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Criteria
for Selecting a Casino
Reprinted
with permission from "Gambling On the Internet"
by Geoff Mangum, 16 November 2000
Selecting a casino is
partly a matter of personal preferences and partly a matter of
common-sense safeguards with one's funds. The basic safeguards
require that the casino be honest, fair, reliable, within reach of
the law or otherwise amenable to dispute resolution and
enforcement, and financially sound.
Every site worth
gambling at has its rules of operation, especially for financial
transactions, clearly spelled out at the site. You need to read
these rules carefully. There are significant differences in the
rules from one casino to the next. In any case, without a firm
basis to rely upon the casino for honesty and fairness, the appeal
of the games in terms of aesthetics, entertainment, challenge, and
profit means nothing.
The basic criteria for
good online casinos are licensing by a reputable jurisdiction,
bonding and insurance, stable and secure ownership, a solid gaming
developer for a licensing partner, site appearance and esthetic
appeal, ease of navigation, reliability of site against system
interruptions, games selection and fairness, longevity, popularity
and number of regular satisfied customers, reasonable but not
suspiciously generous bonuses for signing, promptness in payouts,
no hidden transaction fees, quick crediting of deposits and
winnings, telephone support with courteous and knowledgeable
staff, secure transmission encryption technology for financial and
personal information, complete audit trails for dispute resolution
over wagering, and clear explanations of gaming rules and
financial rules. Even casinos owned by the same owner and based on
the same gaming software have different appearances, rules, and
staff.
By all accounts, the
most important selection criterion is the responsiveness of the
casino to problems and requests for payouts. Casinos that have
friendly, helpful telephone representatives receive the highest
marks from gamblers; those with only email communications receive
lower marks, especially if response time averages over 24 hours.
Today, payout response time varies widely, from excellent sites
that guarantee same day service to sites that deliberately
footdrag while stockpiling sufficient operating cashflow to make
payouts on the installment plan.
Many gamblers
"test" payout responsiveness with small initial deposits
and requests for payment, to judge administrative response and
delays. In general, it is also probably not a good idea to allow a
large balance to build up at a casino; it is not necessary, since
your betting patterns should be stabilized in terms of bankroll
and stake size. You also should inquire during the selection
process about accounting and payment of accrued interest on your
funds held by the casino on account.
The appearance of a site
means more than one would suspect. This is because visiting an
online casino is probably more of a long-term proposition than one
anticipates, given the general difficulty of selecting a casino to
begin with and the matter of downloading software. In addition, if
the appearance looks "cheesy" it probably indicates a
lack of substantiality and commitment in the site, and this is a
red flag. Sites that devote time and resources to elaborate (even
3D) design of the website's appearance are more likely to be
around when you have a problem or want your winnings.
While casinos are
required to submit documentation of their software as part of a
licensing process, the rigor of this oversight varies
considerably. Ways to gauge the software are to stick with casinos
that use systems popular throughout the industry (one large
developer supplies 40+ casinos), to look for substantial oversight
by regulators (such as Australia), to check for membership in an
industry trade group that requires gaming accountability and
openness (such as the IGC),
to check with watchdog groups for complaints or software testing,
and to ask the casino directly about gaming software and the house
edge.
Live casinos are
subjected to relatively rigorous checking of gaming software
algorithms and hardware integrity. The average payouts of Las
Vegas and Atlantic City casinos, for example, are regularly
reported by state gaming boards based on reporting and inspection
activities. In the case of online gaming software, the potential
exists for odds setting or manipulation greatly at variance with
live casino gaming. While this does not appear to be a general
problem, any site without licensing and regulatory oversight has a
heightened potential for this abuse.
Two other important
selection criteria are longevity and popularity. Those sites that
have been around a good while (two or more years) are more likely
to be stable financially and not as susceptible to the rigors of
competition as start-ups or fly-by-night operations. The customer
base acts as a recommendation to the extent that a large number of
clients apparently has no serious complaint about the casino, and
such a large group probably knows something about the other
casinos available to choose from as well. In online gambling,
there is real sense in the belief in safety in numbers as a
protection against getting "fleeced" by the wolves.
 For
more information on online gambling, order the author's book,
"Gambling On the Internet." It's available at Amazon.com
and other fine bookstores.
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