Myrto Shane | November 8, 2023 | Updated on: October 15th, 2024
Picking safe online casinos is the top priority of pretty much every gambler. After all, trusting a random online gambling site with some of your personal information, such as your card details or identification documents, can be pretty scary.
The thing is, it can be pretty difficult to determine whether an online casino is safe to use. On the one hand, you may have affiliate sites saying a casino is the best thing since sliced bread. On the other, you could have a Reddit thread of a user saying that they didn’t get paid their winnings.
So, who is to be believed?
Well, we’ll tell you how we evaluate safe online casinos and point out questions you should answer before signing up for a particular gambling site.
How We Find Trustworthy Online Casinos
Top 5 Safest Online Casinos for AU Players
Here is a list of the safest online casinos available to Australian players:
1. King Johnnie
Many players don’t trust new casinos very easily – after all, there is very little reason to. However, we can assure you that King Johnnie is a safe online casino despite launching in 2020.
How do we know King Johnnie is safe?
Well, the site uses 128-bit SSL encryption to encode all the information you share, meaning that you do not have to worry about hackers getting unauthorized access.
The casino is also supplied by several trustworthy software providers, which means you can expect to play fair casino games.
2. CasinoNic
CasinoNic launched in 2016 and has rave reviews from many top Australian casino guides. It is important to point out that it would not be deemed a safe online casino from so many sources if it wasn’t.
Besides this, CasinoNic is licensed, which means it has to meet several industry standards (fast payments, fair games, etc.) to retain its license. Like King Johnnie, the casino uses SSL encryption to ensure that your information is kept safe from third-parties.
3. Joka Casino
Joka Casino is another new gambling site, which offers players the chance to play a wide range of casino games from many established developers.
Although it only launched in 2020, it is already clear that Joka Casino is one of the safest online casinos for Australian players.
Aside from using SSL encryption, the safe online casino also offers some of the promptest payments our reviewers have witnessed in their years of internet gambling experience. If you love online pokies, you need to visit Joka Casino!
4. PlayAmo
PlayAmo is licensed and regulated by some of the world’s most respected online gambling governing bodies. The casino launched in 2016, which means it has been in operation for some years now. A long lifespan is always a good sign as rogue casinos don’t stay in business very long.
The casino is also powered by loads of massive software providers with extensive game libraries. This list includes NetEnt and Microgaming. Although Australian players can no longer play NetEnt and Microgaming games, neither of these respected developers would affiliate themselves with a rogue casino.
5. CasinoChan
CasinoChan is another casino that has been around for a while. Launched in 2019, the casino has managed to build itself a strong and dedicated following. Although you can’t always trust everything you read on the internet, if a casino has an overwhelmingly positive response, it probably means it is doing something right.
The casino also gets all the basics right (SSL encryption, strong customer support options, licensed, etc.). Thus, we have no problem recommending this casino, especially as our experience at the gambling site has indicated that it is a safe online casino.
How to Identify Unsafe Casinos
There are a few common characteristics associated with bad or rogue casinos. If a casino inhabits one of the following aspects, you can usually identify it as an unsafe casino:
Blacklists and Overall Negative User Perception
Sometimes, the internet will attempt to mislead you. You will find a Reddit thread or affiliate website tarnishing the reputation of a perfectly safe online casino.
Usually, in such cases, it is a player crying unfair practice when they didn’t read the terms and conditions of a bonus. Or an affiliate site trying to get you to join one of their recommended casinos.
However, if there is an overwhelming number of complaints about a casino, it is fair to assume that it is a bad casino. A single bad review sometimes may be an isolated case, but many bad reviews is a sure sign you should avoid the website.
Slow Payout Process
Safe online casinos are transparent about how long a withdrawal takes. At max, you shouldn’t wait more than two weeks to get your money (and even that is a pretty long grace period.)
If a casino site has a long history of giving players the rigmarole when requesting a payout, you should avoid it. This is something you will find out with reviews, user forums, and community threads.
Again, if you have a single-player complaining about a long processing period, you could perhaps give the casino the benefit of the doubt. However, if you see the same issue popping up everywhere – which it will – avoid the casino like the plague.
