2020 GUIDE TO CHOOSING THE BEST ONLINE CASINOS IN SOUTH AFRICA

Finding the best online casinos is not as easy as you think. Though you may think that simply clicking on a link that says ‘top rated casinos’ will give you access to a world of hassle-free fun, it’s not really that simple. You see, online casinos have a range of factors by which you could rate them, including software, security, customer service, bonuses, banking and much more.

When we review and rate what we believe to be the best South African online casinos, we base our decisions on a strict set of criteria, and we refuse to compromise on them. After all, a casino’s most important source of success comes from its players. That is why we take the time to carefully review the best casino sites in the country and recommend only those we know you’ll love.

But more importantly, we want to provide you with the right information and tips to use when choosing the best online casino for you. This is why we’ve prepared a short, but informative guide especially for South African players! Read on to learn more.

If you’re searching for a first-time casino to start playing at or you’re an old hand hoping to try something new, use our guide to make a more informed decision when it comes to playing and winning. You see, the reviews and the SA casino list we have compiled are carefully thought through to ensure you have the best possible experience when you play. Our goal is to become your trusted source of information, a middleman between the player and the casino that does all the testing for you so that you can sign up, play and enjoy. Here’s how we test each top rated casino:

• Playability – we know you’re not just visiting an online casino to check out the cool visuals and excellent website design. When you go to an online casino accepting Rand (ZAR), you want to play and have fun, and that is all dependent on the games. We test out as many of the games a casino has on offer as we can and we check everything from design to functionality to variety. The casinos on our list are the ones that offer the very best games, that is, those that give you the highest possible chance of winning and having an excellent time.
• Service – we know that even if you’re an experienced casino player, you might have questions for a casino and that means the customer service staff need to be skilled, polite and ready to help in any way we can. We check out the customer service at casinos and rate it according to the mentioned criteria, all with the goal of ensuring that when you play, you never have to struggle
• Bonuses – playing is fun when you’re using your own money but when you have the casino’s money to spend, in the form of a bonus, the game gets even better. We check out casinos’ bonuses including everything from the welcome bonus to the weekly bonuses and more, to ensure that you’re getting the biggest possible value every time you deposit, as well as little extras to make gaming much more fun.

Choosing a well-known and trusted casino is important as it ensures a fun and safe experience when playing online. We only want the best for our players, and so, as promised, we’ve put together the five top tips for you to follow in order to make sure you are safe from scams and can enjoy yourself without worrying about whether or not you will be paid on time by the casino if you end up being a lucky winner!

Before you look any further, you must make sure that the online casino is fully licensed and regulated in a reliable jurisdiction. It is preferable to chosen online casino with the certification of a trustworthy authority publicly displayed.

An online casino that takes the trouble to obtain a license by a reputable gaming authority shows that the site is serious about protecting its industry reputation. It shows that it is keen to show that it takes matters such as transparency and fairness very seriously because it knows how important these issues are to players.

You will usually find the name of the gambling authority on the casino’s homepage (eg. Licensed and regulated by the UK Gambling Commission). If you’re not sure, you can always ask customer support. Serious online gaming operators also publish reports on payout percentages and return to player conducted by independent auditors on their websites.

To make sure your data and transactions will be totally protected, look out for gaming venues that use the latest security protocols like 128-bit encryption used by the biggest banking institutions.

We cannot stress enough the importance of choosing a casino that offers good customer service and support. What you need to make sure of is that as soon as you encounter a problem, or have a question, or simply need help with something, you know that you will be attended to in the shortest time possible. A casino that is not responsive or helpful in any way, is usually a casino that doesn’t truly care about its customers, but only cares about making money. It goes without saying that you should be able to contact customer support in multiple ways, including email and live chat. The bottom line is this: good customer support = trustworthy casino!

An online casino that appears on a blacklist is there for a reason. No matter how you look at things, the chances are that no good will ever come from playing at a site like this. An online casino makes our blacklist when it fails dismally in any of the criteria we set when picking top casinos for South African players in our best online casino guide.

Some of these blacklisted casinos can be guilty of one or more of the following: Cheating players out of their money by holding onto winnings.

Cheating players out of their money by holding onto winnings

• Manipulating game results
• Providing little to no support to their players
• Being extremely late with issuing payments to players
• Not providing safe and secure bank transactions
• Putting the players’ personal and financial data at great risk.

As a general rule, unless a South African casino is given a positive review on our site, then it is probably best to steer clear from it.

