What are Online Casinos?
Online casinos enable visitors to play games such as video poker, blackjack, roulette, craps, and slot machines. At most modern, online casinos, players can play for either free ("credits") or real money.
There are three types of Internet-based casinos:
1) Casinos with downloable software: these online casinos typically have the slickest game play (e.g., the graphics, animation, and the reliability of game play tends to be better). The down-side of having to download the software is that it takes time to download, and some unsavory casinos will download bots on your computer when you download their software that will enable them to spam you in a variety of manners in the future.
2) Casinos with Java or Flash software: this type of casino runs on your web browser (e.g., FireFox); however, the games tend to take the same amount of time to load as it would have taken to have downloaded the software in the first place. The game play of Java/F;ash casinos tends to be better than HTML casinos, but not quite as good as downloaded casinos.
3) Casinos with HTML software: this type of casino also runs on your web browser. Games tend to load pretty quickly, but game play is very limited. There are not too many HTML casinos around anymore, because they are considered technically backwards nowadays.
In order to find a casino that best matches your needs, check back to Bet Pool's list of approved online casinos frequently, we will guide you to the fairest casinos with the best games, as well as bonuses, on the net. We do make affiliate commissions when you click on our links paid by the casinos that we have listed on this site (that's how we stay in business); however, we do our best not to let that impact our judgement when writing our reviews.
Where are Online Casinos?
Most online casinos are licensed in the following countries: Antigua, St. Kitts, the Dominican Republican, Costa Rica, Curacao, the Isle of Gibraltar, Cook Islands, Malta, and the UK. In these countries online casinos are legal; however, they must be licensed and thereby report to the local governemnts.
That said, many offshore casinos operate from the US; however, over the last three to five years, they have re-locaed their servers offshore. Many small countries enable casino operators to pay them a licensing fee (usually between $50,000-$200,000) and then the companies pay them taces. In this manner, the companies boost local economies.
The legal situation in the US has encouraged many online casinos to re-located offshore, as the Senate, led by a bipartisan group, has moved to ban internet gambling. The Online Gambling Prohibition and Enforcement Act of 2006, came down particularly hard on online casino operators. The act targets casino operators, not end users, primarily by restricting the manners in which they can process payments.
Some online casinos no longer accept bets placed by US residents; however, many still do (some online gambling analysts estimate that 50% of online gambling still comes from the US!).
How do I play at an online casino?
Before you deposit any money at a casino, you should carefully examine Bet Pool's reviews for four items: current casino bonuses (including bonus wagering requirements; many casinos require you to wager the money a certain number of times before it can be withdrawn, frustrating we know), which many casinos are reticent to disclose!), quality of game play, fairness of game play, and quality of customer support. By choosing casinos that offer the largest bonuses (free bets), you can minimize some of the risks of betting. After you have used the first-time deposit bonus (either lost it or achieved the bonus wagering requirements, it often makes sense to leave one casino for another, so as to take advantage of another large first time deposit. You should look for casinos that are in growth mode (e.g., actively trying to expand their market share), because they will tend to offer the largest bonuses.
After you decide that you would like to play at a particular casino, you need to visit the site and sign up/download the software. Most casinos do not require you to give them a name and address (we would advise that you do not). You will simply receive an account number and password, which designates your account.
After registering, you will be asked to deposit money. Many casinos will encourage you to deposit money via one of several payment processors, including Western Union, EcoCard, Neteller, PaySafeCard, or via cashiers checks, wire transfers, money orders, or credit cards.
If you would like to use a personal check, you generally need to get prior approval from the casino. In this case, your money will not be available until your check has cleared.
Casinos generally enable you to withdrawal money using the same options that you can use to make deposits. If you deposited money using a credit card, then we would suggest withdrawaling money back to the credit card (many casinos will let you do this), because this tends to be the fastest and safest way to make withdrawals.
Are online casinos FAIR?
Interestingly, the top online casinos tend to be more fair than their brick and mortar counterparts with respect to payout rates for table games, video poker, and slot machines. In many of the aforementioned countries or jurisdictions, the betting platform's code must be submitted to the government for a thorough assessment of fairness. Generally, the gambling company also has to be guaranteed by one of the big eight accounting companies (e.g., PriceWaterHouse). Additionally, to even receive a gaming license, it means that a government has received a casinos background and management. Many casinos take out fraud insurance, because players can sue them (in the country where they are licensed), if they are scammers.
The reason that online casinos often have a higher payout rate than their brick and mortar counterparts is because the environment online is even more competitive (think about it, you can go to any casino online; you are restricted by geography when choosing a brick and mortar casino). Moreover, the profit margins at online casinos tend to be higher than those found at brick and mortar casinos, so they can afford to be more generous.
That said, be careful and only play at casinos that have stellar reputations. A few online casinos are known to have scammed players in the past. Let us check them out for you and only play at Bet Pool approved casinos to try and protect yourself against scammers!
What can you do, if you feel like an online casino has scammed you?
Many consumers who have a problem with a casino and contact them about it, have the problem resolved in their favor. If a casino gets a bad reputation online, it can kill their business. However, if an internet casino does not resolve an issue quickly, there are other measures that you can take.
Foremost, you can lodge a complaint with the Interactive Gaming Council, which will probably be effective if the casino in question is a member. If it is not, then you may have to result to poting your complaint on gambling forums. Problems have been resolved in a consumers favor through forum posts in the past. If you feel like you are scammed, please contact us at admin@betpool.com. We will do our best to help you in any way that we can and warn other gambling consumers not to go to the offending casino in the future.
If you have any other questiuons regarding the fairness of specific casinos and so forth, please do not hesitate to contact us at admin@betpool.com. Best of luck!