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How to Pick an Online Casino 
 

The world of online casino gaming is over populated and there is a bewildering choice. So having some selction criteria before joining an online casino is important. The basics are key such as extra bonuses to make you feel like a welcome customer but also reliability, safety, and legallity.

Bonuses
All online casinos and other online gambling sites offer you some sort of bonus and these can be far more complicated than they seem at first. There are basically three types of bonus;
  • Sign-Up Bonus - The operator adds an amount to your account that is a percentage of your first deposit which can be more than your initial deposit.
  • Deposit Bonus - As an existing player you will get a small percentage added to each deposit you make.
  • No Deposit Bonus - Some online casinos operators will deposit money into your account when you initially sign-up with you making a deposit at all and offer free spins no deposit.
All the deposits have strings attached, or terms and conditions. The most important is the no deposit bonus which will require you to bet many times this amount before you can actually withdraw any of it, so may end up losing it all before it becomes real money. Always read and compare these.

Reliability
After much development all the big operators have improved to the point where the software is slick, quick and the accounting side of your account is easy to understand. Big software developers run the stuff under the bonnet like IGT, PlayTech and cryptologic, to name a few. Before signing-up make sure they have full back-up and customer support available every hour of every day. So look for the "contact us" section on the webpage to see if they have a phone number in your country that can called by you just to test out if there is a response.

Safety
So the most important point to consider is whether the site is secure. Check if the URL is http:// or https://, as an https:// site is a site that is encrypted by an SSL certificate. Another indication of whether a site is secure is an unbroken padlock that is displayed in the corner of the browser window.

If you are playing for real money you will use some sort of deposit method, card or Paypal details for instance. So some sort of protection is advisable, there is professional-quality protective software available for free what ever your combination of device and operating system is. You can of course pay for more complete certainty of mind if you need but in all cases we recommend you have security.

Legality
The site you choose should have full gaming licensing from a proper authority like a US state or the UK's Gambling Commission. If you go to the Gambling Commission's website you can see a full list of those sites that have a current license along with those that have had issues. Their terminology for an onine casino or any other online gambling is "Remote Gambling", rather than online. So the list includes operators based in all parts of the world that have been given a license to accept customers from in this case the UK.

Of course here at The Good Gambling Guide we promote sensible, safe and secure gambling at all times. Knowing your limits and sticking to them is important and every site we mention will have details on their pages of help in your location should you need guidance or help. Should you be playing across borders, which is perfectly okay, a little search on the internet will give local contacts if you feel you need them.

Best of luck!.


 

 
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