Right, guys, confession time. I’ve been playing online for long enough that I should know better, and yet a while back I signed up at a shiny new site after about thirty seconds of looking at the welcome page. The games were fine. Getting my money out was not. It took eleven days, three emails and one very patient support agent. So these days, whenever I try a site aimed at Canadian players (and there are loads of them now), I run the same three checks before I deposit a single dollar. None of it is rocket science.

1. Who actually licenses it?

The licence is usually hiding in the footer in tiny grey text. In Canada the answer depends on where you live. Ontario is the odd one out: since 2022 it has had its own regulated market, where private operators register with the AGCO and sign an agreement with iGaming Ontario. If you’re in Ontario, the quickest check is the list of regulated operators on the iGaming Ontario website. If a brand isn’t on it, it isn’t regulated there, full stop. Elsewhere in the country the provincial lottery corporations run their own sites, and a lot of the private sites you’ll come across hold licences from places like Malta or Kahnawake. That doesn’t make them dodgy, but I want a licence number I can check with the regulator. I wrote about doing your homework before picking a site years ago, and this bit hasn’t changed.

2. What do the withdrawal terms really say?

This is the one that bit me. Before signing up I open the banking page and the terms and look for four things: how long a withdrawal sits in “pending” before anyone touches it, whether there’s a minimum or maximum cash-out, which methods work both ways (Interac is the big one here, and I want to see it on the withdrawal side, not just for deposits), and what ID they’ll ask for. I’d rather send my documents up front than find out on payday. And if there’s a bonus involved, read the wagering requirements properly, because a big number on a banner means very little if you have to play it through forty times first. Back when I looked at bitcoin casinos, payment speed was the whole selling point, and it still tells you more about a site than any banner does.

If you’d rather not start from scratch, the Toronto Star has put together a guide to the best online casinos in Canada, and I found this rundown a handy shortlist to run my own checks against. It ranks sites on licensing, withdrawal times and game libraries, which lines up nicely with my list, though I still read the terms myself.

3. Whose games are on it?

Last, I check the names of the studios behind the games. Most casinos don’t make their own games, they license them from providers like Evolution, Pragmatic Play, Playtech or NetEnt. The big studios hold their own licences and get their games tested by independent labs, so seeing their names in a lobby tells me the site has passed someone else’s checks too. A library full of studios I’ve never heard of makes me slow down. I also look for the RTP (return to player) in the game info, since good providers publish it. Provider deals can vanish for reasons that have nothing to do with you, as I found out when I dug into why we don’t see Marvel slots anymore, but a lobby full of familiar names is still a decent sign.

And that’s it: licence, withdrawal terms, game providers. Ten minutes, tops, and it would have saved me eleven days of refreshing my inbox. Whatever site you end up on, set yourself a budget before you play and stick to it. Your future self will thank you.

Okay, guys, I believe that the time has finally come to talk about a rising star in the online casino world – bitcoin! Some of you may be going “Huh? Bitcoin? Are you talking about one of those novelty chocolate coins I usually pass by on my way to the cashier in the supermarket?” Others may be somewhat familiar with the term, but have no idea how it relates to online casinos whatsoever. Fear not, dear readers, for I shall explain everything… As clearly as I can within 500 words. If you’d like to know more, you can (and should always) do your own research on the matter, because this stuff is really fascinating!

What’s a bitcoin?

Anyway, bitcoin is a form of e-currency. You know how only 8% of the world’s currency is physical (coins and bills)? Well, the rest of it is all e-currency – money that only exists online, in stuff like bank records. We’re talking virtual dollars, virtual euro, virtual pounds, etc. Well, bitcoins are also a form of virtual currency, except they have no real life equivalent or a physical counterpart. They don’t belong to any one government (in fact, nobody’s 100% sure who created them, though there are theories), and as a result can’t be taxed, monitored or controlled in any way. They’re operated by a fully automatic system with no central location, which is being hosted on hundreds of thousands of computers that receive a tiny amount of bitcoin for dedicating processing power to them (a process known as “mining bitcoin”).

So, what are they used for?

