Understanding Terms and Conditions at online casinos
Everyone knows that none of the online casinos comes without their terms and conditions, but how many players read them is the question. The answer will be that very few punters read the casino terms. The reason may be that these are long documented stuff and players don’t want to read them or many players are unaware of terms and conditions document listed as a separate page at online casinos. Whatever the case maybe Terms and conditions are important to understand and to know how to protect your personal information, financial information and transaction information by having as much knowledge on this before ticking that “agree” box.
Understanding Terms and Conditions at an online casino
Here’s what you need to understand when you take the time to carefully read casino terms and conditions:
Protection of your privacy
Privacy is very important at online casinos especially when you opt to play slots or do betting in real-time with real money naira. Identity theft, hacking into your personal computer and gaining access to your financial log-ins are all a possible reality if the casino you are registering with does not protect your personal information. Take a look at their Privacy Policy in the terms and conditions in order to understand them fully.
- Find will the casino share your information with any third parties or affiliates? What does it all entail and exactly what information do they share with them?
- Or will it waiver your rights to take them to a court or sue them if things go wrong? Some casinos offer arbitration in case of a dispute, and this makes it difficult for you to take them straight to court.
- Also, what are the conditions under which you can opt-out? Remember the casino has access to your financial information and so they may oblige you to pay a “small” membership fee every month for the next two years.
- Or will they be held liable for stolen information? Are they willing to compensate players if hackers steal from their balances? Does the casino rid themselves of the responsibility of taking care of you if your financial or personal information is stolen?
Look out for adware and cookies
If you are registering with a casino that requires you to download software in order to play, find out what else the software does, other than give you access to games. Some of this software may allow the casino to monitor your computer and influence other programs on it. In addition, take a look at their cookie policy, which allows them to monitor your online activities.
Offline terms
As a player, you do not want to lose out on your bets or potential winning because of something out of your control such as internet disconnection. Check out what the casino says happens in such a scenario. Will, they re-set the game, or allow you to continue playing from the exact moment the connection got lost?
Withdrawal terms
Deposits seem quite straight forward, but withdrawals are usually different. In fact, untimely withdraws makes a casino rogue or bad. Most casinos require documentation such as IDs, proof of address and copies of credit cards before the payments are made. In addition, look out for information on what happens if you fail to provide this information within a certain period. Some casinos may suspend your account and void the winnings, so you need to read every sentence give in the terms.
Games and Promotions terms
Many online casinos have mentioned in their terms as which games are associated with bonus offers. Like no deposit bonus such as free spins only are available when you play slots. Also how much is the wagering requirement in deposit bonus and on which casino games? Or if you use the playable balance originated from a no-deposit bonus to enter a tournament, the maximum payout of 5 times the bonus will be applied to any tournament winnings. Also, free roll Tournaments are only for depositing customers. If a customer has never deposited, then they are ineligible for Freeroll Tournaments.
Terms and conditions updated
Some casinos may update their terms and conditions periodically in response to things like new legislation. This means, the terms and conditions you initially agreed to, may change at a later time, thus leaving you at a disadvantage. Take a look at what the casino has to say regarding this, as some may give a pass to players based on which terms they agreed to initially, while others may include a clause that says you agree to the latest terms, whatever they may be at that point in time.
Once you have taken a look at the important information such as the above, take the time to read the rest of the document one sentence at a time. Some casinos may try to confuse you with legal jargon, but most are making the effort to write in simple English and provide you with easy to read sentences.
A great “hack” or shortcut to get through the terms and conditions section would be to find certain keywords and read information around them. For example, use “Ctr + f” in order to find words like Waiver or wave, disclaimer, opt-out, withdrawals, third parties, bonuses, affiliates, arbitration and the like. It is simply a way of figuring out if you will be able to get out of the deal when the time comes. Such information should heavily influence whether or not you will become a member of the online casino.
It is clear from the above that getting to know the terms and conditions of your favorite casinos before you tick that “agree” box is very important. It helps protect you, your deposits and your winnings and makes your gaming sessions smooth without any worry.