How to Use Online Casino Reviews to Your Advantage!
Posted by Harry Kane on Friday, January 12, 2024
When you head online in search of a virtual casino in the digital age, you’ll find more than 2000 operators currently active in the UK. However, not all of these entities have been created equal, while some may also be unlicensed and active in the industry’s burgeoning black market.
The good news is that you can use online casino reviews to help inform your choice of site. Whether you use objective casino review sites or the published first-hand experiences of players, however, it’s important to understand precisely what you’re looking for if you’re to make the most of such resources.
#1. Identify the Most Important Datasets and Information
This should always be your first port of call when appraising online casino reviews, as you must come to rely on those that offer comprehensive datasets that are the most relevant to you. After all, you’ll have your own individual tastes and preferences when gambling online, so you’ll have clear priorities when selecting an online casino to play out.
The challenge here is that your interpretation of key information points may differ from those around you, while the reviewer in question may also have an alternative set of priorities when gambling online. In this respect, comparing casino reviews is meaningless unless you understand what you’re looking from an online operator.
Of course, there are also some generic pieces of data that all players should focus on, particularly those pertaining to welcome bonuses, customer service and viable payment methods. When it comes to welcome bonuses, it’s important for players (especially beginners) to seek out reviews that explain the structure of each promotion and the associated wagering requirements.
This enables you to understand the precise amount of cash that you’ll have to play through to unlock any potential bonus winnings, with this often set at anywhere between 20 and 50x the total value of the bonus. Of course, higher value bonuses tend to come with inflated wagering requirements, so it’s important to prioritise offers that enable you to bet within your means.
It will also help you to understand specific game weightings, as there are some that don’t contribute 100% to the wagering requirements and may require you to bet more to access your winnings. These include games such as blackjack (which have a high RTP rate) and live casino titles, which are becoming increasingly popular when wagering online.
When it comes to payment options, you’ll need to know how to process deposits and withdrawals when playing at a particular casino, particularly if you favour one method over the others on offer.
In some cases, you may also find that the terms of specific bonuses and promotions require you to credit your account using specific method. Similarly, some methods charge a transaction fee, which can eat into your bankroll over time.
#2. Focus on Detail and Plug Any Gaps in Your Knowledge
Of course, there’s a huge difference between objective, professional casino reviews and those that are penned by individuals. However, each can be equally insightful, whether you want to obtain a broad insight into a specific operator or identify unique perspectives that reveal something new about a casino.
Overall, we’d recommend prioritising reviews based on their level of detail, in relation to your own expectations when gambling and any gaps that exist in your knowledge and experience. For example, let’s say that you’re relatively new to the market and have minimal understanding of how to register with an online casino and claim welcome bonuses.
In this instance, you’ll need to seek out reviews that guide you through this process at specific casinos, with step-by-step instructions and tips on how to guarantee a seamless experience. The same principle applies to processing deposits and withdrawals, especially if you’re unfamiliar with the terms and conditions associated with casino sites and bonuses.
On a similar note, it’s crucial that you seek out reviews which are tailored to suit your existing level of experience, as this enables you to strike the right balance between accessing relevant information that’s also easy to understand. Otherwise, you may find yourself struggling to get to grips with industry jargon and terminology, making it hard to comprehend the information being provided.
We’ve already touched on terms such as ‘wagering requirements’ and ‘game weightings’, and while these will be known amongst seasoned gamblers, they can be complex and confusing to newcomers. Failing to recognise or understand these can have a detrimental impact on your gambling experience, but reviews can help you to get to grips with new or unfamiliar terms.
#3. First-hand Reviews of the Casino Experience
We’d definitely recommend reading detailed and well-written casino reviews, so long as they’re published on a reputable site and objective in their nature. However, it’s also important to supplement the information found in this type of review, ideally with first-hand and first-person feedback that has been delivered directly by individuals who have played at the casino.
You can find this on some independent review websites, with universal platforms such as Trustpilot also offering access to first-person customer reviews of specific iGaming brands. While these reviews are subjective and not always well-written, they at least offer an insight into a particular player journey or experience that unfolded on a real casino site.
They can also highlight precise issues or advantages that may have been left out of official reviews, enabling you to make a more informed decision in some instances. By reviewing a number of different first-hand reviews, you can also identify key trends and draw insights to help you make a decision.
The key thing to remember here is balance, as while paying customers are objective by nature, they have specific experiences that create a subjective mindset. More specifically, they may have had an unfortunate experience pertaining to a withdrawal or customer service interaction, but there’s no real way of determining whether this indicative of the brand in question or simply a one-off aberration.
Ultimately, it’s important that you draw from several different casino reviews, including those that are official and others which have been generated directly by users. By aggregating these types of data and insight over time, you can appraise online casinos more thoroughly and get a far greater idea of what to expect as a player.