What to look for in an UK online casino?

If you are new to online casinos all the terms and jargon used can be a bit confusing at first and it’s hard to know which casinos are worth it and safe to play at.

UK gambling licence

If you come from the UK then this is a really important one to look out for. The UK gambling commission has a lot of requirements and checks to get a licence approved. They are also quick to fine or suspend companies that rip off their players or break UKGC rules.

There are casinos with other licences like Malta and Curacao and whilst these are often fair and honest casinos there are handful that aren’t and the checks generally aren’t as strict as with the UKGC.

Deposit bonus & free spins T&C

Here at CasinoBonusCrazy we try to do the leg work for you and find out the wagering requirements and specific terms that you might need to be aware of. However, it’s always a good idea to double check them before you sign up to a bonus offer or free spins as they can change or be added to by the casino. We will go into more detail below.

Wagering requirements

These are the amount of times the deposit or more often the deposit and bonus must be wagered before you can withdraw any winnings.

Example

William Hill Casino
40x deposit & bonus wagering
100% bonus up to £300 deposit

You decide to deposit £50
You total amount with bonus will be £100
You will need to wager this 40x to withdraw winnings, so once you have made £4000 of bets all winnings are withdrawal.

This sounds like a huge amount, but a lot of Casino games have very low margins and if you start off winning or have even slightly better than average luck, you can keep recycling the bets over and over.

It’s worth mentioning that some casinos will only give you a certain % of your stake towards the bonus depending on the game being played, so it’s always worth checking this.

Most casinos will also set an upper limit to how much you can win off the free bonus. In the case of the William Hill bonus they limit this to £4000, which is relatively high.

Time restrictions

Almost all bonus offers and free spins offers will have some form of time restrictions placed on them. This can be for as long as 30 days or as short as 3 days, although most fall somewhere in-between.

So if you are planning to sign up, make sure you have enough time free to play out your bonus or free spins within the times limits the casino has set for the bonus to be used.

Payment methods and withdrawal speeds

It might seem obvious to check the payment methods available, however some people assume if they can deposit money via a certain method then they can also withdraw it via the same method.

Whilst this is almost always the case with bank transfers, VISA & Mastercard, some of the web wallets they allow deposits but they don’t allow withdrawals. You can see an example of this in our PlayOJO free spins review.

The last thing you must always check is if the withdrawal times are reasonable and if the casino publishes them. We wouldn’t recommend using a casino that doesn’t publish their maximum withdrawal times for payment methods.

Mobile & tablet ready

Pretty much all casinos worth their salt will run well on mobile devices now days, however, there are a lot of different mobiles and screen resolutions. If you are signing up on a desktop, but plan to play mostly on a mobile, it’s always worth checking out how the site looks and functions on your mobile first.

Brand name & history

There is nothing wrong with trying out new casinos, particularly if they have a UK gambling commission licence. However, the less time the Casino has been running the more unknowns there are and the more chance they could run into financing trouble and be forced to close. There is of course also less history to see of them treating players fairly.

It’s often safer to go with the more established brands as they have a proven track record of financial stability and player fairness. Why not take a look at our reviews for William Hill Casino, PlayOJO and Mr Green.