Online Casinos

Online casinos have prolificated in recent years. As the number of online casinos increased so did the number of dubious online casino operators. Legitimate online casino operators banded together to form eCogra which stands for e-Commerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance. Members played a major role in establishing the code of ethics for casinos and players participating in online gaming. Members displaying the seal must be committed to fair gaming and be capable of withstanding serious scrutiny.

Support for this organisation is part of a serous attempt by legitimate online casino operators to build player confidence in the industry and to rid the industry of the scammers and confidence tricksters who regularly surface.

These problems were created in part by the unwillingness or reluctance of first world governments to issue licenses for such ventures. The Uk has issued three licenses, the Northern Territory (Australia) two, Gibralta has issued a number of licenses, seven of which are held by the Bellrock Gaming Group.

Carribean Island states have issued many licenses as have North American Indian Gaming Commissions and third world cash strapped banana republics.

It is now possible to buy both a casino and banking license in some of these cash strapped states for as little as US$20,000. Toss in some dodgey Eastern European software and some cheap surplus servers and equally dodgey infrastructure, it is possible to have one up and running complete with staff for less than $200,000. An acquaintance was recently quoted 100,000 Euros for such a setup to operational stage

One Casino we initially promoted displayed the e-Gaming Commission logo and claimed to be approved by that group. We featured that casino and we noticed that despite the huge prize being offered, few of our site visitors were even looking at it. All other casinos that we had featured had received approximately the same number of visitors, that is they had checked it out but had not necessarilly decided to sign in, make a deposit and play. We did a little research and found that our site visitors were not being logged. We had a friend invest a few of our dollars there and play them out. No visits were recorded on that day. Needless to say, we no longer promote that enterprise. Incidently, they have their own proprietory software.

Initially the e-Gaming Commission worked with them trying to resolve their problems but eventually took other action to resolve their differences with them.

After that incident, if an online gaming establishment does not use games provided by Microgaming Software or it principal competitor or is licensed and regulated by a first world government or their operations are not certified and scrutinised by a number of independant and legitimate groups, we do not want to know about them.

In recent times, Eastern Europe has spawned quite a few e-casinos that use buggy gaming software developed in countries from the old Iron Curtain Block. The graphics are usually good, the money colllection part works well but the parts that record your wins and manage the payouts leave a lot to be desired as does the customer service when you try to collect your winnings.

Many sites display the Verisign Symbol. This is one of a number of companies which after investigating an e-commerce applicant issues a certificate verifying that the website is authentic and all transactions are secured by 128 bit SSL (secure socket Layer) software encription. This is also used by banks for e-commerce transactions.

Good luck and safe gaming!