Tips for playing at online casinos for real money

If you’re looking to play at real money online casinos, make sure you pick a reputable site like Wild Casino.
One of the best tips for online gambling is to take advantage of welcome bonuses, such as the one offered by DuckyLuck Casino.
Setting deposit limits can help you manage your bankroll while chasing down that lucky seven at LA Reels.

If you’ve ever walked through a brick-and-mortar casino, then you know how overwhelming they can be.

Bright lights, constant noise, and constant temptation greet you around every corner—not to mention all those slot machine chimings. It can feel like an assault on the senses, especially if you are new.

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While online gaming platforms don’t exactly tone down the flashing lights and incessant sounds, they do offer users more control over their experience.

Instead of paying for expensive real estate or flashy decorations, digital casinos spend their cash on sign-up bonuses, subscriptions to newsletters, and free slots. These virtual joints may seem more laid back than their physical counterparts, but they also come with a unique set of rules, etiquette, and potential hazards.

Whether you’re a newbie just dipping your toes into cyber gambling or a veteran trying to diversify their action, these online casino tips will help keep you safe and sound.

Choose a Safe & Reputable Casino for Real Money

Common sense says you should only play at licensed and regulated online casinos, but common sense doesn’t always prevail—especially when money and temptation are involved. After all, an unlicensed casino might look pretty tempting, considering they don’t have to split their profits with any higher powers.

However, if you value your bankroll (and your identity), common sense is the way to go here.

Playing at an offshore casino that operates outside the law may seem like a good deal—no taxes, anyone?—but it opens you up to all sorts of trouble.

These sites aren’t bound by local, state, or provincial gaming laws, so you have no real recourse if something goes wrong. That could mean unresolved withdrawal requests, jackpot terms and conditions (T&Cs) you didn’t agree to, or simply disappearing one day.

When you choose a licensed casino, everything is out in the open. You can read the T&Cs before you sign up, and you have legal avenues to pursue if those terms aren’t met.

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Everyone makes mistakes, however, so it’s important to choose a reliable online casino that has a good track record of making things right.

Some casinos will go above and beyond to resolve disputes between patrons and game developers regarding progressive wins. Others will simply stonewall you until you give up.

You can find out a lot about a place by reading online reviews, forums, and social media comments from other gamblers. Our online casino reviews can save you time and potentially some money along the way.

Not all review sites are equal, however. Many are little more than affiliate marketing schemes that rank casinos based on the size of their referral fees. Here at GamblingSites.com, our reviews are written by seasoned authors who have firsthand experience with each platform.

We evaluate a casino based on several factors, including its game selection, banking options, bonus offers, reputation, security features, and more. We encourage you to compare several sites side by side before choosing the one that fits your style.

One of our top picks for online casinos is Wild Casino, which has a wide range of games, great customer support, and a generous welcome bonus of up to $5,000.

Take Advantage of Welcome Bonuses & Promotions

Any good casino player knows that you should take advantage of comps and bonuses whenever you can find them.

Brick-and-mortar establishments lure customers in with cheap drinks, cheap buffets, and “free” shows, knowing that once you’re inside, you’ll probably drop a few bucks at the slots. Online casinos, on the other hand, don’t need to give out free shrimck cocktails, so they sweeten the pot with sign-up bonuses, reload bonuses, and other promotional offers.

These incentives typically take the form of a “match play” bonus, where the house matches a certain percentage of your initial deposit. For example, many sites offer new players a 100% match on deposits up to $500, for a total credit of $1,000.

Read the Fine Print

As with all things legal, these promos come with strings attached. In this case, you’ll usually have to wager a certain multiple of your bonus before you can withdraw your winnings.

This is known as a playthrough requirement, rollover requirement, or wagering requirement, and it varies widely from one site to the next.

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For instance, you may have to bet 10, 20, 30, 40, or 50 times before you can access your bonus money. Some casinos apply the rollover to the principal and the bonus separately, while others combine the two.

Additionally, different games may contribute differently to the wagering requirement. Slots and keno almost always count for 100%, while table games like blackjack and video poker may only count for 20% or less.