The brief of it is that bitcoin are a form of untraceable virtual currency that doesn’t belong to any one government. And, considering the fact that it’s untraceable, it’s generally used for a lot of illegal activity. Popular deep web drug dealing site “Silk Road” accepts exclusively bitcoins, and you can also use them to buy other nasty stuff like weapons and illegal pornography. However, in the last 5-6 years, numerous very legitimate businesses have started to also accept the currency, and nowadays you can buy anything from clothes to action figures with bitcoin. Hell, in some countries there’s terminals where you can even pay your bills with them! How cool is that?! And, naturally, plenty of online casinos have started to explore the possibility of using bitcoin for deposits and withdrawals. While none of the big names, like 888, have fully implemented this new form of currency quite yet, there are plenty of others who have made it their whole gimmick! And I know what you’re thinking – “Online casinos that deal in untraceable online-only currency? That sounds suspiciously sketch”. That’s what I thought as well, but don’t worry, these casinos are no different from their traditional currency counterparts and are subject to the same certification and verification. As a matter of fact, you can check out a whole bunch of them which have been tested and verified by independent sources right here!

If you didn’t know what bitcoins were up until now, well, hopefully you’re just a little bit smarter! And if you did, then maybe you’d be willing to give these new online casinos a shot! And who knows, perhaps I’ll see you at the blackjack table sometime! Hmm, how much did one bitcoin cost in pounds right now, anyway…

I doubt anyone would be surprised by the fact that Donald Trump is a racist. And though he denies it by saying ‘I don’t have a single racist bone in my body’, his actions speak louder than words. Wait, his words speak loud enough of his discriminatory beliefs. Remember the news we presented to you a while ago about black employees being removed from his casinos when Trump would arrive? Well, as you might expect, it’s not only black employees he’s not particularly happy with. His casinos are an example of another popular discriminatory policy – sexism.

Though he boasts that he ‘was the one that really broke the glass ceiling on behalf of women, more than anybody in the construction industry’, facts tell a different story.

Trump started his gambling endeavour in 1984 with the opening of his first casino – Trump Plaza, followed by Trump’s Castle in 1985 and the Taj Mahal in 1990. The casinos weren’t particularly successful as three bankruptcies can testify. However, they are a good example of his attitude towards women in executive roles.

After his casinos went public in 1995, following his first going bankrupt, till present, he has had 59 executives, only 6 of which have been women. That’s not even 10%. And though this is nothing new in the industry, he made a pretty big claim there about breaking the glass ceiling. But then again he said ‘in the construction industry’ and he probably only meant what he said in that particular area.

We’re not going to go into construction but will remain skeptical. There are two examples that instantly come to mind when we’re talking about his construction business – his first wife Ivana and his oldest daughter Ivanka. If those are the women in executive positions he means, then probably he did make a breakthrough with women’s professional equality… in his family.

His claim that he broke the glass ceiling came at a time when he was confronted about his popularity among female voters going down. Indeed, the decline of female support in the Republic party can be clearly seen when compared to previous Republican candidates. Though the 72% of women who declared their willingness to vote for Mr. Trump may seem like a serious chunk of supporters, it is considerably less impressive than that of Mitt Romney in 2012 (93%), John McCain in 2008 (89%), and George W. Bush in 2004 (93%). Republican women don’t seem to appreciate Trump’s self-proclaimed contribution to women’s rights, obviously.

And, if you don’t appreciate it either, there’s no need to support him by playing at his casinos. There’re far better ways for playing casino games, whether you’d like to play for fun or are interested in making money. With online casinos today, no one needs to make the effort to go to a land-based casino, anyway. All you need to do is pick one or more of the top rated online casinos for real money and you’re all set. Entertainment and profit are within arm’s reach and all you’ll need to decide is whether to play on your desktop computer or on a mobile device.

Marvel, once a company only known to children and comic book fans, is now an absolute powerhouse. While ten years ago nobody even had a vague idea about who Iron Man was, today he’s the face of the company, with millions of people around the world knowing Tony Stark by name and being familiar with his backstory and talents. The Avengers – once a pale imitation of the much more popular Justice League – have now left Batman and Superman’s team in the dust with not one, but two movies which made over a billion dollars in the box office, with two more set to come out before the decade’s even over. Hell, speaking of box office success, a movie about Captain America, of all people (a character whose live action portrayals have been failed time and time and time again) also made over a billion dollars. What does that even say about the popularity of the Marvel universe and its heroes?

