How to choose an Online Casino

The online casino and gambling industry is one of the longest running online industries in the world. Since the first online casino opened its doors and started taking bets back in 1996 a meteoric rise over the past two decades has seen many casinos come and conquer whilst others have fallen by the way side.

Today there are so many choices available when it comes to choosing an online casino that it can be almost overwhelming, especially if you’re new to gambling online.  Regulated markets and added an extra layer of complexity with governments around the world moving to either legalize or in some extreme cases completely criminalize the act of gambling online.

Now more than ever it’s important to make sure you make the right choices before you stake your hard earn cash online. Gambling online can be fun and rewarding when playing at a good online casino, but pick the wrong one and you can end up pulling your hair out just trying to deposit and withdraw money.

Choosing an Online Casino

Our summarized infographic shows you three simple steps when selecting an online casino before registering your account and reaching for your wallet! Remember to always keep in mind that an online casino is like any other service provider in the world and there are plenty of options, so providing you live in a pro-gambling legal jurisdiction you have choices!

Step 1 – Make Sure it’s Legal!

The first thing you need to do before you start gambling online is to check if it’s legal in your country to do so! If you’re unsure about the laws in your country you can let us do the hard work for you using our online casino comparison tool.

Step 2 – Check Deposit Options

All Online Casinos offer a variety of different deposit methods and withdrawal options. There’s very little point registering with a casino if they don’t support your preferred payment method so make sure you find a casino that has your payment option available. To find out what payment methods are available at a range of different online casinos you can use our casino comparison tool or check our dedicated casino payments section.

Step 3 – Find Your Games

Making gambling online fun is ALL about finding your game! Whether you’re a slots champ, a roulette fan or a blackjack pro make sure you choose a casino that offers your game! Search our database of online casino games, and play them for free in our very own casino games lobby. You can try any of our huge selection of online slots and table casino games completely free listing all the available casinos for you to choose from.

Following these three simple steps is basically a common sense approach to finding a good quality online casino that matches your preferences. However that’s not the end to the story…

A Word on Casino Bonuses

It wouldn’t be right giving advice on the picking the best online casino without a word on online casino bonuses.

What are casino bonuses?

The best place to start with casino bonuses is to explain what a casino bonus is. An online casino bonus comes in a variety of different flavours but essentially they all revolve around the same concept, bonus cash.

This is a concept that has been around for some time, bonus cash is essentially casino credits that you can use to play games but come with certain restrictions on withdrawing winnings known as wagering requirements.

What are wagering requirements?

Wagering requirements, also referred to as turnover requirements at some casinos is term used to describe the restrictions placed on winnings received from casino bonuses. Wagering requirements effectively require you to stake X amount before winnings from bonuses can be withdrawn as real cash.

For example, if you receive a bonus amount of £/€/$100 and the wagering requirement is 30x the bonus amount, you must stake 30 x 100 = £/€/$3000 before being able to withdraw the bonus or any winnings accrued from it. This does not mean you must win or lose 3000, simply have placed the bet, either won or lost.

All casinos offer different terms for their casino bonuses, so it’s important to pay attention to the wagering requirements to determine the real value of any bonus of offer. At TheCasinoDb.com we will ALWAYS display the wagering requirements clearly for each bonus we list no matter what casino it comes from. You can also take advantage of our casino bonus calculator to automatically calculate your wagering requirements for any bonus.

What are the different types of casino bonuses?

There are a few different types of online casino bonuses, but in this guide we are going to focus on the three main types of bonuses that you will encounter when registering at a new online casino:

• Deposit Bonuses
• Free Spins
• No Deposit Bonuses

Deposit Bonuses

Deposit bonuses are offered by almost every online casino on the planet and are sometimes referred to as Welcome Bonuses or Matched Deposit bonuses.

The amount of bonus you receive from a deposit bonus depends on the match amount on offer, commonly you will see casinos offering 100% Matched Deposit on you first ever deposit at the casino. In this case the higher the percentage of bonus on offer the better, however comparing the wagering requirements is often a better indicator of the value of the bonus.

These days given how competitive online casinos are with each other at recruiting new customers its now very common to also see a number of free spins also thrown in on top of a deposit bonus. More on free spins in the next section.

Free Spins

Free spins are exactly what they say on the tin…Free Spins! Often these come packaged with a first deposit bonus and form part of a welcome pack that’s offered when you register a new player account.

When you receive a free spins bonus it will normally be limited to a specific slot game and be set to the minimum bet stake per spin. You are then able to spin X number of times and any winnings accrued will be deposited to either your bonus account balance or in some cases directly to your cash balance from which the winnings can be withdrawn.

Some online casinos offer Zero Wagering free spins – look out for these as they are by far and away the best type of bonus available as there are no strings attached. It’s also a pretty good sign that the casino you have chosen practices fair play with players.

No Deposit Bonuses

No deposit bonuses are a simple concept, register a new account and the casino will give you some free cash either in the shape of bonus cash or free spins. No deposit bonuses are great as there is zero risk to play, however there are some important things to watch out for when you want to compare a no deposit bonus:

• High wagering requirements (common on any no deposit bonus)
• Maximum Win / Withdrawal Limits
• Non-Withdrawable – Be wary of these as they are effectively just extensions to deposit bonuses.

That about concludes our article on how to choose an online casino, a beginner’s guide to picking the best online casino as well as the options available when selecting a new casino bonus. Feel free to check out our online casino bonus section to search, find and compare casino bonuses to take advantage of.

Always keep in mind that gambling online is supposed to be fun, your chances to win online are much greater online which adds to the excitement, however if the fun stops then take a break and be responsible with your gambling.

We hope you’ve enjoyed reading and that we’ve helped you on your journey to find the best online casino for you, join in the conversation below and help others with your tips on choosing an online casino.