Online casinos are generally safe to play. However, like most businesses that are found online, while you can find some legitimate ones, sadly there are multiple bad eggs around. With several thousand of online gambling sites available around the web, you can be sure that not all of them are going to be legitimate or reputable operations.
Playing games on online casinos is fun, relaxing and potentially profitable, but users should never risk their own safety. This is why it’s so important to know how to identify if an online gambling site is trustworthy and legal for a player.
If you’re planning on playing at any online casino, you should make sure that the website is licensed by its country’s Gambling Commission. Certain regions in the world have specific legislation in place, allowing them to license and regulate companies or entities that operate online gambling sites or provide industry services, such as the supply of gaming software. These regions are referred to as online gambling jurisdictions or licensing jurisdictions. Within them, there’s usually an organization that’s responsible for issuing licenses and regulating the licensees.
These organizations are typically known as licensing authorities. So, if an online operator wants to offer their services, they must go through these licensing authorities as well as a rigorous assessment process, in order to get their hands on a license. And after that, those same licensing authorities will continue to monitor their activities, not only collecting their taxes, but also keeping a watchful eye on whether the online players are treated fairly.
Lastly, it’s important to know where to find these licenses that make the online casino websites legitimate. Most online casinos, such as online casino Canada, will have their credentials displayed in their footer. By scrolling all the way to the bottom of any casino page users should see a stamp, a crest or a name, indicating where the website is registered, showing not only which licensing authority issued the license, as well as in what location the online casino is based.
Most legitimate online casinos are also licensed overseas. All operators based in white listed territories and EEA countries now need to make changes according to the new legislation. But with transitional arrangements, this means that most providers will comfortably meet the requirements of the Gambling Act 2014.