Some sites even prohibit certain games during the promotion period. It pays to read the fine print—literally—before you accept any bonus offer.

One casino that makes it easy to understand their bonuses is DuckyLuck Casino. They use a simple format for their promos, giving you a 250%, 300%, or 350% match on deposits up to $2,500, with a 30x wagering requirement on both the principal and the bonus amount.

It’s not much, but this site offers free spins with no deposit required. Not many places do that anymore.

Remember that most bonuses expire after a certain number of days, often 30. If you don’t use the full amount within that time, the unused portion generally disappears.

Some casinos divide your total bonus into increments, with each segment expiring after a day or two. This encourages you to play frequently rather than trying to burn through your entire bankroll at once.

Finally, many sites will append letters after certain bonus types, such as Free Spins (FS), No Deposit (ND), Wager Requirement (WR), per Game (pG), per Day (pD), and Accept/Valid Until (AA). Here’s a handy key to some of the more common ones:

Free Spins (FS) – Sometimes listed as “Free Spins No Deposuit Required Buffer,” this type of bonus lets you spin the reels of a specific slot without risking your own cash. Any winnings go into a buffer account and are subject to the same restrictions as other no deposit bonuses.
No Deposit (ND) – This type of bonus becomes available as soon as your ID and address verification are complete. Again, the proceeds go into a buffer account, and you typically must request a transfer to your main account.
Wagering Requirement (WR) – Also known as rollover, playthrough, or turnover, this term describes the number of times you must play your bonus (and sometimes your deposit (P+D)) before cashing out.
per Game (pG) – This metric indicates the maximum amount you can wager on each spin, hand, or game round. If you have a $100 bonus with a $10 per game limit (pG), each spin would deduct $10 from your bonus until it was depleted.
per Day (pD) – The average amount you must wager each day to meet the overall playthrough requirement within the specified expiration date. If you have a $500 bonus with a 30x WR and a 3-day expiration date, your average pD would be $167 (=$500 x 30 WR divided by 3 days).
AA (Accept/Valid Until) – Indicates when the promo code expires. Some sites give you a window of several hours in which to accept the bonus, or it vanishes from your list of options.

No matter how tempting a bonus may look, never accept a larger amount than you can afford to lose. Always read the terms and conditions to determine whether the playthrough requirements are reasonable and whether your favorite games qualify.

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And if you don’t understand something, contact customer service before you accept the offer. Once that bonus hits your account, it’s too late to ask questions.

Also, check to see what other players are saying about any bonus you’re interested in. A particular offer may look great, but if other punters consider it impossible to clear, it may not be worth your time.

Note that some casinos will let you pick and choose among several active bonuses, while others will revoke any previously claimed offers if you try to accept another one.

Finally, remember that these promos are designed to get you in the door; they shouldn’t be your sole source of playing capital thereafter.

Once you’ve exhausted your sign-up credits, move on to other, more sustainable funding methods.

Manage Your Bankroll Effectively

Effective bankroll management is crucial in any form of gambling, whether you’re betting on red at the Roulette table or buying Lottery tickets. It’s even more critical when you’re chasing the elusive lucky seven at the online slots.

The first step in managing your online gaming budget is setting that budget. Unlike the Lottery, where advanced playing strategies involve choosing different numbers each draw, online gambling depends largely upon discipline.

Therefore, the first rule of online casino gambling (or any other form of Internet gaming) is to treat it like any other form of entertainment and only risk money you can afford to lose.

Now, I know what you’re thinking.

“But Dr. Spin, Ph.D. in Spinthology, isn’t the whole point of gambling to win money?”

Why, yes. Yes, it is. However, no gambling system, not even the ones endorsed by purported physicians, can guarantee a profit. Therefore, if you put money into the system, there’s a chance you might lose it. That’s just math.

Furthermore, no matter how well you manage your bankroll, ultimately, the house has an edge. Even if you hit a hot streak and rake in thousands of dollars, the casino will eventually absorb those winnings… unless, of course, your name is Frank Scoblete or another legendary gambler.

