Almost everyone seems to have some sort of horror story about the internet - perhaps a friend of a friends great aunt twice removed had her life savings stolen by a Nigerian fraudster, or perhaps something more mundane like they ordered some books online and they never arrived. It is true, the internet can be a dangerous place, and there are no shortage of fraudsters and sharks ready to prey on the unsuspecting consumer. In a recent survey a surprising 42.5% of people were afraid to give out their credit card details over the internet - however these are the same people who are willing to hand over their card to a total stranger to pay for a meal in a restaurant. In actuality, internet based transactions are much more secure that those carried out in real life



Not surprisingly then, many people are attracted to the idea of gambling at an online casino - but fearful of falling prey to online fraudsters. Indeed, the online casino beats its rival the bricks and mortar hands down in terms of convenience and availability - it is open 24 hours, only as far away as the nearest computer and best of all you dont even need to get dressed or even get out of bed! Some of the biggest casino wins ever have now been made at online casinos - and many online slots have jackpots worth several million dollars - particularly Microgaming Mega Moolah slots which has a jackpot of a minimum of one million dollars



Certainly over the years, online casinos have attracted a fair amount of scam artists and dodgy operators - however online gambling has cleaned up its act and gamblers have gotten much more savvy, and today it is probably safer to gamble online than to shop online. Some notorious characters have been involved in the online gambling industry since its inception, including a couple of casinos who thought it a good idea to use rigged casino software - and they did not stay in business for very long! All of the big online casinos use rigorously tested software which is certified to be random and fair. The RNG (random number generators) which power the software are tested regularly by auditors to ensure the casino is dealing a fair game, just as roulette wheels and slots are tested in standard casinos.



The security of financial transactions is of paramount importance to most players and again online casinos are light years ahead of many internet shopping sites in the security and encryption of banking data. Your data and that of your transaction is securely encrypted to prevent is being accessed by anyone else, and even casino staff do not have access to credit card details or other sensitive data. If you are worried about using your credit card to fund online casino transaction there are many other options such as webwallets which can be prefunded and then used at online casinos. If you live in the UK and certain parts of Europe Ukash is a voucher based system which works rather like a mobile phone top up card and you can buy from most corner shops. The list of casinos, poker room and bingo sites accepting Ukash is growing daily



Licensing is still a grey area in online gambling. Although there is no legal requirement for an online casino to be licensed in some jurisdictions, other areas demand a casino is licensed in the jurisdiction in which it operates. Whilst some areas - the UK for example have stringent rules surrounding licensing and the operation of internet gaming businesses, in other area a license is nothing more than a piece of paper which can be bought. Therefore although great strides are being made in the licensing of online casinos, there is not yet a universal standard which casinos must meet to be licensed.



In the 15 or so years since the first internet casino opened, the online gambling world has done much to clean up its act and make itself a safe and fun past time for players. Although there is still a little work to be done in some areas, on the whole you dont need to worry too much about being ripped off when you gamble onlinenew online casinos