Practicing Safety and Due Diligence at Online and Land Based Casinos
You should look at 5 different factors when you’re looking for a safe and secure online casino:
- Licensing and regulation
- In-place legislation
- Software types
- Ownership
- Website security.
Factors to Consider when Researching Online Casino Security
1- Regulations and Licensing
Regulatory information and licensing at each online casino is typically shown at the bottom of their home page. This is in the same area where various logos, accolades, and notices can be found.
Due to varying legal ramifications and legislation on a national and state level, the country and authority selected are important in determining the breadth of online casino capacities.
Here’s an example:
If you’re a casino player in Europe, you should look for online casinos regulated and licensed by gaming authorities that are based in the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, Malta, Alderney, and Kahnawake.
You’ll also find a few that are registered in places such as Curacao, Antigua, and the Antilles.
Remain vigilant in consideration to online casinos located in Costa Rica. Many reputable online gamine websites are licensed in other countries, but Costa Rica tends to be less restrictive regarding common licensing. This can be potentially problematic for players looking for safe and sure dealings.
The country of Costa Rica does not restrict operations to the point where it bans America players. Other territories and countries will forbid players from the United States from playing due to strict online gambling laws.
The only rule that casinos which are licensed in Costa Rica are required to abide by is the limitations of players within Costa Rica itself.
2- In-Place Legislation
If you’re a gambler in the United States, bear in mind that the laws are far stricter. You can only play at online casinos under regulation from the gaming authority of your home state.
If you’re a gambler in New Jersey or Nevada, find an online casino registered by either the Division of Gaming Enforcement in New Jersey, or the Nevada Gaming Board.
3- Software Types in Use
Most online casinos use an assortment of games developed by the most trustworthy and lucrative providers of online gaming software.
These include such worldwide power players as Microgaming, NetEnt, and Playtech. All these companies produce top tier online games with unrivaled user experiences.
Players might come across casinos using RTG software (manufactured and developed by Realtime Gaming). This is especially true on sites catering to US-based players. RTG is the single prevailing provider of software allowing players in New Jersey and Nevada to register and deposit bankrolls.
4- Online Casino Ownership
All legitimate online casinos need to have an “about us” page. Generally, an online casino’s “about” page will include pertinent and transparent information.
Examples of information that should be easy to find on the page include:
- The parent company running the casino
- The phone number of the company and customer support
- What region and country the casino is registered in
If the about page for the online casino is completely made up of fluff or copied content, don’t bother registering.
Before leaving though, check and see if the online casino has a “terms of service” or “terms and conditions” page. The information above might be there.
5- Overall Website Security
Are you confused as to what overall website security is?
Generally, when a user visits any sort of web page, information is transmitted from their computer to the website’s server and then back from the server to the user’s computer.
This information is sent in plain text, so anyone can see it if they had the means to do so. Most information transmitted on the web is encrypted before being sent, especially when dealing with anything relating to financials.
This process is performed through SSL, or Secure Socket Layer. SSL technology was developed for this specific purpose, using key exchanges between servers and browsers to encrypt your data before it is passed through the web. For a page to really be considered “secure”, it needs to have an active SSL layer.
There are 3 things to check for:
- Inspect the URL to see if it starts with HTTPS. If it’s HTTP, it’s not SSL.
- Look and see if there is a site lock. This will be to the left of the URL.
- Make sure you have the proper URL typed in.
Safe Payouts at Online Casinos
Due diligence is important.
It has become easy to do this for online casinos thanks to the range of sites offering reviews of casinos.
Many payment methods are available at most large online casinos. Many real money casinos accept payments from several e-wallet companies and other third-party providers, so you never have to give your financial information to them.
You can transfer real cash through them and also withdraw your winnings. Taking advantage of these options allows you instant access to start playing and to enjoy your winnings.
For some looks at various payment methods, check out the articles below:
- Best payment processing method for stronger anonymity: Bitcoin.
- Best payment processing method for other electronic wallet options: Instadebit, Skrill, Entropay, Neteller, PaySafeCard.
- Best payment processing method for more wide-ranging payment capacity: PayPal.
- Best payment processing method for real credit cards: MasterCard, VISA, American Express.
Protecting Yourself at Online Casinos
If you want to start gambling online, you need to consider security above regarding the casino itself.
But there are steps you need to take in the registration process to thwart cybercrime and account theft and compromises.
Some of the most valuable pieces of advice for this are:
- Use a strong password, consisting of numbers, lowercase letters, capital letters, and special characters.
- Take advantage of the two two-step verification processes that are offered on many larger online casinos.
- Make use of the provided security questions, and don’t make them general and easy to guess.
- Change your password every 30 days.
- Be on the lookout for phishing emails .
- Watch over your bank account activity and any activity with the payment method you choose.