How Independent Casino Safety Institutions Really Are

Source: skillminegames.com

Any other institution cannot influence online gambling regulators. Their activities should be transparent and clear for all best payout online casinos. Let’s take a look at the lifecycle of the auditing companies.

eCOGRA - an independent auditing company

This company appeared in 2003, and it has been checking online gambling sites to protect players around the globe. The founders of the company state that eCOGRA is independent for 100% and no one can ever influence it. A certificate issued by this regulator is reputable. 

How can we check if this company is independent? Well, we can take a look at the number of software operators that work with it. We can find 25 software providers and almost 70 gambling operators that cooperate with eCOGRA. This means that the reputation of the company is positive and no cases of any fraud were ever detected. 

eCOGRA has granted only 13 software providers with a certificate, and only 145 gambling sites have received a Safe and Fair seal. This company doesn’t give every gambling operator or software provider - they all need to meet strict requirements to get the award. The mission of the company is to protect players and offer them a fair game.

How can a player check if the license was issued in a fair way?

It’s not so difficult. You can go to the website where the certified operators from the eCOGRA company will conform to the monthly payout certifications. They view payout transactions and bets as they have access via the dedicated servers. You will make sure that there are no options for online casinos to provide you with an unfair game or treat you the wrong way. 

What about the eCOGRA company itself? They state the company is independent of any operators and software providers. eCogra is accredited to be a testing agency as a part of ISO/IEC 17025:2017 audit by the United Kingdom Accreditation Service (UKAS). This means high standards of every single check, test, and audit.

iTech Labs - a truly independent company

This reputable organization is based in Melbourne, Australia. The owners of the company state that they don’t have any kind of interest in gaming institutions. The police and credit checks approved the workflow of the iTech Labs. The reputation of the company is positive, and we cannot find any information about any signs of fraud from their side. It means that you can play safely on any gambling site that has a certificate issued by iTech Labs. 

If you know the process of an audit, you can make sure that the process is fair and transparent. How does iTech Labs check the casinos? For example, they assess the weak points of the games. It can be a multiplayer mode - no one should see your cards. Here we mean players of the same table. There should be algorithms that could prevent this. 

How can you check if a certificate is real? You should find a logo if the iTech Labs and there should be a link to a certificate. If you see only a logo with no links, you should contact the support team and ask them to show you the original certificate. If you can’t get it, we recommend leaving that place. How can you be sure that iTech Labs can be trusted? NATA (National Association of Testing Authorities) accredited the company with ISO/IEC 17025 and ISO/IEC 17020. And NATA is a member of ILAC (International Laboratory Accreditation Cooperation), and the accreditation number is 15690.

What’s more?

Independent auditors are not interested in making your games unfair or turning gambling experience into a disaster. If any casino safety institution decides to cheat, it will soon spoil its reputation. However, you should be careful about the auditors. It’s good to check what kind of companies it cooperates with and what kind of accreditations it has. If there are no unions with other reliable institutions, this organization cannot be trusted. 

A good play can be only with fair and transparent conditions. These conditions are checked and regulated by independent casino safety institutions. And they are interested in making your game experience positive.

The Importance Of eCOGRA For Online Gambling

eCOGRA or e-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance which makes it pretty clear what their position in online gambling industry is.

Online gambling revolution that started back in the 90s took the whole world by surprise and people went crazy about them in a matter of few months because they were enchanted by the fact that they can play in their favorite casino from the comfort of their chairs. It was basically an overnight success that resulted in companies earning billions of euros nowadays because of the fast expansions of this industry.

Most of you have probably heard the name of eCOGRA, either from reviews or from other players but not many people know what eCOGRA is and what purpose does it serve. There is even a classification of casinos that have been certified by eCOGRA as opposed to those that weren’t.

This name is short of e-Commerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance so it is pretty clear that it has something to do with security. eCOGRA is the internationally accredited agency for testing and player protection which is there to make sure that all new casino sites operate fairly and that all games are proven to be random and that nothing is rigged.

Of course, it is not the only agency that does this kind of work but it is certainly most famous and one of the best. It is accredited to whitelisted jurisdictions such as the United Kingdom, Gibraltar, Spain, Italy, Alderney and many others. The company started operating back in 2003 and their HQ is located in London.

How Does eCOGRA Operate?

This company propagates responsible gambling and fairness and once a casino gets their seal, the company does constant monitoring of their actions, just to be sure that they’re remaining within the eCOGRA’s parameters. These parameters involve constant testing of RNG to make sure that they are keeping the same percentage they had when they got certified.

The software and Fair Seal of eCOGRA are considered as the roof of quality and reliability which is why most the respectable brands applied to get eCOGRA’s certification. Some of these names include companies like bwin, Royal Vegas, Microgaming, NetEnt, 32Red and many others.

The company focuses on protection of customers from any illegal activities, game and RNG fairness and testing, preventing underage gambling, etc. They offer their services to every player that has any unresolved problems with the operators certified by eCOGRA.

If you wish to use their service than the problem must be pending for at least two weeks and you may not contact any third parties to try resolving it.

The Importance of eCOGRA

As we already mentioned eCOGRA is not the only agency that does testing and monitoring, so if a casino is not eCOGRA certified it doesn’t mean that it’s unreliable or unsafe. However, their seal is the most respectable one and if eCOGRA is the agency that monitors the gambling website of your choice then the site should possess their seal.

To uncomplicate the things, if a casino doesn’t have eCOGRA seal it doesn’t mean that the casino is unreliable but if it has the seal then it is a sure sign that it is a highly respectable casino where your rights are completely protected.

Their seal is one of the possible ways to achieve the necessary reputation of being a high-quality casino and that is why more and more operators are applying for their certification. However, rogue casinos can use their seal illegally so make sure to check eCOGRA’s website to see if a casino really is on their list.