But with every successful franchise, there must also come tons of merchandising. We saw it time and time again – “Star Wars”, Frozen”, “Cars” and more have sold literally billions in toys, colouring books and other trinkets with the faces of the characters (and I’m sure it’s no coincidence that all of those franchises, just like Marvel, are owned by Disney). Naturally, Marvel had to follow suit, which is why we’ve got this slew of toys, masks, mobile games and animated shows featuring the Guardians of the Galaxy everywhere, but in addition to that, Marvel also decided to extend their merchandising to the unlikeliest of places – online gambling! Indeed, over the years several licensing deals were made which would allow Marvel characters to grace the faces of physical and online slot machines. Playtech was responsible for bringing those slots to Europe (and did so extremely successful, considering that The Avengers became one of the highest-grossing slots of all time), while Cryptologic was in charge of making the American versions.

Sadly, the last slot either company released came out in 2013, and we haven’t really seen any more despite the fact that several movies came out which would be prime candidates for a slot adaptation, such as the aforementioned “Guardians of the Galaxy”, “Ant-Man” or “Civil War”. As someone who actually got into the slot game relatively late, this has always bothered me, so I decided to do some research on my own to try and find out exactly why there’s no more Marvel slots. And, surprisingly, we have Disney to thank for that. The company has always had a very strong anti-gambling stance, to the point where they actively opposed legalizing gambling in Florida (for those of you who don’t know, Disneyworld, their biggest theme park, is located in Orlando, Florida). As a result, any gambling deals made before Marvel was bought by Disney were simply allowed to expire without being renewed. The same fate befell “Star Wars”, which apparently also had a couple of slots with its theme before Disney bought Lucasfilm.

So yeah, there wasn’t a big drama or a conspiracy, it was all because Disney likes to maintain a family-friendly image and sees gambling as an obstacle to that. It’s a bit anti-climactic, when all is said and done, but honestly, that’s just par for the course when it comes to the functioning of big corporations. Now that Disney owns Marvel, they are perfectly within their right to make these kinds of decisions, even if the little guys suffer for them. Thankfully, Playtech recently managed to make a new deal with Warner Bros. which would allow them to make slots based on DC movies, so at least we’re still going to be getting these high-quality slots that we know and love!

Hello everyone, hope you have all been well! Isn’t time just flying! It’s March already and we have some news to catch up on. Let’s not waste time and jump straight into it.

Paddy Power has been digging itself deeper and deeper in trouble. At the beginning of the year a tragic incident involving the death of a young Englishman kicked off a huge campaign of rage against this (and other) operators in the UK. There have been stones thrown on both sides with tabloids digging out stories about irresponsible behaviour and failure to comply with regulations by bookmakers. They on the other hand have accused the press of creating scandals and basically scaremongering by publishing not checked and exaggerated information.

At the same time, the released UK Gambling Commission stats for the previous year uncover the fact that despite anti-gambling advocates claims, the UKGC has reported that the 0.5% rate of problem gamblers has remained static between 2014 and 2015 (and is in fact a drop compared to the years before). Another interesting finding from the study is that 61% of the surveyed players still use a laptop/PC as their gambling device of choice, with just 23% using their phone and only 16% a tablet. So contrary to popular belief, desktop is still a king when it comes to gambling online.

Whilst that was all going on, Paddy Power was still in the process of merging with Betfair. The £5 billion deal was agreed back in August 2015 and got finally completed on the 2nd of February 2016. Recently published profits for Paddy Power were positive, despite increased gambling taxes and the ongoing media scandals. So all and all, forecasts for the new entity on the UK market are pretty positive.

Another good news is that Unibet is toying with the idea of introducing voice recognition allowing users to speak instead of type when playing casino games. The new feature is being reviewed by Apple and once it is accepted it will be made available over a major app update. Can’t wait to try it!

Ireland got tougher on gambling too. The ASAI (Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland) released some updates to the Code of Standards for Advertising & Marketing. To sum it up “Advertisements for gambling services or products shall contain a message to encourage responsible gambling and shall direct people to a source of information about gambling and gambling responsibly”.

