The real money online gambling industry, where anyone over the legal age can gamble on legally permitted websites, is more commonly referred to as the iGaming industry. I’ve tried them all, from online sportsbooks and iGaming to bingo & lottery sites and dedicated poker sites.
I prefer playing at these sites from a smartphone, but before joining anywhere, and to ensure my own personal safety, I always conduct my own basic research.
Throughout my research and countless hours talking to industry experts and users like myself, I’ve educated myself about the typical regulatory standards for mobile gambling sites to know where I stand as a user and just to see how transparent the industry is.
To cut a long story short, I’ve devised a list of important things that I feel every person who is considering signing up to a licensed and regulated real money gambling site should know.
Hopefully, it will help you choose the best sites (when I say ‘best,’ I mean the safest) and give you a better insight into the inner workings of the multi-billion-dollar global industry.
The regulatory standards vary from one jurisdiction to another, and in each jurisdiction, a few standard regulations apply to all platforms and devices.
For example, the typical regulatory standards for mobile gambling platforms are the same for all other devices that websites can be accessed from, such as tablet devices, desktop computers, and laptops.
What are the typical regulatory standards?
Certain best practices are standard in many of the world’s most trusted regions where that government’s official authority oversees real money gambling. These standards are designed to protect everyone involved, from the operators to the players.
Today, operators must adhere to the following, which I think is fantastic and absolutely necessary:
- Enforce measures to prevent underage gambling, including no gambling adverts in any form to be targeted at minors
- Enforce measures to prevent money laundering to align with international Anti-Money Laundering (AML) regulations
- Enforce operators to require identification and proof of address from anyone wishing to sign up for their site. This is also known as the KYC (Know Your Customer) process. This process also prevents other fraudulent activities from occurring and multiple accounts from being opened on the same site by the same player intent on misusing that site’s bonuses
- Enforce operators to promote responsible gambling by offering a range of ‘safer gambling tools’ to protect those deemed ‘at-risk’ and educate members about how they can better protect themselves
Are UK-licensed mobile sites the best in the world?
Each country/region has its own regulatory authority, which does what it sees fit to run a well-oiled industry to protect everyone involved. Some authorities are stricter than others and have better regulatory practices and legal frameworks in place.
Thankfully, I live in the United Kingdom, where all legally permitted sites come under the watchful eye of the Gambling Commission. It’s regarded by many as the world’s leading authority on licensing and regulation of real money gambling sites.
In fact, many other governments around the world with less mature industries often look to the UK Gambling Commission’s regulatory standards and try to emulate what the UK does and put similar systems in place in their jurisdictions.
The high standards of the UK are why I always feel safe playing at sites licensed by the Commission.
UK-licensed sites, for example, tend to be controlled by the world’s most trusted companies with excellent backgrounds. They have thousands of computer-generated and live dealer content from multiple award-winning software providers and will accept only the most trusted online payment methods.
For example, if you’re looking for somewhere to sample your favourite titles in a safe online environment in the UK, it’s now super-easy to find a reliable and trustworthy site. I’ve never had any issues whatsoever at UK-licensed sites.
If you want to find a site that allows you to pay by phone, and you type the phrase ‘mobile casino pay with phone credit,’ you will likely come across many trustworthy sites, all of which have the latest honest and unbiased reviews for UK-licensed sites that accept this payment method.
The UK Gambling Commission is classed as a top-tier licensing authority. Others include the Malta Gaming (MGA) and the Government of Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner.
You also have many other top-tier licensing authorities, followed by mid-tier and bottom-tier licensing authorities (aka rubber-stamp authorities).
The sites that are not to be trusted and avoided at all costs are the ones that are licensed by bottom-tier authorities. I also NEVER recommend playing at completely unlicensed sites because nothing good will come from playing at these sites.
Before signing up anywhere, try to find out some of the important information first, like I do, such as finding out where it’s licensed, who owns it, what kind of SSL website security they use to protect your account/money/transactions, and what type of content they provide for you to play.
To save yourself a great deal of time and effort trying to find out all this information yourself, the best thing to do is to compare the reviews from trusted sites.
They typically contain everything you need to know about a site and will give you a better insight into whether the one you are about to join can be trusted. The reviews also usually contain secure links to the official sign-up pages and exclusive new player welcome bonuses.