How to choose an online casino

How should I choose the most appropriate casino to play in? How do I know an online casino is safe?

The real problem with choosing an online casino is that there is so much to choose from that you probably wouldn't know where to start. Even though it doesn't matter a whole lot for the first time there are some common pitfalls and advices we'd like to provide you with so that your first experience would be as interesting as all subsequent ones. The bottom line of this essay is: don't give up and choose only the best! We have compiled a ranking list of best online casinos that are the top of the top in our opinion and you are most welcome to review and use it.

Certification and ratings for online casinos

Online casinos are always being strictly watched by the player communities. As most of online casino games proceed with real money - the players' money - it is the players who keep an eye on each and every activity of the casinos. There are various player organizations that provide forums for online casino gamblers, ratings and even audits for online casinos. They also promote ethical and legal gambling and marketing methods, while providing valuable resources for entire community and assembly resistance to those who are trying to shut down the online gambling industry out of plain fear and political motivation. We think that anyone involved with online casino would only benefit from services and ratings these organizations provide as they are built up from online casino players just like you. For example, there are dedicated organizations that deal with online casino payout audits, random number generator audits and such. One particular organization worth noting is the which is an international non-profit organization based in Canada that "was established to provide a forum for interested parties to address issues and advance common interests in the global interactive gaming industry, to establish fair and responsible trade guidelines and practices that enhance consumer confidence in interactive gaming products and services, and to serve as the industry's public policy advocate and information clearinghouse".

IGC also has an excellent and well-detailed guide that is aimed specifically at newbie players that we adore and propose to our visitors as an essential reading material:

When you choose an online casino carefully examine what other people think about it and which player organizations agree and certify it. Doing a research on an online casino that appeals to you will not just help you make sure that you are going to deal with a reputable gambling house but it is also likely to reveal you the extend of involvement of the player community in online casino business and a lot of interesting things that aren't obvious to people who don't bother themselves with anything more than the games itself.

Casino ratings on the other hands are ranking lists that are compiled by various people (be it marketing portals, independent authorities or players themselves) which certify reliability and quality of online casino organizations judging by parameters like Payout ratios. They are your primary source for leads on really good online gambling houses.

Legal issues in online gambling world

The Internet gambling and especially online casino industry is relatively new. Our "Support US online gambling"document presents our opinion on the furious opposition of certain political bodies to online casinos. We recommend our players to carefully examine the issues of legality (especially legal age) in your jurisdiction. The current state of laws that relate to online gambling is best described as "chaos" but as market shapes up the laws also change rapidly. Unfortunately some governments choose to resort to undermining and exhausting harassment tactics when they are met with significant opposition from reasonable players and can not enact laws that prohibit online gambling.

Legality of operation of the online casinos in their country of residence is also particularly worth exploring. Due to conflicting and sometimes outright hostile regulations in some places most of online casinos are registered, licensed and based only in the countries where gambling is strictly legal. In jurisdictions where a gambling house is required to have a license to operate it is imperative to verify that the casino does have such license - it's probably the best way to avert malicious and fraudulent people who try to steal. Due to general redundancy and lack of the government operating an online casino and playing in an online casino might be illegal in some jurisdictions too which means you are at the very least deprived from consumer protection. Don't be too pessimistic though; with minimal safety precautions chances of falling into a troublesome trap are so low that you probably shouldn't waste your time thinking twice.

Online casino software

Reputable online casinos seldom produce their own online casino software. Instead they resort to services of verified and well known software vendorss that specialize in Internet gambling industry and serve specifically online casino businesses. Those software houses are very experienced, skilled companies who are interested in maintaining their precious reputation and will not try to do anything unethical. Things as small as suspicious anomalies in random number generations or a week long delay with auditing records can cost them their very existence: should anything even remotely dangerous to the players happen it will immediately make headlines on hundreds of portal sites, independent reviewers and analysts, and tens of thousands of players will be alerted sooner than the casino can say "Oops!".

The origins of the online casino software are easily verifiable with the specific online casino that provides it.There is only a handful of major online casino software vendors. If you are not sure who made the casino software exactly, ask the support personnel of the casino!

You should also consider issues of electronic safety and privacy. Verify that the online casino employs serious security measures and uses latest technologies to guard privacy and confidentiality of transactions between you and the casino.

Payment options and support

Make sure that the online casino of your choice can offer you a method of payment that is comfortable to you. However this is generally not a problem because the online casino industry is withstanding a heavy competition and will go to great length to provide you with multitude of choices to your liking. Today there are more and more convenient methods to pay to/withdraw from an online casino. Be aware though that credit cards are seldom favoured by online casinos directly because American banks are reluctant to process transactions that are related to online gabmling.

To make it easier for a newbie player we have prepared our "Online casino payments guide".

Take interest with conditions of withdrawal of funds, estimate time wired transfers would take and availability of audit trail for any online casino you examine. You can ask all these questions by email or live chat in the casino itself

All online casinos will provide you with online help and live chat/telephone support. That's not something you should overlook; should you run into any kind of problem the casino support must stand for your service immediately. We recommend that you choose online casinos that offer most support options, including 24/7 live chat, email and toll-free telephone support while giving clear and unambigous terms of service. Fortunately, absolute majority of online casinos do..