Therefore, you should only risk money you can afford to lose, and that includes money needed to pay bills or cover everyday expenses.

So, how much should you bring to the table?

As with all things gambling, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. The amount of money you can comfortably risk at an online casino will depend on your personal financial circumstances.

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According to the National Gambling Impact Study Commission, gamblers should limit their losses by (1) spending only what they can afford to lose, (2) treating the gambling establishment as they would any other commercial establishment (meaning they wouldn’t urinate elsewhere in the building, and they would pay for whatever they buy), (3) establishing monetary limits ahead of time, (4) avoiding gambling as a means of getting out of debt, (5) avoiding gambling when they are lonely, upset, or depressed, (6) dedicating their time primarily to non-gambling activities, and (7) not accumulating loans or credit card debt to fund their gambling habits.

That last point is important because it ties all the rest together. Borrowing money to gamble is almost always a bad idea because it breaks several of the rules above.

First, when you borrow money to gamble, you are using funds you cannot afford to lose. Second, taking out a loan or running up a credit card balance means you are gambling to get out of debt, which is verboten. Third, failing to pay off that loan or credit card balance can lead to serious financial difficulties.

How much should you bring to the online casino? As much or as little as you want, provided that amount is only a small portion of your overall disposable income and you can afford to lose it.

Many gamblers set aside a fixed amount of money each month or each year for their trips to Vegas or their sessions at the online slots. They treat that allotted sum like a entertainment budget, spending it on concerts, movies, sports events, museum visits, amusement parks, and other forms of diversion.

Whatever you decide, make sure it’s an amount you can bear to lose, and then stick to that decision.

Once you’ve determined your overall gaming budget, the next step is dividing that sum into smaller units to use for individual bets and gaming sessions.

Again, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this question. Some players feel comfortable making $10 bets, while others don’t want to go above the $1 range.

Incidentally, that lower limit isn’t just the result of these gamblers being more cautious. It may also reflect where the expectations meet the preparations quotient (EMTQ) in each player’s skill set.

Simply put, these individuals don’t particularly care about winning $10 bets. Otherwise, they would increase their PEA (point of expected advantage) to the next highest bet level, say, $25. Instead, they’re content with $1 wins.

Regardless of where you set your PEA, it’s a good idea to establish smaller unit sizes within your main gaming bankroll.

For example, you might designate 10% of your gaming capital as your minimum bet size and 1% as your session size—that is, the amount you’re willing to risk during each playing episode.

So, imagine your overall gaming bankroll is $1,000, and you’ve decided to divide it into fifths. One fifth of your bankroll is $200, so your minimum betting size would be 10% of that figure, or $20.

If you’re having a good run, you might decide to raise the stakes to $30 or $40, but you’d never go north of $50, thus keeping your bets below the 1% threshold for session size.

At that point, you’d either go back down to $20 bets or take a break and resume another day.

This approach has several advantages. First, it keeps your losses from consuming too large a chunk of your overall gaming budget. If you blow through your session bankroll, you can walk away for the day knowing you stayed within your overall limits.

Second, it allows you to take advantage of winning streaks without getting carried away. Letting profits run is an essential component of any gambling system, but you don’t want to raise your bets so high that a single loss will cancel out all your gains.

Third, it helps prevent emotional attachments to losing bets. We’ve all been there: we watch in horror as the roulette ball skates past our selected pocket three or four times in a row, convincing ourselves that it simply must land in our chosen space the next go-round. And we keep raising the ante, convinced that Our Space is due.

If you’ve already got Our Space covered on your next, fifth spin, then by all means, go for it. But if the next two spins produce Different Pockets still, it’s probably time to move on. Our Space will always be there on your next spinning adventure.

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By sticking to your predetermined betting limits, you’ll avoid these kinds of emotional entanglements and ensure that a bad run of cards, rolls, or spins doesn’t wipe you out.

Of course, even with the best bankroll management techniques, you can still lose money at the casino—online or otherwise. That brings us to our next topic.

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Set Deposit Limits

Most reputable online casinos allow you to set deposit limits, whether on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. These controls can help you manage your bankroll and protect against problem gambling.