A new player entered the British market. The Gambling Commission granted a license to Contagious Gaming early this March. The platform offers a full package of solution for gaming operators, covering sports betting, casino games, bingo and online lottery. It already had a license for pool betting facilities and with the new one they can offer sports betting on live events as well as casino options. The company had a blast on the ICE London 2016 and seems to be going strong with professionalism and a wide range of services under their belt. Always good news to have fresh players on the market and for sure the ones benefiting most from it are the end users.

Almost everyone knows who Donald Trump is. He’s one of the richest men in the world, president of the Trump Organization, owner of hundreds of successful businesses, host of popular TV show “The Apprentice”… Oh, and US presidential candidate who is currently in the lead, according to polls. His presidential campaign has been rather controversial, to say the least. Many have accused him of intense racism and hatred for minorities due to his pledges to extradite immigrants (which I’m sure would please a lot of Native Americans) and cut certain foreign relations, such as the US’ dependency on Chinese manufacturing (despite the fact that this would put several major American businesses out of a job and will heavily inflate prices). Trump has dismissed these allegations entirely – “I don’t have a single racist bone in my body”, he says. He just wants to stop illegal immigration, that’s all! Well… The employees of one of his Atlantic City casino might beg to differ.

According to Kip Brown, currently a retired bus driver who used to work at Trump’s casino in the 80s, whenever the real estate magnate came for an inspection all black employees were forced off the floor and hidden away until Trump left. “They put us all in the back”, Mr. Brown remembered. While his account has yet to be backed up by any other employee of the casino, it’s not exactly hard to imagine how that can be true. After all, Donald Trump, despite his claims, has a known history of dislike for people of color. “Laziness is a trait in blacks” and other racist quotes are quite typical for him, as is his condescending attitude towards African Americans, who, as of 2015, comprise more than 15% of American population.

Insights into the Mobile Gambling Industry

The future of gaming lies within the mobile sector, experts say, and why should gambling be any different? According to a recent research published by the Juniper Research company, by the end of 2019, more than 1 out of 10 people worldwide will engage in some form of cyber gambling, with more than half the people in the UK and Italy expected to be involved in such activities by that time.

I mean, let’s not beat around the bush, us Brits love to gamble. Online, offline, on race tracks, on the bus, at our in-laws place, on hounds, horses, real and even virtual sports, roulette and whatever not. You name it, we play it! And due to the hectic lives that we live nowadays, we are accustomed to doing all our daily actives on our mobile devices. Paying bills, shopping for clothes, appliances and even groceries and, of course, gambling. If many years ago mobile gambling was but a digital ambition of renowned software companies, now its a fact and experts believe that soon enough it will take over the greatest share of the iGaming market.

Roulette Apps – the Sheer Joy of Mobile Gambling

I am going to go out on a limb here and suppose that you’ve tried roulette at least once on your mobile device or you have at least watched some useful videos about mobile gambling apps. If you haven’t already, you really should! The biggest casino operators have amazing apps that are compatible with the most popular, if not all mobile devices and their games menu is one to go bonkers for. I mean they just keep getting better and better at it! Such roulette apps now have features like changing the camera angle on live-dealer tables, re-betting, playing more than one table at a time, even watching the roulette ball spin and chatting with the dealers.

In some cases it feels so real that I expect the waitress to come by any moment and ask me if I want a drink. Of course, whether you will be as impressed as I am with roulette apps depends on which casino you choose and, to some degree, even on your device and your Internet provider. It’s not my intention to give names, but I can tell you about the software platform that perform best in this area. And I will even raise the bar a bit and give you a taste of some mind-blowing mobile roulette apps, some of which with real-time action and dealers. Here, watch this video and see for yourself:

What you have just watched is the Immersive Roulette by Evolution Gaming and my personal favourite lately. And if the video wasn’t proof enough of what a great job they do at mobile live-dealer games, let me describe their products a bit. The first thing that won me over was that their smooth-running games can be played in HD quality, without any lags or disruptions. Moreover, you have all the betting options that you would have on their desktop client and that alone is something to be admired. And last, but by no mean least, you get to turn the time you spend travelling or waiting into an exciting and rewarding experience and be quids in at the end of the day.