Quick facts about Australian casinos
While providing online gambling services to Australian residents is illegal and could lead to serious fines, the activity still remains very popular among the residents. It is estimated that in 2010 the size of the online gaming market in the country was almost $800 million. That number is only expected to have grown since then as gambling games in Australia continue to be very popular. It is also estimated that Australians spend about $18 billion a year on gambling. According to some reports, Australians are the world’s biggest gamblers as 80% of the population partakes in the activity.
Australia loves its pokies. The country houses 200,000 slot machines which are 20% of the total supply in the world. Interestingly, half of these machines are located in New South Wales. In addition to slots, poker is also a very popular choice for Australian gamblers. 40% of gamblers go for the game, although it might have a lower average return than some of the other games. The gambling Australia activity is heavily taxed as well. The tax revenue collected from the gambling industry can be anywhere from 4% to 13% of total state tax revenue. The industry is responsible for over 100,000 jobs in the country as well.
Things to know about Australian casinos
Key features of a casino
When you are considering different Australian online gambling platforms to pick out the best one, you’ll need to be familiar with some of the key features of these websites. It’s really easy to dive into it without any prior preparation or knowledge, but you’ll be running the risk of becoming a victim of a scam or selecting a casino that’s not really suitable to your needs. It’s much better to spend some time reading up on the topic and becoming acquainted with some of the key features of these websites so that you’re better equipped to make the comparison.
One of the most important things about Aussie online gambling sites is the game selection. You want to have as many options as possible. If you are a beginner, you might not have yet figured out your preferences when it comes to these games. It might take a few tries before you find one game you’re satisfied with. To be able to try out different games, there should be an adequate selection on the platform. Even after you’ve found the right game, it’s really easy to get bored with it and want to switch to another. You’ll be able to do so if there are ample options on the platform. Don’t forget to look at the diversity as well. Numbers are important, but they’re not everything. You have to make sure that the casino has many different kinds of games. Usually, best Australian gambling websites online will have partnered up with several providers, all of which bring their own style and approach to the selection. Finding a website like this would be ideal.
In addition to the game selection, you also have to pay attention to the bonuses. Bonuses have become quite commonplace in the gambling industry. You should definitely take advantage of this and find a platform that offers the best promotions. There are many kinds of bonuses which you’ll figure out very quickly. Most gambling sites in Australia will offer deposit bonuses, which you’ll be able to claim only after you’ve made a deposit on your account. There are also no deposit offers, which don’t require you to make a deposit. In most cases, you don’t get to withdraw the bonus cash directly, however, you get to keep the winnings. To be able to do so, you have to meet the wagering requirements, which specify how many times over you have to bet the bonus amount. It’s important to take wagering requirements into consideration as well. Some bonuses might sound very appealing but could have extremely tough wagering requirements which practically make them worthless. It’s up to you to check this information as most Australian gambling websites won’t advertise the wagering requirements very conspicuously.
When choosing a gambling platform, you also have to think about the payment options. Even with a no deposit bonus, you’ll eventually have to deposit some of your money on the platform. To do so, you’ll need to pick one of the payment channels supported by the casino. The casino you choose should support your preferred payment method. These methods usually include credit/debit card payments, bank transfer, electronic wallets, and other payment service providers. Sometimes, you’ll even be able to pay with cryptocurrencies. However, that’s not an option at many Australian internet gambling sites. With payment methods, you also have to look at the fees, the processing time and the limits. If the lower limit on deposits is too high, you might be forced to deposit more than you would. Also, if the upper limit on withdrawals is too low, you’ll be stuck withdrawing your money in instalments. Long processing time drags out the process so you want to avoid it.
There are a bunch of other issues you have to think about. For example, the best online gambling sites should have a good customer service that’s available 24/7 and gives quick feedback. Usually, a live chat is the best option for contacting a representative. You also want the Aussie gambling website to be available on mobile. Even if you’re not currently using your phone to gamble, many people are switching to these devices and if you decide to do so, you don’t want to have to switch the casino as well.
