The majority of online casinos are reliable and legitimate, but
as with most things there are a few unscrupulous casino operators
and they have to be avoided. There are several things to look
for when looking for a safe casino:
Make sure that the casino is secure (look for the yellow padlock in the status bar of your browser when signing up or playing games and web addresses starting 'https://'). This ensures that your data is being safely encrypted between your computer. The web site should quote 128bit encryption somewhere.
There are several common sets of games used by online casinos, Microgaming, OddsOn and RTG are the most common examples. These programs are used when you play games and they can be a separate program from your browser or can be Flash games played from within your browser.
A good way of checking on the quality of a casino is to test out its Customer Support team. Be wary of any online casino that doesn't offer you 24 hour 7 days a week customer support.
Make sure that the casino web site looks professional. A quality casino web site cost a lot of money.
Most casinos are members of independent committee organisations. Check for mentions of this on the web site (usually on the main page) indicated by images. Go to the web site mentioned and check they're listed.
These guidelines are not 100% foolproof but can help you to judge the good from the bad. The best thing to do is to keep your eyes open when looking at casino web sites and if anything doesn't feel right think twice.
The casinos listed here have all been reviewed and every effort has been made to make sure that they're safe for you to use. Most of the casinos listed have been in operation for several years and have had consistently good reviews.
Finding a casino that lets you pay how you want to is pretty important. To start with you'll probably need to pay some money into an online casino account. The following are the most common ways to buy chips in online casinos.
Credit Cards - no surprises here, Visa and Mastercard credit cards are accepted by most online casinos. The secure and encrypted nature of today's online casinos makes transmitting your details over the web a safe option. When playing at your online casino you simply enter your credit card details and wait for the transaction to be confirmed. Then you can get started play the games.
Firepay - works in a similar way Paypal by acting as a trusted intermediary between you and your online casino. You sign up for an account at www.firepay.com, register your credit card details and you then make a deposit into your Firepay account of an amount between $5 and $5000. The money then sits in your account until you wish to use it (you can withdraw it at any time). You can pay at virtually all online casinos and also receive pay-outs directly to your account, all without handing out your credit card details to anyone other than Firepay. Firepay differs from Paypal in that funds must be deposited before using them, whereas Paypal payments are made on demand from your credit card.
ClearChex - available to US residents who have checking accounts and allows you to pay money to casinos in the same way you would with a cheque, but without the need to actually write or send a cheque. First register for an account at www.clearchex.com and your computer will be set up to allow you to use the service. You will then be able to make payments using the ClearChex account with payments being taken from your checking account the same day. When you sign up the ClearChex system registers details about your computer, you and your checking account. You are only able to use that computer to make payments using ClearChex.
Western Union - money can be sent using Western Union's money transfer service either from their web site at www.westernunion.com or from any of the 100,000 agents worldwide. The process is reasonably simple, just set up your details, decide who you're sending the money to, pass on payment details and wait for the money to be transferred. This system works well because you can pay from your computer (currently in the US only) or from your local Post Office (or other nearest agent). Western Union is also an organisation with a trustworthy and safe reputation, so security and reliability is not a worry.
ACH (aka Automated Clearing House) - a way of transferring funds electronically from one bank account to another bank account. In this case you will probably be paying money from your account to an online casino or having your winnings paid back to your account from the casinos account. You will be able to select ACH as your payment option when playing games for real and all this requires is for you to enter your bank account details and the casino will do the rest! Some online casinos will give you a free bonus for using ACH as a payment method. ACH is only available to US residents and it may take several days for the payment to clear.
Cheque (aka check) - some online casinos allow you to pay by cheque. Its not all that common because you actually need to mail a cheque to the casino and wait for it to clear. It takes time but is still an option.
Postal/Money Order - works in the same way as the cheque option, but you can pay by cash at your bank or your Post Office and then mail it to the casino. Again its probably not the fastest way of paying to play online but it works.
Once you've signed up you'd be foolish not to take advantage of the free bonuses offered to new customers. Details of the current bonus promotions on offer are usually shown quite prominently on the main page of the online casino's web site and further details are normally available on a separate page of the site. Make sure you follow the rules about claiming any bonuses offered by the casino. You'll often need to sign up and then register for the bonus using a form somewhere on the web site. Follow the rules and you'll get your hard earned free credits!