Everything You Should Know About Licensed Online Casinos
When comparing licensed casinos and those that don’t have any license, the choice is obvious. But acquiring permission to operate doesn’t automatically make them honest and fair. Players still should be aware of some tricks licensed casinos might use to generate more profit.
How Licensed Online Casinos Differ From Unlicensed?
Gambling companies must comply with certain rules that ensure fairness and transparency of the industry. When there’s no license there’s no any obligation to run an honest business. That’s why you should always prefer licensed casinos over those that work illegally as they have nothing to lose.
Unlicensed operators offer fake games because they can manipulate RTP leaving players little chance of winning. They won’t be getting any original games as any decent supplier won’t partner with illegal companies.
Good reputation is an asset for any legitimate business and a great motivation to make things right. But illegal casinos do not care about reputation as they can easily change their names and lure more players. Licensed operators also use that trick, but it’s much harder for them to do that.
License Doesn’t Guarantee Fairness
License itself doesn’t mean that casino is honest and fair. There are different jurisdictions that issue licenses and they aren’t equally good. Some keep very tight control over the industry while others just collect money and do not care about anything else. There’s no doubt that players are safer when choosing casinos licensed in strict jurisdictions, but that isn’t always the case.
Malta is one of the main jurisdictions for operators targeting international market. Maltese regulator (MGA) does a decent job maintaining high standards without being overly protective. Players can feel safe when choosing Malta licensed casinos.
Starting from 2018 MGA is not directly involved in resolving casino-player issues. But the regulator made sure gamblers still get professional help by introducing specialized alternative dispute resolution services (ADR). Casino all should work with one of ADRs to resolve any issues with players.
Curacao is probably the most popular option for gambling operators. It’s cheap and least demanding. There are tons of Curacao licensed casinos. But this jurisdiction has quite bad reputation due to lack of control. Many operators still work honestly without regulatory control, while others can cheat to maximize profit.
Players should be very cautious when considering one of Curacao licensed casinos to avoid bad operators. There won’t be any support from the regulator. They’ll most probably have to resolve any issues on their own. Just one of four companies issuing Curacao licenses, Antillephone, is ready to help players when they are treated unfairly.
How to Verify Casino License?
You can read detailed instructions here. In short, there should be a link to the license verification page that specifies the license status, who owns it and what type of services are allowed.
Make sure to check that the verification page address is legit. Check it letter by letter, because some scammers register fake domains that are very similar to official addresses. That way they can easily fool inexperienced players.
Top Licensed Online Casino Reviews
We list only licensed casinos in our rating. To keep it as objective as possible we have variety of characteristics that affect casino ranking and license reputation is one of them. You can read detailed reviews as well as player reviews and complaints that also affect casino rankings.
How Licensed Casinos Can Cheat Players?
Withdrawals are deliberately delayed. This is a common problem. Some casinos deliberately stall withdrawals asking for multiple account verification documents and giving multiple excuses why they can’t process cash outs. But their true goal is to make players cancel withdrawal and lose the money.
Keep in mind that there are cases when operators do have legit problems withdrawing money on time. And in case the problem is on the side of a payment processing company, there’s nothing they can do about it.
Fake games aren’t that common in licensed online casinos, but that’s possible. There were real life examples of operators offering fake slots along with original ones. Even though it’s a rather rare practice, you should be aware of it. There’s a way to tell for sure whether games are fake or not in case you have concerns.
Unfair terms and conditions. Players don’t usually read casino T&Cs and dishonest operators use that to their advantage. They add unfair terms gamblers accept without knowing about them. That’s why you should always look through this document before even deciding to sign up with the casino. The fact that casino is licensed doesn’t mean that everything is fair.
You would also like to read bonus T&Cs. There are some limitations to using bonus credits and once these rules are broken, you can lose your winnings. For instance, exceeding maximum bet limit or playing restricted games. Many operators make it impossible to break those rules, but others don’t do that, and use it as an excuse to cancel bonuses and bonus winnings.
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