The key difference between our gambling reviews and what you'll typically find on the Internet is that we consider security to be the number one, most important criterion. In contrast, many sites that offer online casino and sportsbook reviews seem to base their recommendations primarily on advertising revenue - specifically, how much they get paid to recommend site A instead of site B.
There is no aspect of running a gaming website where legitimacy is more important than in the online casino arena. On a gambling site, the stakes are high. Ensuring security and fairness is paramount.
Every casino game is built with a house edge, and no site removes it. What separates one site from another is whether it pays out what you win.
The Gambling Sites Listed Here
In the end, what gambling sites can offer us that really matters is not the gambling-specific stuff, but the general, all-important things that go into running any kind of gambling site:
- Security - Customer service - Banking options If any of these are subpar, we have a problem.
With that said, let’s get to the actual reviews.
Online Sportsbooks
What we really focus on is the meat and potatoes of the sportsbook itself: - the quality of the betting lines, - the variety of betting markets, - the types of bets, - the betting options. Oh, and does the platform offer live betting? Is it easy to navigate on mobile? That's an important part too.
Sportsbook Reviews
Online Casinos
The main differences between Internet casinos arise from the quality of their software, the variety of their games, the house edge they offer, and the types of promotions they run. Many casino players also focus on how big the jackpots are. These days, mobile usability is a huge part of the overall online casino gaming experience.
Social casinos have taken the web by storm and keep growing their player bases every single day.
This is logical. Virtually everyone is connected to Facebook and other virtual social spaces. Social gaming was a foregone conclusion, and now it is an integral part of our online experience.
The immense popularity of social casinos can be attributed to the fact that they remove the uncertainty associated with betting real money. This, along with the fact that you can enjoy them with family, friends, co-workers, or complete strangers - while engaging in a little light gambling in the form of slots, baccarat, blackjack, roulette, poker, or other so-called social casino games - makes them a huge hit.
Compared to sports betting and casino games, online poker relies heavily on the presence of many other players to be truly enjoyable. When you bet on sports or play casino games, you are essentially doing it alone. The poker room, on the other hand, needs a lot of players to be able to offer a decent selection of cash games and to host the kind of tournaments that have large prize pools.
Safety Is Everything
The odds in your favor are slim and far from guaranteed. Now imagine if it took years for you to finally win the jackpot. Not only that, but imagine if there was a chance that you might not even be able to claim the prize money due to some legal hiccup.
Choosing the wrong site could lead to such a result. It is hard enough to win at gambling games - you should not have to deal with trying to collect the (unlikely) winnings.
We take a safety-first approach to reviewing gambling sites. This seems to be the only sensible way to do it, and we think you will appreciate it.
Unfortunate things happen, whether intentionally or accidentally. I am sure that some online gambling companies operate with good intentions and simply lack the ability to run a gambling operation without robbing Peter to pay Paul. However, I am also certain that many online gambling operators are nothing more than scam artists, with Lock Poker being a recent example of a scam artist that operated throughout the online poker community for six months and more in 2014.
Many review sites continued to list Lock Poker as one of their "top choices" for quite some time, even though Lock Poker was paying less and less. Then those review sites probably stopped getting paid by Lock Poker and started telling the truth about how dishonest and unreliable Lock Poker really was. That's the business of being a review site.
FAQ
Is It Safe to Gamble Online?
Online gambling is relatively safe if you make the right choices. Outside of the US, there are numerous stock-listed gambling operators that are unlikely to cheat players out of their money. Furthermore, stock-listed sites usually operate in jurisdictions where they have licenses or are otherwise allowed to operate in, meaning they’re unlikely to run into problems with the government.For example, all of our UK betting sites are operated by stock-listed companies.
In the US, players can only hope that their operators are honest. If an operator goes out of business, there's nothing you can do. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying. And if an operator decides not to pay, again, there is nothing you can do. So, because the US is not safe, betting in the US is not safe.
All US players can do is make sure that the site has a strong track record (or, if the site is relatively new, that the people behind the site have a strong track record). How long have they been in business? Have they had any problems in that time? If so, how were they resolved?
Our gambling site reviews focus mainly on these aspects. It all boils down to a site having a proven history of dealing with its customers in an honest and respectful manner.
Which Site Should I Play at?
What do you want to play or bet on? We’ve got lists of legit betting websites, the best online casinos, and poker websites. Only the most legitimate operators rank highly at casino-guide.biz. (We get more specific, too, with listings like best NBA betting sites and gambling sites that accept Bitcoin).As mentioned above, we’ve tried to make sure that every site we recommend is legitimate. You simply have to pick which type of a site matches your interest.
Can I Play on a Mobile Device?
The short answer? Yes.While quality of mobile gambling software varies, nearly all online casinos and betting sites offer mobile-compatible versions of their software nowadays (the ones that don’t have dropped far behind of their competition). Many online poker rooms have realized the potential of the mobile gaming market, although there are still a fairly significant amount of poker rooms without mobile software, and the current mobile poker clients are still quite limited.
Which Payment Methods Are Accepted?
For gamblers outside of the US, the payment method landscape looks as good as ever. Almost every sportsbook, online casino and poker room has literally tens of options, ranging from credit and debit cards to e-wallets (like Paypal) and online bank transfers.Unfortunately, few payment methods are left for US gamblers.
Since the enactment of the UIGEA in 2006, U.S. players have had limited options for depositing and withdrawing funds from their gaming accounts. Currently, our deposit options are
1. Credit, debit and prepaid cards 2. Money transfer services (most notably Moneygram and, to a lesser extent, Western Union) 3. Bitcoin By my count, that's only three ways to deposit money into a gaming account, with only one way that I would consider virtually guaranteed to work.
Funds can be accessed via wire transfer services, checks, and bitcoin (some operators allow you to access your funds via credit card if you're a top-tier customer). Bitcoin withdrawals can be processed within minutes, and wire transfer withdrawals typically take about a week. Check withdrawals can take anywhere from a week to three weeks (if it takes longer than three weeks, you should be concerned).
Anything Else?
Remember that gambling is supposed to be entertainment. When it stops being that and becomes something else, it’s time to call it quits. It’s difficult to win at gambling in the long term because sportsbooks know what they’re doing, casinos have a built-in advantage and the world of online poker becomes increasingly competitive.With that said, I hope these gambling reviews allow you to get the most out of the experience. And who knows, with the right dosage of luck, you may just become rich.
There is no aspect of running a gaming website where legitimacy is more important than in the online casino arena. On a gambling site, the stakes are high. Ensuring security and fairness is paramount.
Every casino game is built with a house edge, and no site removes it. What separates one site from another is whether it pays out what you win.
The odds in your favor are slim and far from guaranteed. Now imagine if it took years for you to finally win the jackpot. Not only that, but imagine if there was a chance that you might not even be able to claim the prize money due to some legal hiccup.