As a poker player, you may like to play poker online in the form of one-off games or in the form of hours-long online poker tournaments. Regardless of your preference, you’ll definitely want to know whether the site you’ve chosen to play at can be trusted with your personal and financial information.
Here are the top signs that you’ve found a trusted online casino.
1. You Can Find The Correct Licencing For Your Region
Many governments across the world regulate gambling to ensure that offline and online casino patrons aren’t exploited. If you’re playing at a site that has the approval of the regulator for your region, you’ll be able to find that regulator’s logo and information at the bottom of each page on the site.
However, you should make doubly sure that this information is legitimate. Some dishonest site operators look like they are registered with the correct regulator, but if you were to go to the regulator’s site and try to find information about the site you play at, you may be surprised to find that there is none.
Legit casinos always have the correct licensing.
2. The Site Supports the Most Popular Payment Options
There are many popular payment options around the world, including well-known credit card providers such as American Express, VISA and Mastercard or online payment platforms such as PayPal or Skrill. The providers are heavily regulated and as a result, they take incredible care to verify that any service they’re associated with is legitimate.
If you’ve found a site to play poker games online but it only supports obscure payment providers or only cryptocurrency, you may want to take your time to verify that the site isn’t a fly-by-night operation or scam before you part with your private information or money.
3. They Have an Offline Partner
While many trustworthy poker companies operate exclusively online, one way to ensure that you’re playing on a safe poker platform is if it’s associated with an offline company. For example, BetMGM is part-owned by MGM Resorts International which adds an additional layer of security to anyone who plays at our site.
4. They Use Game Providers Who Ensure Their Software is Audited
No amount of poker tournament tips is going to help you win if a poker site, app or software is rigged. This is why it’s important to find out if and how a poker site’s software is audited. Real poker sites will have this information available should you require it, while unlicensed operations are less likely to take the necessary precautions to ensure their software is secure.
Top poker sites will always work with game providers that are recognizable within the industry.
5. You Are Required to Verify Your Identity
If you play online poker in the USA, safe sites will require you to take steps to verify your identity in order to play for real money with your online poker account. For most virtual poker platforms, you’ll be required to provide your name, date of birth, social security number, and address. This information will be verified once you’ve uploaded various documents confirming the information. These documents may include a copy of your national ID card, a debit or credit card, a utility bill, a bank statement, or a void cheque.
If a poker site does not ask you to verify your identity in any way, then chances are that it’s not a legitimate site.
6. They Have Realistic and Achievable Bonuses
It would be pretty great if you found a virtual poker site that offered you a $10,000 sign-up bonus, right? But what if the fine print required you to win $100,000 from its games within a week without losing any games in order to claim it? Suddenly, that great bonus doesn’t sound so fantastic. The phrase “if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is” should be something you keep in mind when you think about the various bonuses a poker site offers. Many offers may look amazing at a glance, but when you read the fine print, you’ll find that the promotion is not so sweet.
7. You Get Reasonably Quick and Helpful Replies From Their Support Team
Many fly-by-night poker sites claim to offer support, but these support teams may not exist at all at worst or may be slow and unhelpful at best. One of the ways you can test whether a poker site isn’t just a cash grab is by emailing their support team a question regarding their service and waiting for a response.
A company with excellent support will usually have an automated response to let you know that you can expect a reply within 24 to 48 hours. If they don’t get back to you within that time frame, that’s something you should keep in mind as being a possible red flag. If they do eventually get back to you and the response isn’t helpful, this is another indicator that the site may not be for you. If they don’t get back to you at all, then it’s probably a good idea to stay away.
You can also see if they have any live chat support and reach out to their support staff on that. Again, a lack of response or a poor quality one may be indicative of a less-than-legitimate operation.
8. They Have a Well-Maintained Blog
It takes a lot of time, energy, and money to manage an informative and interesting blog, so companies that aren’t legit usually won’t bother with one. A trusted site will normally have a blog that provides information on things like their bonuses and special offers, as well as insight into how to stay safe and secure when you play online and some tips and tricks for playing the different games that you’ll find on their site.
9. A Smooth User Experience
Legitimate online casinos will spend most of their time and money ensuring that they can provide their customers with the very best user experience possible. This means that pages will load quickly, the design is well-thought-out, you’re able to find games easily, and you can navigate the site smoothly to get to where you want to be.
If a site’s user experience is not top-notch, then that’s definitely something to be suspicious about.
10. You Find Positive Feedback on Social Media
The last suggestion we have to help you decide if a site is trustworthy or not is the feedback you get about the service on social media. Sites like Facebook and Reddit can be invaluable as people who’ve had a poor experience are likely to share their thoughts on these and similar sites so that others don’t make the same mistake.
However, you should keep in mind that some dishonest companies pay for fake reviews and ratings, which could potentially mislead you. There’s also the worrying trend of “review bombs,” in which online mobs may flood a company or product with fake negative reviews for any number of reasons.
Ultimately, however, these fake positive or negative reviews tend to be of extremely poor quality, so keep an eye out for the people who’ve put more thought into their reviews. Also, check to see if there’s a response to reviews from the site. A company that takes time to reply to reviews, especially negative ones, is usually above board.
Play Online Poker Safely at BetMGM
If you’re looking for the best online poker sites that you can trust, then it’s time to sign up at BetMGM. Our poker site not only has all the signs of being trustworthy but also has an incredible range of casual and competitive poker options (making it a great place to test your online poker tournament strategy,) as well as different variants for you to play, including Texas Hold’em, Omaha and Seven-Card Stud.
A BetMGM account will also give you access to our incredible online casino and sportsbook as well as fantastic bonuses and rewards with our MGM Rewards program. A complete world of gambling excitement is only a few moments away!
