Being new to the world of online casinos throws up all sorts of questions and concerns, which means lots of people turn to review sites to answer the queries they have before choosing a platform.
This is fine, so long as you know what aspects of a review are relevant to you, but as a total gambling novice, even the reviews themselves can be impenetrable.
With that in mind, here is an overview of the main things you should be checking up on when browsing online casino reviews, so that you don’t get confused by the coverage you encounter.
Check for bonus & incentive info
When it comes to the games available, this isn’t always that helpful for separating one casino from the next, because most of the top online operators feature titles from the same developers, making this an unhelpful distinguishing factor.
Where the real differences come is in the incentives that casino sites offer to get new customers to sign up and stay loyal. As such, it’s a good place to start when perusing reviews.
So what are the different types of bonus available? They usually fall into two categories; deposit-matching and free bets or free spins. Some sites will match whatever cash you add to your account on your first deposit, and let you play games with this bonus credit.
Others will let you place a wager or spin the reels of slots up to a certain amount free of charge. For example, if you take a look at some free spins on registration offers, you’ll see that this is an option even without making a deposit.
Scrutinize payment solutions
Speaking of deposits, you should only play with reputable, licensed and legal casino sites that let you add cash to your account and withdraw your winnings securely.
For that, they’ll need a mainstream payment solution to handle these sensitive transactions, and a good review will let you know exactly which services are supported.
Payment via debit or credit card is a given for most casinos, but you may prefer to pay through a solution like PayPal, or another e-wallet style service.
Consider user-friendliness
Whether you are an online casino newbie or a veritable veteran, you’ll want to play on sites that are intuitive to use. Good reviews will tell you not only how accessible the interface is, but also how well a site works on a range of different devices.
If you want to play on your smartphone, for example, you’ll clearly want to know if your handset is supported. Often an operator will have a mobile application of its very own to enable this, and again it’s worth seeing if the user-friendliness of this is rated in the review as you read it.
Explore game variety
Last of all, look for the types of gambling experiences and casino games that an online provider makes available to customers, and match these to your own preferences.
If you have a penchant for playing slots, check that the review lists the number of different games that are included in this genre. Some sites specialize in slots, with hundreds or even thousands available, while others are not as focused on this activity.
If you are more of a fan of table games like poker, see if a review mentions their availability, and also check if live versions of these games are provided alongside their purely digital counterparts.
Finally, don’t forget that lots of casino sites let you try out their games and services free of charge, so you can read a review and take the site for a trial run before you make a commitment.