An important aspect to take into account when you play at  South African online casino is the banking options. The gaming site should offer a range of deposit and withdrawal options that are accessible for South African players. In addition, it should offer play in South African Rand, listing bonuses, promotions, table limits and bet sizes in local currency and allowing you to make a deposit or withdrawal in Rand without the need to pay conversion rates.

Making deposits and withdrawals at online casinos is a generally misunderstood topic and many people think it is unsafe or that the casino will refuse to pay out their winnings. If you stick to our list of top casinos, you should have no problem finding an easy to use cashier system that makes the process of funding your real money account, and withdrawing from it, speedy, easy and stress-free. Moreover, we’ve also got you covered with the most popular banking methods available at South African casinos.

When it comes to making deposits, you have a number of options available to you. A quick visit to the casino cashier will show you the many options available including:

• Debit and credit card – one of the fastest and most reliable ways of funding your real money account, using a debit or a credit card is a lot safer than you think. Additionally, if you are eager to start playing the games, this is the smartest way to fund your account because it is an almost immediate transfer of funds from the card to the casino.
• Wire transfer – this form of funds transfer has been in the mix for many years and trusted by many players from around the world. It allows players to retain some form of anonymity and they can play without having to worry about who can see their activity. Of course, the one downside to wire transfer is that it doesn’t have quite the same speed as debit or credit card.
• Ewallet – Neteller, PayPal, Skrill and many more types of e-wallet systems are an ideal way to make deposits into your real money account. These are very safe, do require an initial setup process, but allow you to retain some measure of anonymity while also being able to play relatively quickly.
• Other payment methods – some casinos allow you to use EFT (electronic funds transfer) to fund your account and believe it not, there are still some casinos out there that accept cheques. Of course, the downsides to these two forms of payment is that they are not necessarily reliable, depend on the goodwill of the bank and the post office respectively, and you may have to wait a while for the funds to clear, which means if you send a check or make an EFT today, you may have to wait until next week to start playing.

Withdrawals are generally misunderstood in online casinos and though the process for cashing out is relatively simple, there are a few things you should know about it too. For one thing, you need to ensure you meet the wagering requirements of the casino if you have won a sum of money using a bonus. While this may not seem fair and you may be wondering why the casino is dictating the way you use your money, remember that a bonus is a conditional gift. Though it is given to you to play the games, you are also responsible for ensuring you meet the casino’s terms.

Also important is to choose your cash out method carefully. Some casinos will send you a check, but most prefer to do a direct deposit to your bank account. In this case, a customer service representative will likely phone you and ask you to fill out a form and send proof of identification. Additionally, if you used a credit card, you will need to include a photo of the front and back of that card, a form of verification that the casino can use to check that you really are the cardholder. Though this sounds a little lengthy and complicated, the process is a lot simpler than you think.

Additionally, if you used a credit card, you will need to include a photo of the front and back of that card, a form of verification that the casino can use to check that you really are the cardholder. Though this sounds a little lengthy and complicated, the process is a lot simpler than you think.

If you’ve done a little browsing online, you may have noticed that casinos are not all created equally, and neither is their software. Ultimately you want to have a good time and enjoy yourself, so it’s important to “shop around” and test a few good different casinos. Not all casinos use the same software and this means some games are better or more appealing than others.

The best way to test some of these games is by trying out the “free play” version of these games, which you can do right here at PlayCasino. We especially recommend trying out games byRealtime Gaming (RTG), Playtech, Realtime Gaming (RTG), Playtech, BetSoft, NetEnt which are the biggest names in the gaming industry

As for gaming variety, most players find that though they love one particular game or type of game, such as slots, they like to mix things up a little too. Of course, a casino that offers just slot games is great if you like that kind of thing, but should you decide you need a little variety, it helps if a casino also offers table games, keno, lottery and even 3D horse racing. Variety is the
spice of life and that’s why we clearly show in our best online casino reviews which casinos offer which games.

A sure sign that an online casino highly values its players and keeps up with the times is its use of the latest mobile technology. An online casino that can be played on an online platform, and which offers an exceptional user interface, clearly takes its players’ satisfaction seriously.

At the end of the day, we South Africans are practically glued to our mobile phones, and it makes sense that we want to take our online gambling entertainment on the go as well. If you want to take a look at our list of best online casinos available on mobile, check out our mobile casinos page.

Take a look at our list of top casinos and play locally in Rand (ZAR) or spend a little time reading our casino reviews to find out now only which casinos we rate highly, but also which suit your unique needs. Below is a list of our top recommended casinos for South African players!