How to choose a Online Casino
Being an owner of an online casino is definitely a good position to be in. There is much money to be made if one does it the right way. Unfortunately not everyone operate their business as they should and this is why many of them disappear every week and new ones are launched instead. There are over 1000 of online casinos to choose from at this very moment. Picking the right one is by no means an easy task. You have to take into account all the variables to be sure that the money you deposit is in safe hands and that your winnings will be paid out fully.
The first things to consider when choosing an online casino is pretty basic. You should find out if it accepts players from the country you live in. Next comes the operators reputation. You should find out if there are a lot of complaints about the site or not. You can also make your pick by the sites language, design, availability of customer support and so on.
We have made a huge list of online casinos to choose from. You can find the best online casino for you by using our simple yet very useful filtering system. If you don`t want to go through of this process and would like to start as quickly as possible then I recommend the following casino that accepts players from your country:
If you want to dig deeper before you start playing, you should ask yourself the following questions:
1. Does the casino accept players from the country you live in?
The first thing to make sure is to be 100% confident that the casino accepts players from the country you live. There are a lot of countries that do not allow some or all online casinos to operate in their territory. This might not apply to all the casinos out there and some of the governments might not have the power to restrict gambling establishments from gambling legislative havens like Curaçao for example. Still the more respectable online casinos have a tendency not to accept players from these countries.
If you are a resident of a country that limits certain online casinos or all of them to operate inside their borders then a casino might let you register and pay but when it comes to cashing out you might be in trouble. Why? Because they might ask you proof of residence from another country and if you don`t have it you are in trouble.
Casinoorc.com TIP: The smart thing to do is to ask the customer support of a certain online casino whether or not the accept players from the country you are a resident of. Ask them if they allow you to deposit, play and win and cash out your winnings. If the answer is positive you can take a screenshot of it and star playing with your mind at peace.
2. When choosing an online casino – does reputation matter?
It is not so easy to know if an online casino is trustworthy or not before you win big and need to cash it out. That is exactly the event that determines the operators true picture. In fact there a lot of events where online casinos have scammed their players. It is nothing unheard of.
The standard practices of cheating are as follows:
- Casino is not willing to pay out winnings that are 100% legitimate
- Their excuse for this might be as follows: “It was a software tweak and it should not have happened. We can compensate 10% of your winnings”.
- They tell you to play through a certain amount of your winnings before you can cash out
- The casino has installed ridiculous withdrawal limits that prevent you cashing out in years
- They stall your withdrawals for weeks or months
- Casino uses any other way they could think of
- A casino is offering games that have been tweaked and have a smaller theoretical return to player than advertised
- The casino points to a bonus abuse condition and is not willing to pay out your winnings
That is why you should choose a casino with good reputations. To make it easy for you, we regularly check the reputation of all our casinos listed in casinoorc.com and update them if necessary. If we have detected a scam, this casino will be deleted from our site.
Casinoorc.com TIP: A casino with no complaints does not certainly mean it is honest. It takes some time for a new casino to scam a person because a big win might not happen very quickly. The same applies for old respectable casinos. All of them might have a complaint or two although they are actually 100% honest and abide the ethical principles.
3. What licence does it have?
All the online casinos available have some kind of a licence. In other words they are regulated by one of the countries governments of the world. In order for it to operate in a certain area, the country must allow online gambling. Licences can be handed out by a country or by a jurisdiction. The country (UK, Estonia, Belgium) does it in order to collect taxes from its citizens who gamble and a jurisdiction (Gibraltar, Malta, Curaçao) simply makes it possible for a casino to operate globally.
If you are being abused by a casino who is not willing to pay out your winnings then the only thing to do is to turn to the regulator who was the initial issuer of the licence. This is the part when the importance of the country/jurisdiction that granted the licence comes to play. A respectable regulator will usually hear out both parts and if the player was right the force the operator to him out. It can even end up with the casino losing it licence.
There are some regulators who don`t even have a contact address or form for you to be able to contact them. For example Panama, Anjouan, Costa Rica, and Seychelles are good examples of a untrustworthy regulator. If this is the case with your casino who is not willing to pay you out then you have basically lost the fight.
You might have a fighting chance of justice with casinos regulated by Curaçao or Gibraltar but it is never 100% guaranteed.
When it comes to casinos with a licence from Malta, Isle of Man or Alderney you are in a pretty good position because these regulators stand by their words and in case you are right they will get your money to you.
4. What are the revenues compared with your bankroll?
Not many people consider the casinos revenue as a sign of trust but we do. Why? Well consider a casino with a revenue which is less than a possible jackpot in an average NETENT slot game. Will they have the funds to pay you out in case of a win? Probably not.