Some players set a hard limit on their deposits, vowing not to add any more capital to their gaming accounts under any circumstances. This strategy forces them to get creative when the gambling urge strikes but they’ve already reached their deposit limit for the week/month/year.

Others use the site’s deposit limits in conjunction with their own internal caps. They may authorize their banking software to transfer X dollars to their gaming account, but they’ve also sworn not to risk more than Y dollars during any playing session.

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Still, others rely entirely on the online casino’s deposit limits, pledging not to log onto their accounts until the current cycle expires.

As with any other aspect of bankroll management, the most important thing is finding a strategy that works for you.

If you think you might benefit from deposit limits, check your casino’s website or contact customer service for more information. Most sites have responsible gaming resources that can help you stay in control of your gaming activities.

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Before you can develop a winning strategy, you must understand the basics of probability, statistics, and expected value.

Contrary to popular belief, luck has nothing to do with gambling. Okay, maybe that’s being a bit facetious, but here’s the thing: Every gambling game involves an element of luck.

Even in predominantly skill-based games like poker, luck plays a role in determining when you receive cards, what cards your opponents receive, the order in which cards are dealt, and so forth.

That doesn’t mean you can sit down at any poker table, close your eyes, and randomly push chips into the pot whenever it’s your turn, hoping Lady Luck will smile upon you.

Sure, you might get lucky now and again, but that won’t make you a profitable player in the long run.

To be successful at gambling, you need to understand the role of luck in the game and develop strategies for minimizing its impact. This is where probability comes in.

Probability is the likelihood that a specific outcome will occur. For example, in a standard deck of cards, there are 13 ranks of spades. Since there are 52 cards in the deck, the probability of drawing a spade on any given draw is 13/52, or approximately 24%.

Understanding probabilities can help you make better decisions about which bets to make and how much to risk. It won’t tell you exactly what will happen on any given draw, spin, roll, or deal, but it will give you an idea of what’s likely to occur.

Here’s a quick review of some basic probability concepts:

Mutually Exclusive Outcomes: These are outcomes that cannot occur simultaneously. For example, on a die roll, the outcomes 2 and 6 are mutually exclusive because you cannot roll the die and get both a 2 and a 6 at the same time. The probability of rolling a 2 is 1/6, and the probability of rolling a 6 is 1/6, for a total probability of 2/6 or 1/3 that you will not roll either a 2 or a 6.
Collectively Exclusive Outcomes: These are sets of outcomes that collectively include all possible results. In a standard deck of cards, the suits are collectively exclusive because every card belongs to one of four suits: clubs, diamonds, hearts, or spades.
Conditional Probability: This refers to the probability of one event occurring given that another event has already occurred. For example, the conditional probability of drawing a heart given that the first card drawn was a spade can be calculated by dividing the probability of drawing a heart on the second draw (12/51) by the probability of drawing a heart or a spade on the second draw (12/51 + 13/51 – (12/51) x (13/51), where (12/51) x (13/51) represents the probability of drawing both a heart and a spade in two draws).
Independent Events: These are events whose outcomes do not affect each other. For example, the outcome of one spin of the wheel on a Double-Zero roulette wheel does not affect the outcome of any other spin. Each spin is an independent event. The probability of winning on any single spin is 18/38, or 47.37%.
Dependent Events: These are events whose outcomes are related. For example, if a die roll produces a 6, the probability of rolling a 7 on a second die roll is not the same as the probability of rolling a 7 on the first roll (1/6 vs. 1/5). This is because the first roll has already produced a 6, leaving only five possibilities for the second roll.

Armed with this knowledge, you can begin to assess the relative values of different bets and develop strategies for maximizing your winnings.

One important concept is that of expected value (EV). EV represents the amount you would theoretically win or lose, on average, over the long run.

To calculate EV, you multiply the probability of winning by the amount won and the probability of losing by the amount lost for each possible outcome of a bet or series of bets. The resulting figures are added together to obtain your total expected value.

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Let’s look at an example from a game of craps. In craps, a player begins by rolling a pair of dice