I know, I know – I have pledged to write about the future of online casino and only the future of casino, and I assure you, those articles have been prepared and will be uploaded, well… In the future. Hopefully not that far out in the future as to make them irrelevant, but we’ll see how it goes. Still, before that, I decided to address a rather serious issue publicly, inspired by the rather negative experience of a close friend of mine. This friend, let’s call her Rachael, keeping up with the little theme naming we’ve established, is American, while I’m British. We’ve been chatting for the last 5-6 years or so, and let’s just say, she’s probably the only person I know who exceeds my love for sci-fi. We often recommend things to each other, be it books, movies, games or TV shows. And you know me – I’m a pretty big fan of online casino, so I decided to recommend it to her.

At first Rachael was a bit apprehensive, not really being much of a gambler, but I assured her that it’s really more about the game than it is about the money. Finally, she decided to give it a shot, but since we’re part of completely different markets I couldn’t really recommend any particular casino to her, so she had to find one on her own. At first things are going pretty great – Rachael is winning left and right, even getting a jackpot on one of the slots. Her $30 deposit quickly turned into $300, and then into $3000. She was overjoyed! Already planning her next purchases, she attempted to withdraw her winnings, only to be greeted by a message saying that she needed to deposit at least $100 before she would be eligible to get the money she won. “Well, that’s not right”, I thought to myself and quickly looked up the casino she’d been playing at.

As it turned out, Rachael had unknowingly stumbled upon an illegal casino.

It wasn’t like she could know about it – the casino seemed genuine enough, the games worked fine, the deposit went off without a hitch… It was only at the last moment in which she found out that everything had been one big lie. And right now, Rachael (quite rightfully) blames me for the emotional rollercoaster she went through, and is firmly convinced that all online casinos are just shams. And even though you and I both know that’s very far from the truth, it’s rather easy to see things from her point of view. She didn’t just lose money – she was cheated out of them, led to believe that she had won only to have this belief completely crushed. It’s like winning the lottery and having someone steal your ticket on your way to claiming it! Obviously, this is an experience I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. But is it possible to tell a legitimate casino from an illegal one? Yes, it is, and it’s literally as easy as scrolling all the way down to the footer of the front page!

See the logos above? They belong to the Gambling Commission and eCogra, two of the numerous organizations that make sure casinos are legitimate. The Gambling Commission watch out for any fraudulent actions, making sure that gamblers are being paid quickly and properly. If a casino that’s registered with the Gambling Commission is withholding payment or is otherwise being a pain in the neck, you can always contact them and see if you can resolve the matter easily and peacefully. eCogra, on the other hand, is there to ensure that no game hoards your cash. You see, on average every casino game is supposed to pay out about 95-96% of all money invested into it to the players, with the question being whether you’ll be one of the lucky gamblers that gets more than they invested. The organization that makes sure of this is eCogra, by rigorously testing each and every single game on the casino that they’re working with by putting it through several complex algorithms. Keep in mind that not everyone uses eCogra (some casinos opt to use other companies and organizations to test their Return To Player ratios, and a few choose not to use one at all), but every single one is registered with the Gambling Commission. If the casino doesn’t have their logo in its footer, look it up on the GC website. If you can’t find it, stay the hell away from it! A useful resource is this website giving advice on the most trusted Internet casinos. Of course, that’s just true for the UK market – since I’m British, I’m not awfully familiar with what commissions the US one has to regulate its online casinos. As far as I can tell it’s done by several organizations, most notably the Division of Gaming Enforcement, but you should really do your own research about who regulates online casinos in your country before you start looking for a place to gamble.

-Deckard