How to Play in Curacao Casinos and not Get Wrecked
Any gambling license from Curacao jurisdiction (there are actually 4 master license operators, which are very different) can not boast high standards. Sad, but true. On the other hand, the online gambling market is flooded with online casinos with one of four Curacao master licenses.
The question is if Curacao licenses are so weak, why casino players are still eager to play in Curacao online casinos. And the answer is that they definitely have a lot to offer, though the reputation in general is rather bad, we can all agree on that.
With that being said, let’s elaborate on:
Why Curacao licensed online casinos are worth to play in
How to do it and avoid so many scammers along the way
Why are Curacao licensed online casinos worth playing in?
To better understand the point, I would suggest getting yourself familiar with how online casino’s economics works on a basic level.
You can see that there is a lot going on, and online casinos have to pay many bills. License fees and taxes of the gambling jurisdiction, on their part, is a significant chunk of their payroll as a rule of thumb. However, those fees and taxes are very different depending on particular gambling jurisdiction. As you may have guessed, the stronger gambling licenses have got much higher fees and taxes, and the weaker gambling jurisdictions have got opposite of that (Curacao master licenses belong to the second group with just 25,000 EUR annual fee and 2% taxes).
As a result, if you play in online casinos with a strong license (for example, UK or Isle of Man), then it costs them much more money so that less generous bonuses and promotions to be expected there. Opposite to that, online casinos with weaker licenses can save a decent chunk of money on fees and taxes, and provide casino players not only with bonuses, but other promotions, such as, Tournaments, Races and VIP-programs as well.
For example, Marathonbet is a super old and reputable online casino with strong licenses. Guess what bonuses they have? Zero. Because you cannot both operate fair and offer generous bonuses at the same time under a heavy burden of fees and taxes. Also I have CasinoLuck with a UK license on the website. They have a bonus policy, but withdrawal limits are 4000EUR/month. So my point is when you see an online casino with a strong license, be sure it is going to make up for fees and taxes somewhere.
That’s why on the website there are mostly Curacao licensed online casinos, because I believe bonuses and promotions are a big deal for casino players in terms of gambling experience.
Why should you be very careful with Curacao online casinos?
There are a lot of scam and semi-scam online casinos licensed in Curacao (by one of the four master license operators). On top of that, there are many online casinos with fake Curacao licenses, when they claim to have it when in fact they do not (How to verify Curacao licenses?).
As a result, so many online casino players got wrecked by such “entrepreneurs” and so many to come. However, trustworthy Curacao online casinos definitely exist, and, as we have discussed in the previous chapter, bring much more fun to the table.
Is it hard to grab a safe Curacao licensed online casino?
I would say, it is quite a challenge. Let me explain why. It is true, because you basically have the only one option, which is to go to some online casino related websites with reviews and players’ feedback (similar to the website you are currently on). On such websites, casino players usually find ratings. More experienced players may read users’ comments or even treads on the forum. Don’t do it, it is a bad idea in general. Why? Because:
99% of such ratings are paid by casinos. The system is very simple, who pays more gets on the top of the rating (players’s interests are not counted, obviously)
99% of the comments are fake, and they are produced by freelance guest-writers, not real players
99% threads on the forum are also fake, the same as the comments
moreover, legit players’ complaints are deleted, so that scammers (to be fair, not all of them are) from the top of the rating can continue to rob people
All this shit is being done to make an impression that you can trust them, when in fact, you know what in fact.
How to choose a safe Curacao licensed online casino?
Everything comes down to that you have to find some casino rating website(s), which you can trust. It is the best approach, because such websites are usually run by experts in the gambling field, who know the kitchen from the inside and have the finger on the pulse.
You can use my rating, in which all casinos are reliable. Though please keep in mind that the situation can change in the future, and should the situation change, I will inform you immediately by email (if you have subscribed for newsletter or registered an account). Alternatively you can verify it by simply checking the casinos rating on my website. If a casino is still there, then it is still legit, simple as that.
Anyway, I get that trust is something to earn, and here are basic, but super useful tips, how to choose a safe Curacao online casino on your own (using somebody else's rating), if you do not trust me yet (which is a smart thing to do in general, especially if you are the first time on the website).
These are our red flags:
1) A website promotes online gambling as an income opportunity, which is obviously a lie (Why does the house always win?).
2) A website offers you some easy winning “strategy” in online slots, which do not exist obviously, though there are one legit and one half-legit (but they are not easy at all). So to say, when you see something like “change this bet after this happens and you are going to be rich”, just know, they are bullshitting you.
3) There are hundreds (even thousands) of online casinos on the website. This means mainly three things:
the website is probably operated by some company (which cares mostly about profits, not players),
there are not so many reliable online casinos in nature and at least some of them must be unfair,
they cannot physically keep up with industry’s changes (for example, an online casino has changed the owner and started to conduct business unfairly).
4) Cheesy reviews of online casinos, where the point is that basically EVERYTHING is great, after reading which you are expected to cry “shut up and take my money!” (we are not that stupid, are we?)
5) Too generous bonuses are promoted (for example, 300% up to 2,000 EUR). As we have already discussed, legit online casinos can not afford such charity.
6) Clumsy not-professional looking (not always the case though), little to no content on the website, which means that the only reason it exists is to put somewhere a big annoying “PLAY” button, not to provide valuable information to players.
Those were basic precautions, some of them may seem obvious, though trust me that so many online casino players neglect even this bare minimum. Albeit these measurements are quite effective.
Conclusion
Hopefully, you have learned something useful from this article, and, from now on, scammers are going to have a hard time to trick you in. Other than that, Curacao online casinos are much better for casino players than basically any others. But this is true only if you have managed to grab a legit one.
However, if you do not want to spend time and make a research, then get a casino with a UK gambling license. This is a gold standard of the industry, I would say, but be ready for far less lucrative bonuses and promos (or/and some other parameters).
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