Staying Safe And Successful at Online Poker

It’s 2018 and the choice of poker rooms for online players has never been bigger – every variant of the game on offer somewhere and every currency imaginable accepted and paid out – but even now, years on from the biggest scandals, it is still worth checking out who you are entrusting your hard-earned cash with, so here are a number of pointers to pay attention to!

General info

The biggies

PokerStars, PartyPoker, 888 and the other big names in the industry have well-documented histories and easily-verifiable backgrounds for any online poker player looking to make them ‘home’ – and although that’s not to say things can never go wrong, you’re as guaranteed as you can be that your money is safe here.

The others

A mass of poker sites have and continue to spring up across the globe, US-facing sites such as Ignition and ACR, Asian poker rooms such as AllinAsia and TigerGaming, European cardrooms such as Ladbrokes, and a host of others - all  promising, and usually delivering, a safe place to play.

The cryptorooms

Cryptopoker is the newest form of playing the game online, sites accepting and paying out in cryptocurrency, and there are many to choose from, although having some knowledge of the cryptomarkets is useful!

Licensing

Licenses can be offered by almost any ‘jurisdiction’ in the world – if it says UKGC (the UK Gambling Commission) for example you’re chosen site is less likely to fall foul of any taxation or financial problems (your money!) than if the license comes from the ‘Autonomous Republic of Jibrovia’ for example!

This last one is a made-up name to illustrate what you need to do – and here Google is one, though not the only, friend to ensure your online poker is safe.

Is the site safe and reliable?

Obviously connected to the above licensing, but with its own separate points to note. In this day and age of instant communication, social networking and forums galore, it’s not difficult to find out if other players are having trouble with a site, or for you to let others know if you’re having trouble.

Now, there is a caveat of course – one problem doesn’t make a site unsafe! There could be any number of reasons why, for example, one specific player didn’t get paid out – but if the same issue keeps cropping up, and nothing seems to be getting done about it, then the alarm bells should start ringing.

This leads us on to Customer Service…

Just as in any walk of life, how a company treats its customers is a very good sign of how trustworthy they are in general, and obviously how you can expect them to deal with you is reflected in how they have dealt with others before you.

Again, these things can all be checked out prior to depositing, and the onus is on you to do a bit of background research – it doesn’t take long and will give you a certain peace of mind, so it’s well worth the effort.

Nothing, including life itself, is 100% safe or guaranteed, but following these pointers above will help to minimise any risks or problems you might face playing poker online.