Bad Bonus Conditions
A lot of safe online casinos have bad bonus conditions. You can still find sites with rules featuring 50x or 60x wagering requirements that are fair.
However, bad wagering requirements aren’t a tell-tale sign of a rogue casino. But the inability to refuse a bonus is.
Remember that casinos don’t like giving out free money. So, they’ll place loads of terms and conditions on their bonuses, which often inhibit your ability to withdraw as soon as you win.
If you are not allowed to refuse the bonus, you are not given the option of avoiding these terms, making it difficult to withdraw.
No Affiliation to Regulating Authorities
There are loads of industry watchdogs out there. A casino doesn’t need to be affiliated with them all to be declared safe. However, it does need to have some form of regulation to illicit our trust.
The most important point in this area is that the casino should have its games tested for fairness regularly by independent parties. Safe online casinos will usually post the certificate of completion on their websites so that players can view it.
If such a certificate has not been renewed, it may be a sign that the casino follows bad practices. Why else wouldn’t it be renewed?
How We Pick Safe Online Casinos
There are a few areas we focus on when determining if an online casino is safe. Here is our full process with a brief explanation of each area:
Games
If a casino does not provide games from a respectable software provider, you have to question why. Is it because the casino follows shady practices?o
No trusted software developer wants to get involved with a rogue casino because it harms their reputation as well. So, if a casino offers games of questionable quality, avoid it.
Banking Solutions
Safe online casinos pay players out quickly and with little hassle. These sites offer tons of banking solutions to meet the needs of as many players as possible.
Pretty much every casino will make you verify your account before processing a withdrawal request. You will also need to wait a couple of days before getting your money. The amount of time is usually dependent on the banking method used.
If a casino does not state the amount of time you can expect to wait before receiving your withdrawal, avoid the site. They will put you through hell to try and get your money, and even then, there is no guarantee that you will get it.
SSL Security
This is probably the most basic check we do. If a casino does not use SSL encryption, avoid it. Any information you supply the casino with will be exposed.
You can check if a casino uses SSL encryption by check if there is a lock next to the casino’s URL in your web browser. All safe online casinos use SSL encryption.
Licenses
As mentioned above, there are many online gambling regulating authorities out there. No one regulator is worse than another as each authority performs the same role in a very similar manner – that is, acting as a watchdog for casino malpractice.
For a casino to obtain and keep a license, it needs to meet a set criterion created by the regulator. Some of the areas regulators place special focus on include:
- Fast payouts
- Fair games
- Non-predatory promotional offers
Examples of trusted regulating authorities in the online gambling realm include:
- Kahnawake Gaming Commission
- eCOGRA
- UK Gambling Commission
- Curacao eGaming
- Malta Gaming Authority
- Technical Services Testing
Player Reviews
Before reviewing a casino, we like to look at player and community reviews. No casino is perfect, so you are never going to find a site with a reputation with no blemishes on it.
As mentioned above, you are bound to find user reviews saying that the casino scammed them of some of their winnings after trying to withdraw a bonus early, etc.
However, if there is an overwhelming number of bad reviews, all highlighting the same issues, the casino is probably rogue.
Safe Online Casinos – FAQs
From our experience, the most trusted online casino available to Australian players is King Johnnie. The casino provides a wide variety of games from several software providers, uses SSL encryption, and has a long list of banking options.
Yes and no. The answer depends on where you play at. Safe online casinos are licensed and regulated by trusted governing authorities, provide games from top software providers, and pay players promptly.
Rogue casinos do none of this. They avoid paying players by doing everything imaginable to delay payments.
No, online casino games are not rigged if you play at a casino supplied by a trusted software provider. It is tough for internet casinos to rig games because software developers are in charge of game mechanics.
If a game is rigged at one casino, it is rigged at every casino offering games by that operator.
Internet gambling websites have their own governing bodies. Many of them are out there, but they all pretty much make casinos follow the same guidelines. If a casino is licensed by one of these regulators, you know that it is safe to use.
You can ensure your deposits and withdrawals are safe by ensuring you only make transactions on your own network. Regardless of whether you are gambling online, you should never supply any banking information to any party while on a public network.
Most gambling websites operate in a legal grey area. It is not legal or illegal to sign up and play at offshore casinos because often, laws don’t reference such exceptions.
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