Player Rights in Online Casinos

Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for informational purposes only and is not intended as professional advice. We are not legal experts or financial advisors. While we strive to ensure the accuracy and relevance of the content, readers are encouraged to consult qualified professionals or relevant regulatory bodies for advice specific to their situation. Always gamble responsibly and stay informed of your rights and obligations.

In 2024, a study found that 1 in 10 online casinos were likely fraudulent. It is believed that the number of fraudulent casinos has risen by over 80% between 2022 and 2023. In fact, the amount of fraud in the online casino industry is trending considerably higher than in other industries. Luckily, there are online casino player protections in place, both in Ireland and the UK, to ensure that the chances of you falling victim to fraud are slim.

This is a guide to your rights as an online casino player. We’ll introduce the protections that you, as an Irish gambler, have when gambling online. These are the rights enshrined in law to ensure that you’re properly protected from fraudulent casinos and the rights that you have when you’re gambling at a legit online casino.

Framework of Player Rights

As an Irish gambler, most of your online gambling rights will come from the work of two bodies The Malta Gaming Authority (MGA) and the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC). In 2024, the Gambling Regulatory Authority of Ireland (GRAI) was established to protect the rights of online casino players in Ireland. However, it is still in its early stages and won’t have much impact on you right now. However, it will eventually help to protect your consumer rights in online gambling. For now, just look for the MGA and UKGC licensing.

The MGA and UKGC are, amongst other things, licensing authorities. They have two jobs:

• To license gambling, both online casinos and offline gambling.
• To ensure that any gambling provider they have licensed is protecting the rights of the player.

Both licensing authorities have worked extremely hard to come up with a regulatory framework that ensures players are properly protected online. Online casinos need to jump through hoops to not only get licensed (and this costs a lot of money), but to keep proving they should keep their license. No company will jeopardise their license once they have it.

These gambling authorities are there to protect the legal rights for online gamblers. They do this by ensuring that online casinos are safe and offer fairness. For example:

• Ensuring that an online casino is transparent about the odds of their games.
• Ensures that online casino games are fair i.e., they are not manipulated to ensure the casino always wins.
• Ensures that an online casino doesn’t overly promote offers that could potentially encourage problem gambling.
• Makes the online casino have tools to protect problem gamblers.
• Guarantees the online casino will protect player data.

There is a whole framework for player rights in UKGC casinos (and MGA casinos) that needs to be met. These rules are there to protect players.

Overview of Player’s Rights

So, what are your player rights under casino regulations? Well, it does depend on the country where the online casino is licensed. Under the UKGC (as an Irish player, almost all of the major casinos you play at will be licensed by the UKGC), all of your rights are under the Gambling Act 2005 in the UK, although the UKGC has come up with a few rules of their own too.

This is a quick overview of the player rights in gambling:

• Transparency: online casinos must be transparent in everything they do, from the expected odds of their games, through to how they talk about their online casino bonuses. The player has a right to know as much as possible about what they are gambling, as well as their odds of winning are. The hope is that players can make informed decisions about their gambling.
• Fairness: gambling fairness and player rights are a large part of the player protections. Online casinos need to be fair in everything they do. Their games need to be fair (i.e. not manipulated to give the casino more cash than they should do), they need to properly allow players to withdraw cash, etc. All of this will be audited regularly.
• Data Safety: online casinos need to go to huge lengths to protect player data. This means using only regulated payment methods (in the UK, these payment methods must be regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority), the payments must be behind secure servers, and all stored player data must comply with GDPR (more on that soon).
• Gambling Limits: to help counter potential gambling issues, online casinos must provide tools to help players limit their gambling. It is up to the player to use these tools themselves (most of the time), but they do exist, and all gambling authorities are strict about their use.
• Player Funds Segregation: to ensure that online casinos can pay out, all player funds must be protected. This means that there is never a case where an online casino doesn’t have the money that is owed to players.

