They say that everything has its own share of advantages and disadvantages. We can’t beg to differ when it comes to online casinos. However, online casinos have a long list of benefits over the brick and mortar gamble houses. But tagged along comes a few drawbacks, online casino scams are among them.
In recent years the number of online casinos has grown by a great margin. Of course, the number of online casino scams has grown as well. A lot of people refrain themselves from exciting gambling action out of fear of getting scammed. But if you take care of some basic things, you can easily avoid any possible scams.
How to Detect Possible Online Casino Scams?
Scammers usually have one basic strategy which is to lure you naturally with some mind-boggling offers. Here are the best ways to avoid getting scammed.
- Check the Reviews
This is the first basic rule to avoid online casino scams. Before signing up with any website, use the internet for some research work. Go through the player’s forums and various websites and see what people say about the casino of your choice. Research the legit casino review websites and blogs for the most trustable results.
Reviews can a big scam in themselves. Therefore, remember to not just trust one review, find at least 5 reviews from top websites. Reviews usually cover both cons and pros of a casino. If you come across a review that only portray good things, this could be a scam alarm as no online casino is anywhere close to perfection. Continue your research if you find even a wee bit of a hit of a possible scam.
- Beware of Those “Too Good to Be True” Bonus Offers
The simple fact of the gambling industry is that if something seems too good to be true then, more often than not, it is not true. The welcome bonus offer is a generous gesture to lure new customers. But if a casino is being too generous with it, this might be an alarm for online casino scams.
Generally, casinos offer a welcome bonus in between 150% to 300%. The cash limit ranges between a hundred dollars to up to five hundred dollars at some of the most reputable casinos. If the welcome bonus of a casino you’re thinking to sign up with is much more exciting than this, then there are good chances of you getting scammed.
- Inspect the License
Every online casino should have a valid gambling license to run under certain legal policies and also to ensure secure gambling to customers. The information of the license is available on the home page or about page or under policies. The three gambling license providing authorities are based out in the UK, Malta and Curacao.
If there is no information about the license of an online casino, it is most likely to be involved in online casino scams. The most trustworthy licenses are the ones from the UK and Malta authorities. The most reputable casinos hold the license from more than one body. Under no circumstances should you ever play at a casino that does not have a license.
- Check Payment Options
This one is a clever approach to ensure secure gaming. The best of the casinos have a plethora of funding option available. The most notable options include Credit cards, Debit cards, Mastercard, Visa, popular E-wallets including PayPal, Neteller, Skrill, bank transfer and other popular means like PaySafe card.
If a casino does not support the basic credit/debit cards and popular E-wallets and instead introduces something like ‘Safe Money Transaction Payment Method’, it is definitely a sign of upcoming online casino scams. You should never sign up with any casino that lacks popular payment methods. Also, be careful of Bitcoin scams which are huge nowadays.
- Read Privacy Policies
Before you sign up with any gambling website, you should thoroughly read their privacy policies. Some of the biggest online casino scams involve data stealing by a third party. All the legit casino support a data encryption policy that refrains any third party to have access to your data. Also, they protect your private data like bank details and do not save the passwords and pin.
Every casino that follows the safety measures to protect your data clearly mention about their privacy policies and not just mention, they also boast about their latest data encryption technologies. If you do not read anything about data safety or find that your private data might be used by a third party, this is a clear sign to not sign up with that casino.
- Research the Software Providers
The scammers have become pretty smart over the years. They can fool you with fake certificates and by lying about their services and legit gaming. To avoid the danger of possible online casino scams at the most glamorous of sites, you should most definitely check the list of game providers.
Most of the sites mention the name of their software providers on the home page. At some sites, you’ll have to go through the games to learn about the game providing companies. Some of the biggest providers are NextGen gaming, NetEnt gaming, Evolution gaming, Play’n go, Microgaming, Yggdrasil etc. If a casino has games associated with these companies, then, it is a good indicator of trustworthiness.
- Look for Customer Support
Every legit casino has a 24✕7 customer support with many of them also having the live chat option. Customer support reflects reliability. So, before signing up with any casino, make sure you look for customer support and read about it. If possible, ask a few questions about the casino before signing up to analyse how the support team works.
One of the biggest online casino scams of recent time involves the termination of user accounts without notice. This way the scammers abscond with your money and there is nothing you can do about it. Therefore, it is recommended to also read the reviews about the customer support team of a casino before signing up.
- Check the Blacklist
There are many blacklisted casinos that are running successfully in the market. A blacklisted casino is the one that cannot be trusted. Look out for the name of casino in many lists of blacklisted casinos on the internet to easily avoid online casino scams.