Advantages of online gambling sites
If you’re new to online gambling, you might be considering whether to stick to the land-based casinos or start gambling online. One of the biggest advantages of online casinos is proximity. No matter how close you live to a casino, you still have to dress up, leave your house and get there. With gambling online in Australia, you have the whole casino at your fingertips anywhere, anytime. That’s why most people switch to online gambling. You also have to consider the game selection. Even the biggest casino in the world can’t fit as many games as the internet. There are thousands of games that will be available to you and more are being developed every day. The choice you get at a land-based casino is going to be nowhere near that.
Unfortunately, it’s not all roses with AU online gambling games. An integral part of land-based casinos is the atmosphere and feeling that’s peculiar to these establishments. They serve a social function as well. When you’re gambling online, that aspect of the process is practically lost. It can be somewhat replicated with live casino games that offer a live feed to an actual table set up somewhere in a land-based casino, but it still won’t be able to replace the real experience. With online gambling, it’s also easy to get carried away and play more often than you would want to. The barriers of land-based casinos also provide a guarantee against such an occurrence. With a casino at your arm’s length, responsible gaming could be a bit more challenging. Fortunately, the best Australian gambling sites online will have options that will allow you to limit your deposits and bets.
FAQ
How do I avoid getting scammed?
The illegality of online gambling makes it a bit tricky to avoid scams. In other countries where there are a licensing scheme and a national registry of licensed providers, you can check with the regulators to make sure that you’re dealing with a genuine casino. However, you don’t have that luxury in Australia. It’s not legal for any platform to operate in the market, so there wouldn’t be a list of nationally-licensed companies. Instead, you have to resort to other methods to establish the reliability of gambling sites Australia offers.
The first thing you want to do is to make sure that the company is licensed at least somewhere else. The fact that it won’t have a regulator’s approval to operate in the country doesn’t mean that it shouldn’t be registered anywhere else. Knowing that your platform is regulated by a certain authority is a guarantee that it is adhering to some standards and has been properly vetted. Most casinos should provide information about their regulatory status openly and if they don’t do so, you should feel a bit alarmed. You might want to find Aussie gambling games somewhere else.
You can also do a little vetting yourself and check out the history of the casino. There is an ‘About Us’ section on almost any website and you can see what the platform claims its history to be. Such information should be easy to double-check on the web if it’s not too general. If you find information about the team members, use social networks to make sure that you are looking at real people with real experiences and not made-up characters to make a scam seem more genuine. Although you won’t be able to do the same level of research that a regulator would conduct, with efforts like this, you can rule out most scams that pose to be websites for online gambling in Australia.
What types of games do online casinos offer?
Depending on which platform you choose, the game selection will vary. However, if you’ve picked the right platform, it should have a few options for the main casino game categories. First of all, you should expect to have a bunch of slots to choose form. These are games with spinning reels and symbols. You place a bet on each spin and if the symbols form a winning combination, you win, otherwise, you lose. Slots are fun because of the cool visuals, animations, and themes. Modern slots have gotten even more interesting with storylines and bonus features that tie into those storylines. Slots are popular that it’s basically a given for the best Australian gambling sites to offer a few hundred of them.
In addition to the slots, you should expect to see a few table games. These include famous titles like Poker, Blackjack, Roulette, Baccarat and more. Table games have a lot of variations as well, so there should be a few options to choose from. These games are usually more interesting and involved. With slots, you can’t affect the outcome in any way no matter how experienced or smart you are. However, with Blackjack and Poker, there’s room for strategizing. That’s why people who like to employ their wits to get an advantage in a game usually go for these table games. However, these games might be less visually exciting. You should expect gambling websites Australia offers to have a number of table games as well.
There are also live casino games. These games are traditional table games, but instead of getting computer-generated imagery, you’ll be looking at a live stream from an actual land-based casino. Many users prefer live casino games because they manage to bring the atmosphere and feeling of casinos that is slightly lost with the standard gambling online AU games.
