The Hidden Dangers of Gambling Online
Before online casinos existed, gambling online meant planning a visit to a land-based casino.
Depending on your location, that journey could be lengthy and might even require a hotel stay. In 1994, the first-ever online casino appeared, eventually helping lead to thousands more.
Online casinos are now easy to locate, offering a broad selection of real-money games from home or on the move through a mobile device. If you have an internet-connected device that can open the World Wide Web in a browser or run casino apps, online gambling is accessible.
That convenience has a downside, however. Online gambling can introduce risks worth recognizing, and this article examines some of the less visible dangers associated with playing at these sites.
The aim is to explain the risks by highlighting less obvious parts of online gambling compared with land-based play, rather than simply condemning it.
Online Casinos Versus Land-based Casinos
Land-based casinos can cost more because their minimum bets are often higher, while travelling there and possibly staying in a hotel adds further expense. Online casinos, by contrast, offer access 24 hours a day and 365 days a week, usually with lower stakes and far more games than a land-based venue.
Whether you want to play blackjack, try baccarat, roulette, online slots, craps, poker, or wager on your favourite sport, a website on the Web may offer it. Reaching those games online is also generally much more convenient than travelling to a land-based casino.
At first glance, online casinos seem to offer gamblers a better deal than physical casinos. Yet alongside the advantages of online play are several less obvious disadvantages.
- Loneliness
- Overspending
- Being scammed
- Not being given the right tools
- Rigged games/Results Tampering
Online Casino Gambling Can Be Lonely
Online casinos can be entertaining, and they may occupy time when boredom leaves you looking for a hobby. Numerous table games and variations can keep you engaged. For example, you might spend hours learning Blackjack’s basic strategy and applying it to different formats, including 4 to 8-deck games or hands where surrender or splitting is available.
Slot players can also choose from thousands of themes, titles, and features, potentially providing hours upon hours of entertainment. Loyalty bonuses, casino challenges, and multiple tournaments can make the experience even more absorbing.
That abundance of entertainment also creates a risk. Online casino games can take up a substantial part of your time. While playing, you may have less time for friends and family, and you might begin cancelling sports events or social plans to continue with favourite slots. If you feel compelled to bet a little more just to complete a bonus wagering requirement, a gambling problem may be developing.
You could argue that Live Casino provide social contact because their chat functions let you speak with the dealer or croupier. However, that is not a substitute for the social interaction you need, and the danger is that online play may weaken your ties with friends, family, or even your wife or husband.
People need to preserve real-world social contact with friends and family. For that reason, consider setting a clear limit on the time spent gambling online at your casino.
- Give yourself a fixed limit for how long you may play
- Take a gambling break if you start cancelling sports or social events
- Make time for family, friends, and socializing instead of always playing casino games
- Do not treat live dealer games as a replacement for socializing in real life
Online Casinos Can Lead to Overspending
Being able to overspend is a serious online casino risk, largely because deposits are so simple to make. In this respect, online casinos use the same kind of convenience offered by Amazon or eBay: fast payment solutions for customers. In a modern, fast-moving eCommerce environment, people expect to pay for goods almost instantly.
With so many rapid payment methods at our disposal, adding more money to a casino account can take only a few seconds and a handful of clicks or taps. You may not even need to leave the game, since some sites provide in-game deposit or top-up options. Overspending becomes particularly easy when you are chasing losses and can deposit immediately.
If you are increasing your bets to recover a loss, topping up beyond what you intended, or wagering more than you can afford, step away. When overspending or loss-chasing continues, consider the following tools, which may help you stop:
- Use your casino’s reality check tools to establish time limits
- Consider the casino’s self-exclusion tool to take a cooling-off period
- Set table limits so you cannot raise stakes while chasing losses
- Choose maximum deposit limits for the day, week, or month
Falling into a Scam
The original article describes most online casinos as fair and licensed by trusted authorities, but a licence alone is not a guarantee of safety. It presents government or EU-based licensing as a safety assurance because regulators are expected to monitor operators; those processes can still have limits, and authorization in one jurisdiction does not establish authorization elsewhere.
A casino may look legitimate while holding a licence from a remote island jurisdiction. It may also use games supplied by Microgaming, Evolution Gaming, and NetEnt, which can create an impression of trustworthiness. That branding does not necessarily protect you: some operators use well-known developers while finding ways to avoid paying large wins.
Such casinos may operate outside laws or jurisdictions where legal action is straightforward. They might ignore your messages, close your account, or invent a reason for withholding payment.
Research the operator before depositing. Check whether it is licensed where you live or by a body such as the MGA, which covers multiple jurisdictions. Read casino reviews, examine ratings and comments from players who have used the casino, and look through social media and forums. Careful due diligence may reveal warning signs of a scam, but it cannot guarantee a particular outcome.
- Investigate the casino’s licensing body and assess whether it is trustworthy
- Prefer casinos licensed by UKGC, MGA, or authorities operating under EU laws
- Read casino reviews to learn what actual players report about the operator
Sometimes the Issue Is Not About the Player
One difficult part of evaluating an online casino is finding out which tools it provides for gamble responsibly. This matters especially for newcomers, who may not yet understand the risks of overindulgence. A responsible casino should offer measures intended to limit overspending and excessive play, and to help people avoid debt or a gambling addiction.
Look for FAQs, help pages, game RTP information, how-to-play material, strategy guides, and links to organizations that provide help and information about problem gambling.
Above all, the casino should provide tools that let you:
- Choose a maximum daily, weekly, or monthly deposit limit
- Set the highest amount you can wager in a single bet by applying table limits
- Self-exclude for a cooling-off period or for longer
- Restrict access to particular games
- Use a reality check to monitor playing time and amounts bet or lost
The overspending section already identified these features as ways to reduce the risk of debt and loss-chasing. It is therefore important to confirm that the casino actually makes them available before you play.
Rigged Games or Results Tampering at Untrustworthy Casinos
Very few online casinos could get away with rigging games at that time. It notes that even poorly licensed operators often use platforms connected to several software providers, which are intended to keep random number generators (RNGs) within a predefined return to player (RTP) and prevent tampering by the operator.
Nevertheless, some casinos operate under questionable licences that let them use proprietary RNGs. They may display a certificate saying that a reputable company checked the RNGs. Such a check may have taken place, but the important questions are when it happened and how often testing is repeated. The review notes the possibility that testing occurred when the casino opened and never happened again.
Badges and seals can be used to create a false sense of security while game results are manipulated. Look more closely and an RNG certificate may be months or years old, or have no date at all. The operator may also hold a questionable licence that makes this type of deception easier.
Here are 5 practical tips for avoiding rigged online casino games:
- Choose only casinos licensed by the EU or trusted local government authorities
- See whether the casino provides eCOGRA quarterly reporting
- Check whether IBAS is available as a third-party channel for casino disputes
- Look for current iTech Labs, Testlabs, GLI, and TST certificates
- Read casino reviews, including the reviews published here on GCCans
