How Secure are the New Online Poker Sites

Posted By: Date: 03/22/2012 at 12:00 am Leave a comment

When a new online poker site comes onto the scene, it may present some very enticing promotions to draw in new players. The reason for this is obvious – new sites need to build their player base quickly in order to succeed in such a competitive market. However, there is an equitable question as to whether players should be wary of joining any poker site that has yet to earn a virtuous reputation.

Just reading the overview of the online poker room on its website is not going to provide you with enough information to determine its responsibility. No poker site with rogue intentions is going to outright say, “good thing you read this first because we were planning to take your money and run with it!” Fortunately, there are ways to uncover the trustworthiness of a new internet gambling operator.

The number one thing to look for is the operator’s associations. If you scroll down to the bottom of the poker site’s main page, you should see a few logos relating to companies connected with the site. For example, poker.bovada.lv (Bovada Poker, formerly Bodog) displays the brand of the Kahnawake Gaming Commission. Kahnawake is the jurisdiction that licenses the poker site, and has a long standing positive reputation, which we can verify with a little research into the subject. Every poker room should be licensed by an honorable authority.

Next we see the “18+” logo, and if we click that we can read a long spiel about how Bovada works diligently to thwart underage gambling on its website. It describes how the operator requires extensive identification from new members and regularly scans its database for any underage players who might have slipped past the radar, along with the penalties for such activity by underage players.

A responsible poker room may display the indemnification of the GA (gamblers anonymous), GameCare Certification or another non-profit organization that strives to impede participation by anyone with a gambling problem, and offer help to overcome their addiction. The last thing a rogue poker site wants to do is stop a gambling addict from depositing.

There are plenty of reputable organization that will associate themselves with a poker site that has taken the proper steps to establish a responsible gambling operation over the internet, and they aren’t that hard to identify if you just know what to look for. It is not a guarantee that the site will be 100% reliable, but it can certainly help put a player’s mind at ease, especially when there are some fantastic poker promotions, such as the rare no deposit bonus, up for grabs.

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