As iGaming is growing more popular, more and more people are playing at online casinos. Some of them play for fun, while others are hoping for that one payday that will solve all of their problems and allow them to retire in Hawaii. Regardless of the motives, online casino safety should remain high among your priorities, if you frequent such sites. There are too many examples of people falling victim to scammers and losing their money. Fortunately, there are ways of playing your favorite casino games and staying safe at the same time, just by following these safety tips.
Check for License
Legitimate online casinos operate under guidelines issued by the authorities of the country where they are registered. For the United Kingdom, that is the Gambling Commission, which also regulates National Lottery. UKGC is responsible for regulating all commercial gambling in the country and the rules they enforce are rather strict. The information on licensing should be located under “About Us” on casino sites. Check their physical address and registration details as well, while you are there. All this should be done even before you make an account with them. If anything seems fishy, just walk away. Fortunately, there are many legitimate sites where you can gamble with your own money and not risking your winning ending up in the wrong hands.
Check Casino Safety Records
Obviously, a company won’t list failures and safety breaches on their sites, so you may have to look around to see who you are dealing with. There are review sites that host users’ experiences with almost all top online casinos and checking them can be worth your while. You can see their ratings and check their reputation. If there was any major problem in a casino’s history, it will appear here and you can decide for yourself what are the chances of it happening again. If you are a beginner, we would recommend that you play it safe and use only top-rated sites, at least until you learn about the industry and see who you can trust.
Read the User Agreement
Yes, we all just click next on these things, but with so many scammers out there, it may be wise to actually read the user agreement before agreeing to it. Pay special attention to the fine print, as they say, and read carefully the part about payments. Are the terms reasonable? Will they make you wait for your winning? It is easy to overlook these details and you may end up agreeing to some things you are not comfortable with. Another important part is what will they do with your personal and financial data, like banking and credit card information. These are very sensitive and you don’t want to risk them and falling to some unsavory characters half a globe away.
Never Download Anything
This can’t be overstated. Most online casinos are web applications. This means that they will work just fine on your computer without the need to download anything. Downloading unverified software from the Internet is one of the biggest sources of computer infections and security breaches. Even if you trust the site completely, think twice before downloading and installing software from them. There is simply no need for that. There are so many examples of people infecting their computers with various malicious software like Trojans and worms that find sensitive data and sent it back to their creator. You don’t want to end up like one of them.
Choose Your Payment Options Carefully
Many banks and credit card companies offer fraud protection to their customers. With that protection, it is usually easy to recover your money in case the worst happens. Unfortunately, most of them won’t extend protection to cover online gambling sites. You should check with your provider if you are eligible for it. Since those are usually the most secure payment methods, it is a shame that many people can’t use them. Another option is one of many e-wallets. You will have to do some research on them and see which ones your casino accepts payments from.
Use your Sense and Go Slow
The old saying that “if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is” is especially true for online gambling. Now and then you will come across an unbelievable good offer that you just can’t miss, like a promise of a 500% bonus if you just sign here. Not only you can miss it, you must. There are no 500% bonuses in the real world, period. Anyone promising you something like that has no intention of paying it. Instead, it is just a honeypot designed to separate the gullible from their money. It is up to you to decide whether you fall into that category.
Adhering to all these safety tips just to play at an online casino may sound tedious. Trust us, the alternative is much worse. If you want to avoid being just another online scam victim, you should abide by these rules, especially if you are new to the world of online gambling.
