What to look out for BEFORE you Play
Online casinos can be incredibly rewarding to play in, but like any journey worth taking there can be pitfalls along the way – so here are some tips that will help to give you an easy ride:
Always make sure your chosen casino operates from a UK Whitelisted country: All EEA (i.e., major European) countries plus Alderney, Antigua and Barbuda, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man and Tasmania make up this list, and casinos operating from them have to meet certain standards set down by The Gambling Act 2005.
Secondly, you don’t want your bank details falling into the wrong hands, so you should only play at casinos that use P128-bit SSL encryption techniques. All reputable casinos use this and will make it clear on their site that they do.
At some point it’s quite likely that you’ll need to contact your casino with a query. Some offer 24/7 chat, email and telephone support – whereas others offer limited support during working hours. Make sure before playing that they’re happy to deal with queries promptly.
Bonus offers need to be looked at carefully, too: often these seem too good to be true, matching your deposits with additional funds, however any substantial bonus will come with a requirement to gamble your deposit and bonus over a certain number of times before you can claim anything won using the bonus – often up to 40 plus times, with only selected games (mainly slots) counting towards the amount you need to gamble. So if you prefer table games, or want to keep your winnings from the outset, check out the bonus terms to make sure they suit you.
Once you’ve won some money that you want to claim you’ll want it paid out promptly, so make sure you pick a casino with a decent reputation for payment. Many will insist on putting your winnings in a Reverse Pending Account, retaining your winnings for a week or so just in case you decide you want to gamble it all away with them, rather than keep it. Others will only use a small number of payment methods that take a long time – anything longer than 5 working days should be avoided. Amazingly, some may simply not bother paying you at all until you threaten them with legal action – you shouldn’t encounter these if they are Whitelisted members, but check on some player forums first to make sure.
Going with a name you know and trust is always a good idea if you aren’t sure: for UK players, familiar names like Betfred, William Hill or Virgin are all excellent choices – you don’t have to go with the first casino that appears on Google, and it usually pays to shop around…
Visit www.casinoscout.co.uk for more casino tips and strategies.
