How to Choose an Online Casino: a guide for beginners
Online casinos are seeing incredible growth in popularity amongst both beginners and expert players. This should come as no surprise due to a variety of factors. The number of online casinos has increased dramatically over the last few years, combined with an increase of high-quality game providers. More choice, and more competition, means higher quality entertainment for players. But, we’ll delve much deeper into these factors at a later stage.
As the industry continues to succeed in attracting more and more individuals into adopting online casino gambling as a go-to hobby, we at PlayAttack Affiliates are keen to provide online casino ‘newbies’ with an informative guide on how to choose an online casino.
We believe that it is part of our responsibility as a casino affiliate program to ensure that all potential players are well informed before making their decision on whether to enter the world of online casino. Individuals can only achieve this by carefully assessing the different criteria on what makes a trusted casino. Naturally, with so many options available, it can be difficult to tell whether an online casino is untrustworthy, especially if you are new to the industry.
Moreover, within this article, we’ll cover the following to help you get started:
- What to Consider When Choosing an Online Casino
- Casino Features That Are Worthy of Your Attention
- Friendly Advice: play safe and have fun!
What to Consider When Choosing an Online Casino
While many things you hear about when researching how to choose an online casino are all important, not all should be considered essential. Players must always check certain boxes before making that first-time deposit. This is because these are the things that help protect players from:
- Gambling problems
- Scams
- Poor-quality games
- Lack of customer service
- Other legal concerns
Before diving into the specifics, you should always ask yourself whether online gambling is really meant for you. When people look into picking up casino gambling as a hobby, they usually have a level of curiosity about what it might be like or what all the fuss is indeed about.
Realistically, if you consider yourself to be a responsible person, you might want just to dip your toe in the water and see if you like it. If not, then you will probably quickly move onto something else. However, it needs to be stressed that gambling must be viewed purely as a form of entertainment and nothing else. You should ensure that you only spend the amount that you can afford whilst gambling.
Gambling Legislation in Your Country
First things first, each country has its own specific view on gambling. Therefore, it is important to check out the gambling regulations of your respective country before taking any further steps.
More specifically, each country will have its own regulator when it comes to gambling. These institutions oversee the conduct of all parties involved in the industry to protect players and prevent any criminal practice, as well as the prevention of gambling addiction. They allow online casinos to operate through their own licensing systems, which brings us to our next point.
Check the Casino’s License
The whole point of this process is to ensure that you are opting for a reputable and trusted casino in the industry. Therefore, when browsing amongst several different online casinos, take a moment to review their licenses.
Some of the most respectable licenses known include the Malta Gaming Authority (MGA), Swedish Gambling Authority (SGA), and Gambling Commission (UKGC), to name a few. These institutions do their utmost to ensure strict regulations are adhered to guarantee player safety. Therefore, only the best online casinos have licenses to operate in these jurisdictions. What’s more, is that more countries are beginning to come up with their own licensing system nowadays. Germany and the Netherlands are the most recent examples of this.
Furthermore, to check which license an online casino has, simply scroll down to the bottom of their website, and you will instantly notice the logo of one of these institutions on display. You can and should click on that logo and thoroughly read through the information provided. You should also assess the legitimacy of the URL, as there have been instances in the past where fake casino websites were set up to look scarily similar to the original.
Blacklists
In addition to the above, be sure also to check whether the casinos you are viewing are blacklisted or not. If any casino gets blacklisted, this is a clear indication that you should stay well away. You can easily find out whether a casino is blacklisted or not by visiting websites like casino.org.
Casinos can end up on a blacklist for a range of reasons. They likely built up a reputation for scamming their players with inadequate payment systems that lack proper security, make players wait ridiculously long periods to get paid, and in many cases, never pay them their winnings whatsoever.
Customer Support
All trusted online casinos offer excellent customer service for their players. This is an absolute must for a variety of reasons. For example, a player might have an issue withdrawing and is concerned that they might not receive their winnings. It is crucial that customer service steps in and solves this situation by reassuring the player. Otherwise, the casino will risk losing the trust of that player.
Our advice would be to test a casinos level of customer service by opening a live chat conversation before registering. Simply try and ask them a couple of questions, see how quick their response time is, whether their answers have satisfied your query, and so on. This is a great way to determine if a casinos customer support team is of a high standard.
Read and Watch Plenty of Reviews
A great way to verify the above points is by reading several reviews. Seeing what the user experiences of other players were like at certain online casinos is extremely valuable when deciding on an online casino.
You can find reviews on various platforms such as Reddit, gambling review forums, and even YouTube. After going through several reviews on a particular online casino, you will soon realise the similarities in user experiences regarding withdrawals, game quality, and refusal or slow payments. If you witness any complaints in these areas, simply rule these casinos out without any hesitation. With the sheer volume of online casinos available, there is no need to keep these kinds of online casinos in consideration.
