How to Spot a Scam Gambling Website

Keeping yourself safe online is more important than ever these days, with more risk and opportunity for players than ever before. In this article, we'll look at the questions you should ask new sites to help you evaluate them and stay safe.

"The best defense is a strong offense," an older man named Vince once said. You could say that's an extremely 'Art of War' mentality, but you have to admit it's very effective when it comes to any self-defense application. We'll assume that protecting yourself from rogue gambling sites is a top priority if you want to keep your money.

Investigate new online casinos as a detective.

To keep yourself safe, you might want to play pretend and consider how you would go about setting up an online scam. I'm not saying you should do it yourself, but it might help you gain some rational perspective. It's similar to walking around your house pretending to be a burglar, looking for potential weaknesses.

Think of online casinos the other way around, as if you were opening a large, successful, and trustworthy business. You'd want customer service, game content, and the site/software to function properly, and most importantly, you'd want your customers to return to your website for more action.

If one considers how they would operate, it will not only help you avoid some potential pitfalls, but it may also help you understand how legitimate sites operate. You have to make a mental scorecard where you give the gambling site points based on how legit it is or how "sketchy" it seems. Then you decide whether or not to play there for yourself.

There are a lot of options out there, even for legitimate sites, which makes it a bit of a rat's nest to navigate it safely. With today's widespread technical knowledge, it's relatively simple to set up a mini-casino if you have a copy of the core software and some graphic design skills. You could theoretically start your own online poker room for less than $1,000. It is the ability to manage a large number of players and customize the look and feel that causes things to become more expensive for those in charge of online gambling sites.

Someone with less morals could go the licensing route and buy a license to casino software, or they could even steal the software itself. Going on the "up and up," then looking for some short-term players. These casinos will appear for a few months before disappearing with everyone's money.

To save myself the trouble of being taken advantage of by a new casino, I've created a sort of checklist of questions I ask myself when evaluating new sites to play on.

How recent are they?

I usually don't like new sites, so I stick to tried-and-true places that get good reviews from the online gambling community. On the other hand, if you gamble online a lot, the bonuses and deals that new sites offer will make you want to try them out. Some people make a living by taking advantage of new casinos' loyalty programs. These people only want a small percentage of their money back over time, which takes discipline but usually works. To pull it off, you must always sign up for accounts all over the world, play them until the initial deposit bonus is exhausted, then cash out and move on.

Just because a site is brand new does not mean you should not play there; it does, however, mean you should consider it a strike against them. You must give the site time to earn your trust; think years, not months. Don't place your bets on a brand new site that you know nothing about and haven't established any trust with if you don't want to get burned.

I believe that six months to a year is a reasonable amount of time for a new casino to be operational and "safe." Obviously, the longer they run, the more likely they are to have excellent stability.

What about their content?

Another way to evaluate a website is to see if there is any effort, money, or people behind it to examine its content. When you look at the site, you should see pages with lessons, information on the games, software, and security. The more words you have, the better.

Examine the blog and social media accounts for the site. What is their number of followers or subscribers? Examine the blog to see how far back it goes, how many posts have been published, and for how long. As I write for sites like these, I'll ask these questions myself, but there's no reason you can't use this knowledge for your own online safety.

How is their website and software performing?

Look for broken images, logos that aren't well made, bad domain names, and domains that are hosted in places that don't have a brand name to figure out how good the website is overall.

The software used by online gambling websites can reveal a lot about the company as a whole. Consider this: this software is their source of income. It is the most valuable investment made by an online gambling company. There are no games without their software.

Does the site look new and up-to-date? Does it follow the latest trends in graphic design? If it looks like something from the 1990s, with cookie-cutter graphics that don't match, or if you can't access it from a mobile phone, you may be dealing with a rogue site.

Can you make contact with anyone?

If you've ever heard and agreed with the old adage, "dig your well before you're thirsty," you know what I mean. The same is true for businesses and their customer service departments. Before you have a problem, contact their customer service.

