How to Choose an Online Casino
There are many online casinos, with statistics which reached a market value of $50 Billion by 2017, the online gambling and casino industry is growing thick and fast.
Amongst many other casino players and enthusiasts, you will be left out in the open with probably many options where to play, with few ideas of what may actually be the best online casino for you.
Today we will cover the following topics:
- Security in online casinos
- Variety in online casinos
- Bonuses & Promotions
- Extras
What you want from an online casino
Security
Online casinos come in many shapes and sizes, regardless of the end goal of playing on an online casino, the path to finding the best online casino can be tricky. Security should be of your concern when choosing where to play online.
Security comes in 3 different forms and there isn’t always a best way but there are a few things to keep in mind.
- Licenses
- SSL
- Payments
Online Casino Licenses
Let’s start with licenses, the pinnacle of what makes an online casino legal and trustworthy.
Licenses are essentially obtained from government entities which will audit and properly check through the working and processes put in place by an online casino. They are often not cheap and will come at the cost of not only capital, but hours of work and refined business established products which are in place to ensure that the company exists and has a level of security achieved ensuring everything from fair play through so fair payouts when due.
Most countries have their own governing establishment for online casinos, however licenses can cover multiple countries or can accept players from other countries, so long as that country has deemed the license put in place by the online casino/other government entity is fit for fair play and proper business practices.
Notable & popular licenses include Curacao Gaming & MGA (Malta Gaming Authority)
Currently the more popular gaming licenses and they do tend to cover most players from european countries with a few exceptions.
SSL
Online casinos are in need of an SSL (Secure Socket Layer) this is a feature which ensures that you connect directly with the casinos server via the internet, with little chance of any “man in the middle” attacks. This provides a secure stream of information to and from the casinos which you will be playing your money at, keeping you safe from other people hijacking your online session.
There should not be a situation where you play on an online casino without an SSL certificate valid on the website, end of story, not up for discussion, not even slightly.
Payments
Payments in online casinos come with many variations and at the end of the day, you should be looking for them to have a solution you have been comfortable with, be it anything from paypal to bitcoin. The speed in which the payout happens will depend on the casino and the payment provider, so be sure to take these things into account when opening an account with an online casino. Essentially your payments are as secure as the payment provider you choose, so its recommended that you should aim for one which you have used before, in order to keep comfortable and let this part do the work all neatly and securely for you.
Variety in Online Casinos
Online casinos typically offer multiple games and other gambling options which may include things like sports betting or bingo. Casinos often tend to cover generic slot games and some interactive table games, however longevity of your lifetime depends on a few factors and one of them probably will be, what can they offer you as a player?
Does the online casino cover:
- Slot games
- Live casino
- Sportsbetting
- Esports betting
- Scratchcards
- Bingo
- Lottery
Checking not only what verticals of gambling are offered could be useful, but then even finding out for example what providers are offered per game category.
Slot games have countless amounts of providers (game studios) and choosing one which has a nice mix of your favourite game creators should be high on your priority list.
Live casino should be split into multiple games and game variations, so essentially nailing a few standards like blackjack, speed blackjack, roulette is pretty obvious. However the online live casino sector tends to produce some extra variations of games and choosing an online casino which caters for these variations, eg. 21 +3 or three card poker, will be quite exciting.
As for all of the sports betting, you ideally want to make sure your sport is covered and enough to get all the smaller leagues should you be interested. After that’s done, just be sure that you have the option to bet on live sports, this way you can keep involved and raise the intensity of the match you are watching.
Bingo is pretty straight forward, it depends on how many variations of games they have which often come down to things like columns and rows, design and the occasional special features.
Lottery can be online or land based, sometimes a mix of both. Choosing a relevant one to you is purely personal preference, however if offered, Lottery tends to have a lot of draws you can dip your hands into.
Online casino bonuses and promotions
Before we delve into bonuses and promotions, it’s important to know that you DO NOT need to take these bonuses or promotions and can play without, however it may decrease your casino lifetime and playtime.
This part is key to what should make you pumped to play at an online casino and in past experience, some casinos can increase your playtime drastically with many options available to you in the forms of casino bonus and promotions.
Essentially bonuses and promotions are the same thing, but we often refer to bonuses as the initial offer you get upon sign up (better known as a casino welcome bonus) and promotions tend to be referred to as how the casinos extend your fun and essentially keep your casino career going.
Like online casinos, bonuses come in many different shapes and sizes depending on the casino you have picked. They have many different clauses which are there to ensure that not just everybody wins €1 million and bankrupts the casino off the bat.
So, what do these clauses tend to cover and how does that affect you?
These clauses will often limit you to certain games which you can play the bonus money or free spins they give you and will almost always have a wagering requirement you have to meet before being able to withdraw the bonus amount of money which you will have theoretically not earned, but have been given for free.
So let’s take a standard deposit bonus into account here. The online casino youre looking at offers you 100% upto €300, this means that you can deposit upto €300 euros and the casino will match your deposit and give you an extra €300 euros as “bonus money” which you will need to wager that money multiple times over before you can withdraw it. Essentially a lot of players sign up, grab the bonus money, see if they win with it, then choose to decide how much they want to wager over before that money can be withdrawn, looking at it this way, is obviously adding other chance factor into your potential profit margin but it can pay off in the grand scheme of things very well if you hit big.
Online casino promotions will often include deposit bonuses which tend to be smaller versions of welcome bonuses. Sometimes when a new slot game is launched it will be paired with X amount of free spins for you to try it out and see if you like it. You will also possibly come across free bet promotions for sportsbook or generic bonus money to be played on live casino, however often casinos come up with their own special promotions which can be quite exciting.
Extras
So put simply, extras come down to things which are just made by the online casino to improve your overall experience and enjoyment. This could be something which is forming part of the design or possibly something which works into your gameplay. Casinos can come with things like gamification which will essentially serve like achievements similar to how a games console has achievements or trophies, however they may reward you with something more than just being acknowledged by giving you better deals or even just straight up freebies as a congratulations for achieving a certain goal inside the online casino.
Design should be a bigger part of choosing an online casino, however I have chosen to write it into the extras section as I believe that everything else should naturally be covered and design essentially would be part of something which you either just like or don’t from the get go.
To finalise
There are many and multiple choices still yet to be made which are going to essentially contribute to an overall love for the online casino you pick, however at the very least please do take online casinos security.
In addition, below are a list of our top picks of online casinos, with exclusive offers provided only to us, for your enjoyment!
