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Rigged: Tips to Check if Your Online Casino is Legitimate

Published by admin on April 18, 2018

In the competitive world of online casinos, there are bound to be one or two sites that set out not to provide a fun gaming experience, but to steal from the poor players who don’t suspect them of wrongdoing. These unscrupulous casinos are well known in online circles and are generally called ‘rogue casinos’, but how do you know if the casino you’re planning to join is rigged or not? We’ve highlighted a few of the key things to look out for in this article, have a quick read and make sure you familiarize yourself before signing up with a new casino that sounds like it might be crooked.

Check Licenses – There’s one thing that all legitimate casinos will have in common – they’re going to be licensed. The license goes a long way to confirm that the site you’re playing on is legitimate and most casinos will have their license easily located either on their front page or on their ‘About Us’ page. Therefore, it makes sense, before you join or commit in any way, that you make sure you check that the site you’re looking to join is licensed: a lack of a license means you’re effectively throwing money at someone you don’t know and they could easily be a criminal looking to steal your identity. Checking the license is the very first step in the process but it’s well worth doing even if the casino is a big name you recognise, just so you know what to look for from a smaller one too.

Check the Terms and Conditions – This is the step after the license because, whilst it’s unlikely, an unscrupulous casino might have managed to sneak something into their terms and conditions that will have a negative affect  on the games you play despite still being fully licensed. The major thing to look for is their fairness statement – this will guarantee that the casino is committed to keeping things as fair as possible and gives you more confidence that the casino itself is operated above board.

Read reviews – Having a look through the reviews for a site is a great way to get a range of opinions about a casino that you may not have otherwise found. While there may be a few 5 or 1 star reviews that are obviously not indicative of the actual experience, and are published for a purpose, in general you’ll be getting the most accurate representations of a casino from the reviews. If you see numerous people talking about games being rigged or about bad experiences, it could be a sign that you need to dig a little deeper to make sure the site’s not one that’s out to scam you.

Check blacklists – Whilst there isn’t an official list of casino sites which are rogue, there are a handful of high quality sites that help to collect all the reviews into one location and keep a database of casinos that have gone rogue in the past. Much like casinos themselves though, it’s not a good idea to take each casino site at face value just in case there’s an ulterior motive behind a review or blacklisting. Testing the waters to see how well an aggregate site is viewed in the casino community is well worth doing before you accept their verdict as fact. Checking multiple sites to form a properly rounded picture is a good way to avoid falling for a biased review.

See if audit results are published – The process of obtaining a license requires that a site’s random number generating software is audited and checked to prove that the numbers it provides are truly random. This randomisation is reflected in an audit that’s performed by a trusted third party to prove that a site provides random results. While not every auditor will publish the results of a site, some will give you a few figures such as how often a casino pays out and the magnitude of payments. If that information is available, make sure to have a look – nothing can help ease fears of a rigged casino like seeing proof that they do cash out.

Check for Awards – This is more of an icing on the cake situation, but if a casino has won an award from a major governing body, the odds are pretty good that the casino is legitimate. Winning serious awards, such as those from the IGA, will stand as proof that a casino has to be high quality and is recognised among its peers as such. With that in mind, the odds of them going rogue are fairly slim and makes the choice to use them seem a little safer so, if you can find a casino that has some awards under its belt, that’s a good indicator of their trustworthiness.

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If you follow these steps, and use some common sense, you’re sure to stay safe in your choice of casino!