Finding the best online casino – what should I look for in reviews?

There are literally hundreds of online casinos available to residents in countries that permit online gambling. With so many operators to choose from, it’s near impossible for the novice or beginner player to decipher which online casinos are offering the best gambling solutions in the most secure environments.

If you so choose, you can make the selection of an online casino on your own. The problem with taking that approach is it will expose you to the possibility of encountering rogue or predatory operators that want to cheat you out of your money. Without the experience necessary to properly evaluate the best online casinos, it might be preferable to leave that to the experts. The experts are the promotional and “watchdog” websites that provide in depth reviews related to most of the major online casinos found on the Internet.

The Review Process

In order for these review and watchdog sites to be able to provide you with useful information about an online casino operation, they will commission one of its experienced site reviewers to investigate and evaluate a targeted online casino. The best reviews will be the ones that provide information in the following areas:

  • Ownership and Reputation
  • Licensing
  • Software Providers
  • Games and Gambling Options
  • Bonus Promotions
  • Banking and Customer Service

If you know what you are looking for and have a general idea related to your expectations, a proper online casino review can indeed be useful in helping you find the best casinos online that figure to best meet your needs as a customer.

What to Look for From a Review

Just reading a review will not be sufficient as a means for helping you understand what you are looking to discover. You need to have a basic understanding of what’s makes for the best online casinos based on the categories mention above. Let’s take a moment to educate you on what you need to focus on for your own benefit. Remember, the objective of a review is to point you towards the best casinos online and away from the bad actors.

Ownership and Reputation – The ownership of a casino is important because most site owners own multiple sites. If you understand the affiliations, you can get a better sense of how the owner operates and how reputable they are within the industry.

Licensing – Under no circumstances should you ever sign on with an online casino that isn’t licensed by one of the major jurisdictional agencies that operate throughout the world. Since most online casino operations are based in Europe, you want to focus on online casino sites that a licensed with the U.K. Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority, or the governments of Isle of Man, Curacao and Alderney. There is a small group of other agencies that are acceptable, but these are the one’s that run the tightest ships when it comes to compliance.

Software Providers – For the best gaming options, you want to focus on casinos that operate on software platforms offered by the most recognizable names in the industry. The big boys are Microgaming, Net Entertainment and Playtech with a nice range of smaller providers like NYX Gaming, Betsoft and Yggdrasil. In this day and age, it’s quite common to find good online casino sites that offer software solutions from a combination of the best software providers.

Games and Gambling Options – Based on what type of games you prefer, the review should indicate what gaming categories each site makes available to its customers. If you like table games, you want to look for reviews that indicate there’s plenty of table games in the offering. Slot players should focus on the popular games being offered.

Bonus Promotions – A good review should give you a good sense of the bonus promotions being offered by each casino. You want to pay particular attention to the welcome bonus packages and the restrictive terms and conditions of each offer.

Banking and Customer Service – Hopefully, the review will indicate which banking options are available in certain areas and a little information related to limits and terms. Pay particular attention to how customer service can be contacted and how well they operate.

By learning to depend on reviews to point out the best online casinos, you will save yourself a bunch of time. Furthermore, you will mitigate the chances you will land on a predatory online casino site that’s intending to cheat you out of your money.