The Ultimate Guide to Choosing an Online Casino

Posted by Harry Kane on Saturday, October 31, 2020

Interestingly, the gross gaming yield (GGY) for the gambling industry in the UK was measured at £14.3 billion in September 2019, with this number having declined by 0.5% from the previous six months.

This represented the first decline of its type for many years in the industry, and it came despite a significant increase in the revenues generated within the iGaming space.

More specifically, the total GGY for remote betting increased by 4.3% during the same period, while an online casino yield of £3.2 billion was 3.9% than in March 2019. Incredibly, the GGY for remote bingo soared by a staggering 12.5% during the six month period, showcasing the overall health of iGaming in challenging regulatory times.

In the year ending September 2019, the iGaming market generated just under $5.5 billion across the board, with growth in this sector driven by numerous verticals and an ever-growing number of operators. In this post, we’ll help you to navigate this market, while providing an ultimate guide to finding the perfect online casino!

The Basics – Start by Finding a Secure and Licensed Site

Let’s start with the fundamentals; as you should never play at an online casino or wager your hard-earned cash unless you can verify that it’s fully licensed, regulated and secure.

In simple terms, any casino that operates in the UK market (regardless of where it is based) must be fully licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC), which ensures that it meets the regulator’s guidelines and some of the most challenging criteria in the global marketplace.

Not only this, but the operator is also required to publish this information in detail on its website, while ideally providing its official license number, registered address and details of any other licensing agreements that it has entered into.

Typically, you can find this information towards the bottom of an operator’s homepage, although it may also be featured as part of an ‘About Us’ page or a similarly dedicated page.

In simple terms, this paragraph should include details of the licensing body (or bodies) that the brand is associated with, and as British-based player it’s most important that the UK Gambling Commission is listed here.

The corresponding license number should also be listed for your reference, and you can check these through this portal if you want to verify the details further. This should be followed by the registered office address, which should pertain either to the brand directly or the parent company that officially owns the license.

Once you’re able to distinguish between licensed casinos and rogue operators, the next step is to explore other security details pertaining to encryption and the available payment methods.

As a general rule, a secure and reputable online casino should boast 128-bit SSL encryption as a minimum, with this offering an insight into the size of the encryption key used to protect data as it’s passed between a web browser and server.

In purely mathematical terms, this would be expressed as two to the power of 128, providing an incredibly complex and robust level of security that’s virtually impossible to hack by even the most skilled and well-equipped cyber-thief.

It’s possible that some casinos may offer higher levels of encryption, but a 128-bit SSL key remains the industry standard and should offer more than adequate protection overall.

This can also impact on every single stage of your journey as an online gambling enthusiast, from creating a secure password to processing deposits and withdrawals without any complications at all.

This also brings us neatly onto the issue of payment options, as these should offer the ideal balance between security, convenience and the ability to process rapid withdrawals.

The most secure payment methods include Visa debit and the Paysafecard, the latter of which offers a prepaid option that can be used solely for the purpose of online gambling and is only likely to feature cash for the purpose of gambling.

Arguably, this offers greater levels of security than a Visa debit card, which may require you to store your unique card details on a particular site.

PayPal is another incredibly secure option, albeit one that isn’t always available at online casinos in the UK. However, this only requires you to enter your bank details on one occasion, safeguarding this data when making multiple payments over time.

The same principle can also be applied to popular e-wallets such as Skrill and Neteller, although these are even less widely available at UK casinos (depending on regional restrictions). They may also be subject to charges at some sites, while they’re often excluded by the terms of specific welcome bonuses.

We’re also seeing an increase in the sheer number of Bitcoin and crypto casinos in the UK, with this unique and cutting-edge payment method capable of creating tremendous transparency and anonymity to players alongside the elimination of processing fees.

Not only this, but cryptocurrency is also thought to boast even more robust levels of security, thanks to the complex mining process and encryption that underpins digital tokens.

Overall, these are definitely amongst the most secure online payment methods, as accounts can be loaded directly with funds from your bank to power seamless and worry-free transactions.

Ultimately, we’d recommend identifying secure and licensed platforms that offer a diverse range of verified payment options, as ideally you’ll have at least a couple of methods that you’re able to use.

Reviewing the Customer Service in Terms of Availability and Efficiency

At this stage, you should have access to a raft of secure and trusted casinos, and the next step is to deliver a little deeper into the iGaming experience that they offer.

This can vary wildly from one platform to another, and there are a handful of factors that impact greatly on this.

Customer service is one of the most important, as this can be delivered through numerous channels and face various restrictions in terms of accessibility and response times.

