There are thousands of legitimate online casinos on the internet that you can trust to play both to have fun and also to win some cash. However, they’re also so many shady casino websites on the internet that are ready to scam your hard-earned cash.
But if you’re an experienced casino player, it is quite easy to spot a shady casino website just from the way it looks and the whole user experience you get while on the site. Like online casino Malaysia Maxim88 whose official website is user-friendly and details information given to the player. So that players can feel safe playing on Maxim88.
However, many beginners and even some experienced casino players still find it hard to differentiate between legitimate and fake casino website. Many Malaysians have been victims of these scammers and some ended up hating online casinos altogether especially beginners.
If you are a beginner, there are quite a number of things you can look at to know whether a casino is legitimate or not. In this article, I am going to share with you the stuff you need to look at when you visit a casino website for the first time to know whether it is safe or unsafe.
The Legitimacy of Online Casino Malaysia
Both online and on land casinos are regulated by gambling regulatory bodies and these bodies may vary depending on the area of operation of the casino. A casino website that is not regulated by anybody is one of those you should never trust.
To know the legitimacy of any casino website, you need to know the country it’s located at first. From there, you can find out the gambling regulatory bodies for that country so that you check with them to confirm whether the casino is regulated by any of them or not.
Many shady online casino Malaysia websites always claim to be licensed but most of them are not. That is why it is important you check with the regulatory body to confirm their claims. You should never deposit any money on any online casino platform that has no valid license.
You may play their free games just for fun but don’t risk playing to win cash because you will end up losing everything you bet.
But you may feel safe playing on Maxim88. It is because Maxim88 does have a secure player information protection system which not easy for a hacker to steal your sensitive information. Besides that, Maxim88 is holding PAGCOR Licenses.
Offering a Shady Software and/or Games to Player
The games and software on legitimate online casino Malaysia websites are always smooth and stable. Most of the gambling regulatory bodies do not give license to casinos whose software and games are wanting.
A legitimate casino site should also be having games made by some of the best gaming software companies. Some of these include Microgaming, Betsoft, Evolution Gaming, NetEnt, etc.
If you ever find a casino website having games that are only from unknown game developers, you have to be suspicious about the legitimacy of such a site. And if also their games are always crushing, then that site is surely unreliable and you shouldn’t trust it with your money.
Legitimate gaming online casino Malaysia websites have smooth games that do not frequently crush or lag as long as you have good internet.
However, if the problem in the software is only experienced in 2 or 3 games out of say 200 games, then the issue could be with the game developers of that particular game and not the casino website. But if most of the games are having issues, then that casino website is unsafe and very risky to deal with.
Click to claim the bonus and play safely
Unfair Wagering Requirements
Wagering is a term used in gambling and it refers to the number of times you need to play the bonus money before being allowed to make any withdraws.
For every online casino Malaysia, there is always this multiplier that is known as the wagering requirement. There are some that have X10, some have X5, and so on. However, if this number goes beyond X20, that website is most likely not going to allow you to withdraw the bonus and you shouldn’t trust it.
Well, you may also check out our 6 Things You Should Aware While Choosing Casino Games Online
Another thing you need to note is some casino websites may not reveal wagering requirements before one starts playing. They only show you the wagering requirements after winning your bonus.
It is best you always know the wagering requirements for the particular game you’re about to play to avoid being disappointed after winning the bonus. If the wagering requirements for a website are unclear or unfair, it is better you don’t trust such a website with your hard-earned cash. Because they will most likely make it difficult for you to withdraw the bonus once you win it.
Illegal Marketing Practices (Spam)
They say you should not judge a book by its cover but in business, the first impression you get when the business is reaching out to you can give you a picture of the values that business stands for.
Spamming is one of the most unethical things that any legitimate website should avoid while trying to market their services. So, if you ever come across an online casino Malaysia website that is always sending you messages on your social media or email even when you don’t reply.
Chances of that casino website being unsafe are so high
A legitimate casino website will always know the best way to reach out to their target customers without having to spam them with their marketing messages.
Most of the fake casino websites will send you messages with eye-catching offers that will tempt you to click their site. However, going to the website and playing a couple of free games is not bad, but what I wouldn’t recommend is depositing any of your cash on such a website with an expectation of winning at the end of the day.
If there is any casino website that is always spamming you on social media, you can choose to block their page or report their account to the social media platform support because spamming is not a legal practice in marketing.
You can also go ahead and warn your friends from not trusting that particular website so that they don’t become victims of such scammers.
Another easiest way to know the legitimacy of the site that is spamming you is through checking out their social media engagement. Most of the scammers always delete comments of people that are complaining about their service instead of addressing the problem.
When you comment on any social media post of a legitimate online casino Malaysia website, they will always reply to you with an appropriate answer or will address your query in case you have one.
