How we rate Australian real money casinos

Choosing an Australian online casino for real money can be challenging. Unlike with land-based casinos, you can’t really judge one by its cover. An online casino may appear totally safe at first, but when you try to make a withdrawal, you discover that this casino is a rogue that won’t pay you a dime.

The only way you can escape losing the money you’ve legitimately won is by not going to a casino like that in the first place. Don’t take your chances with trial and error, choose a casino based on facts and research, leave luck for the games themselves.

Here are the criteria our experts follow when they award positive or negative marks to a casino.

Online Casino Licencing

Licensing is probably one of the most important things when it comes to figuring out whether a casino is legitimate or not. Sure, online casinos for real money are not exactly in the Australian legal field, but we’re not talking about Australian licensing. There are plenty of other countries that license casinos like Curacao, Gibraltar, Malta, and the UK.

If a casino has, say, a Maltese business license, this means they’re bound to follow local regulation on online casinos and adhere to rules. Otherwise, they’ll be held accountable for breaking rules. If there is no license, the casino may be a scam website for all you know.

It’s even better when a casino is registered with the UKGC. The Gambling Commission is notorious for being a strict regulator that upholds the rules to the letter. This ensures the operator of the casino works within legal guidelines.

Personal Data Protection

In a regular casino, a thief can steal your wallet. In an online casino, a thief can steal your identity. To prevent this, you have to go to an online casino that has the means to protect against thieves.

This isn’t just a problem of online casinos, though. Any online business that gathers data on the users is a potential target of a data breach. With casinos, however, this is even more dangerous since they have a KYC procedure. This means if there’s a data breach, your address and personal information may be exposed.

This is why our experts pay a lot of attention to data protection and scan for obvious problems as well as research previous data safety problems of the casino.

Payment Security and Safety in Casinos

Even more than identity theft, you want to avoid getting your banking information stolen. With the right set of precautions, this potentially bankrupting situation can be easily avoided. SSL encryption, two-factor authentication, and general website protection are the key factors that our experts look for to assess the casino.

eCOGRA Certificate

eCOGRA is a London-based expert that specializes in assessing online casino fairness and player protection. Its certificates are recognized everywhere in the world of online gambling for real money. If you see one of those at a casino, you can be sure that this operator is reliable and you will not get defrauded or taken advantage of.

Customer Support in Casino Sites

Customer support is not something a regular Aussie gambler is looking for in an online casino for real money. However, it often proves vital when push comes to shove. Let’s say you’re having a problem with withdrawals and the system for one reason or another can’t let you withdraw. You’ have to go to the support to handle that.

If the support is unwilling to help or just won’t answer for days, this can lead to frustration, delay, and possibly to consequences for your financial situation as you’re unable to make a withdrawal.

In this situation, you start thinking you should have picked a casino with stellar support. Why not do it from the get-go? Check out the reviews of top casinos on Online Casino AU and you’ll find those that have the best support out of Aussie casinos.

Usability of Online Casinos

The usability of the casino website is an important thing to consider as well. To receive a good mark, a website has to be easy to navigate and should have easily identifiable links to all the important elements of the website. The important ones are not casino games – these are easy to find at all casinos – we’re talking about links to legal terms and requirements and bonus terms.

If these are not easily located, many players may forgo reading them before making bets and sign up for something they don’t fully understand.

Gaming Software

While most other elements that our experts check on online casinos for real money are only supplemental, this one is a real deal-breaker if done wrong. If the casino is completely safe but does not give access to all the best and latest casino games, it’s probably going to get a pass from most gamblers.

This is why our experts give a lot of attention to games and casino game developers when they review casinos. They report on the types of games the casino hosts on the platform including real money pokies, live games, table games, etc. You will also learn a lot about what gambling developers are presented on the platform and whether it enjoys new releases on a regular basis.

Online Casino Bonuses and Promotions

Other factors play a crucial role in how good a casino is in terms of overall safety and reliability. It’s the games and bonuses, however, that most people want to learn more about. These are the two factors that most people consider when they’re choosing a casino. Naturally, after the experts take into consideration every other factor to make sure Online Casino AU users are choosing among safe alternatives, they study the bonus system as well. This makes sure our readers can choose a casino that is not only safe to play at but meets every other their expectation.

