Online casino selection

Casinos, both online and live ones, feature negative EV games. That’s a fact, and it’s a direct consequence of the house edge, which in turn induces the house drop. That’s how casinos work and that’s how they’ve always worked. For that reason, when it comes to online casino gambling, the best strategic move you can make is to exercise proper online casino selection, taking various aspects of the operation into account.

Here’s a short rundown of what you should be on the lookout for when searching for a place to gamble online. The casino’s reputation is of utmost importance. Yes, it’s more important than the sign-up bonuses and than everything else put together. You can secure the best ever bonus, but if the casino which advertises it never really plans on paying out any of your winnings there’s not a whole lot of point in it, is there? Read some online casino reviews. There are hundreds of sites out there offering such information, just bear in mind that most of these review sites are online casino affiliates and therefore their reviews may not be as unbiased as you’d like them to be. Check out these reviews but always browse through a few community forums as well. The power of the wisdom of the masses should never be underestimated. People who’ve had bad experiences with casinos always vent their anger on community forums. With that in mind, I’d have to say these forums are probably your most reliable source of information when it comes to determining how serious an online poker operation is.

Only when you’ve found several casinos recommended by players, should you turn your attention to the bonuses they advertise. The first rule of online casino bonus assessment is: bigger is almost never better. Every casino advertises its sign-up bonus in a prominent place on its homepage. Most operations don’t shy away from calling the bonus “free money” either. That brings us to the second rule of casino bonuses: the bonuses on offer are not free money. As a matter of fact, you’ll have to play pretty hard to redeem that bonus, by fulfilling its wagering requirements.
The wagering requirements hide the true value of the bonus. Sure, the % match is important too, and so is the maximum amount, but more important than both those things are the wagering requirements. When you sign up to an online casino, your sign-up bonus is transferred into your real money account (unlike in poker where it is first transferred into your bonus account, where it sits pending redemption). The catch is that you cannot withdraw money from your casino until you’ve fulfilled the wagering requirements. If you do, you will give up the bonus. Some casinos will even take away your winnings. This is why you need to be 100% level with the redemption requirements. Different casino games carry different house edges. Games like slots pay out close to 100%. Keno can pay out as little as 40%. Make sure your redemption requirements allow you to unlock your bonus on reasonable games. Some casinos only accept bonus redemption on games with the highest house edges. While having Red/black and Odd/even bets on roulette excluded from bonus redemption is reasonable, some casinos will exclude everything but the games with the worst odds for players.

Another thing that you should pay attention to is the loyalty scheme that your casino runs. In poker, there’s rakeback and there are the ever popular poker prop deals. In gambling there are the comp point schemes which are the equivalents of poker rakeback: they give you a rebate on your losses.