Know Your Rights as a Player

Tristan Moore
| April 22, 2024 | Reading time: 4 min | Views: 6.5K

During the last decade, internet gambling has grown across the globe. Millions of gamers now opt to gamble on casino sites and use other sites like Betspin to decide where they want to use their money. 

Due to the growing popularity of portable devices, internet gambling enrollments have grown significantly. Yet, quite a few players are unaware of the laws and responsibilities. They also don’t know who to contact if they’re denied their rights.      

Your Rights

The United Kingdom Gambling Commission, the country’s main regulatory authority for the gambling industry, has established very specific guidelines. As per these guidelines, all iGaming companies operate in a certain manner. They must also guarantee certain privileges to their players. This includes equity and openness of results. 

It also includes the preservation of players’ private information along with financial transactions and the exclusion of player investments. This is in addition to wagering-related harm preventive methods. Individual payment limits, cooling periods, and other measures are also taken into consideration. When players make a financial transaction with a gambling company, they get into an agreement with that company. The consumer legislation safeguards their rights.      

Equity and Transparency of Results

As previously stated, online gambling players’ rights are upheld within consumer legislation. This is designed to ensure that internet gambling providers don’t gain an unfair competitive advantage. This advantage could be due to ambiguous contract language; as a result, contractual language must be fair and open. This implies that most online gamers have to make educated decisions. 

This holds especially true when opening an account with a particular iGambling company. There should be no element of the contract that’s concealed or gives the operators an advantage. When it pertains to ‘fair play’, online casinos must ensure that random number generators power all activities. This ensures that the outcomes of games with no dealer present are completely random.

Competent authorities check all authorized and controlled online gaming operators’ casinos. This is to ensure fair use of technology. The gambling commissions use Technical System Testing, iTechLabs, and other professional auditors to conduct such inspections. The auditors also conduct several tests. These include system and mathematics inspections. 

Tests also include RNG inspections, sportsbooks, online dealer and gambling market checks. Operators who pass the evaluation procedure receive a unique certificate. They also receive a tag indicating that their activities are ’fair’. Furthermore, they imply that the devices fulfill the requisite return percentages. This is as specified by the country’s gaming authority as part of the license criteria.      

Player Confidentiality and Financial Transactions

Customers of online casinos should also be given clear and thorough information about their accounts and money activities. When looking through a casino’s safety section, players should look for several things. One should be a thorough explanation of how its surveillance system will safeguard their identification. This is because users must often provide private bank account information to make and receive payments. 

All gambling sites must take adequate technological and organizational steps. This is to put in place the fundamental information safety principles. Since iGaming providers process personal data, they must disclose what data they gather from customers. They should also disclose the legal justification for such data acquisition.  

Customers should also ensure that the company website they choose to bet at has encryption called Secure Sockets Layer (SSL). This encryption is for money transfers in and out of casino sites. This prevents anybody who has access to these servers from obtaining the player’s private and financial information. SSL is a unique cryptographic technology. It encrypts the communication between web servers so that no one can read it.    

Segregation of Player Funds

All licensed online casinos in the United Kingdom must safeguard their clients’ funds. This should be based on user profile segregation. Put another way, the UKGC mandates internet gambling firms to keep client deposits separate from their business accounts. This helps them safeguard themselves if the company goes bankrupt. 

Customers should be aware that the United Kingdom government doesn’t safeguard money placed with online casinos. This is why online casinos must keep their clients’ funds separate from their own. 

Furthermore, each casino company must include a separate section in their user agreement. This should state whether casinos safeguard clients’ money and to what extent. This is a crucial piece of information to keep in mind when deciding whether to bet with that particular operator. Also, the more money a player has deposited on a casino website, the more concerned they should be for the level of security given by the provider. 

The UKGC now offers three levels of security for online casino clients’ funds: Basic, Medium, and High.      

  • Basic: There’s no security for online gambling clients’ funds, as they are considered part of the company if it goes bankrupt.
  • Medium: The firm has taken specific procedures to ensure that clients receive their cash if the company goes bankrupt.
  • High: Customers’ money is maintained in a separate account from the rest of the company’s accounts. This is audited by an external assessor to ensure that their money is refunded if the casino goes bankrupt.

Avoiding Gambling-Related Adverse Effects

When it comes to ethical gaming and the elimination of gambling-related damage, the UKGC is stringent. The country’s gaming sector has been criticized several times in the past. A recent publication of statistics indicated that citizens suffering from the negative effects of problem gambling exceeded 400,000. This was in the United Kingdom alone. These alarming numbers have prompted the local regulating authority to adopt a proactive strategy to prevent excessive gambling. 

Online betting companies must urge local gamers to wager properly. This should be done before acquiring a serious habit that interferes with their daily lives. Many technologies are available to assist gamers. This helps them gain control over their internet gambling activity. 

A reality check is a feature that reminds players how many hours they have spent at a particular online casino. After logging in, players are invited to establish a reminder. They may choose from a variety of time intervals ranging from 10 minutes to many hours. Individual investment restrictions can also be imposed by UK gamblers. This is for people who want to be more responsible with their money. 

Toward the conclusion of the enrollment process, a player can select restrictions they’re happy with. This could depend on the provider. The cooling-off feature allows gamblers to stop playing for a certain time. This could range from 24 hours to six months, according to the particular player’s desire. It’s also known as a time-out. 

Self-exclusion is the final step for participants who have exhausted all other options. Individuals who struggle to bet responsibly can use the self-exclusion feature. This enables them to shut their profiles for six months or longer. Self-inclusion has helped most people who suffer from gambling addiction. 

It’s important for online gamblers to understand their rights. This should be done before indulging in these activities since it helps protect them. This will also give them a clear idea of how to handle their hobby in the right manner. The more aware a player is, the better their experience will be. This is because staying informed helps one play the game in the right way and safeguard their assets too. Make sure you go through these rights and apply them where necessary.

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Tristan Moore Tristan Moore

Content executive of Betspin.com. Online gambling expert & player for the past decade. I help analyze casino payment methods and bonuses and sort out the best lists for quality gameplay for Betspinners.