Honesty and legality of online casinos
Although it has developed since the 90s, and having gained the approval of the public almost immediately, the online gaming industry has not yet acquired a single official regulation. Here are the ways that can help us distinguish an honest and trustworthy online casino.
In the absence of uniform regulation, the online gaming industry, which has acquired a considerable degree of prosperity in a short time, and has a considerable number of online casino sites and virtual gaming rooms, has resorted to its own initiative. of an independent type, aiming at the creation of regulations aimed both at clarifying the relationships of the sites between them and at presenting customers with an image that is as clear and reassuring as possible. This set of rules should, for example, reduce unfair competition and define fairness criteria towards players. The idea itself is right and intelligent; let’s see how much the criteria chosen by the gaming industry can also conform to the interest of customers.
First of all, here are some fairly important chronological data: most of the licenses are registered in places like Malta, Antigua and Barbuda, Gibraltar, the Isle of Man, the Netherlands Antilles, where legislation is recognized at European level. Even if companies are represented, for example, on the London Stock Exchange, their registration belongs to these other locations. Another body that issues registrations is the Kahanawake Gaming Commission, which is based on a Mohican Indian reservation in Canadian territory. Antigua and Barbuda began licensing in 1994, Gibraltar in 2000, Kahanawake in 1999 and Malta in 2004.
The requirements that are required of online casinos for registration by these entities are mainly of three types: that the sites are managed only by authorized persons and companies, that the games offered are fair to the player, that the winnings are regularly pay. The verification of all these criteria, and above all of the first, which is the indispensable condition for the verification of the other two, is carried out by examining a large amount of administrative and financial information.
Other key companies in verifying the proper functioning of the sites that we feel obliged to mention are two, eCogra, which exercises its function in the specific field of online gaming, and the large PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which deals exclusively with the supervision of companies in every sector of the economy, and has a branch dedicated to the supervision of online gaming. Companies of this type periodically organize, usually on a monthly basis, unannounced supervision of the entire activity of the online casino or gaming room that has entered into a contract with them, verifying whether this activity complies with the standards of honesty that the gambling site has undertaken to comply at the time of signing the contract.
If the inspection of the supervisory bodies does not meet the rules of fair gaming, then an investigation is opened and, until complete clarification, the company is made to withdraw the logo of the supervisory body which is displayed on the homepage of the gaming site . Why is all this extremely important? Supervisory companies are generally large and recognized around the world, and as such they cannot afford to be bribed or accused of negligence: their fame and their enormous global earnings are affected. So they are a real guarantee for those who intend to play on a site that exhibits their logo.
