How to Use Online Casinos and Stay Safe
Online casino gambling is one of the most popular, global, leisure activities. But, unless you take care when choosing an online casino , you can expose yourself to scams, money fraud, and even identity theft. My name is Leon Górski, and in this article I explain how to get the best out of your online gambling experiences while staying 100% safe and secure.
I maintain that the easiest and best way of staying safe when gambling at an online casino, begins with your choice of which casino site to use. The problem, especially for newbies to online gambling, is that the number of things to look for to ensure the casino you’re thinking of using is legitimate and safe, is pretty extensive. In this article, I will explain what a new gamer should look for to be safe, while playing at a new online casino.
Only Use Legal Online Casino Sites
What, you might ask yourself, is a real, legal casino? It’s a good question, and one to which newbie gamblers might not know the answer – and yet it is crucial to player safety. At Polskie Sloty, we only present legal online casinos, so if you want to reduce your search time, check the site.
Anyone can launch an online casino. All you need is a well-designed, eye-catching website, plenty of online casino games, and a few pages of genuine sounding content. But a proper, legal, online casino, is one which operates under a widely respected, full, proper, gambling licence. The most respected and recognised licences are those issued by the government of Curacao, Kahnawake Gambling Commission, The Malta Gaming Association, and the UK Gambling Commission.
These licences can only be obtained by online casinos that follow online gambling industry guidelines and best practice, that have fully encrypted websites and have their Random Number Generators (the things that determine the outcome of gambling games) regularly audited and certified. So, checking an online casino’s licensing status should be the first thing on your checklist, but by no means, the last.
Encrypted Online Casino Gambling
As mentioned above, anyone can publish a website on the Internet, and many people do so without encrypting them. This opens them up to scammers being able to prey on any visitors that use them. But in 1995, as the Internet began its rapid growth, a company called Netscape developed something called SSL encryption. The initials ‘SSL’ stand for ‘Secure Sockets Layer’.
SSL, (also referred to as TLS — Transport Layer Security), uses encryption to maintain user data securely, authenticates the identity of a website, and prevents cybercriminals from tampering with communications.
Internet communication starts with a TLS handshake, during which the two parties open a secure connection and swap the public key. As the handshake progresses, each party generates a session key which encrypts and decrypts all content. When a website is protected by SSL encryption, new, unique session keys are generated for each new session.
A legitimate, real online casino platform will have SSL encryption and will have a certificate for proof.
Only Use Tried and Trusted Payment Methods
Whether you are funding an online casino gambling session or withdrawing your winnings, it’s important to use a well-known, tried and trusted payment method. A lot of online gamblers use their Mastercard and Visa credit cards, but eWallets such as MuchBetter, Neteller, and Skrill, etc., are now also very popular. But one of the most secure payment methods is crypto. With its blockchain technology, it’s not only fast, but it is totally anonymous too, making it one of the safest payment methods to use when gambling online.
Consider Using a VPN
Whenever you go online, you always run the risk of falling prey to scammers. Phishing scams are more numerous than ever, and cybercriminals are forever finding new, sophisticated methods of fooling their victims.
It’s always advisable to ensure that any device through which you connect to the World Wide Web is protected. There are numerous specialist software companies that provide online protection – companies such as Kaspersky, McAfee, and Norton. Some of them offer their own branded VPNs in their packages, but not all do. If yours doesn’t, you can use independent VPNs such as Cyber-Ghost, Express VPN, Nord VPN, and Surfshark.
What is a VPN? The initials ‘VPN,’ stand for ‘Virtual Private Network.’ In effect, a VPN hides your IP address by routing public networks through a specially configured remote server which is operated by the VPN host. It means that the VPN’s server becomes the source of the data. It operates like a filter, so that even if a scammer were to intercept any of your data, it will appear totally incomprehensible.
It’s a good idea for anyone involved with online casino gambling to surf via a VPN.
Last but not least, my final tip is to use Polskie Sloty to find your online casinos. Why? It’s because their in-house team of experts put all the online casinos they recommend through a stringent vetting program to ensure they all incorporate the safety features mentioned above.
The only missing feature is a VPN. No online casino offers one. But you can download one yourself from as little as €10 per month. A small price to pay to ensure that your online activities are kept away from prying eyes.
