As the popularity of online gaming rises so do the number of scam sites. It’s not hard to see why; whenever large sums of money and the Internet are involved scammers are on the ready. The Internet is an amazing invention that has facilitated all kinds of things that would simple be impossible without it, but despite its huge wealth of benefits, it does have some down sides, notably security breeches and criminality. How do you police something that penetrates all the world’s borders and spans millions of subject matter? Quite simply, you can’t. So it’s down to you to protect yourself. Here are some top tips on how to pick a safe online gambling site.

Getting paid

There should be numerous ways you can pay and get paid bingo bonuses and winnings. Look for the big guns like Visa and MasterCard as these large companies carry out their own checks. However, do not rely on this alone. It should never take more than a couple of days for your payments to be processed, both to and from the site and payment should be ready in no more than 10 days. If you can only receive payment and bingo bonuses once a month for example, the site should be avoided. Costa Bingo will process all payments and bingo bonuses within 48 hours and payments to both credit and debit cards will never take more than nine days to complete.

Let’s see your license and registration please

All online gambling sites from poker to bingo have to be registered and licensed in the ‘real world’. The main licensing countries are Antigua, Australia, Costa Rica, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Canada and the UK. Look for the sites registration number and look out for links to its licensing authority. You can find this information in the ‘about us’ section of the site.

How secure is secure

Hackers are always on the look out for gambling sites as large amounts of money are being transferred over the Internet on a regular basis. Therefore it is imperative you choose a site with the latest high-tech online security system. One example, used by many online gambling sites including Costa Bingo, is Thawte. This protects your payments as well as your private information. But remember, never give out passwords and pin numbers on the Internet.

24/7 support

It should be overwhelmingly easy to contact the site. There should be numerous methods of contact including telephone, email, post, Skype and live chat. If you cannot contact the site for long periods of time, steer clear. Also look out for gambling support links, such as a quick link to gambleaware.co.uk.