Gambling always involves risks, whether it’s online or not. However, online gambling exposes us to risks many of us aren’t used to and don’t know how to defend ourselves against. We can at least manage our risks and minimize them.

Choosing A Casino

The first thing to take into consideration when choosing a casino is whether you plan on using cryptocurrencies for playing or not.

Normal FIAT casinos are most often licensed, maybe even in your own country. This makes them overall a safer choice. These also often require extensive KYC or that you can ID yourself digitally, and the KYC process can be more or less annoying.

Crypto casinos can also be licensed, but they don’t have to be. Some crypto casinos are very serious and keep as high standard and security as non-crypto casinos, while others have the bare minimum. The upside is, of course, that they accept cryptocurrencies as payment. Most of these casinos also have custom in-house games such as Limbo or Crash, which seem to be really popular.

Does licensing matter?

Yes and no. While a gambling license gives the casino the opportunity to offer a greater variety of games but is no guarantee for the customer, unless the casino is regulated by law in the country which you reside in. Online casinos can still become a headache for you, without breaking and laws or regulations.

One way they can prevent or delay withdrawals you wish to do is simply not approve your KYC. They just have to claim that none of the pictures or documents you send to them is approved, and then they can deny you to withdraw your money.

One casino I played at had a rule where you were only allowed to withdraw €500 at a time, and you could not request another withdrawal until the first one was fully processed – which according to them would take 3-5 banking days.

So why would they want to do this? Because you are more likely to play and lose when you have money in your casino account than if you have withdrawn the money and have to make a deposit to play.

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Read The Terms of Service!

Or at least skim through the important parts. In general the following applies to all online casinos:

If you breach any provision of this User Agreement or we have a reasonable ground to suspect that you have breached them, we reserve the right to not open, to suspend, or to close your Member Account, or withhold payment of your winnings and apply such funds to any damages due by you.

You acknowledge that the casino shall be the final decision-maker of whether you have violated the casinos rules, terms or conditions in a manner that results in your suspension or permanent barring from participation in our site.

Online Casino Terms of Service

What this means is that the casino basically have ultimate power over any funds you deposit. I haven’t heard of any casino just blatantly stealing anyone’s money, but it is good to know you rights (or lack thereof).

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Bonuses And Free Spins

Pretty much all online casinos are offering different types of bonuses, both for new and existing customers. What’s important to know is that all bonuses comes with some kind of requirement, usually a wagering requirement.

What that means is that if the casino offer you a deposit bonus of 200% and you make a deposit of €100, the casino will add an extra €200 to your account. Wagering requirements are normally somewhere between x30 and x40.

Deposit Bonus

If we use 30x in this example then it would look like this.

Deposit: €100

Bonus: €200

Wagering requirement: 300 x 30 = 9000

So to have full access and be able to withdraw funds, you have to wager €9000. Although it’s an important difference between winning €9000 and wagering €9000. Every bet you make, no matter if you win or lose, counts towards your wagering.

Free Spin Bonus

If you instead get free spins as bonus from the casino, the deposited amount itself isn’t part of the wagering requirement. Example:

Deposit: €100

Bonus free spins: 100

Profit from free spins: €60

Wagering requirement: 30 x 60 = 1800

In this scenario, you would have to wager €1800 before all funds are completely yours.

This is pretty standard for all casinos but it’s important to keep in mind as you make a deposit. Otherwise, you might get an unwanted surprise when you try to withdraw your profit.

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Which Games Are Best?

First and foremost a game should be fun to play. Keep in mind that it’s gambling we’re talking about, and if you have your mind set to play mainly for profit, you are going to be disappointed.

Pretty much all game providers offer free play on their games, which gives you a chance to try different games and play with pretend money. It’s a good place to start! A lot of casinos offer several thousand slots from a great variety of game providers, so take your time and browse through the games available.

Volatility

This is something else that is important to keep in mind when selecting games to play. Volatility is a way to measure how often you are likely to win versus how likely you are to hit a big win. High-volatility games mean you won’t win as often, but there’s a potential (often very slim) of hitting huge wins. Low-volatile games are of course the opposite, you win often but usually not big wins.

Which you enjoy most is completely a personal preference. I prefer high-volatile games for the most part.

Bonus, Free Spins and Bonus Buy

Most games offer some kind of bonus or free spins. During free spins and bonus rounds, special rules often apply, rising the chance for a player to win big.

Another common bonus game is the “Hold & Spin” feature. This usually require that a specific number of bonus symbols are showing once a spin is finished.

Many games also offer the player to purchase free spins (making them not-so-free) or other bonuses.

Additionally, some games offer a greater chance to get free spins or other bonuses by a rising the bet size slightly (without rising the general rewards equally).

Whether it’s worth it to pay for bonuses and/or free spins is up to you. Personally I rarely pay for these things. From my experience paying for free spins is not worth it, with a few exceptions. For example, if you are betting $0.2 and pay $20 for X free spins and win $30 from it, you have gotten $10 in profit. If you instead had made regular spins for your $20, you would have gotten 100 spins (as the very bare minimum). During these 100+ spins you would have won some times, having the chance of some big wins while also having the chance to get free spins.

Some of my largest wins have come from regular spins in the base game, as can be seen in this replay of mine: https://replay.pragmaticplay.net/3XfNhF1nkM

By buying free spins, you will miss potential wins like the one above.

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Summary

All of these things should be considered when it comes to managing your risks while playing at online casinos. Here are a few rules of thumbs.

• Don’t play with money that you can’t afford to lose!
• Play games that you actually enjoy playing.
• Set both a loss limit and a win limit.
• If you reach your loss limit – stop playing!
• If you reach your win limit – withdraw your funds (or at least half of what you’ve got).
• Never play to win back what you’ve lost!

And finally, before you start playing slots at an online casino – know that almost all games have a “free play” feature. This allows you to play the game for free and learn how it works, what it takes to obtain free spins or bonuses and get a feel for the game so you can decide if you like it or not.

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