The online gambling industry continues to expand with an estimated 5 million new player accounts being created each year, despite the risks that player’s face from unreliable sites.
Many regions such as Alderney, Malta and Gibraltar were approved for addition to the UK Gambling Commission’s ‘whitelist’. The purpose of the whitelist is to approve only the jurisdictions that have sufficient regulation in place to ensure player protection. Licenses from other regions are considered potentially unsafe for reasons such as lack of appropriate regulation, and not providing satisfactory mediation channels for resolving player complaints.
Only gambling sites with licenses issued by the whitelisted jurisdictions are allowed to advertise within the UK. While potentially risky sites in non-whitelisted regions may not advertise directly to UK citizens, they are still easily found through internet searches and online advertising.
An estimated 1,100 online gambling sites are operating with licenses issued from safe jurisdictions. At this time at least 900 gambling sites are operating with licenses from outside the UK whitelisted regions, while an even higher risk is associated with the many unregulated sites that hold no license and no system for player protection.
With thousands of online gambling sites available, finding the reliable operators becomes a challenge. Many players will fall for the tempting promotions being offered by less trustworthy sites, and a large number of player complaints are posted on online forums. Many times players deposit funds to a site and then later attempt to withdraw their winnings – only to have endless problems resulting in no payment being received. Sometimes operators claim to have technical or payment-processing problems causing repeated delays, while other times the player’s winnings are confiscated with little or no valid explanation.
Three recently launched sites aim to address this issue by reviewing only the most reliable online gambling sites, including only those with licenses in whitelisted jurisdictions.
www.Top20BingoReviews.co.uk – Bingo is increasingly popular online, with sites offering online chat so that players can keep the social experience of bingo even when playing at home.
www.Top20PokerReviews.co.uk – The rise of online poker continues as players take advantage of ‘freeroll’ tournaments as well as weekly tournaments with large guaranteed prize pools shared among the winners.
www.Top20Bookmakers.co.uk – Of course all the big UK bookmakers now have competent online operations to accept punter’s bets, with many offering free bets and money-back guarantees on certain events.
“Whether players are searching for bingo sites, poker rooms or online bookmakers, the problem remains the same – there are many shady operators with questionable ethics,” said Philip Jones, manager of UKZap.com
“Protecting players from these unscrupulous operators is the primary goal of our new sites, which aim to review only sites with valid licences and a history of player satisfaction, prompt payments and good customer support.”
In addition to reporting on the most reliable operators, these new review sites also help players to find operators with special features such as mobile playing options for iPhones, Blackberry and Android phones. Players will also find useful lists of sites accepting convenient deposit methods including Neteller and PayPal.
For additional information contact Philip Jones or visit www.UKZap.com.
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