The decision to gamble online and play casino games for fun is an easy one.
The difficult part is determining exactly where to play these casino games.
If you search for an online casino to play in Canada, you will be inundated with literally hundreds of online casinos that accept and welcome Canadians.
It can be extremely difficult to determine which online casino you should try out first.
There are a lot of great websites out there that can give you a quick, by-the-numbers glance at the online casinos so that you can determine which casino to play at.
One such website is https://casinoclaw.com/ which offers up a comprehensive ranking system of what they feel are the best online casinos to play at in Canada. Along with this listing, they highlight some of the features that make that casino stand out, such as their welcome bonus, free spins promotions, and much more.
As you attempt to make the decision as to which online casino to play at, I’m going to cover a few of the items that you should consider prior to signing up.
Welcome Bonus: Practically every online casino will offer you a welcome bonus. It will be a match on your deposit, such as a 100% to $500 match bonus.
What this means is that if you deposit $500, you will get $500 immediately from the casino to give you a balance of $1000. If you deposit $100, they will give you $100 giving you a total of $200, and so on.
Now you may read that and think that the best option is to go with the highest dollar amount. Not so fast. All of these welcome bonuses have a wagering requirement, and then specific terms and conditions related to the welcome bonus.
So while that 100% to $1000 match bonus may seem the most enticing, it may come with a 40x wagering requirement of both the bonus and deposit. That means you would have to actually wager $80,000 prior to withdrawing. That is a LOT of wagering to do and your risk of losing everything increases with how high the wagering requirement is.
While that $100 to $100 bonus may only have a 10x wagering requirement of the deposit and bonus, meaning you only have to wager $2,000. It may even just include the bonus money, making it that much easier to clear.
You also have to pay attention to the terms and conditions in regard to the games. The default welcome bonus will usually only allow you to wager it on slot machines and scratch cards. If you’re looking to play Blackjack or Video Poker only, then that is no help to you.
So be sure to look at the bonus terms and conditions prior to signing up. A lot of online casinos will do a percentage set up in regard to clearing the wagering requirements for the bonus.
As an example, Gaming Club Casino doesn’t allow wagering at all on Craps or Baccarat. Any wagering on slots counts 100% towards the bonus, while any table poker games or roulette only count as 8%.
So dive deep into those terms and conditions before signing up. These are terms and conditions that you really should be reading.
Game Selection: Prior to signing up at an online casino, you should really consider what type of casino games you want to play at.
Are you a big video poker player? Then take the time to browse the top online casinos from the website above and look at their video poker section. Most online casinos will give a full listing of the games they have.
Compare them with all the other casinos to see which one suits you more. Then you can explore promotions such as the welcome bonus. If you are a fan of live dealer casino games as an example, then you should know that some casinos only offer a minuscule selection of 5 live dealer games, while you have casinos such as Sports Interaction that offer over 30 different live dealer casino games.
Regulation: Depending on what province you live in, there may be regulations related to that province. Ontario started regulating and licensing online casinos in April 2022, for example.
In theory, it is important to sign up at a regulated and licensed casino. Not only does that mean they forked over a good amount of cash indicating they have the financial reserves, but it means that if you ever have any issues there is a gaming commission whose sole job is to make sure you get treated fairly.
Just like any business, problems do occur with online casinos. Knowing that there is a commission out there ready to protect you can be a nice feeling.