Payouts Explained

PAYOUTS from online casino sites to players rank among the most important issues you should consider when determining which online gaming destination to deposit cash with and commence playing at.


Payout ratios are usually calculated based on relative comparisons between winnings and overall wagers. It's vital to point out that the payout percentage published by an online casino is computed by including all of the casino's games in the equation and in no way suggests what the payout will be from any one game specifically.


Player's Obligations for Withdrawals

If you are unfamiliar with the cash withdrawing process, you should know that players are typically obligated to sign a form indicating how much money they want to withdraw in order for their payout to be issued. You will also be required to present some identification like a driver's license, plus credit card information and details about your account with that particular online gambling site.


You should also keep copies of all the withdrawal forms you submit and fax them to your online casino's cashier from recognized fax transmitting agencies such as Kinkos and Office Depot. These companies, among others, retain records of all faxes they send and receive, and these records may come in very handy should a casino claim they never got your withdrawal form. Rogue gambling sites are notorious for using these fraud-prevention and other security methods for holding up payments, to the point of screwing players out of their due winnings altogether.


High Rollers Beware

High rollers should be particularly cautious when settling on an Internet casino to wager at. Because the stakes they're playing with are bigger, the danger of not being paid - or being forced to wait - is that much greater. Thus, high rollers are advised to keep good records of every step they take.


A number of Internet gambling portals and other similar websites publish various casino payout percentages so that casino-seekers may browse and select what they perceive to be the best casinos to play at based on their particular criteria. However, not all of these portals are current and therefore reliable. A simple rule of thumb for identifying those casinos offering the highest payouts is to focus on the bigger casinos. In the online gambling biz, bigger is generally better.


Perhaps the best-known auditing firm serving the online gambling industry is PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC). With operations in over 150 countries around the globe, PricewaterhouseCoopers ranks among the top auditing firms in the world. PwC currently provides assessment services for many online casino companies as well as gaming software creators like MicroGaming Systems.

Because online gambling stakes can by particularly high, PwC points out that their senior and more seasoned employees are designated to carry out these audits. Partner time devoted to online gambling reportedly exceeds 50%. PricewaterhouseCoopers, for example, generally calculates the payout percentage based on the total sum of all bets wagered. For instance, a casino posting a payout percentage of 98 is paying out 98% of all the money it receives from bets.


To know whether or not an online casino operation is complying, auditors extract gigantic data files from their clients' casinos and run these files against their own software systems to reaffirm a casino's published payout figures. A host of other checks are conducted to further ensure straightforward business methods including comparing independent financial data with those numbers submitted by a casino's management.


If you're wondering how the firm carrying out the audit itself can be trusted, remember: the overall status of a high-profile company like PricewaterhouseCoopers is worth a hell of a lot more than any fees an online casino, or any clients for that matter, may be prepared to cough up.


The bottom line regarding payouts is this: To make sure you are not only visiting an Internet casino offering a high payout rate, but you'll also get paid - and in a timely manner - focus on only those casino sites whose payouts are evaluated by well-known independent accounting companies. To find out who is auditing a particular gaming site, simply e-mail that casino's customer support department.


Payout figures will also differ slightly among various casinos even though some may run on software platforms created by the same developer, like Random Logic or MicroGaming for instance. Though two or more casino sites may be licensed by the same software maker, the payout percentages at each casino may differ, albeit slightly.