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Online Casino Review Criteria
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Here are some of the most important
criteria used.
Just click the link for for detail on each.
Some of the less important criteria used
are...
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| Payouts |
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| Customer service |
This is what we look at:
- Is there a toll free number?
- Is there customer service 24/7?
- How helpful is customer service?
- Is there live chat facility?
- Is there a proper email and fax support?
- Is there a customer service line for foreign
countries?
The answer should be a 'Yes' for every question above for good
online casino.
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| Bonuses and promotions |
This is what we look at:
- Are the bonuses clearly defined?
A casino we evaluated had a fantastic starut-up bonus. Later on we
found out from a disgruntled player that you had to play to a
certain dollar amount (which was larger than the bonus itself)
before you can actually withdraw any money. The worse thing was that
this was not mentioned anywhere on their site. After months of
trying to get her money back, the player was eventually successful.
- And of course how big are the bonuses?
- Are there bonuses for the 2nd and 3rd deposits as
well?
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| Loyalty and VIP programs |
- Is there a loyalty program which lets you get more
bonuses for being an active player?
- Is there a VIP program for high rollers?
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| Customer complaints |
| Many internet gamblers email us complaints about online
casinos they played at. Some of these complaints do not hold water.
However, some can be traced to the casinos negligence.
We have succeeded in helping several gamblers by
either pointing out the solution or by contacting the casino management
ourselves.
If you have complaints about a certain casino please
feel free to let us know through our online form in out Casino
Complaints Form page.
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| Years in
business |
| The number of years in business is a good indication of
trustworthiness and entertainment value of an online casino. A casino
with bad software or below average payouts will go down within 2 years.
We have seen casinos go out of business or be sold out to another
management due to software and payout issues. |
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| Software used |
| Most people think every online casino site uses
different software. This is far from truth. There are a handful of of
different casino software makers that license their software to most
gambling websites. The casino software is customized for various
licensees/websites but only at a cosmetic level. The gaming core itself
remains the same.
We would
suggest you to stick with the most reputable casino software
providers. They are listed below.
Click the links for a detail of each software.
Click here for a list of ALL casino software
providers.
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| Government approval |
| The business that owns the casino website
must be approved by the government where the business entity resides. We
haven't found a single casino website that is illegal in this matter. |
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| Games audit |
It's
imperative that every online casino maintain an accurate monthly
transaction audit. Pricewaterhousecoopers, Inc. is an
accounting firm that keep track of such audit trails.
Good online casinos publish monthly special reports that state the
percentage of payouts (being the percentage of winnings to wagered
amounts as shown by the data log files) of their games.
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Inc independently reviews these payout
percentages.
Visit Platinum
Play for an example of an audit.
eCOGRA (E-Commerce and Online Gaming
Regulation and Assurance) is another company that awards a "Players
Seal of Approval" to those internet casinos that have demonstrated:
- Fairness in games
- Honesty and responsibility
- Secure deposit history and,
- Timely payments.
Check out Havana
Club for an example of an eCOGRA seal of approval.
The Kahnawake Gaming Commission is
another expert group that carries out regular reviews to check the
standards of certain online casinos. An accreditation from their
National Fraud Center is a pride for any online casino.
Check out Royal
Vegas for an example of the Kahnawake seal.
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| Casino reputation |
| Casino reputation is based on many
factors including but not limited to customer testimonials, awards,
articles written by experts and, of course, their popularity. A rich
casino can obviously spend more money to propel its reputation. However,
this can also be seen as an assurance that the company is financially
sound and is not going to fold tomorrow. |
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| Terms
and Conditions |
It is a well known fact that nobody reads
the terms and conditions. Why ?
- ...because they are often too
complicated to understand
(T&C are written up by lawyers representing the casinos and are
made to protect the casinos from lawsuits from unhappy players)
- ...because they take too much time to
read.
Somebody has to read them. So we did.
Interestingly enough, T&C's contain some of the most important
information that every player needs to know before signing up with the
casino. A lot of time, T&C's contain information relating to payment
of your winnings. How will they pay? How long will it take? What if you
are outside the US? What if you are in US? What is the cash in limit? Is
there a quota on the minimum number of wagering of your purchase before
you can cash in? Are wagering requirements different for certain games?
etc.
We are not going to say that you should
always read the whole T&C, but we suggest that if you don't find any
particular information anywhere on the site, then you should look into
the casinos' T&C.
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| Improper
business practices |
Some casinos might spam you with emails
while some might use Spywares. Others might just have unclear or
deceitful wordings on their Terms and Conditions. Whatever the case
might be all of these are business practices of cheaters.
Most online gamblers, for instance, are unaware of Spywares. Spywares
are software that get downloaded with some casino software..We won't go
into the details of Spyware. All we will say is that they are used to
manipulate your computer usage. For more details on Spyware visit Security-Forums. |
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| Payment methods |
Here is a list of the most common payment
methods:
VISA, MC, Amex, 900Pay, BankDraft/Check, Citadel, Click2Pay, DinersClub, EcoCard, FirePay, Gaming Card, InstaCash, InstantDebit, MoneyBookers, Neteller, Prepaid ATM, PaySafeCard, Pay Spark, UseMyBank
and Wire Transfer.
Neteller is probably the most popular among all the deposit methods.
We award more points to casinos who provide more payment as well as
withdrawl options. |
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| Languages supported |
We are talking about the language on the
website here. Most of the casinos are in English and that is fine for
most people gambling online. However, their are many who don't feel
comfortable with English, if not do not understand English at all. For
those people, a casino website in their own native tongue is a blessing.
The most popular common languages besides English are German, French,
Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Portugese, Italian, Russian, Greek,
Turkish and Dutch.
We consider the multi-lingual websites to be superior to a single
language ones. You might think one language is good enough., especially
if you understand English. You are absolutely right for your purposes.
However, think of it this way. A multi-lingual website has dedicated
more resources than a single language website. This kind of customer
service oriented dedication shows for their commitment in other facets
of the business as well. |
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| Interactive Gaming Council membership |
| IGC or Interactive Gaming Council is a
non-profit organization founded in 1996 that was created to establish a
forum of global interactive gaming entities. An ICG membership, in our
opinion, shows a commitment on the part of casinos to a fair and
responsible business practices. |
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| Reliable gambling portals'
testimonials |
| There are various casino portals on the
net that have managed to study online casinos. Some have even
experimented and proved some software as cheaters. Of course, we do not
believe each and every portal. However, there are certain websites that
we have personally contacted and we find to be reasonable in their
research. We do consider their casino testimonials to be trustworthy and
match it with ours re-enforcing our evaluations. |
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| Privacy policy |
| Privacy policy is in regards to your
personal information. Most casinos will not share your information with
any third party. However, some do. Some offer you options, while some
just blatantly share information with a third party without your
acknowledgement. We prefer to rank the last mentioned kinds of casinos
lowly. We still suggest you to read their policy if you have the
patience. Otherwise, simply go with the casinos we
suggest. |
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