The Importance of Online Gambling Regulations
When you play in online casinos, you want both: an enjoyable experience and the guarantee for safety. These are things you can find easier if you look for accredited casinos. Gambling, both offline and online, is regulated. The only way a casino gets accredited is by sticking to the rules they have been giving from regulators and governments. Here’s what they need to deliver and what you need to look for.
History of Online Gambling Regulation
Even though the earliest online poker rooms popped up in 1998, online gambling is still a relatively new concept. That’s a mayor part of the reason there is no global unity in online gambling regulations and laws. Even though the online market is theoretically open to anybody in any part of the world, most countries have separate laws when it comes to online gambling. If an online casino wants to open their doors to multiple countries, it needs to stick to the respective regulations of each gambling law authority.
If you are looking for online casinos, try checking out a trusty review site or community like Casinomeister. In this link, you can see their review on the casino website Slotsmillion. You will see their review covers the site’s licenses and how they fulfill their regulations. They also list supported languages and country restrictions. This way you can be safe that you, as a citizen of a specific country, are good to gamble there.
Why Regulate Online Gambling?
Restricting yourself to certain countries or needing to adhere to multiple licensing jurisdictions might sound like a hassle, but it is important for the gamblers’ safety. This is the only way you can make sure, that the person running a website is a reputable organization instead of a faceless mystery that might as well be a fake. By getting licenses, an online casino gives you, their user, proof, that they
- operate lawfully & ethically,
- ensure your safety & safe handling of your money,
- ensure fairness.
Online Casino Regulations
There are many regulations, and they change depending on the licensing jurisdiction. Some of the most popular rules are as follows:
Transparency
An online casino is not allowed to be unclear or misleading in their marketing or terms and conditions. A user should not be led to believe they can win without them knowing all the rules that are connected to the process. This transparency includes that the casino must prove to the regulator, that their games are winnable and fair. These tests are usually repeated often.
Responsible Gambling Tools
An online casino needs to offer their users tools to handle gambling responsibly. Among those is information about gambling addiction and where to find help. A site could, for example, implement self-tests on whether the user’s gambling habit has become an addiction and refer them to mental health advisors. Many casinos have the feature to implement limits, either in the amount you can deposit or the amount of time you can spend playing.
KYC
The KYC, Know Your Customer, check is a bit of a background check on casino users. It’s mostly implemented in the UK, but many sites have a feature that makes you verify your account if you try to make a big enough withdrawal. This way the user proves that he is who he claims to be, that he’s old enough to gamble legally, and that he hasn’t had previous accounts or other shady activity. Usually, you must provide proof of your address and pictures of your documents, like your ID-card or driver’s license and some bank statements or similar.
Safety
There need to be several safety procedures in place. One is the general safety of the website. Since users need to add billing info, it needs to be made sure that that info won’t get hacked. Another safety measure is a separate customer deposit from the casino’s other funds. If the casino were to go bankrupt, the user deposits need to be protected, so they can get their money back.
Ownership
This is a big one. A casino site owner must prove that he is a suitable owner for a business of that kind. Since there is a lot of money involved, the casino scene can attract shady people. If a potential casino owner has a history of crime, especially when it involves money, chances are that they won’t get the license they applied for.
Conclusion
While it’s regrettable that the regulations differ so wildly between legislations, it’s a good thing they are in place. If you want to make sure the online casino of your choice has to stick to all the right rules, you can explicitly look for which license the casino has and which regulations come with it.
