There are of course many ways to get scammed over the internet, however it’s difficult to find an area so completely dominated by con artists, thieves and fraudsters. Yes, I’m talking about online casinos – there are literally thousands of them and the majority of them are simply scams.
They are actually not that hard to spot, here’s a couple of pointers to watch out for:
- Bonuses – scam casinos offer huge bonuses in the way of free money, spins and deposits. They seem ridiculous because they are, you won’t see any of these when you start playing.
- Fake Software/Pirated Games – also very common, they are little more than pirated casino games built into a copied website. Typically littered with spelling mistakes and poor grammar – these are often created and copied en masse.
- No contact/help information – scam casinos exist to steal your money, they don’t offer support or help – check out their contact details if they exist. If there are phone numbers ring them to see if they’re legitimate.
It’s made more complicated in the US due to the 2006 gambling legislation changes and so the legitimate choice is slightly more restricted too. Ultimately the safest option is to go for a casino with a decent reputation and a brand to protect. You can usually get a reasonable bonus and a decent free play section to check out the various games and software.
Bovada is a very safe option and one of the most respected names in the online casino world. It’s actually a rebranded version of Bodog specially created for the American market, as far as safe USA online casinos they don’t come much safer than this. They accept all major US credit cards and even bitcoins if you use them. You can even try them out first and just play for fun – check this link out – free online roulette no download for a try.
There’s a free play section which includes the vast majority of all their games of which there are hundreds if you include all the slots. The bonus varies but at the moment you can get up to $3000 in matching your initial deposits. However remember the crucial difference between Bovada and thousands of other online casinos (with perhaps bigger bonus offers) is that their bonuses are real and they’ll payout if you win.