With an endless choice of online casinos out there, it can be difficult to know the best and safest places to play and bet. There can be massive differences between one online casino or sportsbook and the next. How they treat your data, use encryption and get licenced are just a few of the aspects you’ll need to consider before you sign up and start playing.
So how do you know what to look for safety-wise when choosing an online casino or sportsbook? Don’t worry my friends, in this mini guide we will give you the full lowdown on what you need to be aware of when choosing the next place to ply your gambling skills.
Where is the casino licenced?
This is an easy one to start with. Any casino worth playing at should be licenced to comply with local legal requirements. But just having a random licence isn’t enough as there are some unscrupulous licencing bodies out there.
Therefore, it’s always the best idea to find an online casino with is licenced in your own country or the country where you are jumping online to play. Being locally licenced will help to protect you as the site will need to adhere to the rules and standards set by the licencing organisation.
If you are playing in the UK for example then look for a casino which is licenced by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). They have some of the strictest standards in the industry and this will help keep you safe when playing and betting online.
Look for a secure site connection
When you load up a casino site, be sure to take a look in the address bar of your browser. If the website is secure then the address should start with “https://” and have a little padlock symbol next to the URL.
The letters here stand for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) and this is a standard used across the internet to give users a safer online experience. It basically ensures that the website is encrypted to offer extra protection.
If the casino does not show this in the address bar then it’s not a great idea to start playing there. Move on and find a trusted gambling site which does show an https:// address.
High-quality encryption of passwords
When you sign up to any casino or sportsbook you’ll need to create a password. It’s important to know that the site is storing that password safely and securely to avoid it getting stolen and shared by hackers.
Look for online gambling sites which list solid password-encryption amongst their benefits. No one at working for the gambling site should have direct access to your actual password to keep things extra secure.
If this isn’t offered then anyone could gain access to your account without much hacking knowledge and therefore all your personal and banking details could be at risk. Not good.
Keeping your details safe and secure
You can end up giving a lot of personal data and details over to online gambling sites, especially if you have been through their full verification process. Sometimes it might just feel like they know more about you than even your best friends do.
You really need to know if all that data is being kept safely and securely by the site you are choosing to play at right now. Any gambling site worth its salt will have the same level of data protection as a bank. All details should be secure and only accessible to employees for who it is essential to their work i.e. an anti-fraud department.
Use trusted payment methods
Handing over your financial details to an unknown casino is a very risky thing to do. You need to be sure that the payment methods that are accepted on the site are ones that you have heard of and trust completely.
If you don’t feel 100% happy entering your details into an unknown payment portal then don’t do it. Always be cautious when inputting your details. Ensure that methods like Mastercard or Visa are accepted by the site.
You could use an online payment ewallet such as Skrill or Neteller to top up your bankroll. This helps to add an extra layer between your bank and the casino by not sharing your account details with them directly.
Read casino reviews
A little bit of research can go a long way when it comes to putting your trusting into an online gambling site. There is no shortage of review sites around these days which can offer up the pros and cons of each individual brand.
Just a quick search for the name of the site you are thinking of playing plus the word ‘review’ at will come back with all you need to know. Take some time and see what others are saying about the site, especially in gambling forums.
Just a few minutes spent doing this will give you a much clearer idea of the character of any gambling site and how far you can trust it with your hard-earned time and money.
Where is the casino licenced?
This is an easy one to start with. Any casino worth playing at should be licenced to comply with local legal requirements. But just having a random licence isn’t enough as there are some unscrupulous licencing bodies out there.
Therefore, it’s always the best idea to find an online casino with is licenced in your own country or the country where you are jumping online to play. Being locally licenced will help to protect you as the site will need to adhere to the rules and standards set by the licencing organisation.
If you are playing in the UK for example then look for a casino which is licenced by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). They have some of the strictest standards in the industry and this will help keep you safe when playing and betting online.
Get some anti-virus software
It’s a great idea to have the latest anti-virus software installed on the device which you are using to log in to a gambling site. There are plenty of nasty virus programmes which can lurk around in the background on your laptop or PC without you knowing. They might be lying dormant waiting for you to visit a gambling site with poor security before causing havoc.
Negate this rick by installing and updating some respected anti-virus software which can seek out threats in the background. You can even get add ons to your browser with will help to flag up potentially dangerous sites.
Be email savvy
Spam and phishing emails are a massive problem these days. A lot of email programmes, such as Gmail, are good at filtering it out but it’s still easy to get fooled by genuine-looking spam emails.
The best advice is never to click on any links in emails, even if you think that they are the real deal. Go directly to the casino site and deal with any issues there via the live chat so you can be sure you are not being duped.