Online Casino AU experts study the bonus system extensively and report on all the details so you can make an informed choice. We do not let the sum of the bonus that is advertised to fool our readers. Instead, we report on the match-up percentage along with the maximum payout sum. This means you won’t go for the casino that has the biggest maximum payout, you will go for a casino that will pay more for your specific deposit.

We also report on smaller bonuses such as daily promotions that may sway your choice towards a casino that doesn’t offer a welcome bonus as huge but makes it interesting to gamble there every day.

Terms and Conditions

Let’s face it, you probably don’t read terms and conditions. This is why Online Casino AU experts read them for you. They search the T&C of the online casinos for real money for possible loopholes and points that can be used against honest gamblers. We make sure there is no way the casino can abuse its own rules and only then we proceed with the review.

Another point that Online Casino AU experts check out before going through with the review is the withdrawal requirements. We make sure that the readers know how much they should have to bet for withdrawals to be possible before they commit to a bonus.

Online Casino Deposit Methods

For many people, the lack of a variety of deposit methods is not a deal-breaker. However, for some, it’s necessary to have access to a deposit method they prefer over the others. This is what Online Casino AU experts make sure they document every deposit method at a casino and report on them.

Also, some gamblers would love to know what are online casinos for real money to use with their preferred deposit method. You can filter the search for casinos by the deposit method you prefer and learn just that. Find the best Bitcoin casinos, POLi casinos, and more. We have lists of the best casinos for the majority of popular deposit methods in Australia.

Operator Reputation

The last point but one that definitely means a lot when choosing a good online casino for real money gambling is the reputation of the casino online. If it checks all the right boxes during the review but still has a reputation of a rogue casino online, it may be the wrong place to gamble.

Our experts search all the far reaches of the web to make sure there are no unresolved problems with the casino in question. If plenty of people say it has demonstrated a less than stellar performance, it may be a sign to reevaluate the casino.

Deconstructing Our Online Gambling Review Methodology

Are you wondering how exactly our experts review online casinos? Here are all the steps that they go through when they review a casino. This is our brief checklist for reviewing online casinos for real money gambling.

• Read customer reviews on the casino in the most popular review platforms
• Search for negative reviews
• Verify the licensing information
• Check for third-party certificates and verify them
• Check for problem gambling prevention program membership
• Perform a security audit on the website
• Assess how easy it is to find T&C and other important info on the site
• Read T&C and look for weak points
• Study the bonus system of the casino
• Look at the list of casino games and see whether new releases are present
• Contact the support and measure response time
• Register on the website and make a deposit
• Play several games of each genre presented on the website
• Record the results of the survey and overall impressions

This checklist doesn’t go into detail on several points, but these are company secrets that allow us to stay ahead of the competition. This is the checklist that lets our experts mark the good casinos accordingly and weed out the rogue casinos from our list.

Online Casino AU Blacklist for Australian Online Casinos

Every industry has its hacks. The tech industry was shocked to learn that a promising startup Theranos was an elaborate scam, and hundreds of gamblers are no less shocked to learn that their favourite casino turned out to be a money pit.

Just like with any elaborate scam, you don’t always see it coming. The only way you can make sure your money is safe with the casino you trust is to do research beforehand.

Online Casino AU experts do that for you. They test the casino’s integrity for the review so you don’t have to risk your hard-earned cash. The experts we employ check the casino’s past record and look for non-payments, legal terms abuse, and other signs of foul play.

Here is a list of all casinos we’ve blacklisted on Online Casino AU after years of research:

1. Cool Cat Casino
2. Balzac Casino
3. Rushmore Casino
4. Casino4live
5. Win Palace
6. Euromoon
7. Pure Vegas
8. ExplosionBet
9. Noble Casino
10. Indio Casino
11. Game Tech Group casinos
12. Ace Revenue Casinos

Best Real Money Casino Games to Gamble

Wondering what is the best way to win real money in an online casino in Australia? Here are your best bets when it comes to games.

