5 Things To Consider When Choosing Online Casinos

There are literally thousands of online casinos out there. Choosing the right one that fits your personal needs can be quite tricky. If you are new to online gaming, you should not get discouraged from playing online by making the wrong choice and get stuck with an online casino with poor customer service, limited payments methods or unpopular games. So here are a few things to keep in mind. This guide will assist you and help to make a decision.

Licenses for Online Casinos

Every serious online gaming site nowadays needs a license before it can start to operate. When money is involved, banks or payment processors won’t accept gaming companies that do not have a proper license. Depending on where you live, the regulations and laws for online gambling might be very different. Some countries prohibit online gambling services while others show great support in the gambling industry. The best online casinos and gaming sites are not based where you think they might be. In the USA or Australia, you will not be able to find any online casinos for example. Many of the best online casinos are licensed in quite remote locations like Malta, Curaçao or Isle of Man. For you as a player, it is very important to check if the casino is offering their services to players from your country. Otherwise, you might get into trouble during the verification process or when cashing out. Good casinos will have this type of information published on their website which brings us to the next important topic…

Customer Service

If you think the website looks very informative, and you don’t see any issues in the beginning, at some point, you might need to have someone to speak to. And ideally, you want to contact them in your language. As many casinos serve a global audience, 24/7 support is not unusual. So that’s what you want to look out for! Beware, some companies use automated bots to reply to your queries. So you can try to ask them a few basic questions before signing up, so you get a better understanding of the quality of the customer support. It should not be difficult for you to contact them in the first place. Whether it’s via Live Chat, phone or email — whatever you prefer.

Payment Methods used by Online Casinos

So before you can start playing, you need to deposit funds. While this is usually a very straightforward process, you should invest some time, and you should see what kind of deposit and withdrawal options are offered, and in particular — what are the fees? And another very important but often overlooked thing: How long does it take for them to process your transaction? Withdrawals can take between 2 and 7 business days, depending on the involved payment processors or banks. Before casinos can confirm your withdrawal they usually have to verify your identity. That’s a standard procedure. To speed things up, you should have a clear copy of your ID or passport ready and a recent utility bill as well. You can save a lot of time, so you don’t have to go back and forth with the customer services representatives. There are limits on how much you can withdraw per week or month with some casinos. Beware of these limits or choose a casino without a maximum withdrawal amount.

Online Games

As many players, you probably already have your favourite games. On most casino sites, you do not have to deposit straight away. You can see all available games before. So you can easily check out everything and make up your mind if you like the offered games, or you want to look somewhere else. A lot of casinos are using the same technology and software providers. So for example NetEnt is one of the biggest software providers with more than 200 game titles. Another popular provider is called Microgaming — they have over 800 casino games, ranging from roulette, slots, video poker, blackjack and other games. While searching for a casino, you will see the same kind of brands popping up all the time — which is great, so it’s easier for you to compare.

Bonus and Free Spins

So in case you don’t know about it, here is a little secret about online casinos. Almost all of them offer a first time deposit bonus to welcome new players. Some casinos even give away bonuses for the following deposits but that’s not usual. However, there are casinos that do frequent promotions — once you are signed up with them, you will get this type of information to your mail inbox. There are different types of bonuses. The one most common doubles your initial deposit by 100%. So in case you are planning to start with $100, they will top up your available funds by another $100, and you will end up having $200 in your account. That’s pretty awesome, isn’t it? Usually there is a limit for that, for some casinos it’s $500, $1000 or even $5000. No rule of thumb here. In Addition to the deposit bonus, most likely you’ll get some free spins, too, which is a great way to try out slot machines. So by now, you are probably asking yourself what’s the catch? Now you should read carefully as this part is confusing a lot of new players.

These bonuses are being added to your account instantly, but you can not withdraw these bonus funds straight away. In order to cash out parts of the bonus, you have to meet the wagering requirements. Each provider has their own rules — you can read them up in the terms and conditions or just ask the customer services representatives.
Usually it works like this: you need to wager the bonus amount a specific number of times until the funds are unlocked.
These bonuses are a great way to hit the ground running without spending too much money in the beginning — however, keep in mind that you can’t withdraw it straight ahead.