One only has to look at the official figures released by the UK’s Gambling Commission to see that online gambling is a booming sector.
Now worth £6.9 billion a year, it outstrips the land-based activity that recorded a gross revenue of £4.6 billion for the period between April 2023 and March 2024.
The real stars of the show are the online casinos, responsible for £4.4 billion in revenue and, drilling down even further, the most significant contributor to this total is the slots games at £3.6 billion. While player numbers are never going to be revealed by the operators themselves it’s fairly safe to assume that these are also on the rise, Adam Volz of Casino.org has done his research into the best UK online casinos and found that the highest payout rate is 98.76%, which goes a long way to explaining why they are the most popular type of casino game.
The search for safety
It’s a sad fact of life that whenever there is money involved, someone, somewhere will be trying to get their hands on it through underhanded means. This is obviously very relevant to online casinos. By their very nature, they are always receiving payments and sending out winnings. They may also hold a significant amount of their players’ personal data.
So anyone planning to play on them needs to know that both their money and their identity are being securely held. As part of the requirements of their licence, issued by the Gambling Commission, online casinos have to demonstrate that they are safe and secure and that they have measures in place to prevent another of the countless cybercriminal attacks that are constantly being reported by high profile businesses.
Players also need to know that the online casinos are trustworthy themselves. For example, do they have the financial reserves to pay out winnings and are the games themselves run fairly? So they have a number of measures in place.
The steps casinos take
In fact, there are four key areas that online casino operators focus on to ensure their players can place their ultimate trust in them.
Player ID and verification
The first of these is taking steps to ensure they know exactly who is playing on their site. So, when anyone registers to play, they need to provide specific identification. This generally includes proof of name and home address so casinos can cross-check that the individual really is who they say they are.
Site encryption
This protects not just the player’s personal data but all of the online casino’s systems from malicious outsiders. It does this by jumbling the data in a way that would take thousands of years to exhaust all permutations and crack the code. Again, there is a minimum level of encryption demanded by licensing requirements, but many casinos exceed this by a considerable margin. All should also show on their website the precise level of encryption that is in force or be able to provide details when questioned.
Trusted third parties
Any online casino has many touchpoints with outside suppliers. All of these represent a potential weak link if not chosen carefully. For example, the best online casinos will only use games that are provided by highly respected developers, which also have a good reputation.
Even more crucially, they need to partner with a wide range of payment providers as more and more players are using digital wallets like PayPal, Neteller and Skrill instead of the more traditional banking methods. To ensure that the random number generators that run all of the online games really are random, they also need a trusted third-party auditor to check these regularly.
The benefits and challenges for casinos
It goes without saying that there are many benefits of online casinos that fall into line with all of these requirements. Not only will they be the ones getting the five-star reviews across the board, but they will also be attracting new players. In addition, they can be totally secure in the knowledge that their operating licences will be safe.
The main challenge of compliance is cost. Any safe, regulated casino is inevitably going to cost more to run if everything is in place. This is inevitably going to affect the bottom line. However, it should also mean that more players will be attracted.
Looking to the future
Advancing technology, for example, the rise of AI, will probably help online casinos to be even safer and more compliant going forward. The proposed adoption of digital identity cards in the UK will also make it even easier for them to confirm players really are who they say they are.
This will all help the best casinos to thrive, even in the very competitive environment they find themselves in. Most importantly, it will mean UK players can feel safer than ever before.
Read more:
The Online Gambling Boom: Why UK Players Demand Safer, Regulated Platforms