Reviews in video form are also beneficial. Many find it easier to absorb lots of information through video. This also gives the added benefit of seeing what navigating a specific casino site looks like first-hand before opening your account.
Casino Features That Are Worthy of Your Attention
Now that we’ve dealt with the absolute musts for all players to consider when deciding how to choose an online casino, let’s take a look at the vast range of fantastic benefits that the best online casinos tend to offer. These benefits are what separates a regular online casino from a top online casino.
Convenience
Along with the introduction of online casinos, gambling on games such as online slots became far more accessible. The reasons why are rather obvious, as online casinos ultimately removed the need for casino enthusiasts to make the trip to visit nearby casinos, if they even live close to one, that is.
The best online casinos are now available through desktop, mobile, and apps, making it far easier for players to play at their own pace. For players who enjoy a quick gambling session, opting for the device sitting right in your pocket will trump commuting to a land-based casino, one-hundred per cent of the time.
Fantastic Bonuses and Welcome Offers
The great thing about there being such high competition between online casinos is that they are all bidding for players’ attention. One way in which they do this is by offering highly enticing welcome bonuses when you open an account with them.
Our casinos all offer these types of welcome bonuses and more. For instance, if you choose to sign up with Mr Bit Casino, you will be given a fantastic 150% bonus of up to €300, as well as 30 free spins after a minimum deposit of €10. Free spins serve as a positive gesture for players who are still learning how to play slot games, which is almost like a free hit until you get used to things.
Bonuses and offers do not stop at the signup stage, however. As players continue to play and progress on an online casino, they regularly receive gifts in the form of free spins on specific games, cash bonuses, and the chance to enter thrilling tournaments. Therefore, before selecting an online casino to play at, make sure that their welcome offer includes friendly wagering requirements, including but not exclusive to minimum and maximum bonus amounts and that you’d be able to withdraw the winning with your preferred method of payment.
Great Software Providers
Moreover, you want to make sure that the online casino of your choice offers players the best games around. Whatever the category, be it slots, roulette, poker, jackpots, or tables, these need to be of high quality.
If you are still relatively new to the online casino scene, you might wonder, “Why? Aren’t slot games all the same?” and to an extent, you are right. They are similar in terms of mechanics and functionality, and rules. However, the best software providers in the business, such as NetEnt, Microgaming, Red Tiger, and Playson, constantly innovate to bring these games to life and provide a better overall gaming experience for players.
As a result of this ambition to continuously improve, players now have an endless list of games to pick from, meaning that there is something out there for every kind of player. You can even find slots based on your favourite tv shows and movies! Peaky blinders, anyone?
Anyway, before you register anywhere, make sure you check out the list of available game providers or search for your favourite casino games to check whether they’re available at the specific casinos you’re considering.
That being said, there are other areas of online casinos where high quality is a necessity.
Casino Styles and Themes
Quality also comes into play when considering the style and theme of an online casino. Most casinos tend to have a theme that is uniquely theirs. This can consist of anything really, from space-themed casinos to cyber-themed casinos and many more.
The main point is that themes are something you should also consider when looking at different online casinos. The overall running theme of a casino greatly influences user experience. If you’re a huge Star Wars fan, then you’re way more likely to love a space-themed casino, right?
More than that, casinos need to be easy to navigate, as no one wants to pick a casino that makes it unnecessarily difficult to find specific games, tournaments, calendars, and bonuses.
Tournaments, Promotions, and Social Media Giveaways
Lastly, you should always determine whether an online casino provides its players with regular tournaments, promotions and even social media giveaways. These are the things that will keep players entertained after you wager that initial welcome bonus.
Tournaments are often done in collaboration with the casinos best software providers, and they allow players to enter by playing specific games for a chance to win a piece out of enormous stakes. You can quickly check whether a casino schedules tournaments by checking out their calendar section.
Players should also receive special promo codes, which they can redeem for a number of free spins on specific slot games, and even big giveaways on social media where they can win prizes like game consoles and smartphones. These are all fantastic things to look out for when choosing a casino to play on.
Friendly Advice: play safe and have fun!
In this in-depth read, we covered the main aspects you should research before deciding on a particular online casino. We then discussed a few of the many desirable features and perks that come with online casinos and why you should be excited about it.
The most important takeaway from all of this is that if you are sure about casino gaming being your new pastime, you must always gamble responsibly. Do not wager more than you can afford to lose, do not use gambling as a means of trying to recover from debt. Online casino gambling can be highly rewarding but always comes with a high risk attached to it. So be sure to gamble responsibly and have fun!