Many Malaysians have been increasingly interested in playing at online casinos in the last few years. People have opted to play at online casinos because of the convenience, variety of game options, and the many bonuses these casinos offer. However, scammers are also taking advantage of the increasing popularity of online casinos. You must exercise caution while playing at an online casino in order to prevent falling victim to one of these frauds.
Many of these scammers build websites that may not be easy for the ordinary person to differentiate from legitimate ones. However, if you know what to look for, it is pretty easy to distinguish a legitimate online casino from a fake one. In this article, I will discuss the tips you can use to determine scams from legitimate casinos easily. Let’s dive in!
Check out online reviews
We live in an era where getting information is just a few clicks away. Check out what other people have to say about a certain online casino before you put your money there. Some of the platforms you should consider checking out include Google reviews, Quora, Reddit, and many more.
You will likely find plenty of information about people sharing their experiences with the online casino. You also need to take note of fake reviews because plenty of them are out there as well. Any reliable online casino will always have both positive and negative reviews. Try to read both to know the good things about the casino and whether you can withstand the negative aspects of the casino.
Check out their payment options
Scammers usually don’t partner with legitimate payment platforms. Most of them are now opting for crypto since it is not regulated and controlled by any legitimate legal entity. I am not trying to say that online casinos that use crypto are not legitimate; there are actually so many legitimate online casinos in Malaysia that use crypto as one of the payment methods.
My point is this; if an online casino only has crypto as the sole means of payment, there are chances that it is trying to avoid the other payment options due to lack of licensing. With payment platforms such as Help2Pay and EeziePay, I would expect an online casino based in Malaysia and the neighbouring countries to have it as an alternative because it is widespread in this region.
Please note; some online casinos will only put logos of brands like PayPal or Stripe just to make you think they are their payment partners. Most of these scammers have learnt the psychology of internet users; they know a plain logo/sticker at the site’s footer will make many people think that payment method is associated with them. I’ve been a victim of this scam myself.
Take time to click the links of the payment methods the casino claims to work with to figure out if they are active links that lead to the platform’s website or their check out page.
Quality of customer service
An online platform’s reliability is assessed from how well it responds to customer queries whenever contacted. Scammers don’t have the budget to invest in providing their users with quality customer support, so most of the time, their customer service is not good enough. Most of the reliable online casinos in Malaysia have 24/7 customer support teams that can be contacted on various platforms, including Telegram, WeChat, and WhatsApp.
Scammers usually don’t give customers reliable customer support. The only time they pay attention is when a customer has a question about depositing money. So, before you try out any online casino, take time and check out their customer support to determine how reliable it is. But even if an online casino is not a scam, its customer support team must be reachable and reliable.
The quality of their website
Most of these online scams do not have the resources to invest in a well-built website. Their websites are usually very basic, with minimalistic UI features. The only section they make intuitive is payments because they want to make it easy for you to deposit money into their wallets. Legitimate online casinos have well-built and professional-looking websites.
By just looking at the homepage alone, you should be able to tell if a website is professionally built or not. You also need to visit the games’ pages and check if all the games are active and available. Most times, scams simply add thumbnails of these games with no active links to load them. So, don’t just scroll through the games; check them out to ensure they are active and playable.
In addition, it is worth noting that most trustworthy online casinos provide demo games. The demo games usually have limited features, but they aim to provide players with a picture of the playing experience at the online casino. I always recommend playing at online casinos that offer you this option.
Unrealistic bonuses and promotions
Online casinos are businesses that survive by getting profits from players. So, it is unrealistic to give players free bonuses or money without their input. Yes, bonuses are available to players at all casinos, even the legal ones. However, bonuses at these legitimate casinos are usually realistic and do not involve baseless promises.
Bonuses should also have terms and conditions that players need to follow before claiming them. Such terms include being involved in a certain number of games, depositing a certain amount of money, and many more. On the other hand, scammers will show you that it is possible to win their bonuses without any form of input. If you see such bonuses, run for your life!
Be aware of brand new casinos
When choose which online casino to play at, always inquire about the site’s history. With this, I don’t mean all new casinos are not legitimate. However, I recommend taking your time to know about it before depositing your hard-earned cash. Most online scams usually last a couple of months before closing.
So, it is always best to wait till a casino is about six months before you can fully trust it. But if, for whatever reason, you can’t wait for that long, I recommend starting with small stakes and then gradually increasing it over time.
Licensing status
Before you trust any online casino, you need to ensure it has licenses from some of the most trusted and reliable online casino regulators. These regulators usually put in place minimum requirements that online casinos have to follow to maintain their licences.
They also inspect all their games to make sure they meet the minimum fairness standards. Checking the license status of the online casino should be one of the first things you do whenever you visit a casino website for the very first time. You also need to verify that the license they claim to have is legitimate.
Software providers they work with
Another key aspect you need to look out for are the casino software providers the casino partners with. Look out for some of the common names you expect to find at any legitimate online casino website in Malaysia. Some popular software providers in Malaysia online casinos include Microgaming, Playtech, Asia Gaming, Evolution Gaming, Spade Gaming, Pragmatic Play, and many more.
Any legitimate online casino needs to have more than one of the above brands as their casino software providers. Having such brands is an indicator of legitimacy because most of these top providers do due diligence to partner with only authentic online casinos. Besides legitimacy, the quality of games on any online casino largely rely on the software providers they partner with.
Final thoughts
If you follow the tips I have just shared, it should be pretty easy for you to choose a legitimate online casino because there are many out there. I know it will take you time to apply those tips as you search for your next online casino. However, it is better to kill off 20 mins doing your background check than losing your hard-earned money to an online scam.
I also encourage you not to share a lot of your information with any casino website if it is your first time using it. While making deposits, it is best you use an e-wallet such as PayPal, Stripe or Help2Pay. Giving your credit card info to an online casino website you are new to is not something I would recommend.