Slovakia – Online Casinos & Gambling Regulations
Slovakia has long been a great country to live in, especially when it comes to online gaming. Although the country has been regulating the online gambling market for quite a while, players have always been allowed to participate in Slovakian online casino gambling with no risk of legal issues. During 2019, a new Gambling Act was adopted, which opened the market up for licensing. For all of us players, this is excellent news because we’ll begin to see casinos online with Slovak licenses that allow us to play locally from home.There’s no doubt we’ll still see some of the largest and best online casinos in Slovakia continue to offer their services to locals, which is why we’ve collected them all in a handy list. The GoodLuckMate list of casinos that accept Slovaks is readily available — simply choose your gambling site and start playing!
Finding the best Slovakian casino online
There’s been an upswing in new and exciting online operators during the last few years, which means the competition between them is fiercer than ever. To ensure that you’re all set to find the very best casino online in Slovakia, we suggest that you keep your eyes peeled for those with a local license, or sites that are available in Slovakian. An operator that directly focuses on Slovakia will often have tailor-made promotions and offers for regional players that are better than the “regular” bonus offers.
You don’t need years of experience to spot a great casino. The checklist we’re offering below will help you to tell whether the site you’re checking out is worth your precious time and money or not. You don’t want to sign up for a casino only to realize it’s not at all what you were looking for!
- Is the casino site easy to use on mobile devices?
- What gaming license does the operator hold?
- Can you easily navigate the site, and does it offer the games that you’re interested in?
- Are Slovak players allowed to sign up?
- Is the website in Slovakian?
- Does the customer support section contain contact information, and do they have an FAQ?
- Are you able to comfortably use the payment options offered?
Since we’ve already got a bunch of experienced experts right here at GoodLuckMate, we’re actually going to save you the hassle of going through the checklist. Simply check out our thorough casino reviews to find the perfect casino match for you. You’ll be ready to play in just a few minutes.
Gambling regulation – Gambling Act of 2019
Slovakia is one of the most recent countries to move to update its gambling regulations. The Gambling Act of 2019 was adopted by the government on the 29th of January, and it’s paving the way for a much more open market in which any operator located in either Slovakia or within the EU can apply for a gambling license.
More open regulations like this one have been adopted in various EU countries in the last few years, and more countries are in the process of moving to more extensive regulation rather than prohibition. The new licensed online casinos in Slovakia may be able to offer both sites and games to Slovak residents in their mother tongue, in addition to providing state-of-the-art tools for safer and more responsible gambling.
It’s not yet clear if unlicensed casinos will face blacklists or other restrictions once the new licenses are handed out, but for online players, it won’t matter. Playing online isn’t punishable by any local law, so you can choose freely between licensed and unlicensed casinos. Just keep in mind that the safest casinos where you, as a player, have the most rights are those with a solid license.
Casinos in Slovakia
Private sector companies have been allowed to establish and run both land-based casinos and betting services in the country for quite some time with the help of licensing. In 2017, over 300 land-based casinos were, however, closed down as a result of expired licenses. With the new Gambling Act, the majority of these have been allowed to resume operations, which means that you’ll be able to visit and play at physical casinos all across the country if you wish to do so. Of course, land-based gambling is different than playing at online casinos in Slovakia, but there’s nothing that says you can’t combine the two!
Head on over to our operators section where we’ve assembled a list of the best online casinos in Slovakia and find your new favorite casino.
Dispute resolution – can I get help from a third party?
A gambling license is intended to protect players, and one of its main functions is to provide a mechanism for resolving disputes when they come up. If you have a dispute with a casino, and the casino is being unreasonable, the gambling authority will help you. For many licenses, this means you can contact the gambling authority to get help processing your withdrawals, claiming money the casino has debited from your account, or resolving other disputes that might arise. The likelihood that the gambling authority will help you in ways that are effective, however, depends on the procedures they have in place for this. This is yet another reason why choosing to play at a casino that has a safe license is important.
Getting help directly from the gambling authority is not always necessary, or even an option. A lot of regulators have now enforced third-party dispute resolution. This means casinos must have an agreement with an arbitrator who will look into disputes on the behalf of players from a particular casino. This ensures your dispute will be reviewed by an objective third party. All trusted online casinos have information about arbitration on their websites if they use this option, or they’ll have the contact information for the gambling authority you should consult. However, you should always try to resolve your issues with the casino first, and a lot of casinos have separate email addresses specifically for handling complaints.
Secure payments – can I trust a casino with my money?
If you’re worried about the security of the transactions you’re making at a casino, you should look for a logo with the acronym PCI DSS. This stands for Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, and this is something the payment industry has created. If you see this logo, it means the casino can be trusted for safe money transactions since they follow all of the rules set by the payment industry. Information about this can also be found in an FAQ section on the casino’s website.
Another thing to look out for in terms of payments is where your money is kept while you play. Some gambling authorities, all of the best ones actually, regulate what the casino can do with your money while they are holding it. Your money shouldn’t go into a general bank account held by the casino; it should go into an account that is strictly for holding player funds. This means that as long as you have the money in your player account, it can’t be spent by the casino. Your deposit will be kept separate from the operating funds of the casino until your player account is empty, which will happen if you make a funds withdrawal or if you lose the money while playing.Fair gaming – do the games give me a fair chance to win?
The best known system tool for ensuring that a casino offers fair games is eCogra; however, there are other providers that also offer these kinds of systems. You want to make sure that the casino is using a certified third-party control system to ensure that the games of chance you’re playing are actually based on chance and not on other types of metrics. Rigged games are ones that have been set up to pay out less than they claim to or ones that give some players a greater chance of winning than others.
The eCogra logo can often be found in the footer of the casino’s website, but not all casinos choose to display it. If you can’t see this logo, go to the FAQs and see if you can find information about random number generators. If there are no FAQs on the site, check out their terms and conditions or contact the casino’s support and ask how they ensure their games are safe.
Encrypted website – how is my information kept safe?
An SSL-encrypted website should be mandatory for any casino, and very few casinos operate without this or similar safe encryption features. Always keep in mind that you are giving the casino quite a bit of sensitive information, including your payment details. When you’re uploading and sending documents to verify your identity, you want to make sure that no unauthorized third-party has access to them. Site security, therefore, doesn’t only include the website itself but also what the casino does on the backend. You should always look into a casino’s data security. You’ll normally find information about this in their terms and conditions and their privacy policy. If in doubt, contact their support and ask for more detailed information.
Most trustworthy casinos have information about site security in the website footer, so simply scroll down and look for the logo of a well-known security system.
Gambling license – can I play at a casino from my country?
The gambling license a casino operates under will have a big impact on your security. Not all licenses are equally safe for players for the simple reason that they are issued by different gambling authorities that work in different ways and have different rules. The rules and regulations may be quite similar, but the way they are enforced is a different story entirely. For example, if a casino doesn’t comply with the regulations, some gambling authorities may just issue a fine while others may revoke the casino’s license outright. How often gambling authorities show up for an unscheduled inspection or control will also vary.
The biggest differences between a safe, high quality gambling license and one that isn’t as good will usually show up in the areas of fair gaming, dispute resolution and the rules and systems for identifying and handling problem gamblers (responsible gambling). If your country of residence has its own gambling authority, playing at casinos that are licensed by them will be the safest option for you. Other international licenses that can be trusted are issued by the Malta Gambling Authority and the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority. Curacao eGaming is getting better at protecting players whereas licenses from Panama and Costa Rica, for instance, are considered less safe. The worst option is obviously a casino with no license whatsoever.
Our casino experts have tried and tested all aspects of each and every casino, so you can feel confident when signing up.
