Online Casino Evaluation Criteria

How do we select the online casinos we feature on this website? The most important factor is our industry knowledge and our relationship with online casino operators. Secondly, we screen and test each online casino operator according to the online casino evaluation criteria set out below. Thirdly, our own experience of playing at the online casino plays a major role. 

The basic criteria for selecting a good online casinos include licensing jurisdiction, financial backing, stable and secure ownership, software partners, professional website and usability, reliability, selection of games selection and fairness, years in operation, industry reports, reasonable but not suspiciously large bonuses for registering, promptness in processing cash-ins, quality and knowledgeable customer service, security and privacy of information, audit trails of financial transactions and wagering activity and simple and transparent explanation of terms and conditions and game rules. So, what we are saying is it is no good to assume a casino is good because of the software it uses.

1. Years in Operation and backing

We only recommend online casinos that have been in operation for three years or more. It has been our experience that if an online casino can survive longer than three years, it is more likely to remain in business. Three years is also enough to spot dishonest online casinos.

The online casinos has to be owned and operated by a gaming company with a good reputation  and solid standing in the marketplace. We will not feature online casinos where there are doubts about the people involved.

2. Software

In short, casino software has to be licensed from a reputable vendor. This is easy. As far as we are concerned, were are only comfortable to recommend online casinos using the Playtech, Microgaming and Cryptologic platforms. These are high quality, reliable and secure platforms, with software providers who screen their operators and enforce strict audit controls.

There is one exception though. Breakaway and Sci-Fi Casinos use the Real Time Gaming platform. We are not great supporters of this platform, there have been too many horror stories., However, this casino operator has worked very hard to establish a clean slate, and we trust them enough to recommend them. 

These casino platforms all utilize a Random Number Generators (RNG) audited by third party auditors. The casino operators are not in a position to set game odds and influence the RNG.

3. Security, Fairness and Confidentiality

Casinos recommended by us support 128 bit digital encrypted security. Payout percentages of each individual casino have to be audited and published monthly. We need to be sure that measures are in place to keep all the player's information confidential. This involves systems and processes used by the operator. 

4. Licensing Jurisdiction

There are over 70 online casino licensing jurisdictions. Very few of them enforce strict probity requirements and controls on their licensees. This is w shole topic in its own tight. Read more about online casino licensing here. 

We only recommend the following licensing jurisdictions, there may be others that are effective, but we do not know of them at this time:

• United Kingdom and Isle of Man
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Kanawhake, Mohawk Territory, Canada
• Antigua and Barbuda
• Curacao, Netherlands Antilles
• Costa Rica does not have a great reputation but is cleaning up its act. We only recommend Sci Fi and Breakaway Casino from this jurisdiction.

5. Cash In processing 

Responsiveness of the online casino to process cash in requests is critical. Anything longer than 48 hours is unacceptable. The process should be simple to understand and not have and silly terms and conditions. this is the single most controversial issue in the industry. Slow pay and no pay can not be tolerated and we make it our business to expose bad practice in this regards.

6. Independent Audits

Most land based casinos are subject to strict audit requirements. Because of such a fragmented licensing environment, online casinos are not always required to have accredited third party audotirs. However, in the more established licensing jurisdictions this is a requirement, with independent auditors such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers performing audits of software integrity, hardware stability and payout percentages. 

7. Customer Service

This can not be stressed enough. If an online casino gets everything else right, but have bad service, they are simply not an option. Many online casinos have been working very hard on their customer service as players have become more demanding of good service. If service hours are not 24x7 you have to ask yourself if the casino is worthwhile. We scrutinies service, having been involved in operation of casinos before. It is easy to see if the cracks are simply being covered, or if it is a true world class service organization you are dealing with...

8. Payout Percentages

Payout percentages should be reviews monthly by independent auditors and published on the website. If the payout percentages are not published, or the casino can't provide them, move on.

We will remove a casino if for some reason it appears as if they are consistently posting low payout percentages (This has happened on a couple of occasions). 

10 Industry Associations

We also look at the industry bodies that an online casino belongs to such as the IGC (Independent Gaming Commission) and eCOGRA (e-Commerce Gaming Regulation Association - an initiaitve by PriceWaterhoueCoopers and Microgaming). In our view, there is not yet a truly independent and effective industry body, but membership does signal an intention on the part of the casino to be transparent.

A final word. Trust your gut. If something does not feel comfortable, like difficult to undersnand terms and conditions, it will be wise to move on. There is enough choice out there.

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