As a minimum, you should strive to identify an online casino that offers a live chat feature, and ideally one that’s accessible 24/7. The reason for this is simple; as it provides free and readily available support that can help you to resolve urgent issues in real-time.

If a live chat has limited availability within specific working hours, this may leave you high and dry at times and could even cause issues in terms of withdrawals and account management.

The best operators also offer a 24/7 email address, through which more complex and non-urgent queries can be channelled for a more detailed response. Some casinos will also confirm receipt of your message with an automated text, while the average response time for the most customer-centric operators tends to be within two hours or so.

The only issue here is that most operators won’t respond to live chat messages or emails unless you’ve already registered for an account, and this makes it difficult to test the quality and responsiveness of each channel.

However, if you don’t want to register your details and take the time to test the channels directly, you should check out some comprehensive and independent casino reviews to measure one operator against another.

This will help you to understand the quality of customer service and its consistency, while also identifying any underlying issues that may otherwise be ignored.

Although some operators still offer support over the phone, you should always check to ensure that the number provided is toll-free. Otherwise, you could end up paying over the odds for support, without necessarily receiving the speed or quality of service that you desire.

There is one customer support element that you can usually check without an account; namely its FAQ page.

This should be readily accessible and contain detailed answers to the most common and generic queries, while the information should be provided concisely across as wide a range of issues as possible.

This can be an important and underrated resource, and one that can save you huge amounts of time (and potentially money) when learning to navigate a new site and manage your account.

The Speed and Cost of Payout

We spoke earlier about available payment methods, each of which tends to have its own average time for processing deposits and withdrawals.

The time-frames for the latter can be particularly variable, while it’s important to note that each casino will have its own internal processing procedure and time for clearing withdrawal requests from customers.

For example, withdrawals made through e-wallets typically take less than 24 hours to complete once they’ve been processed internally by an operator. In the case of Visa debit transactions, these can take up to 72 hours to complete on average, while online bank transfers may take a little longer still.

However, some brands may take anywhere between 24 and 72 hours to process your withdrawal request internally, while this may be extended in instances where operators don’t address payments during the weekend.

This has a significant impact on the process, and once again, you can use independent and first-hand reviews to check out a brand’s accurate withdrawal times and their capacity for accepting payments internally.

Even more importantly, you should note that some operators continue to charge a fee to process your withdrawals. This practice is increasingly being outlawed in the UK, but it’s something to look out for a player as it can seriously eat into your bankroll over time.

This is particularly true when making relatively small or nominal withdrawals of £10, with the average fee of £2.50 representing a reduction in your winnings of 25%.

And Finally – Understanding the T&Cs of the Welcome Offer

In an increasingly competitive iGaming market, brands often live and die by the quality of their welcome bonus.

This certainly has a direct impact on their ability to attract new players and compete for a viable market share, but you should note as a player that nothing may be as it seems when presented with a welcome offer for the first time.

So, before you commit financially to the best casino bonuses, it’s imperative that you review its full terms and conditions while considering the experiences of other players.

OK, we hear you ask, but what should be your biggest areas of focus? Well, the most important is the wagering requirements associated with the bonus, which dictate how much you’ll have to play through before withdrawing any winnings generated as a result of the offer.

There are two things to look out for here; namely the size of the wagering requirement (which is displayed as a multiple) and its structure.

The structure of the offer is very important, as wagering requirements can be expressed as a multiple of either the bonus funds added or the total value of your cash deposit and bonus.

As for the multiplier, this typically varies between 20x and 60x of the specified value, usually depending on the precise terms applied. For example, an offer may apply wagering requirements of 35x the total value of the deposit and bonus, whereas another may promote terms of 60x the value of the bonus funds only.

For example, let’s say that you deposit £10 to open your new account and receive a further £10 with which to play. Under the first wagering requirements of 35x the total value of the offer, you’ll have to play through £700 before making a withdrawal of any associated funds.

Conversely, applying wagering requirements of 60x the bonus funds in this instance would create a playthrough amount of £600, with this providing a superior value proposition overall.

So, be sure to review these terms in close detail before making a decision, while calculating your exact wagering requirements based on the amount you want to deposit.

It’s also important to consider the game weightings, as some titles may not contribute towards meeting these wagering requirements. This usually applies to table and live casino games, but you may also find that some slots don’t contribute 100% to requirements either.

On a final note, check out the length of time that you have to meet your wagering requirements. This is often fixed at 30 days, but there are instances where this may be shorter (meaning that you have a limited and unfeasible window in which to meet the terms).