Online Casino

It may come as no surprise to learn that online casinos are growing in popularity at a stunning rate with thousands of new players from around the world signing up with them every day. To match this incredible increase in online business, new online casinos are coming on-stream and opening their doors to members at an equally brisk rate. They are all competing with one another to attract the lion’s share of new members with ever more attractive bonus sign-up offers, incentives and increasingly outlandish progressive jackpots.

The increase in this side of the gambling business is easy to understand, with the relatively low overheads of running an online casino compared with a real world opposite number and the ease with which people can access the games, deposit their bankroll, gamble with it and withdraw their winnings. It is big business and an incredible amount of money exchanges hands on a daily basis.

Unfortunately, wherever there is big money to be made with a legitimate business, there are always tricksters, con men and shysters lining up to take a slice of the action. So it may also come as no great surprise that there are many rogue online casino being opened up for business giving the outward appearance of being legitimate. But they are anything but legitimate and their primary aim is to take money from people in order to line their own pockets.

So how to you tell a legitimate online casino from one of these rogue online casinos? Here, we’ll take a look at what makes an online casino legitimate, legal and safe to deposit your money where you know you will be able to withdraw winnings without any fuss or problems and what the telltale signs are that will show you how to spot a rogue online casino.

The first thing that will alert you to a possibly rogue online casino is its website layout and the spelling and grammar used on its home page as well as in its information pages and articles. Legitimate online casino owners go to great lengths to produce a top quality website to attract new members and they spend a lot of money on designers and content writers to ensure that everything is up to scratch. If you visit a website of an online casino and see poor spelling and the use of poor grammar, it is a sure indication that the site owner has not been so bothered about its outward appearance. This should be an early warning sign that all is not as it should be and give the casino a wide berth.

Also with the website’s homepage, you should check the authenticity of any seals of approval or accreditation buttons or logos. It is easy enough to create authentic looking logos, but when you click on where they link to, you should come to the website of legitimate online gaming authorities. If you are unsure of any accreditation bodies, you should Google them to see who else is using them. You can get comparisons from long standing legitimate casinos such as 888.com, Rushmore Casino, English Harbour Casino or one of the many highly respected online casinos listed in our own reviews. They will display respectable logos such as that of eCOGRA (eCommerce and Online Gambling Regulation and Assurance), the non-profit organisation that only awards its seal of approval to those online casinos that demonstrate fair, honest and responsible gaming, all monies can be safely deposited and withdrawn and security of financial transactions is of the highest level.

Another sure sign of a rogue setup is spam. While most spam will originate from over aggressive affiliates, the legitimate online casinos themselves generally refrain from such practices. Spam is a highly unprofessional way of trying to get people’s attention and a sure indication that the site owners are less than forthright.

Remember that information is at your fingertips on the Internet. Join online gambling forums whose members are all regular gamers who frequent a lot of online casinos. They share information on which are good casinos to visit and also which ones are offering the best promotions etc and which are rogues and should be avoided at all costs.

Lastly, there are also many blacklisting websites online that publish the names of websites that are scams and that includes rogue online casinos. These can be consulted in addition to the online forums to get a full picture of what casinos are to be shunned. However, this type of information can sometimes become tainted by disgruntled amateurs merely flagging a casino because they lost their money fair and square and are looking to vent their displeasure rather than actually report a scam casino. In this case it is wise to consult several different sources of information as well as checking the credentials of any online casino with the several legitimate regulatory bodies that exist for that purpose.

Remember, a legitimate online casino will be only too happy to provide you with all the information you require to prove their legitimacy and enable you to play their games secure in the knowledge that you and your money are safe in their hands.