17 Feb

Safe Online Pokies: How to Avoid Shady Websites

secure safe online pokies sitesIf you walked into a land-based casino, you’d know right away if it was a safe place to play the pokies. If there’s a few too many shadows, dirty carpets, and maybe a few shady characters roaming around, you’d begin to feel uncomfortable pretty quickly. Learning to spot safe online pokies sites isn’t quite so easy, but it’s not difficult either, if you know what to look for.

Today we’re going to go over some quick tips and tricks that will help you rapidly identify what is, and is not, a safe online poker site.

Why Safety & Security Is So Crucial

There are plenty of things that can go wrong if you find yourself depositing and playing the pokies with an unaccountable operator. None of them are pleasant.

Depositing with an irresponsible website that doesn’t put enough focus on its security could result in your sensitive information, both personal and financial, being compromised. This often leads to identity theft and/or financial woes, like credit card fraud.

If the operation is completely rogue, you’ll have no problem depositing and playing the games, but when it comes time to cash out your winnings, chances are they’ll never arrive. You can contact customer support and complain all you want, but in the end, the website will simply disappear, right along with your money.

Know Your SSL

SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. Simply defined, this is the technology that encrypts all sensitive information as it’s being transferred from your computer or mobile device to the website. Whether you’re just signing up your account, giving your real name and choosing a login and password, or entering critical payment information, if the operator utilizes standard ‘128 bit SSL‘ encryption, or anything higher, you know you’re in for a safe online pokies experience.

How do you recognize this technology is present? You could go into the big Terms and Conditions file and find it there, or just look at the numerous image logos at the bottom of the webpage. Here, you should find one or more internet security certification icons. The following is a list of common logos to look for.

SSL Certificate Logos for Online Pokies Sites

Reputable Payment Methods

Next, see what banking options the site offers. Credit cards like Visa and MasterCard are typical, but what else is available? Providing deposits and withdrawals through secure payment methods like Neteller, Skrill, PayPal, POLi – these indicate the website has been approved by those processors.

These logos are often found at the bottom of the operator’s webpage, right along with the security certificates. The following image is a good example, found on the Royal Vegas website.

Royal Vegas Secure Payments

Other Easy Tips & Tricks

Last, there are a few instant signs you can look for.

  1. Make sure the Padlock icon and the URL starter, “https://”, are visible in the URL location bar at the top of the page. This means the website’s security certificate is active and up to date, and that all payment information will be transmitted securely.

    Padlock Secure HTTPS

  2. Skim over the text. How well is it written? If it’s in English, is it proper English, or are there frequent grammatical errors and misplacement/misuse of words? This signifies it was written by a non-English speaking person. If that’s the case, back away immediately. No reputable online pokies site would do this.

  3. If your internet security program and/or firewall pops up with a message that the website is unsafe or unsecure, don’t ignore that warning. This generally occurs when the security certificate is missing out expired.

  4. Does the domain name match the name on the website? If it says it’s Royal Vegas Casino, but the URL is something like rvc.com/royalvegas, or royalvegas.rvc.com, it is not Royal Vegas. Always check to make sure the domain name matches the casino name, especially if it’s a well-known online pokies site.