How we choose which casinos to certify

If you’ve been making good use of our list of best crypto casinos, you may have noticed one interesting fact. Some of our recommended sites sport the ‘Crypto Casinos certified’ seal, while others don’t. And you’re most likely wondering why.

Is a certified crypto casino better than one that doesn’t have the seal? Will you be getting more generous bonuses, fairer terms or even more games? And, most importantly, how do we choose which casinos to certify?

We’ll be answering all these questions on this page, explaining in detail the process we follow before reaching a decision and why this should matter to you as a player. At CryptoCasinos.com we follow a specific list of criteria that we take into account for every crypto casino we rate. These all contribute to our decision whether a site should receive the CryptoCasinos Certification or not. These include:

• Licenses & KYC
• User-confirmed overall safety
• A solid responsible gambling hub
• Thoroughly checked T&Cs
• How safe and secure your crypto funds are
• Provably fair games

Below we’ll delve into each element, explaining why it is important and how it will affect your gambling experience.

Licenses & KYC

One of our priorities is to check whether a crypto casino is licensed by a reputable gambling regulator and whether it implements a Know Your Customer (KYC) process. There are a number of global gambling licenses that impose a very high standard of player protection and security on their licensed sites, and seeing their seal on a crypto casino’s landing page is an automatic sign of trustworthiness.

From a player perspective, the presence of a reputable gambling license carries an implicit guarantee that you will enjoy a positive gambling experience on that site. Gambling licenses are granted only as long as certain conditions are fulfilled, such as the security of the platform, the presence of trusted payment options, authenticated games that have been proven to be fair, easily-accessible responsible gambling tools, and transparent terms and conditions.

If a licensed site allows itself to dip below the standards expected by its license, the backlash is swift and serious and includes not only massive fines but also the potential suspension or revocation of the license. In short, a crypto casino will work damn hard to ensure that it keeps its gambling license.

An additional benefit of playing at a licensed casino is that your rights will always be protected at law. Gambling regulators are responsible for following up on players’ complaints and ensuring an outcome within a reasonable time.

Imagine a site is acting a bit funny when it comes to finalizing your cashout - if it’s licensed, you can file a complaint directly with the regulator and it will take up the case on your behalf.

Which license seals should you look out for? There are several respected gambling regulators that you can expect to find giving their seal of approval to our certified casinos. The most popular are the below.

Any site in possession of one of the above licenses has a higher chance of obtaining our certification than one that is unlicensed. In parallel to this, we look at the KYC process required by the operator, if there is any. All licensed sites will implement KYC when you register and when you’re trying to cash out your winnings. This is because the law requires all licensed casinos to take appropriate anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-fraud precautions. Thanks to such measures, players benefit from enhanced security, a fair gaming environment that doesn’t enable or facilitate cheating, and a stronger responsible gambling approach designed to identify vulnerabilities.

What if there isn’t a CryptoCasinos Certified seal?

The above are all very compelling reasons for certifying casinos that are licensed and follow rigorous KYC. But what about those that don’t? This doesn’t necessarily make them untrustworthy, and in fact we still rate them on their own merits and give them a recommendation if they satisfy our standards regarding player safety and security.

Such casinos also come with different advantages to their licensed counterparts. No KYC platforms typically offer a higher level of anonymity, which appeals to players who place a strong value on discretion related to their gambling activities. Moreover, the registration process will be a lot faster and simpler, with many allowing you to log in via social media accounts like Facebook, Google, Discord, or even Telegram. This means no additional passwords and no sharing of personal details is required. And when you want to withdraw your winnings, the process is guaranteed to be a lot faster too, with many offering instant cashouts or 24 hour guarantees.

...when you want to withdraw your winnings, the process is guaranteed to be a lot faster too, with many offering instant cashouts or 24 hour guarantees.

Any unlicensed casinos that are recommended on Cryptocasinos.com have undergone rigorous testing by our team, so you can still register and deposit funds in full knowledge that they’ve been found to be reliable. Similarly, if we’ve reviewed a casino and come to the conclusion that it’s simply not worth the risk and it shouldn’t be trusted, we’ll let you know about it, plain and simple, before we even dive into any further reviewing of it. We leave no stone unturned, and even go as far as to check third party user reviews so as to have full visibility on a casino’s track record.

Our main goal is to find the best, most trustworthy crypto casinos for you, not to get you to sign up to just any casino that will offer an affiliate deal (as, let’s face it, many other comparison websites do).

Keeping your money safe

One thing that’s guaranteed to ruin any gambling experience is encountering difficulties with your withdrawals or a feeling that your financial data may have been compromised. Right after your mental and physical health, the next biggest priority for you is likely to be the safety of your money.

And rightly so, which is why we thoroughly check and test for any issues in this regard before awarding them our CryptoCasinos certification. We take a two-pronged approach here, analyzing both the deposit and the cashout process.

The best crypto casinos worthy of certification employ a variety of advanced technologies and security measures to protect their players’ funds, starting with the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption. This encrypts data transmitted between your device and the casino's servers, making it extremely difficult for hackers to intercept and decode sensitive information. In short, it guarantees that when you type in your credit card number there are no prying eyes gaining access to it. Many of our certified sites use 128-bit or even 256-bit SSL encryption, each of which provides a robust level of security similar to that used by major financial institutions.

The best crypto casinos worthy of certification employ a variety of advanced technologies and security measures to protect their players’ funds, starting with the use of Secure Socket Layer (SSL) encryption.

Our certified casinos also implement rigorous access controls and authentication processes to ensure that only authorized personnel can access your financial data. Two-factor authentication (2FA) is commonly used to verify the identity of players and staff accessing the system.

