With the rise in popularity of online casino gambling, there is a growing number of players seeking to try it out. But whenever there is money involved, there will always be people who are a little cautious. So, in this short guide, we’ll look at how these sites operate and discuss the reasons why online gambling is perfectly safe.

All Legal Gambling Sites are Regulated

Every legitimate gambling site must be regulated by the local authorities within its chosen jurisdictions. The licensor will perform a number of checks on the casino before granting the license, and this can include everything from checking the financial and criminal histories of the directors to ensuring they are using legitimate software.

If they break the rules at any point, the casino will be penalized. In most cases, this means they are given a hefty fine, but in some extreme cases, they could have their license taken away from them.

So, your first step should be to check that your chosen casino has a license and that the license applies in your jurisdiction.

There is a Strong Review Culture

It’s very easy to find expert reviews of real money casinos. Even if a casino is only a few weeks old, there will be a lot of reviews out there. These can give you an idea of the legitimacy of a site, while also telling you how good its games and bonuses are. 

More importantly, if a site is an outright scam, the internet will be flooded with warning posts and bad reviews, so you’ll know to stay away.

The online casino community is very active when it comes to reviews, and players tend to look out for one another. So, if you’re not sure about a specific site, Google it. If you find only bad reviews, stay away; if you don’t find any reviews whatsoever, be cautious, and wait until those reviews appear.

All Legitimate Casino Games are Certified

Casino games are created by third-party development studios before being licensed to casinos. These studios, like the casinos that host their games, must be licensed for every jurisdiction in which their games appear. It means they need to undergo strict testing regarding the fairness and security of their games.

Every game that makes it into a legitimate casino has been tested and should display an RTP, which hints at the likelihood of a payout, and a volatility rating, which indicates how frequent/big those payouts will be.

There are Lots of Responsible Gambling Programs

Regulators always stress the need to keep players safe. They prioritise responsible gambling systems, ensuring that problem gamblers don’t have the freedom to deposit and lose more money than they can afford.

The player must still practice some personal restraint, but they have a lot of tools at their disposal that can help them, including:

• Self-assessments to check if they have an issue
• Reality checks to remind them how long they have been gambling
• Deposit limits to limit their deposits to an affordable amount
• Time-outs to let the player take an extended break from the site
• Self-exclusions for the player to ban themselves from the site

There are also third-party organisations that work with many casinos. Players can join these programs to set time-outs, exclusions, and limits, and then apply these across all casinos and other gambling sites in their region.

The Casinos Will Make Money Anyway

One of the reasons people are cautious about online gambling is the belief that the games are easy to rig. It usually goes something like this, “What’s to stop the site from pushing a button that prevents me from winning and takes all of my money?”

There are a few issues with this.

Firstly, as discussed above, there is no button to press, as the casino wasn’t the one who created the game. The developer created it and licensed it to the casino, and the developer cares more about sustaining its business and staying above board than it does about earning a few extra bucks for its clients.

Secondly, they don’t need to.

Imagine that someone gives you a machine that automatically prints around $10,000 every day. Sometimes it’s less, sometimes it’s more, but you always get around that amount. Someone then offers you a chance to increase it by 20% but informs you that it’s highly illegal and will mean there’s a high chance you’ll get discovered, at which point you’ll lose everything.

Would you take the risk? Of course not.

The simple truth is that the casinos profit in the long run. Even if 5 players win big jackpots in one week, there are hundreds more that will lose. The casino profits from legitimacy, as that’s the way casinos are designed. 

Summary: Online Gambling is Safe

As you can see, online casino gambling is incredibly safe, but the onus is on the player to ensure that remains the case. Only use regulated and well-reviewed sites, always look for that all-important license, and gamble responsibly at all times.

Last Updated on March 18, 2024 by soubhik