According to recent industry reports, the online gambling and iGaming sector is booming! In fact, according to one industry analyst, the global online market size was valued at $57.54bn in 2021, which is expected to grow at a compounding annual rate of 11.7% by 2030.
This has been supported by a widespread cultural shift when it comes to online gambling, with many jurisdictions relaxing restrictions on the industry. Added to this is the growing accessibility of mobile phones and mobile internet, which makes the best online casinos more accessible than ever.
For the many new players just getting started for the first time, however, what information do they need to know before playing at an online casino?
Licensing and regulation
When choosing an online casino to play with, the first thing you should consider before anything else is whether they are fully licensed and regulated.
To provide gambling services to customers, online casinos will have to undergo rigorous licensing processes. They will also be required to put in place Know Your Customer (KYC) and Anti-Money Laundering (AML) processes, which ensure that any funds they accept deposits of are from legitimate sources.
Regulations will vary across different jurisdictions, with each country or territory having their own licensing authority.
Before setting up an account, you should always check the licensing status of the online casino you have chosen. This will ensure that any funds you deposit will be treated in an appropriate manner and that you have recourse to a legitimate authority if anything goes wrong with your account.
Bonuses and rewards
As the industry has gotten more and more competitive, online casinos have started to offer players an increasingly attractive array of rewards and promotions as a way of tempting them into signing up to their platform.
Many of the best online casinos will offer you generous welcome bonuses to entice you into signing up for an account. Once your account is set up, they will then give you generous bonuses, rewards and loyalty programs to keep you playing with them. This includes everything from deposit bonuses, cashback schemes, free spins and cash bonuses to various other rewards!
However, while these bonuses might look attractive at first glance, you should always check whether they have any wagering requirements attached to them. Wagering requirements can often be quite restrictive and may impact how easily you can access any winnings you make using them.
Mobile compatibility
Although many people still play online casinos on their desktop computers, mobile is very much king these days!
As high-speed mobile internet has increased in availability and decreased in price, mobile gaming has exploded in popularity. This is most certainly also true for mobile casino games, which now represent the most popular way to play online casino games.
While the vast majority of online casinos support mobile gaming these days, the experience can vary quite substantially between different providers.
For example, while some platforms give you access to dedicated mobile apps, others simply have a mobile-compatible website which will automatically scale to whatever device you choose to use.
As such, you should always check the mobile gaming options an online casino has available before putting up any cash!
Games available
Another important thing to check before signing up for an online casino and depositing cash, is to make sure that they have a decent selection of games available. Afterall, there isn’t much point in going through the hassle of setting up an account if there is nothing decent to play!
A first step in satisfying this requirement is to have a think about what type of games you want to play. For example, if you only see yourself playing online slots, then try and find the online casino with the best selection of slots available.
This is relatively easy to do these days as many specialized online casinos have been set up in recent years. There has also been a shift in the industry away from providing massive libraries of games that cover every possible category, to providing a more focused gaming experience.
Deposits and withdrawals
Although you might not have thought about it, one of the most important things to know before playing at an online casino is what payment methods they have in place.
Online casinos now support a wide range of payment methods, which includes everything from electronic wallets, and traditional methods such as cards and bank transfers to even cryptocurrencies. However, these different payment methods can vary in terms of how quick they are and how much they cost.
Additionally, not every online casino has put in place efficient internal systems for processing deposits and withdrawals. So, there can often be significant differences between providers in terms of how quickly your requests will be processed and how long it will take for the funds to hit your account.
Before you choose an online casino to play at you should always check out the systems they have in place for processing payments and what methods they support. This can have a big impact on your overall playing experience and is something you should always make sure of before signing up.