In-Depth Look at Players Rights

So, let’s dive in and (hopefully) give you a more complete understanding player rights in regulated casinos. We can’t possibly cover everything related to the rights of online gamblers in Ireland and the UK here, but we should be able to give you a solid overview of all the protections you do have available.

Transparency

One of the hallmarks of a regulated casino is its fairness. Now, there is no denying that the house always has ‘the edge.’ There is truth to the saying ‘the house always wins,’ but casino games should still be fair. There should still be a chance of winning.

For starters, online gambling regulators ensure that games truly are random. They will even inspect the code of games to guarantee this. Online casinos should not manipulate game code in any way. Their games must be ‘fair’. Each time that game is played, there should be no way to guarantee the outcome to anybody. Obviously, the house will still have a slight edge. That’s the nature of gambling. It is just that the ‘edge’ should be fair i.e., every spin of a roulette wheel or slot machine should have an outcome that can’t be predicted. This is known as the RNG. Yes. For the programmers out there, we know that you cannot program something to be 100% random. However, you can come pretty close.

Fairness

Online casinos must keep a log of all the games played, plus the outcome. This data will be audited regularly, by the online casino and the licensing authorities. They want to ensure that the games truly are random and that any issues should be corrected. For example, if the house has a 60% chance of winning, then the logged games say, roughly, that the house has won 60% of the time. Anything much higher than that and it could be a problem.

On top of this, online casinos should have some sort of transparency in everything they do. They need to make it clear what the odds are. They need to make sure that any online casino bonuses are clear in what they’re offering, etc. As we said before, it is all about allowing the customer to make informed decisions.

There are also other player rights on top of this. Just your general consumer protection laws. For example, in the UK, the Consumer Rights Act 2015 allows you to cancel/return a service purchased online within a reasonable period. So, you can close your casino account and get your money back whenever you want. Finally, if you’ve won money, the online casino should allow you to withdraw it.

Data Protection

All online casinos in the European Union (and the UK, Norway, and Switzerland) must abide by the General Data Protection Regulation, which you may know as the GDPR. The GDPR is a framework that highlights how data should be managed, including casino player data protection. We won’t cover everything the GDPR has here but know that it includes:

• The online casino must strive to ensure that your data is on secure servers located within Europe.
• The online casino must have safeguards to protect your data.
• You have the right to access the data the online casino keeps on you. You can even request it in a portable format (known as portability) so you can transfer it to other GDPR-compliant locations.
• You have the right to request your data be completely wiped whenever you wish.

Financial Safeguards

One of your legal rights as an online casino player is for your payment to be handled in a secure manner. Online casinos must only use reputable, licensed payment providers. They must also ensure that your data is hidden behind a secure server, meaning there is no chance of somebody swooping in and stealing your information.

All online casinos must also have fund segregation. This means all cash belonging to players is ring-fenced and cannot be touched by the online casino for normal business operations.

Responsible Gambling Tools

Finally, online casinos should have tools that promote responsible gambling. This includes:

• Self-exclusion: if players recognise they may be problem gamblers, they need to be able to request the online casino ban them from further gambling.
• Deposit limits: players should be able to set a limit of how much they can deposit at an online casino. It should be tough to change the limit.
• Reality Checks: the online casino has a legal obligation to ensure the player knows what they are doing. The online casino should show much money the player has wagered, and how much they have won/lost. They should also provide a timer for players to know how long they have gambled for. This is known as a ‘reality check’ and ensures that players don’t end up gambling for longer than they planned to.

Red Flags

Now you know your rights, let’s move on to discussing how to protect your rights in online gambling. We’ll start by talking about two red flags that indicate an online casino may not be a good place to gamble:

🚩 Licensing. If the site does not have a verifiable gambling licence, skip them.
🚩 Bad reviews. Even licensed casinos sometimes get things wrong. If an online casino gets a load of bad reviews, skip them.
🚩 One-page site. If you see that the site has only one main page and if you click on any tab it forwards you to some other domain, do not enge with it further and leave.

