How safe are online casinos in 2020?

The World Wide Web can be a dark place. As a largely tenuously regulated place, it is a minefield of potential scammers, viruses, malware and con artists. This is why it so important to make sure you are doing your browsing, downloading and online gaming in a safe and secure manner.

OSAC only recommends online casinos and games that can be trusted and are verified through our own research, the reviews of others and adherence to various regulatory bodies.

That being said, what is the state of the online casino industry in 2020? And what can we expect going forward.

A growth in online casinos

The online casino industry is growing fast. InterCasino was the first real online casino offering real money online gambling – and they had a total of 18 games! Unthinkable in today’s world of thousands and thousands of online slots games alone.

Fast forward two years and there were 15 online casinos.

Now there are hundreds of online casinos servicing a US$46 billion a year market that is expected to hit close to US$100 billion a year by 2024.

That is huge growth and huge opportunity for crooks to target the unsuspecting.

How are you protected?

With this much revenue at stake, the legit online casinos are doing everything in their power to offer players a secure environment and regulatory bodies are enforcing a strict compliance with international digital safety protocols.

Legitimate licensing

There are a number of regulatory bodies around the world including the UK, Malta, Barbados, Curacao, Gibraltar, New Jersey and Philadelphia. These bodies only license online casinos that can prove that have the right security protocols in place, are offering players games from trusted developers and have a transparent fair play policy in place. Without a license the online casino is operating illegally.

They also make sure that the online casinos are maintaining these standards by doing regular checks on them.

For players, the first thing you must always do before signing with an online casino is to check that they are licensed by a proper regulatory body.

Encryption and Security

The amount of data that can be collected by any website you are signed up to is staggering – especially one where you are doing financial transactions.

The online casino industry handles billions of dollars in transactions every year and legit online casinos invest heavily in top-of-the-range encryption and security software and protocols to keep your money and theirs safe.

SSN is the industry standard across financial platforms and the best online casinos use this in their operations. While finding out exactly what security and encryption is used can be difficult, an easy way to see whether your online casino is protected is to check the left-hand side of your online casino’s address bar. If you see a locked padlock icon, then they have security in place. If you see an unlocked padlock icon or a ‘Not Secure’ message – back away and find another place to play.

Banking methods

Legit online casinos will offer you a number of trusted and known banking methods for deposits and withdrawals. If an online casino is only offering one or two really obscure payment channels you know that they are not going to be a good place to play.

In the early days it was difficult to find a trusted way of getting money into and out of the online casinos. With more and more countries easing their online gambling laws, more and more established banking methods are becoming available.

Visa, Mastercard, PayPal, Skrill, Neteller, Paysafe, Bitcoin and more are options that the online gambler can use knowing that he or she is transacting with partners trusted worldwide.

Game developers

In an industry that is growing so rapidly and innovating so often, it is to be expected that there will be developers that are not too well known. However, it’s always the safest bet to find online casinos that offer games from well-known, trusted and respected games developers like Microgaming, NetEnt, Playtech, Yggdrasil, BTG and others.

If you see a game at your trusted online casino that you really want to play but are unsure of the developer, keep these two things in mind:

1. If it’s offered by a trusted online casino, it should be good to play.
2. You can always do a search online for reviews, comments, complaints and more about any online game out there.

Bonus policies

There are tons of horror stories of online casinos doing everything possible to avoid paying out players when they hit a win. And there are tons of stories where it turns out the players did not read the rules and conditions of the online casino before playing.

ALWAYS READ THE FINE PRINT.

Especially when it comes to bonuses. While bonuses are a great way to pad your bankroll, every bonus comes with strict terms and conditions. No business wil stay open very long if they just hand out money. So online casinos give you incentives to get you playing but also add conditions to how you play with that money.

If you can’t find the wagering requirements, play through or terms and conditions of you online casino, it might be a good idea to rather find one that has clear and transparent policies.

Customer service

Good, professional and available customer service is a prerequisite for a good online casino. When you have a problem, you don’t want to be messed around or, even worse, ignored. Reputations are everything in the online casino world so when you have good support you know you have a good gambling partner.

Reviews

Apart from bringing our favourite games to our doorsteps, the internet has also given anyone with an opinion a platform to shout it out. Sometimes this can be a bad thing. Other times, it can be a really good thing.

For the online players out there it’s an incredibly good and useful thing as we can go online and find reviews and opinions and professional views on every online casino we would like to try. And we should always check the reviews before we hand over our cash.

Sites like OSAC give you the background, the reviews and the confidence to bring your online gaming home.

The OSAC synopsis

The online casino industry is growing from strength to strength. Countries are slowly relaxing their stringent laws against playing online and this is allowing more and more players to find their favourite games at online casinos. Online casinos themselves are recognising how much the industry is worth and doing everything in their power to protect the players that choose to play with them.

There are dodgy dealers out there, but with the hundreds of legitimate online casinos on offer you don’t ever have to step a digital foot across their nefarious doorway.

Our verdict: online casinos in 2020 are safer than ever before, But you MUST always follow the simple steps to keep yourself protected.