Poor in Customer Support
For any online platform, customer support is one of the key factors that determine whether their services are legitimate or not. This is no different from online casino Malaysia websites.
Since you are not playing the game physically and you can’t see those responsible for the game, it is important that the casino has a customer support team that you can reach out to at any time of the day.
Unsafe online casino Malaysia websites are characterized by poor customer support. In most cases, they will take a lot of time to respond or even not responding at all in some cases.
This is because either their team is not big enough to handle the huge traffic that needs customers to support attention or they do not have the answers that you need at that moment.
Whatever the case may be, a safe online casino should give a lot of priority to their customer support team because this is the team that interacts with the people that give them money.
To test this, go to the casino website and try contacting support and see how long they take to reply to you. Most of the customer support teams for legitimate online casino Malaysia sites will always reply to you within 24 hours or less if you contact them via email.
If you contact them via live chat, they will always reply in a few minutes. On the other hand, unsafe casino websites may take days or even weeks before they give you feedback no matter the platform you use to contact them.
Unsafe casinos use unknown deposit and payment methods
When you get to any casino website, one of the first things you need to look at are the payment methods they use to pay winners. There common payment methods that are known worldwide to be used by legitimate casino websites and other online platforms. Some of these include; PayPal, VISA, MasterCard, Skrill, Stripe, Payoneer, etc.
There are other legitimate payment methods that I haven’t mentioned above but at least the payment method used by a legitimate casino should have some background and reputation when you check it out of the internet.
Authentic financial companies like PayPal do not associate with online scams. This is because they have a name to protect and wouldn’t want to appear in any scandal of a scammer running away with people’s money.
Most of the fake casino websites use unknown deposit and payment methods to avoid being tracked when they run away with people’s money.
Some have actually resorted to using cryptocurrencies as a way of hiding their identity when they receive payment. So, before you start playing to win cash, it is important to evaluate the payment methods available on the casino website.
Another important thing you need to note is some fake websites may just put logos (in the form of images) of the famous payment methods like PayPal as a way of winning your confidence. I was personally a victim of such.
An online casino Malaysia put a PayPal logo at the footer of their website, so I got the confidence that PayPal is one of the payment methods they use. But I later found out that the image at the footer was just a logo and not a PayPal link associated with their website.
So, if you happen to find such an image on the website, always try to click to find out whether it’s a link associated with that website or it is just a mere image.
Unsafe casino websites don’t have adequate security
Legitimate casino sites always have a minimum of 128bit SSL digital encryption protection. SSL stands for Secure Socket Layer. You can know a website that has SSL protection by looking for a padlock symbol in the URL bar of the website.
Websites that have SSL digital encryption have a symbol of the padlock in the URL bar. Also, all the addresses to the different pages of the website start with https.
The importance of a site having SSL encryption is to protect your personal information like your credit card data so that it is not accessed by any third-party entity. So, you can safely deposit and subscribe for services on a site using your credit card without worrying about anyone stealing your information.
So, if the casino website doesn’t have all these security features, do not give them any of your personal data that is associated with your money or anything that could be used to blackmail you
The good thing is that most browsers today will always warm you before you access any website that doesn’t have SSL data encryption. If you ever get such a warning while trying to access a casino site, never ignore it because you may end up paying the price at some point.
Unsafe casinos websites don’t have social media pages or delete comments
Another way of identifying unsafe casino websites is by checking their availability on the different social media platforms. Any legitimate brand would want to take advantages of the traffic on social media to sell their services and get traffic for their site.
If a casino brand is not available on any social media platform, then such a brand is unsafe to deal with.
Some of the fake casino websites that are available on social media always delete most of the negative comments that people put up about their services.
When you get on their social media timeline, you will realize most of their posts don’t have comments. And even when you find the comments, they are usually positive comments that seem to be biased.
You should only deal with casino brands that are transparent and ready to let people freely express themselves in case they are not satisfied with any of the services the website offers.
If a casino’s social media looks fishy, then it should be one of those you avoid at all costs if you don’t want to lose money.
Conclusion
There are many fake and unsafe casino websites that you should always avoid whenever you want to do serious gambling that involves betting cash.
The above list of things that you can look at to determine the legitimacy of a casino site may not be exhaustive but it has the things that all unsafe casino websites have in common.
So, when you get to any casino website, make sure their games don’t have crashing issues, their support should be responsive and they should also have fair wagering requirements.
These and the other factors we have shared above should always be the first things you look at when you get an online casino Malaysia website
Otherwise, there are so many scams out there that are waiting to run away with your money if you’re not careful. You should also do some background checks on social media to see what other people that have used a particular casino site say about it.
Most of the legitimate casino websites have good reviews of people appreciating their services on various review platforms.