The number of online gambling sites in the US has shot up. The number of gamblers has too. Unfortunately, this means that there has also been a sharp rise in the number of people who aren’t doing ‘proper’ research before giving their details or making a deposit to their chosen online casino.
The legal status of the online casino (and whether it is legit)
Your first step is to verify whether your chosen online casino is licensed in your jurisdiction. Some online casinos can only legally operate in certain states, while some online casinos cannot legally operate in the United States at all.
When you gamble at an unlicensed online casino, you won’t have any sort of legal protection should something go wrong. Gambling licenses are issued to online casinos that have proved their games are fair, that they are not scammers and that their customers’ information is properly protected. Gamble at an unlicensed online casino, and your money is at risk.
Luckily, it’s not difficult to check whether an online casino is licensed. Most online casinos will display their licensing information prominently at the bottom of their website. If you don’t see licensing information, give them a skip. If you do see licensing information, then double-check the details with the relevant authorities to ensure that it is legit.
You can also read through reviews of online gambling sites. If you use a legit website, then you’ll be steered toward the best, legal platforms!
Remember – don’t ever take a risk with an unlicensed online casino. There are a lot of people who have been scammed by them. This doesn’t necessarily mean they’ll run away with your money (although there is a chance of this). Some unlicensed online casinos have manipulated the odds of their games to make it incredibly hard to win. Licensed online casinos don’t do this.
Understand casino bonuses
Let’s be honest, the vast majority of gamblers are lured in by casino bonuses. If a couple of online casinos look very similar, then whichever casino offers the best bonus will usually win out. While this is a legitimate way to choose an online casino, do bear in mind that some online casino bonuses are not as great as they seem.
When most people look at casino bonuses, they look at the raw information – for example, ‘deposit $100 and get $1,000 free’ or something similar. Now, we don’t know if you’re aware of this, but most businesses (and this includes online casinos) are not really in the habit of giving away money for free. They especially don’t want to give away $1,000 – or whatever huge number they quote – for free. They really don’t want to do it, and often the terms and conditions of the bonus will place massive limitations on how valuable that bonus is to you.
The big one will be wagering requirements. You wouldn’t believe the number of people who think they are simply going to be offered large sums of cash, gamble with it once, and then withdraw. Nope. No chance. Online casinos have wagering requirements, sometimes called ‘rollover requirements’, on their bonus offers, as listed in their terms and conditions.
Let’s say you’ve been given a bonus of $100, and there are wagering requirements of 20x. Before you can withdraw any money from that bonus, you’ll need to play through that money 20 times. This means you’ll need to gamble at least $2,000. Until you get to that point, you won’t be able to withdraw a single cent from your bonus.
That’s not all. Some games won’t count toward your wagering requirements. Some games with better odds of winning may only count marginally toward your requirements (for instance, we’ve seen a site that allowed just 10% of any blackjack winnings toward wagering requirements).
On top of it all, there may be limits on how long you have to meet the requirements. Some online casinos, for instance, will give you between seven and 30 days to meet the wagering requirements. If you don’t, all your bonus cash is lost.
Basically, don’t expect to win from your casino bonus. It can happen – it’s just very, very unlikely.
Payment options and site security
Finally, you’ll need to have a look at ways you can get money in and out of your account. Although, if you’ve chosen a legit website, this shouldn’t be a problem.
You want an online casino that supports whatever payment methods you have at your disposal. Almost every online casino should accept your bank card or even a bank transfer. Some may allow alternative payment options such as PayPal or PaysafeCard. You might want to avoid online casinos that only accept cryptocurrencies. While there are some legit, crypto-only casinos out there, they are few and far between.
Don’t forget to have a look at withdrawals too. Take special notice of:
- Withdrawal speeds.
- Fees for withdrawals. There shouldn’t be a high withdrawal fee. In fact, for popular withdrawal methods, there shouldn’t be a fee at all.
- Minimum withdrawal amounts.
Site security is a big one here, too. Obviously, you don’t want somebody to steal your payment details. Although once again, this shouldn’t really be an issue if you’ve chosen a legit online casino, as one of the licensing requirements is that the site needs to be secure. Still, you can check things yourself. If you look at the address bar of an online casino (if you’re on a computer or via your mobile web browser), you should see ‘https://’ before the site address (make sure the ‘s’ is there). If it doesn’t, the site isn’t secure, and you should skip it.
Final thoughts
That about wraps things up. If you follow the advice on this page, then choosing the right online casino should be easier. It’ll help you avoid almost every scam in the online casino world, and of course, help you to take full advantage of some of the best online casino bonuses around.