Why Licensing Matters: How To Check A Casino’S Credentials

Online gambling is a bit of a new development, as many technological new spaces are in the 21st century. It first cropped up right along with the advent of the Internet. Websites arose offering iGaming and claiming to use random number generators that ensured fairness and that the player had a legitimate shot at consistently winning. 

These sites were plagued with problems though. Some of those websites were very insecure and allowed bad actors to steal people’s card info. Some of them somehow always encountered technical difficulties in being able to transfer people the money they won fair and square.Still others turned out to be shells for illegal organizations. With all of this uncertainty and chaos going on, governments had to step in and keep abuses on the Internet at bay. 

The Importance of Licenses

Any site could be run by anybody. Meanwhile, gambling law is regulated by the government whose jurisdiction the player resides in. No matter where the player is, it’s illegal to offer any form of gambling unless you have a license, safe for minor exceptions involving small amounts bet, games among friends sometimes, and frequently – horse racing bets.

You not only are in danger of being scammed by the website you’re dealing with, but there are other hackers who could steal your information too, and even impact the game and cheat. If they can spoof your account, they can simply log into it and transfer your money to some account you can never trace. Even the games themselves aren’t guaranteed to offer legitimate odds or any chance of winning at all unless checked by authorities.

Who Regulates Online Casinos

Here are how gambling operators like Odds96.co.in obtain their licenses:

• Often times, they have to get a license from federal government or a particular state

• More recently, many countries have started allowing international iGaming licenses to satisfy the licensing requirement, in particular the Curacao and Malta licenses. There are many such licenses like the Isle of Man , Anjouan, and Comoro Island.

• Many countries like Canada, Poland, and Scandinavian countries don’t let private iGaming operators offer gambling, but maintain a state monopoly

• In most territories gambling remains illegal.

Regardless of the legislative limitations, online gamblers easily play in offshore casinos using a VPN.

Checking a Casino’s Credentials

This process is really quite simple, yet you musn’t be complacent. Every casino is required to publish the license that they have on their website. You should always check for this, since the Internet is such an easy place for scams to happen, and they do happen often. Here’s what you do:

1. Scroll your mouse to the very bottom of the website’s homepage. Usually you’re going to see the name and logo of the casino right next to their license number, which states whether they’re active or not.

2. Don’t just take their word for it. At this point, you need to visit the website of the gambling authority itself. They feature a list of the operators they’ve licensed along with their license number. 

3. Make sure that the name of the company matches the operator name. Sometimes scammer websites will just use the license number of a different casino.

The Security that Licensing Provides

State authorities, whether handling their own jurisdictions on their own, or covering numerous other countries, put online casinos through particularly strict procedures. Almost everything they do has to be licensed, including their software providers and security partners. In addition to that there are many ways that operators are kept in check from committing abuses themselves and leaving their gamblers open to having their rights violated.

Required Physical Presence and Extensive Documentation

The operator has to be registered in the country that licenses them, and that also requires having a representative available to converse at all times with a location in that jurisdiction, in addition to:

• execs’ and shareholders’ info

• banking documents

• business plans

• founding documents

This goes a long way in preventing harmful activities from taking place such as drug and weapons trades or trafficking.

Regular, Profound Code Inspection and Testing

The authority’s representative must have access to the code and software of the operator at all times. This starts before they can ever launch operations, and it continues indefinitely, seeing if there are any tricks buried in the programs and verifying that everything operates as fairly as is stated.

Provably Fair Technology

Though it isn’t yet required by the majority of governments yet, the concept of provably fair is spreading and will likely become a requirement to operate in most countries eventually. The way it works is two separate seeds are combined, one from the player’s input and one from the game, and this results in a particular mathematical result with the stated range for a win known. 

Random number generators can easily be manipulated to not be so random. Today that’s slowly changing, though it’s hard to do in game genres with a lot of variables involved like in table games.

Keeping Money Designated for Payouts in a Special Account

There is no possibility of the operator just picking up and running or never having the money to pay out in the first place, since the money is already sitting in an account.

Enforcing Measures to Reduce Gambling Addiction

It’s a very big issue that people keep chasing their losses and lose all self-control. Having a license often requires a company allow players to tell them not to permit them to play there anymore in advance, before they march right back driven by their urges. Players also get to set limits in advance that are enforced. 

Red Flags

It’s also a good idea to check for telltale signs of a scammer. Even though there is a tried and secure system authorities have in place to inform you of whether a casino is legit, many scammers try to trick you anyway in different ways. Let’s look at some of their tactics.

• Vague licensing details: they may list some license and regulator, but it could be missing the number. Or it may not have its logo, name and address posted.

• You can’t find the licensing authority online: some criminals claim to be licensed by shady gaming boards that have no presence online. This is a clear reason to cease your association with the website.

• Lack of transparent terms and conditions: if these are buried in tiny print or written very vaguely or missing, it’s not for a reason that you’d be happy about if taken to its logical conclusion.

• Reports of withheld winnings: read online forums and reviews from other players and watchdog sites: make sure there aren’t reviews that they’re failing to pay out winnings.

• Poor security: if the casino doesn’t use HTTPS encryption, they might not be trying to steal from you but another hacker might.