These measures are usually regularly audited by independent third-party organizations to ensure that all measures comply with data protection standards and regulations. Such audits, which enable casinos to identify and address potential vulnerabilities in their systems, are required by gambling regulators.

However, there’s more involved in keeping your money safe than simple technological tools. When it comes to cashing out your money, we need to know that you’ll be able to do so without any obstacles or undue delays. To confirm these, we carry out several testing sessions ourselves in order to ascertain that we are not made to jump through hoops to get our hands on our winnings. Or, even worse, that the casino is holding on to our funds. This is also why we carefully monitor third-party experiences, so as to ensure that there have been no such complaints.

That said, it’s important to note that when you see an uncertified casino on our site, it doesn’t mean that you will have problems cashing out if you use that casino. As we explained, we take into account various factors before deciding whether to award certification or not. In fact, we have not encountered any such issues at any of our recommended crypto casinos or they wouldn’t be on our top list in the first place.

Efficient and easy-to-access customer support

Sometimes glitches happen and issues arise, it is the nature of life. This is why we test the customer support options at sites we review, as we want to make sure that players will find a fast and easy solution to any problems. The CryptoCasinos Certified seal goes to those sites that offer 24/7 live chat options which result in efficient and polite replies.

This is not to say that if the live chat isn’t available all day everyday - or maybe if there’s only an email option available - that site shouldn’t be trusted. It simply means that you may need to wait a while longer to receive a reply, and thus we will hold off from giving it our ultimate seal of approval.

User-confirmed overall safety

The overall experience of the majority is important to us. We test the sites multiple times, but if they have a bad experience it may simply be that the casino is having a bad couple of days. It happens to the best of us. The flipside is that, just because we encountered no issues, it doesn’t mean that no-one else did. This is why, before we award certification, we take a good and hard look at what other players have to say about the overall experience and safety.

We are active on various gaming platforms and communities, precisely for this reason so that they can keep a finger on the pulse of popular opinion. While not all complaints are legit, if a site is continuously receiving bad reviews that’s a definite red flag that will lead us to investigate further. And if the reviews check out and we’re not convinced that your experience on the site will be predominantly positive and safe, we will decide not to award certification. We also make sure that there are no legal squabbles hounding a certified site.

So why do we go ahead with our recommendation of an uncertified site? Before doing this, we still make sure that the causes of such negative experiences have been addressed and that the site is offering a better and safer user experience nowadays. And of course, if a site keeps on improving, there is nothing to stop them from a future re-assessment and certification.

Thoroughly checked T&Cs

They might be viewed as the boring part of gambling, but it’s essential to take all terms and conditions (T&Cs) into account when playing at any online casino. We understand that poring through rows and rows of complicated, legal language isn’t everyone’s idea of fun, which is why we’re here to take care of the boring part for you.

We check all the T&Cs of every crypto casino we review in detail, and we also base our decision to certify (or not) a site according to what we find there. For starters, we see whether all T&Cs are easy-to-find and accessible. If you have to conduct a treasure hunt to locate the important terms, then it’s already a red flag. This is especially true when it comes to checking the bonus T&Cs, so we expect to be informed of wagering requirements, expiry terms and so forth clearly and prominently as these are the kind of details that will really affect your enjoyment of any crypto casino bonus.

Next, we go through all the other conditions with a fine tooth comb, watching out in particular for any shady withdrawal limitations or conditions and other payment terms and limits, as well as the privacy policy and other details that can make or break your gambling experience. If anything does not convince us 100%, we will refrain from featuring that site as a certified casino. Moreover, you will know exactly why this happened because we will share all details in our reviews so as to empower you into making a fully-informed decision and keep yourself protected.

Provably fair games

You’re here mostly for the games, so of course we need to ensure that the library of our certified and recommended sites is on point, offering not only reasonable variety but also provably fair games that are guaranteed to give out truly random wins.

This element is very important because when playing games of chance you’re essentially placing your trust in the casino that the wins are really up to chance, and not skewed in any way towards a specific outcome.

Many of us make a big deal of a slot’s Return to Player (RTP) percentage, which indicates the average amount of money wagered on a casino game that will be paid back to players over time. And we also put a lot of weight into the house edge, which is the percentage of each bet that a casino expects to retain as profit over the long run. This is because these are the standards by which we can try and calculate the likelihood of a game’s payout.

However, we also want to make sure that the listed RTPs and house edge are correct, and that we’re not just looking at pie in the sky. This is why it’s important for games to be audited and declared provably fair by third-party agencies like eCOGRA and iTechLabs. Seeing either of these seals on a crypto casino’s landing page is a sure indication that the games are actually fair.

...it’s important for games to be audited and declared provably fair by third-party agencies like eCOGRA and iTechLabs. Seeing either of these seals on a crypto casino’s landing page is a sure indication that the games are actually fair.

One aspect of this is the fact that independently audited games will adhere to the geolocation requirements of the licensed games. In short, how many games are available to you depends on your location and on whether the specific title is licensed for that location. This is to ensure that both the casino and the software provider are offering their services only in the areas approved by their license.

What if a site doesn’t feature a third-party auditing seal and does not achieve the CryptoCasinos certification? This doesn’t mean its games are not provably fair. One reliable method to understand whether the games are authentic is the presence of leading software providers that are licensed and that enjoy a strong reputation in the industry.

Big names like NetEnt, Evolution, Pragmatic Play and others provide games that have already been independently tested before being released on the market. Moreover, they will only work with sites that adhere to the same strict standards of fairness, so you can still play with ease of mind.