What’s the best payment method?
When it comes to payment methods, there’s no best or worst option. It all depends on your preferences and priorities. Each of the payment methods has its advantages and drawbacks. For example, if you value privacy and don’t want your gambling history to show up on your bank statement, you might want to avoid direct banking channels. Payments made via credit/debit cards as well as bank transfers will show up in your history. In this case, you’d rather use an intermediary service like an electronic wallet. This introduces an extra step between your bank and your casino so that the payments show up as transfers to your eWallet on your bank statement but you’re still able to deposit money on your casino for online gambling sites Australia offers.
There’s also the issue of costs. Some payment networks are more expensive than others. Credit/debit card payments will, in most cases, cost you virtually nothing, while payment service providers and eWallets will charge for their services. Wire transfers might also be expensive and not worth the cost for smaller transactions. If you want to use cryptocurrencies, you’ll have to pick wisely. Some networks are more scalable than others. What this means, is that if you find a network that can’t accommodate a heavy load, the fees might be too high for it to be an appealing transaction option. That was the case with Bitcoin when the fee for each transaction reached over $25. As you can imagine, that’s too much to pay for a deposit of $100 or even $500 on an Australia internet gambling website.
The speed of transaction is important as well. Most modern payment channels will allow you to deposit money on a casino instantly. The same might not be true for withdrawals. There are channels, like wire transfers, which might take longer. In case of withdrawals, this issue becomes even more important as the differences in the processing times are larger. If you request a bank cheque, don’t expect to get hold of your money for days or weeks. If you withdraw using an eWallet or a debit/credit card, you’ll get your money much faster. Depending on how important this waiting time is to you, you might want to go for the options that process the payments faster. This way, when you win at an Aussie gambling game, you’ll be able to use the money in real life as soon as possible.
What kind of bonuses should I go for?
When it comes to bonuses, there are no fixed rules to how these offers should be structured. It’s up to the casinos and their creativity what kind of promotions they come up with. You should judge bonuses on a case-by-case basis. However, most of these offers will fall into one of the few categories. The first offer you’ll usually see on a platform will be the First Deposit Bonus. This bonus is given to users who make their first deposit on their accounts. Casinos put out these bonuses to encourage new users to make a deposit and thus guarantee that they’ll stay with the platform for some time. The bonus itself can consist of different benefits. Free spins are a frequent benefit that you might get. These can be used on particular slot gambling games online in Australia. Free spins allow you to spin the reels for free, while you get to keep the winnings. Match bonuses are also very common. These bonuses will match your deposit by a certain percentage up to a limit. For example, a 50% match bonus will gift you $50 free cash if you deposit $100 on your account. You can’t withdraw this money, but you can gamble with it for a chance to keep the winnings.
When you’re comparing different platforms and their bonuses, you shouldn’t focus only on the First Deposit Bonus. The casino should make you feel appreciated long after you’ve made your first deposit. Reload bonuses are a great way to do this. Gambling websites Australia offers will sometimes feature reload bonuses, that can be claimed when making a repeat deposit on the platform. These offers are structured similarly to the First Deposit Bonus. You get free spins, a match bonus, a combination of these two or anything else the casino comes up with. Reload bonuses incentivize customers to stay with the platform so are commonly used by casinos.
These aren’t the only types of bonuses you should expect to be offered. There are many other ways casinos can give benefits to their users. Sometimes they will also have loyalty programs that allow you to accumulate points for your online gambling AU platform activity. You can later exchange these points for various types of benefits. Weekly or monthly bonuses are also very common. These offers give users something to look forward to every week. In general, you shouldn’t limit yourself to reviewing just one type of offer from a casino. The gambling market is extremely competitive, so the bonuses are becoming better and better. It would be unwise not to take full advantage of the situation and make use of all types of promotions that gambling sites AU offers will put out.
