolution, leading to an overall higher score.
- Local Websites: Different regions have multiple resources and forums to cross-check the reputation of a local casino. For example, UK players can get an immediate response from any UKGC casino when they file a complaint on Resolver. There are dozens of Australian review websites that cover all sorts of pokies and casinos, for example. But it’s easy to pay them to shut up or even write a positive review. These websites receive “outreach” emails from casino brands on a daily basis. At least, ensure that the casino is well covered by local websites.
One thing you should never trust is suspicious websites writing casino reviews. They will be full of advantages and to make it seem realistic, will offer 1-2 disadvantages that sound harmless. So, what is a suspicious website? A suspicious, untrustworthy website is one that’s not a dedicated casino review website. Think of random news websites. They are paid all the time to write these pieces about everything from shady brain-boosting supplements and weight loss pills to online casinos. A lot of government website employees also deal with online casino brokers to publish pieces on .gov or .edu domains. Maybe not a US government website, but a third-world country’s official URL.
5. Deposit and Withdrawal Methods
See which payment processors are integrated into the platform. Whether it’s Visa transactions, bank transfers, or crypto wallets — there are multiple payment processors, and not all of them are equal. More trustworthy payment processors mean a more trustworthy online casino. This doesn’t apply to e-wallets as they have their own payment gateways.
Checking which e-wallets are supported by the casino can also be a good way to judge its trustworthiness and safety. PayPal and Apple Pay are only available in highly safe casinos. Skrill, Neteller, Payz (formerly ecoPayz), and AstroPay are more common and could be found in moderately safe casinos as well. Qiwi, WebMoney, Neosurf, MiFinity, Jeton, Interac, JCB, etc. are a little dicey. Some casinos might get them too easily, while they might reject other casinos simply because the market isn’t preferred.
6. Customer Support
This one is a no-brainer. Today, every major online casino worth its salt has a support staff to handle queries on the live chat. Yes, they might outsource it to an Asian call center, but it’s there. There are two major factors here — promptness and comprehension.
Promptness or speed is how fast they reply. And comprehension is how reliably they solve even complex queries (and how good their language comprehension is).
Even good casinos sometimes miss the mark. They often fail to offer speedy, reliable live chat even during the active times of their most in-demand markets.
We recommend testing the live chat after registering for a free account and also the email chat. Ask detailed questions and have them solve complex queries before you deposit real money with them. Any major online casino offers a decent customer support experience. A bad one will simply lack customer support or one that can actually solve any queries. First of all, check if the casino offers a live chat to unregistered users or not. Reputable online casinos prioritize troubleshooting and easing the process of onboarding. If the casino only offers live chat after you sign up, it’s another red flag.
There are large networks of employees working at low wages trained in a half-baked manner on the documentation of multiple casino brands. When they get a query, they will first confirm which casino you’re coming from, whether you have an account or not, and even after that, will fail to answer your query sufficiently in their message.
If you experience stellar customer support, it’s almost always a sign that it’s a profitable and legitimate business that can spend money on good customer support.
What’s the Most Important Factor to Consider When Choosing the Right Online Casino
There’s no single most important factor. Any good casino should pass with flying colors across the 5 factors.
A good online casino offers a variety of good game providers and reputed payment methods. It has rave reviews from other players. And such a casino operates within a legal area. Finding this perfect online casino isn’t hard, you just need to know how to compare them. Don’t be sold to 300% deposit bonuses or access to your favorite casino games alone. Ensure the online casino performs well in other departments as well.
Only play on a licensed online casino to ensure the safety of your funds. But don’t be too strict about determining the trustworthiness of the casino using these mechanical metrics. While it’s important to consider factors such as licensing and to ensure the casino uses SSL, there are many other essential factors to consider as well. Most importantly, what’s the selection of casino games like? Whether the online casino is compatible properly with your device or not. Will it offer an enjoyable online gambling experience to you or not? After all, a good platform for you is always an online casino that meets and exceeds your requirements.
Wrapping Up
And there you have it. The casino experience varies wildly from one operator to another. It’s not an overstatement to say that the world of online casinos is extremely vast. But as it involves real money, online casino gaming isn’t something you sign up for without doing proper research.
Choosing the right online casino might sound like a daunting task if you’ve never done this kind of research before. But don’t be fooled. Finding a secure online casino that offers reliability, quality, and a good gaming experience is extremely vital.
There are other considerations here as well. For example, the mobile experience, the platform’s user interface, the number of markets to bet on, and which live dealer lobbies are present, you name it. But even shady online casinos can churn out a sleek, modern experience with a lot of options. So, out of all the things to consider when choosing a reputable casino to play on, these 6 factors are the most important.
Hopefully, our guide on the key factors to consider for selecting the right online casino will improve your comparison skills and help you find the ideal online gambling experience. With enough research, you’ll find that choosing a reputable online casino that caters to your needs isn’t all that hard.
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