All Online Casino Reviews in South Africa
Here is the most comprehensive review of casinos for South African players. Find out all you need to know about your online casino of choice, from payment methods accepted to casino bonuses, all the way down to sportsbooks and game providers.
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Expert Reviews of South African Online Casinos at your Fingertips
Our team of experts enjoy putting their vast knowledge of the iGaming industry to use by writing in-depth online casino reviews.
Starting out as land-based casino aficionados, we at the SouthAfricaCasinos’s team have started experimenting with online casinos since the major shift that occurred around the world once the latest pandemic hit.
To be honest, initially we were not so sure about how a virtual casino could even try to replicate the excitement and environment of in-person casinos – but boy, were we in for a surprise!
Don’t get us wrong: we absolutely love cranking that lever and watching the reels spin in front of our eyes and exchanging expectant looks with the dealers as they uncover the cards… but virtual casinos do have many upsides to them as well, and deliver just as much excitement and fun.
Knowing casino online is still a fairly new concept to the South African market, we have geared up and taken upon ourselves to scour the internet for the very best online casinos for South Africans that can rival offline ones.
We have implemented a specific method to review operators, which we are happy to share with you here.
How We Rate Online Casinos for South African Gamblers
Assessing something you are not too familiar with is no easy feat – which is why as soon as we got an clear idea of what we wanted a provider to offer its players, we created a list of steps to follow.
Here is how we do it:
- We check the legitimacy of the website
- We make sure South Africans can play at the casino
- We assess the overall safety and security of the website
- We look at the payment methods available
- We keep our eyes open for any casino bonuses
- We scroll through the games and game providers
- We weigh in on the presence of a sportsbook or not
- We test the customer support
- We rate the web design and mobile optimisation
- We don’t compromise on responsible gaming
- We give our thoughts on it all
We soon slipped into the rhythm of things by following this pattern, and now we know exactly what ticks our boxes and what not – but we are sure you have questions and are curious to know more about each of these steps.
Let’s delve deeper into each one:
1. How to Tell if an Online Casino is Legit
One must make sure that the online casino where they intend to play is actually a legitimate one.
The first thing to check is the casino licence.
A casino licence is basically a seal of approval given by a Committee which attests that the online casino is registered in a certain jurisdiction, and therefore regulated by it.
You can cross-reference the alphanumeric code associated with it against the one in the Authority’s public record; if it doesn’t match, then it’s most certainly a fake licence and you should not wager your money there in any way, shape or form!
2. Casinos South African Can Play At
Evaluating an online casino for players that cannot access it is counterproductive.
One of the first things we do is make sure that anyone accessing the website from South Africa can first of all view it, and secondly legally play on it.
We do our homework and check on the list of available countries from which one can play whether South Africa is indeed indexed or not.
The National Gambling Amendment Bill, which has been active since 2016, has introduced many alterations to the gambling laws in South Africa. Though gambling is rumoured to be completely banned, it is currently in the grey area and still legal but strictly regulated.
For this reason many South African punters prefer to play at offshore gambling online operators that accept them, even when logging in from their country’s territory.
3. Safety First, Always
When playing online, users should be able to play with utter peace of mind.
This is why we vet not only online casinos’ licences but also their RTP (Return To Player), RNG (Random Number Generator), and transaction safety.
We look at whether reliable third parties have previously assessed the website and granted a certificate for passing their tests. We like to see eCOGRA, iTechLabs, Gaming Labs, Technical System Testing and more seals of approval on online casinos’ pages as testament of their trustworthiness.
Moreover, data security is of top-priority and we comb through all pages to learn about the encryption efforts a provider puts in place to safeguard users’ information.
4. Payment Methods We Can Trust
The very core idea of gambling is that of betting a certain amount of money on an outcome, and with online betting transfers are made virtually – so how would you feel if the process were unsupervised and cyber criminals were able to infiltrate the transaction?
We at SouthAfricaCasinos believe that operators should strive to put maximum effort into providing top-notch security when dealing with online monetary operations. For this reason we investigate the payment methods available: well-known payment providers have a reputation to uphold, and carry their own safety measures which we know we can trust.
We ascertain any claim to SSL encryption and overall data protection, and appreciate any third-party checks and certificates which do the same.
5. Casino Bonuses for South African Players
Oh yes, we love a good casino bonus! Quite honestly, there are some excellent deals out there and some which are not so good.
We keep our eyes peeled for any offer such as casino bonus no deposit, or casino bonus free spins, just to name a couple, and read through their terms and conditions carefully.
We will report on all findings and let readers know if the casino bonus on offer is really worth it or not.
6. Game Libraries and Famous Game Providers
Although we do have a few favourite games, it can become quite tedious if we don’t have any diversity in our picks.
When reviewing an online casino, we look at the games on offer, whether there is indeed a certain variety on offer, and the names of the game providers.
Big names in the providers’ sphere are known for their style, their art, and their reliable RTP and RNG, which is what we prefer to see.
We also very much enjoy playing at live casinos where real dealers host games and high definition cameras capture every detail of the table from multiple angles.
7. Exciting Sports Betting
We all love to play the lottery or try our hand at poker, but sometimes we just need a little more action. Cue in sports, where thrilling races and riveting matches make every punter’s heart race.
During our casino reviewing process we look at whether the online casino offers a sportsbook in the first place, and just how far it reaches: does it cover more than one sport? How big are the leagues you can bet on? The more on offer, the better.
8. We Talk to Customer Support
It may happen that a player needs some help in some respect, whether by having an issue with their account, a payment that didn’t go through, some issues with logging in or being fully recognised when undergoing KYC processes… which is why customer support is of primary importance.
We identify the customer support channels and verify their reaction time, agents’ attitude and demeanor, and the overall helpfulness.
9. Design and Optimisation on Mobile Phones
In this day and age, we are all constantly on the go. This is why it is of utmost importance that online casinos make their websites as easy to navigate on a computer as they are through a smartphone.
Text should be easy to read, there shouldn’t be a need to scroll left and right to view the entirety of the content, pages should automatically adjust to the vertical layout, and so on.
Most importantly, games should seamlessly transition from the monitor-view to the smartphone-view.
Extra brownie points are given to those casinos that also offer an app.
10. Responsible Gambling Must be in Place
As we all know, gambling can be great fun but addictive.
Casinos will have procedures in place called Responsible Gambling (RG) where they make sure their players are still enjoying the experience of betting without it becoming compulsive.
However, should it become a problem, casinos offer further help and support for the problem gamblers. This is something we truly take at heart, and our casino reviews will reflect that.
11. Our Final Take
After putting together an extensive online casino review, we weigh out the pros and cons of it all and write our final thoughts on the experience.
We will always contribute with a fair and unbiased opinion, with the intent of being as clear as possible in regards to the upsides and downsides of an online casino.
Our aim is to help fellow gamblers choose the best casinos in South Africa, taking pride in our thorough review process.
We Are Unbiased in Our Casino Reviews and Not Up For Sale
We are proud to say that more and more South African gamblers are reading with interest our reviews! Unfortunately, popularity can attract more than just good-natured people, and sometimes we receive offers to write stellar reviews for brands that don’t really deserve them.
Even if they did, we are adamant to remain neutral in our standing.
We cannot stress just how important it is to us to be transparent reviewers: we respect the trust readers put in our work and have no intention of betraying such trust.
So rest assured: nobody can bribe us into writing outstanding reports. We will always remain true to our goal and strive to bring you the very best casino reviews in South Africa!