Limits and Licenses of Online Casinos
Gambling licenses are one, if not the most important, tool in finding a safe online casino. They help us relax when gambling online by providing a set of rules tied to the responsible gambling regulator that the casino has to follow. If and which license an online casino chooses, is their choice. We as a potential gambler have to choose which license seems trustworthy to us or which regulations are too restrictive for our taste. Here’s a quick overview on casino licenses and how they limit online gambling.
How To Spot A Licensed Online Casino
If you are looking for a new online casino, the website will most likely present their license and legislator or a link to that information somewhere on the front page. If you cannot find info about a license or if it is hard to find, that might be things that should make you wary of that specific site.
Online reviews like the ones on Casinomeister help you figure out if a casino is trustworthy or not. The online gambling community tests casinos and collects user reviews to make sure a casino has appropriate quality and safety standards. On these review sites you will also find the information on which license an online casino has, where it is based and which games, features, and safety measures you will find on the site in question.
On International Gambling Law
There is no such thing as international gambling law. Most countries come up with their own legislation on the topic. If you look at a union like the EU, there are some other power structures in play. The EU has its own court on top of each country’s legislation. Therefore, each EU-member has to consider the EU-laws as well as their own, and they don’t always agree. That makes some legality questions difficult to answer, because many processes take time till they get implemented for good.
While online gambling was still illegal according to German law, the EU-legislation allowed it when the provider had a license by an EU-country. Since July 2021, online gambling is legalized in Germany, if the provider has a German license. But still, after years of legality limbo, EU-licensed casinos offer their websites to German citizens, and it will take some time till the difference between EU- and German law will sort itself out.
License differences
If you wonder why casinos don’t just choose to apply to the German license to make their legality in Germany official, it is because of their strict licensing regulations. Germany has a strong focus on child protection and the prevention of gambling addiction. To realize this in their license, they have implemented many limits on the most addictive parts of online gambling. Their rules include:
- a monthly maximum deposit of €1.000 across all gambling websites
- a panic button that allows you to ban yourself for 24h across all gambling websites
- a minimum spin time of 5 seconds per slot spin
- a maximum of €1 bet per slot spin
- no autoplay feature
To put some of these in play, they have created an exclusion-system called ‘Oasis’. Every casino licensed in Germany has to use it and check their players’ status in the system. If they are banned or have already reached their monthly deposit limit, they will not be allowed access to the website.
While these are admirable and important rules, naturally not every casino or player wants to limit themselves in this way. Many players choose to look for casinos with other countries’ licenses instead. Most famous for their relaxed regulations is the Curacao-license, which has a large fan following in online gamblers that feel patronized by other licenses.
Conclusion
Licenses are an important tool in figuring out which casino to trust with your personal data and money. Without a license, a casino does not have to commit to gambling legislations and could easily be a scam site. A casino with license has to provide certain standards of safety and quality and continuously prove that they keep up with the regulations. Not all licenses follow the same rules. While they all provide a safe online gambling experience, some are stricter than others. It is often the player’s choice, which rule set they find important.