Anatomy of a great online casino

We woke this morning to the news that 32Red, the well known UK based online casino had been crowned Casinomeister’s ‘Online Casino of the Decade’.

Awards, certifications and testimonials in the online gambling industry should always be viewed with a healthy degree of skepticism.  Many are meaningless.  And while this one doesn’t exactly come with the same prestige as a best picture Oscar, it is one that I think is worthy of notice.  Primarily because the site handing out the award is a player forum with almost 14,000 members that has been operating  for over 10 years, and also because its owner seems very transparent and objective in his assessments.

Anyway, this got us thinking about what makes a great online casino?   There is always going to be an element of subjectivity around this question so it’s a difficult one to answer for the collective.  A good example of this is the fact that 32Red, the newly crowned online casino of the decade would not make my personal top 10 list, purely because it’s a bit light on for live dealer games.  But taking subjective elements like game preferences and putting them to the side, there are a bunch of criteria that should be very relevant to all players.

The universal ‘Great Casino Attribute’ list

Trust factor –

It’s pointless playing at a casino you don’t trust. You want to be absolutely confident that the amount showing in your account balance is as good as money in your bank account.  But how do you quantify the level of trust you can attribute in a given casino?

Here’s a suggestion.  Take the following considerations into account:

• License:
  Is the casino licensed by a respected Euro region licensing authority?
  UK Gambling Commission
  Gibraltar Regulatory Authority
  Lotteries and Gaming Authority
  Alderney Gambling Control Commission
• Size:
  Is the casino’s holding company stock exchange listed?
  Has the casino served more than a million players?
  Has the casino invested tens of millions of dollars in it’s brand through mainstream sponsorship and advertising?
• Certifications:
  Is the casino eCOGRA (or equivalent) certified and are historical gaming returns audited and published?
• Software:
  Are the games powered by a well known platform provider?

If a casino ticks all of these boxes, then trust will not be an issue.  You just need to be concerned with trying to win.

Service factor –

Here we are looking at the extent to which the casino is equipped to best meet your needs in getting up and running and playing the games with as little inconvenience as possible.

• Banking
  Does the casino have the size and financial muscle to provide a broad offering of banking and account keeping options including a wide choice of currencies, and deposit/withdrawal options – including those of the best known virtual wallets such as PayPal ?
• Support
  Is toll free support offered to a range of countries and in a variety of languages?
• Rewards programs
  Is an extensive rewards and promo program operated, to maximize players chances of winning?

Believe it or not there are many casinos that tick all of these boxes.  And a very long list that tick all but one or two.  Names such as William Hill, 888.com, Unibet, bet365 and of course 32Red are all on that list and give you a good starting point before turning to personal gaming preferences to pick where you want to play.