If you manage to win big in a very small casino it will hugely disrupt their cash flow and the desire not to be honest about it will be great. The worst case of course is when they have less money on their bank account that you won. Then they will be bankrupt and you have no chance in getting your winnings.
There are slot games that pay you back 10 000 times in case of the biggest win. So imagine a scenario of you hitting their jackpot with a bet of 100€. They would have to pay you 1 million of Euros. Can a small casino do this? Probably not.
Online casinos don`t like to limit their slot games. So they usually don`t because limits are restrictions which drive out the high rollers. So instead they install withdrawals limits. Limits which can prevent you getting your full amount of winnings before many years.
So before choosing a casino to play in, make sure it has the financial capabilities to pay you out in case of a big win. Be sure to check the withdrawal limits as well. If you won 1 million Euros and the withdrawal limit is 1000€ per month. It will take you almost 100 years to get all of your money out.
Don`t worry, you do not have to find these things out yourself. In our list of online casinos we have tried to estimate the revenues ourselves and also we have marked out the withdrawal limits.
5. What games does the casino offer?
Every one of us probably has a favorite game. And most likely when choosing a casino we are particullary looking for one with that game. Casinoorc.com list of online casinos lets you filter the casinos by provider or by the game type. So you can easily find ones that offer Baccarat for example.
No matter whether you prefer roulette, baccarat, black jack or any other casino games we are more than sure that our filtering system will be of use to you.
6. What`s the language of the site?
Casinos usually try to translate their site into many different languages. This is done to reach out to as wide audience as possible. If you find a casino with your language then having a support person who speaks your mother language is also a big plus.
You don`t need to be fluent in English to understand the terms and conditions of bonuses or casino games. The translated casinos make it so much easier for you to understand what is allowed and what is not when it comes to a certain promotion or anything else.
7. How professional is the support?
As the terms and conditions of online casinos vary it is very important that you have the ability to ask more information about such things. This is where the importance of a professional support person comes in play.
Usually the faster the support is, the better. Solving your question or problem in minutes is a lot better than doing it with days. That is why we can`t stress the importance of a 24/7 support enough. Ideally in the form on live chat. If the support only works via email or through a phone that never answers your alarm bells should start ringing and it might be better to choose another site.
8. How good are the bonuses and their terms?
Bonuses and promotions are in online casinos core marketing strategy in order to attract and keep players. If used correctly bonuses can certainly contribute in keeping a player longer while making it less costly for the player to spend time on his or hers hobby. Some guys even might make a living using only bonuses. These guys are called bonus hunters or abusers and they are usually a customer not wanted by a casino.
To prevent bonus hunters to abuse promotions, casinos have come up with different rules or terms and conditions that you must comply while using them. If you broke those the casino could rightfully cancel your bonus and seize the winnings.
It is certainly worth your while to read all the bonus terms and conditions so that you wouldn’t find yourself in a position you didn’t want to be in.
9. User experience – how easy it is to navigate?
User experience and the convenience of usage is the next big thing. Nobody wants waste time on trying to find his favorite casino game or waiting for a page to load. These times are over when casinos with bad design and user experience ruled.
Usually you can be pretty certain than the bigger the casino the better the website itself. This is true in most cases but as with everything there are some exceptions to it. A new breed of online casinos has emerged during last couple of years. Online casinos who use user experience and design as a weapon and take it into account when developing their product. These casinos are not big yet but they will be. As innovation has always prevailed and customer will love what is made bearing them in mind.
If a casino looks like s**t then it probably is. Keep away from casinos that are out of date, slow or just ugly in design. They probably have a low budget and a weak or no developer team at all. We are not saying you should judge the casino 100% by its looks but it certainly is one of the criteria to take into account.
10. Do they offer a mobile casino?
People spend more times with their mobile phones than ever before. It is now a part of our lives and the same thing applies to online casinos as well. A casino without mobile support is practically useless. There isn’t a more convenient way to play in an online casino that with a smartphone so why wouldn’t you prefer a casino with mobile capabilities?
Our list of casinos will let you know if a casino supports mobiles and tablets as well.
11. What are the deposit and withdrawal options and fees?
When you are choosing a right online casino for you one thing to consider is the deposit and withdrawal options and if there are any fees associated with them. And don`t forget the average time of a withdrawal takes. In some severe cases it might take up to 7 days.
Different players prefer various payment methods. Some like bank transfers or direct bank links. Some prefer to use internet wallets as skrill on neteller. As this is very important we also mention payment methods that a casino offers in our casino reviews.
Casinoorc.com TIP: It is a standard process for a casino to check your identity before they confirm your withdrawal. Taking this into account it is a smart thing to have a copy of your personal document and a utility bill ready. So when a casino asks you these documents you save time by producing these copies every single time.