With the mobile gambling casino booming, there are bound to be some bad ‘eggs’ in the bunch. We’re talking about rogue casinos, blacklisted casinos and illegal casinos that aren’t licenced to provide their services anywhere at all.
Luckily, there are some pretty straight-forward and easy steps that you can take to make sure the online and mobile casinos you’re playing at are legitimate, fully regulated and will pay out any winnings that might be due.
Three steps to ensure your casino Is legitimate
1. See if the casino makes it onto any ‘avoid’, ’rogue’ or ‘blacklisted’ lists
The industry of affiliate gambling market is huge, which also means that there is heaps of information out there about casinos that are not worth your while. In fact, not just not worth your while, but ones that you should avoid at all costs!
Google the name of the casino and go through some results, checking to see what the player ratings are, whether the casino is on any recommended lists. Or is it the opposite: are there strong urgencies based on not using this casino at all?
If you repeatedly find the casino with low ratings, listed as a ‘rogue’ site or one to ‘avoid’, then you best do that. Seasoned industry veterans usually know what they are talking about and are best trusted.
So, if you have done a little research and perceive the site as legit, move on to the second step.
2. Check if the casino is licenced and regulated
We’re assuming that you’re playing from the UK, so this is the first check that you should conduct in any new casino that you might be wanting to register at. Don’t trust review sites that direct you to a casino blindly, and immediately scroll to the bottom of the page to check if the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) logo appears. If it does – that’s positive news.
However, a logo is more than easy to plop on ones site to fake being fully licenced and regulated. You must go one step further and locate the licence number in small type at the very bottom. Run it through the UKGC Licencees Database; hopefully the new casino you found is properly licenced.
This will mean that it will be held to the standards and rules of UKGC, which protect you as a player from rogue businesses.
3. Check for predatory bonus terms and conditions
Even if a casino is fully licenced and is legitimate to play in, practically it can still not make much sense for players. Some of the things to look out for are:
- Sky-high wagering requirements
- Few acceptable banking options (i.e. just credit cards and bank transfers)
- Lack of promotions altogether
If you’re a fan of all kinds of mobile slot games and are looking for the best casino to take your money to, it shouldn’t be one that has 100x wagering requirements and can only send you an old-fashion bank transfer when you want to withdraw.
Although that doesn’t necessarily make a casino rogue or automatically blacklisted, such kind of predatory tactics don’t contribute much to the user experience. In fact, it might mean that management doesn’t take their customers in the highest regard and could be looking for ways to legally screw you over.
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