How can you tell if a new online casino is legitimate?
New online casinos are popping up all the time. It is a growth industry, and many newcomers are looking for a way to tap into this. You may even be surprised to know that some of the newer online casinos aren’t as new as they seem. Instead, they are just a different brand of an existing casino that exists purely to gain customers in a different market segment. Although, that’s a story for another day.
We are firm advocates of always checking out newer online casinos, because newer businesses deserve your custom too, and often the newer online casinos have better bonuses. However, as anybody will tell you, this is also an industry that is subject to scams. Our goal here is to give you some advice to help you determine whether a new casino is legitimate or not.
Check the site licensing
The first thing that you should always do is examine the site’s licensing. Every legitimate online casino should be licensed somewhere. If you’re gambling in the UK, then make sure that you’re only gambling on platforms licensed by the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).
Licensing information should be located on every page of the website, and it is typically somewhere near the bottom of each page. It should be easy to see. There will be a licensing number. You should click on this number or type it into the relevant gambling authorities' website to make sure that it matches up with the website, or at least the owner of the online casino. If it doesn’t, then it could be a fake number and that casino should not be trusted.
If there is no site licence at all, skip the website. While there is a small chance the site could still be legit, there is absolutely no guarantee. Plus, if something does go wrong, there’s nobody there to help you out.
Check legitimate review websites
If you want to ensure a new online casino is legitimate—especially when it comes to fast withdrawals—checking trusted review websites is essential. Websites like CasinoTopsOnline provide insights into a casino’s reliability, payment processing speed, and whether they actually deliver quick withdrawals as promised.
Fast withdrawal casinos are highly sought after, but not all sites that claim to process payments quickly actually do. Good review platforms will highlight casinos with a strong track record of paying out winnings efficiently, along with details on payment methods and any withdrawal limits.
If a new casino doesn’t appear on any respectable review sites, that’s a red flag. While it could still be legitimate, you’ll be taking an unnecessary risk – so ask yourself, is it really worth it? With so many well-reviewed fast-withdrawal casinos available, there’s no reason to waste time (or money) on a site that hasn’t yet earned a solid reputation.
Read user reviews
Along the same lines as professional reviews, we suggest that you read user reviews too. However, do make sure that you take them with a grain of salt. Just because an online casino has hundreds of positive reviews doesn’t mean it is good. We suggest you look for online casinos that have a healthy mix of positive and negative reviews since no site is perfect
Check site owner
As we noted initially, many new online casinos are not strictly new. Instead, they are new brands owned by established online casinos. So, do your research into the company behind the casino. This should let you know what people’s overall experiences have been with that business. Quite often, you will find the site owner’s information provided on the licensing information. It should also be listed on the website. If an online casino platform deliberately hides who owns their platform, it is best to avoid the site.
Check the domain name for security
When you’re gambling on a new platform, always look at the domain name that appears at the top of your web browser. It should have https://, not http:// before the domain name. The s indicates that the site is secure, so you don’t need to worry about your data being snooped on. Make sure that this s is consistently on each page of the website, particularly on payment pages.
If a site is not behind a secure server, then your data is at risk. This indicates that your connection is not encrypted, and anybody could swipe your data.
Site design
Most of the time, when we stumble across a website that is not legitimate, we know that it is not legitimate. It is all about the site design. If a site looks like there has been very little care and effort put into it, such as poor design, spelling mistakes, and glitches, then the site might not be legitimate.
Some of these design flaws are often because a scammer doesn’t tend to spend hundreds of hours developing their platform. However, many design flaws are deliberate and part of the scam. Many scammers make their site look like a scam because they know that those who genuinely believe their awful website is legit are much easier to scam in the future, as those people have indicated they are an easy mark.
Site terms and conditions
Always read through the terms and conditions for a website. Scam websites often have missing terms and conditions, they may also be unclear and especially vague or just include a few lines. Alternatively, the terms and conditions may have been swiped from elsewhere. Respectable casinos spend a lot of time crafting the legalese for their platform.
Site withdrawal and deposit methods
We tend to skip websites that only accept cryptocurrency as a payment method, but there are many respectable cryptocurrency casinos. Cryptocurrency is a perfectly acceptable currency for gambling which offers fast withdrawals and avoids currency conversion fees. If a site only offers cryptocurrency for deposits and withdrawals, just ensure that the site has a respectable history, since they have not partnered up with reputable payment providers where you have some degree of oversight if something goes wrong.
Games
Reputable online casinos will typically only feature third-party casino games. These third-party games will have been vetted by reputable organisations to confirm their fairness. If an online casino develops all its own games, give the site a skip, especially if they are not licensed. Not even major online casinos develop their games as it requires a very specific set of skills, but some reputable casinos do have one or more games that have been specifically designed for them by a casino software company.
Final thoughts
You’ll almost always be able to spot an online casino that is a scam within a few minutes of being there. Players can often tell when a new online casino is not legit, as most scammers don’t hide it well. However, if you’re still struggling to determine whether a site is legit, following the advice on this page should help.