Slot machines or Pokies

Pokies are the most popular games in Australian online casinos for real money gambling. They provide you with two things that any gambler wants after a long day of work, a relaxing gameplay loop and a chance to win real money.

Most slots have their own fanbase, but they’re not all created equal when it comes to payouts. If you want to find a pokie that pays well, you’ll have to look for certain characteristics.

First, look for RTP (return to player) value. It is a projected percentage of how much money you will get back from betting. If the RTP is at 96%, you can safely assume that you will receive 96% of bets back in the long term.

The next characteristic you should look for is volatility. Not to get too much into details, low volatility slots have a higher chance of winning any given spin but offer lower payouts. High volatility slots, on the other hand, let you win less often but offer bigger payouts.

There’s no golden rule on what you should go with. It’s a choice that depends entirely on your preferences.

The last point is looking for progressive slots. These pokies offer a small chance to win a jackpot. Depending on the online casino for real money gambling that you choose and the slot itself, the sum may range from A$1,000 to A$100,000.

Blackjack

Blackjack is one of the classic casino games and one that lets you win considerable amounts of money playing it. If you’re a fan of counting cards, look for versions of the game that are played with only one deck. If you trust your intuition, look for the best-looking blackjack games and give them a go.

You will be able to win real good money, but there is no option like the jackpots in the pokies. However, the wins are more consistent with blackjack.

Roulette

Roulette is even more of a classic game than blackjack is. You probably know all about the premise of this game, make a bet or several bets and wait for the white ball to hit a slot. If you do win, you can receive a payout from twice your bet to 35 times your bet.

Give Martingale strategy a try, or bet consistently on several single digits to achieve the maximum win in the end.

Baccarat

Baccarat is in the same category that roulette and blackjack, but it’s a bit less popular than these two. The premise of the game is that there are two hands that receive cards, the Bank and the Player. The players bet on either of these hands or on a tie.

Betting on a tie is highly advised against as it’s unlikely and the odds are not worth it. The house generally has a slight edge on the Player, but you should follow your intuition and knowledge of the game to make bets.

Bingo

You don’t find Bingo in every Australian online casino for real money gambling, but it’s widespread enough to be a popular game among Australian gamblers. If the randomly generated numbers match your card, you may get a huge win.

It’s a simple enough game and it promises pretty good payouts. That’s why so many gamblers love it.

How to Win Real Money With Bonuses

A lot of gamblers use this one factor to choose an online casino for real money gambling, casino bonuses. It’s a great offer, but can you actually win real money with bonus funds? The short answer is yes. For a longer and more complicated answer, look down below.

Welcome Bonuses

The welcome bonus is probably the one most gamblers will be looking for. It’s generally heavily advertised and it’s displayed on the first page of the casino you see. The trick that many casinos — intentionally or not — play on the gamblers is that you won’t receive the full bonus sum. That sum is actually the maximum payout, not the full payout.

The way you receive a welcome bonus is by the match-up percentage. If the match-up percentage is 100% and the maximum payout is A$1,000, you will only receive A$20 in bonus funds if you make a deposit of A$20. You’d have to deposit a grand to receive the full payout.

That detail aside, the thing you should be worried about is the withdrawal requirements. You can find those in the casino’s T&C or in the Online Casino AU review of the casino.

The withdrawal requirement shows the minimum bet you should make to be eligible for withdrawals. If this requirement is x50, you’ll need to bet 50 times your bonus sum before you can legally make a withdrawal.

This can be quite a hefty sum, but it’s totally doable since you’ll be winning on some of those bets. It can, however, turn to be quite a daunting task. Also, note that most table games are exempt from the withdrawal requirements and only contribute 10% of the bet towards paying off the requirement.

Read Online Casino AU reviews to find casinos with the most player-friendly playthrough requirement.

Free Spins

Most welcome bonuses not only pay you in bonus cash but also provide free spins. You can often use them on specific pokies in the casino to see how it feels with no cash investments. You often don’t get more than 20 free spins with 100 free spins being the high limit in most casinos.

