5 Effective Tips to Choose Top Online Casinos
It’s a wild, wild world-wide web out there! Not as wild as it once was – the UK gambling sector is now tightly regulated, and it wasn’t always – but there is so much choice for UK online gamblers that the search for a top online casino site can feel like a never-ending quest.
Here are five tips provided by online-casinos.co.uk to get you started in the hunt for good-quality, safe, online slots sites.
1 – Safety First
Whatever you are doing online you need to consider your safety.
This safety comes in a number of forms and is especially important where money is concerned, and particularly so around online gambling.
Safety means your own personal safety. So make sure you’re in the right frame of mind to be gambling, that you’ve got a robust spending and time limit in place and you know how to play safely. And make sure your device is safe with up-to-date apps, including anti-virus protection.
And make sure the site you choose is safe. A listing here will tell you that it is, but you need to check it has HTTPS encryption, good data security policies, and most of all that it is licensed by the UK Gambling Commission.
Before you even start signing up make sure you’re happy with the payment methods on offer, that they are safely administered and that you know exactly how to get in touch with the customer help services on a site.
2 – What’s the Name of your Game?
Once you know you’re looking at a safe site you want to know that it’s one worth spending your time and money with.
That means finding the games you enjoy.
Most games have over 1,000 slots these days, so finding them can be tough. Check out how they’re listed and that you’ll be able to find your favourite titles. Listings by developer and theme and style are helpful. Most sites list their classic, retro-style games separately, but if you like to browse then a more granular classification might also help.
New titles are the lifeblood of the industry, so take a look at those and see what big new games are coming through at the sites you consider.
If casino games are your bag then take a look at that offering too. A bit of variety goes a long way when everyone has similar titles on offer.
As does good presentation and easy-on-the-eye layout and design.
3 – Show Me the Money!
Most of us play gambling games in order to win. Our safety advice always remains that you shouldn’t really pay too much mind to prizes and you certainly shouldn’t expect to win, and in fact should budget to lose.
But big prizes are popular for a reason. And if they’re offered they will pay out. So, it’s worth joining the hunt, because if you don’t enter you can’t win.
If you’re a jackpot hunter look at the progressive prizes at the sites you check out. Usually listed as “jackpots” or “big wins” these games have the biggest prizes in the world of gambling.
It’s more and more common these days of sites to give you a list of games with time-limited pay-outs as well. This is one of the few variables that players can have any control of, so it does slightly narrow down the odds against you winning.
Never ever count on winning these prizes, but if life-changing awards are something that interests you then a good range of them is a nice thing for any site to have.
4 – Live-style changes
Have you played a live casino yet?
Slots remain the most popular and most played game for UK casino site visitors, but live casinos are coming up on the outside as the new favourite of the industry.
Every site has a live casino these days and it’s a completely new – and very old, just like the original casinos – experience.
Check out what’s on offer at the site you’re considering. And be aware that a live game is somewhat different and comes with slightly different risks.
Live games are usually more expensive (Staff don’t do this for fun, they have to be paid), and it’s very rare that you’re able to try them out for free. They also rely quite a bit of the appeal of the dealers to tempt players to play them. It’s great to have a nice relationship with a croupier or dealer – and you should always treat them as you would like to be treated – but don’t make decisions based on how you feel about the people running the games you look at!
5 – That little bit extra
In a market where there are only a couple of choices you might find yourself making do. There’s no such limit in the UK casino market. You can have pretty much whatever you want.
Certainly in terms of theming, design, game selection, social aspects, and quality of experience you have the right to expect the best and you may as well shop around for it.
Markets are funny things though, and they can simply end up setting a minimum that everyone meets rather than genuine competition, so be a bit wary of welcome offers and other promotions. The details often prove that they offer a very similar giveaway to what other sites are giving you, so don’t get over-excited by the headline offer before reading the small point.
But if you want a PayPal slots site, you should look until you find it. If you want a Bitcoin site, the same. If you want a site with a pink theme and a magician as the site avatar you’ll probably find that too!
But if you’re browsing a site and something annoys you, well, then look elsewhere because there have never been more choices in the UK slot industry, from gigantic multi-channel behemoths that’ll let you play slots, bingo, lotteries and bet on the football to smaller specialist sites you have the pick of a huge range of options.
Ready to go? Here are the top 20 online casinos they recommend.