Before I place a bet at a new online casino, I like to contact customer service. If there is no phone support, that immediately raises a red flag for me. Without a phone number for credibility, it begins to feel fragile and light. I'm aware that setting up a toll-free number and an auto attendant requires very little effort. What other corners have they cut if they haven't gone this far?

I don't use voice prompts or auto-attendants, and I usually wait to speak with a live person. Even if I don't need their assistance right away, I still prefer to speak with a live person. I like to ask them a lot of questions to see if I want to play there. If no one answers the phone, it's not the end of the world, but it's a negative factor in their online credibility.

Have you visited their forums?

If an online casino does not have a landline or a cell phone number to call or text, they should have forums. If they don't have either, the establishment is either brand new or a rogue gambling site.

You should examine the content on the forums in the same way that you would look at and review their other online content. Is there a lot of activity, a lot of discussion threads, and actual conversations going on there? When you start asking these questions and looking for the credible components of an online reputation that cannot be faked.

What does the internet think of them?

It can be difficult to believe all of the marketing hype emanating from a company's forums, websites, and social accounts. When you want to go the extra mile in your due diligence, look for a third-party recommendation.

There are public ranking sites that list casinos, show their deals, and say how reliable they are. There are also clubs, which are groups of gamblers who meet around a specific gambling topic (such as no-limit Texas Hold'em Poker) or based on local or regional locations.

Before putting money on a website, these online communities are a great way to find out more about it. People don't usually post about how much fun they're having playing an online game. People are far more likely to post negative reviews after they've been burned, because nothing irritates a man more than being denied his money. It doesn't take long for some negative information about a new website to circulate on the internet.

How quickly do you get your money?

When you place a withdrawal order from the account, you must keep track of how quickly you receive your money. When figuring out how trustworthy an online casino is, withdrawal times are the most important thing to look at. The biggest red flag is when they begin to slow or stop paying out. Money in is unimportant; money out is where you get paid, and it is here that the entire character of the operation will be revealed.

Slow cash outs that arrive "eventually" can still indicate trouble. The longer it takes for you to receive your money from an online casino or gaming site, the more likely it is involved in some kind of Ponzi scheme. The longer you wait, the more you'll wonder, "Where's my money?"

Other safety precautions:

Keeping a separate account for gambling - Keeping a separate account for your gambling accomplishes two things right away. One advantage is that it allows you to keep track of all of your gaming activities for budgeting and tax purposes. Two, it adds an extra layer of security because keeping your gambling funds in a separate account restricts access to only those financial resources.

Only enter payment information into SSL - Before making secure communications, always ensure you're on a secure site. This type of thing should be obvious. If you don't see "https://" in green with a lock to the left of the address bar, don't enter any payment information. You should consider any new information with caution. The SSL certificate shows that a domain that has been checked by the public has a server with an encrypted key to protect the information you enter on a web form.

Maintain strong passwords that are difficult to guess - What we mean is that you should maintain general password health. Use a different password for each account. Choose strong but memorable phrases that include special characters, case changes, and alphanumeric characters. If you don't want someone figuring out your password and transferring your money to their account late at night, use a strong password that no one can guess. Change your passwords on a regular basis to go the extra mile. A password vault software can help with this, but if you only have a few passwords, you can use pen and paper.

Don't leave too much money on the books - For a variety of reasons, try not to keep more than a few sessions' worth of money on your accounts. You tend to gamble more when you have a lot of money on the line. You're also leaving that money in the casino's hands. They have it until you get it. The larger the amount, the more you risk not being able to process the withdrawal someday. It's also a good idea to practice this with your gambling account. To avoid further gambling losses and possible seizures, don't have too much money in your accounts.

Play on multiple sites to spread risk - For the same reasons that you don't want a lot of money in one online account, it's good practice to spread your money between multiple accounts. For obvious reasons, try to play at sites owned by different companies or entities.

New games and websites are exciting to visit and play, but never relax your guard. Taking a few extra minutes to investigate a website can be entertaining in its own right, and it's always worthwhile to avoid being ripped off. It's common advice to never gamble more than you intend to lose, and then you'll always have fun.