Spending time and money on modern casinos requires careful consideration of every step. While online gambling is a fascinating hobby that can provide thousands of hours of entertainment, there are many scams out there in the industry. That’s why, in this article, we’re focusing on tips to spot and avoid scammers. These tips are beneficial for those just starting with gambling, as most fraudsters target inexperienced people who are more likely to fall for scams.
Play in Regulated Online Casinos
Before we get into the types of scams and frauds you should be aware of, it’s crucial to mention the importance of gambling in regulated and licensed online casinos. Most reputable casinos tend to have a valid license issued by one or more iGaming jurisdictions – various regulatory bodies that oversee online gambling and casinos in certain territories. They are in charge of ensuring everything runs smoothly in compliance with online gambling laws and regulations.
Obtaining an online gambling license is not easy: it requires money, resources, effort, and time to meet certain requirements. These usually include proper security measures, guaranteed randomness in games, responsible gambling tools, and many other factors the platform needs to accomplish.
This means the brand is willing to prove itself as a reliable online casino that won’t try to scam its customers. All the most popular and well-known gambling platforms have some license. While this doesn’t necessarily mean you will get scammed if playing in unregulated environments, you are infinitely likelier to have a bad experience with those brands.
Another vital thing to remember is that licensed platforms don’t always guarantee that you will have a good time. There are dozens of regulatory bodies, some doing a better job than others. For example, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission, the Curacao eGaming License, the Malta Gambling Authority, and iGaming Ontario are all reputable bodies known for excellently enforcing their strict protocols and rules.
Watch Out For Bonus and Promotions Scams
Now that we’ve discussed the most critical step to staying safe while playing in casinos, let’s focus on specific scams and frauds. For starters, bonuses and promotions are notoriously famous for sometimes tricking players into spending money and eventually losing it.
The promotion concept that enhances a player’s gameplay experience has become a staple in the online gambling industry. In today’s age, finding a casino that doesn’t offer a welcoming package, reload bonuses, or cashback is almost impossible.
Most players pick casinos based on the type of bonuses they offer. This feature’s popularity has led to many rogue casinos’ fraudulent practices regarding their promotions. All the bonuses you will encounter have wagering requirements you must fulfill before you can cash out your winnings.
This standard procedure protects casinos from players exploiting the bonuses, but in most cases, the brands exploit punters. Those seeking bonuses on different platforms may encounter wagering requirements that are impossible to accomplish.
Many brands have started imposing such requirements to make more money by consciously setting impossible tasks for players to fulfill. That’s why you commonly see promotions that seem too good to be true. They more than likely have ridiculous requirements that you won’t be able to beat.
We recommend always reading through the bonus terms and conditions for every promotion you want to claim to avoid this. Every regulated gambling environment will have a list of conditions you can read through and decide whether or not depositing money will be worth it.
Plenty of beginner punters don’t take this step, as reading all the terms of service seems boring and annoying. That is how they are scammed, so avoid irregular play and canceled bonus winnings.
Confirm Randomness and Fairness
Next up, we recommend always checking and confirming whether the games are certifiably random and fair. You probably won’t have to worry about this when playing in licensed casinos, but there have been some instances where even these platforms proved to modify games to their advantage.
You will mostly see this being done in digital games such as online slots, video poker, and crash titles that are increasingly popular. Nobody would gamble knowing that these products are rigged at the casino they are playing, so that’s why you should always confirm the randomness yourself.
The easiest way to do this is by checking whether or not the brand has been audited by a third-party organization dedicated to proving fairness. These are usually displayed at the bottom of every casino that has been audited, and you should be fine finding it.
Recently, we’ve also seen plenty of online casinos incorporating the provably fair system for players. This fantastic feature allows you to check the legitimacy of RNG for every game you decide to play. If the system is available, all you have to do is copy every game’s key and check it against dozens of third-party websites designed to check the authenticity of the Random Number Generator.
Choosing Legitimate Software Providers
In the world of online gambling, hundreds of software development studios create all the amazing games we love to play. Amongst those are legendary names like Pragmatic Play, Evolution Gaming, Playtech, and countless other lesser-known studios.
While playing games from unknown studios doesn’t necessarily mean that you will have a bad experience, you are more than likely to have a much better time by spending time with reputable and trustworthy providers. If you encounter a casino offering only games from lesser-known and obscure software providers, you should keep your money private.
Like gambling platforms, software developers are also issued various licenses from the same regulatory bodies we’ve discussed. These bodies look at everything the developer produces and ensure that all the games they develop are player-friendly and fair.
Avoid Frauds With Reviews
If taking all the steps above to avoid scams still leaves you unsure about specific platforms, we highly recommend you use the internet to your advantage by reading user and outlet reviews. Luckily, there are thousands of websites dedicated to reviewing all the online casinos.
Reading the player testimonials can help you find which gambling environments will treat you fairly the most. Punters won’t be incentivized to lie if they’ve had a bad experience with a specific brand. They will write and upload all of their dissatisfaction to various websites.
If you don’t trust the general public, then reading professional reviews might be the best way for you. Apart from customer testimonials, you can read through what veteran gamblers had to say about certain online casinos. These people have a ton of experience in the industry and can tell you which websites will be worth your time and money in the end. In most cases, they are paid to thoroughly research everything, so you can be sure that no stone will be left unturned and that what they say is true.
You can also use these reviews to read up on specific software providers’ games. As the industry is coming out with new casino products daily, it’s good to see what people say about them before depositing the money yourself. Doing this will take you up to a couple of minutes, and it can save you from a lot of trouble in the long run.
Conclusion
These were the most important tips for punters to avoid scams in Canadian online casinos. By following our guide, you are bound to find a gambling platform that will suit your preferences without taking risks. Make sure that you are always spending time in a licensed environment, as that is ultimately the most crucial step for you to take. Scams and fraudulent activity are mainly encountered when players are spending money in a casino that doesn’t have any sort of quality assurance and regulation.