This means that you probably won’t win that much real money with free spins bonuses. But it’s not what this bonus is supposed to do. You should use it to check out the casino without having to pay money for bets. That said, you do receive real money for winning with free spins.

Cashback bonus

The cashback bonus is another great opportunity that lets you win more money overall in the long run. Here’s how it works. You make bets during the set period of time and in the end, the casino will reimburse from 10% to 50% of the bets you lost.

The best part of it is that you don’t have to meet any type of withdrawal requirement to get this bonus. Most online casinos for real money gambling give you the cashback bonus in straight cash that you can withdraw or bet again at your wish.

No Wagering Bonus

As you may have already understood, wagering requirements are a thing that most gamblers despise in online casinos. It is totally justifiable from the standpoint of a casino since otherwise, people would just walk away with the bonus funds and leave them high and dry. However, this doesn’t mean gamblers won’t dislike a policy that makes them bet A$30 to A$50 for every A$1 they get a bonus.

This is why the most popular bonuses for experienced online gamblers are the no wagering bonuses. These are special bonuses that do not require you to meet any requirements to make a withdrawal.

These are considerably more rare than the regular bonuses, but it’s worth looking out for them. Here are at Online Casino AU, we provide you with the best online casinos for real money gambling and issue a list of those that do not have withdrawal requirement policy.

Referral bonus

Are you a part of a community of gamblers? You can get some sick bonuses by referring your friends to a casino you love and trust. Some online casinos offer anything from free spins to bonus cash for signing up your friend to the platform.

If you choose a casino with Online Casino AU guides, you can be sure that you’re not referring them to rogue casinos. This makes both parties win.

No Deposit Bonuses

No deposit bonuses are some of the most popular bonuses out there, since you don’t have to make a deposit to get them. They allow you to register at a casino, get a bonus, and check it out with no strings attached.

The only problem is that you can’t really win that much money with this bonus. But again, it’s not the main reason why people tend to get no deposit bonuses. You use this bonus to check out the casino and then go on to get another one.

What Happened with Online Gambling Australia Laws? – Brief History of Legal Status Overview

Gambling has been in Australia’s history even before the time people started coming in for the gold, shaping the country. In many ways, these gold rushes were a gamble. No wonder Aussies were pleased with online casinos once they started appearing.

Legal status and history of online casinos

There’s a legal gambling problem with online casinos in Australia. The Interactive Gambling Act has a contradictory stance on the best online gambling in the country. It says that gambling websites are prohibited from providing services to Australian citizens. Nowhere in the law does it say that Australian gamblers are breaking the law, it’s the casinos that do.

It’s a great approach to gambling because it criminalizes the businessman, not the person having fun. The only form of gambling that is allowed online is sports betting. But given the fact that Australia Post’s payment system, POLi features online casino websites on their advertising, you can tell the government is somewhat lenient towards gambling.

Australians have been gambling online ever since Microgaming’s The Gaming Club was established in 1994. As time passed, the number of the best online casinos available and the number of gamblers with an internet connection only grew.

Now, online gambling sites are big and vibrant part of Australia’s gambling industry.

Legal status and history of land-based casinos

The first bets that we know of were placed some 30 years after the first colony was established, in 1810, on a horse race in Sydney. This makes the history of gambling in Australia almost as old as the country is, especially considering the fact that there definitely was some gambling going on before that horse race.

Since the country’s establishment in 1901, its gambling record has been through British-inspired horse racing craze, the first nationwide lottery, a boom of sports betting, and the introduction of pokies machines to many bars. After the era of online casinos, Australian gamblers have even more ways to gamble, from visiting a luxury land-based casino to gambling online during your lunch break at work.

Now, over 200 years after the first recorded gamble, Australia is one of the most gambling nations in the world. The news outlets say we’re the biggest losers, but they haven’t counted our wins. Consider the fact that the 20-something land-based casinos in big cities attract big punters from the Asia-Pacific region, and the amount of money lost at our casinos doesn’t seem that big.

After all, out of all gamblers in Australia (and that is over half the population), 84% don’t have any gambling-related problems at all, and only 2% are problem gamblers. Not more than European countries like the UK or Germany show. So that media hype is just that, another hype.