Casinos in the UK are some of the most regulated in the world, with rigorous tests that ensure all casinos, both online and in-person, are as safe for players as possible.
The UKGC are the primary authority for these regulations and a casino that has licensing from the UKGC will be a safe one. The UKGC has select and strict standards that casinos have to adhere to, these are: fairness, transparency and social responsibility. We will explore these points in more detail later as we look at how well casinos in the UK are regulated.
The Licensing
Unlicensed casinos are on the rise globally. Most of them are scam sites that do not have player fairness and welfare in mind. If you deposit at such sites, don’t expect to be able to withdraw your winnings, as lack of licensing essentially means they can do what they want. The risk of licensing issues is not normally something you have to worry about if you’re a customer in the UK, as online casinos for UK players are typically safe and secure, holding a UKGC license. Without it, they wouldn’t be operating in the UK.
For beginners, it isn’t always easy to distinguish a licensed casino from an unlicensed one if you don’t know where to look. Dodgy online casinos are very good at replicating their look and image to be perceived as safe, when in fact they aren’t. That’s why we have sites such as AskGamblers who have experts that recommend and review safe platforms.
To put it plainly, an unlicensed casino is an illegal one and any casino that isn’t verified in the UK is automatically deemed as fraudulent and unsafe, especially with online casinos holding so much of your personal information like banking information, full names and even addresses.
Fairness and Transparency Are Key
As we have mentioned, the UK has very strict rules for casinos and this even stretches to the games that casinos offer players.
Thankfully, the UK gambling industry has tried to keep the fun and luck in casino games, with the use of RNG (Random Number Generators) ensuring that each game is completely fair and based on randomness. Each game is tested and made to fit certain requirements before players can play them.
As well as this, games need to submit RTP percentages before they make each game playable. An RTP, or return to player, percentage shows players their chances of winnings and offers players pure insight into each game before they decide to play the game. This harks back to the transparency that the UKGC tries to guarantee for players.
The Protection Of Players
As you may know, the gambling industry does come with its issues and gambling addictions are very serious for players. The UKGC knows this and wants to guarantee that players will always have the help that they need.
Sites like GAMSTOP and the gambling restrictions many sites offer mean that players can always take the leap into cutting gambling out of their lives. And again, this has a major social impact on the gambling industry.
Although people know that the gambling industry comes with its issues, gambling sites want to offer help instead of allowing players to ruin their lives, not just for the players but for the industry too. GAMSTOP offers self-exclusion, deposit limits, small breaks etc that help players get the help they need, big and small.
Overall, the UKGC has allowed players to feel safe, looked after and cared for in an industry that has been known to affect players’ lives in a bad way. Safety in casinos is key and although the UK has its issues, its gambling industry remains one of the safest in the world because of these regulations.