Casino Safety Checklist

Here is a quick checklist that you can use to determine whether a platform is safe:

1. Check the domain name at the top of the page. It should say HTTPS://, not HTTP://. Note the S. The S indicates the server is secure. On some browsers, you can also look for a padlock in the address bar. If the padlock is closed, it is a secure site.
2. Scroll to the bottom of the online casino’s website. If they are licensed, it should say so on every single page. Look for the licence number.
3. Check that licence number on the relevant gambling authority sites (MGA or UKGC).
4. Check reviews for the online casino.

Tools and Resources for Players

If you’re gambling online, it is important that you understand the various tools you have at your disposal if you have a problem. Even if you don’t believe you’re a problem gambler, the addiction can sneak up on you. So, be wary.

We suggest that you make use of timeouts and reality check tools provided by the online casinos where you gamble. Timeouts will prevent you from over-gambling. As the name suggests, reality checks will snap you back to reality. You’ll know exactly how long you’ve been gambling and how much you’ve been spending. Online casinos won’t hide this information, either.

If you do believe you have an addiction to gambling, inform the online casino. They can block you from gambling there. You should also head to www.gamblingcare.ie, which is a charity designed to help problem gamblers. They can provide further guidance.

If you believe that an online casino is breaching your legal rights, then you’ll need to reach out to the licensing body. The exact process will vary depending on the online casino. However, since you’re likely to be gambling at a UKGC-licensed casino, here are the steps:

1. Reach out to the online casino first. They have a legal duty to handle your complaint. If you do not receive an adequate response, then you’ll need to continue the process.
2. Visit www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/public-and-players/complaints
3. Select ‘Complain about a Gambling Business’
   Select the link to go through an ADR provider.
   Submit all required information to the ADR provider (they are a free service).
   Wait 90 days for a response from the online casino.

Do bear in mind that there are some complaints that the UKGC won’t handle. For example, if your bet was refused, you cannot make a claim. This is because all online casinos are free to decide who they want to do business with. The complaint service is strictly for when you have had your legal rights as a player breached, i.e. issues with fairness, money handling, etc.

Rights in Action

The UKGC maintains a list of all upheld complaints against online casinos that have breached the rights of the player. We figured we would share a few real-world examples to show you that there is somebody looking out for you:

• On the 4th April 2024, Bet365 was fined nearly $ 600,000 for failing to have an effective Early Risk Detection System to ensure customers were not problem gamblers, in addition to failing to properly monitor potential problem gamblers.
• In September 2023, In Touch Games Limited lost its gambling licences, partly because the UKGC believed that their terms and conditions were not transparent enough for players.
• Videoslots Limited was fined over 2 million pounds for not properly keeping tabs on problem gambling and even allowing problem gamblers to continue to gamble.
• TonyBet was fined nearly $ 500,000 in 2023 due to problems with withdrawals.

This is just a small smattering of the complaints upheld by the UKGC. Trust us – if a company breaches player rights, they will be handled properly.

Player Responsibilities

We must stress that it is all well and good understanding player rights in iGaming, and various bodies afford you some good protections, it is also worth noting that the protection only extends so far. The protections are to ensure that an online casino does not take advantage of you, but you do have a responsibility to protect yourself too.

You should also make sure that you read through any terms and conditions on a platform properly to know what is expected of you. Online casinos cannot take away any of your legal rights as a player, but there may also be legal limitations in place. If you’re using an online casino bonus, for instance, make sure that you know what the bonus entails. They are rarely as good as they seem.

Conclusion

When gambling online, it is essential that you know your rights as a player. Understand that online casinos need to be transparent and fair. Know that they need to handle withdrawals and deposits securely and properly. If you are concerned with a website, always look to the UKGC or other licensing body for assistance. They will provide guidance on whether an online casino is breaching your player rights. In fact, the UKGC is a great place to start to learn about your rights as a player in Ireland as, despite being based in the UK, nearly every online casino you encounter here will be licensed by the UKGC and operating under their remit.