Online Gambling – A Beginners’ Guide

The global iGaming market continues to experience double-digit growth, with this trend forecast to persist for the foreseeable future at least.

This market was worth $63.53 billion at the end of 2022, while it’s expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.7% between now and 2030.

If you’re new to this market, however, it can be a daunting space in which it’s difficult to identify viable casinos, games or remote sportsbooks. This is especially true in the USA, where different laws and prohibitions exist depending on where you live.

In this brief beginners’ guide, we’ve created some tips to help you navigate the iGaming market in the USA! So, let’s get into it!

What Do We Mean by Online Gambling?

The term ‘online gambling’ is vague, and it’s important to have an understanding of the available markets and verticals before getting started.

The iGaming market refers to online casino gambling, which is currently legal in six US states (namely New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut and West Virginia).

It’s fair to say that WV online gambling is particularly lucrative and growing at an exponential rate at present too, while other states have bills in the pipeline to legalise iGaming within their boundaries.

Sports betting is a different case in point, as the Supreme Court actively struck down the 1992 PAPSA legislation in May 2018. This had historically prohibited sports betting at a federal level, but more than 30 individual states have subsequently legalised this discipline in the last four years or so.

The US establishments (and UK brands that have targeted the US market like William Hill) that are based in New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Connecticut and West Virginia all offer both iGaming and sports betting to customers.

Operators in different states will be restricted by regional laws, so they’ll either offer sports and horse race betting or no remote betting activity at all.

Key Online Betting Tips for Beginners

Now that you have an understanding of the general laws and verticals available, the next step is to start targeting specific markets and wagering your hard-earned cash. We’ve prepared some hopefully helpful tips below!

1. Make Bankroll Management Your Priority

It’s crucial that you never wager more than you can comfortably afford to lose online, which can be hard given iGaming’s immersive nature.

Ultimately, you’ll need to create a fixed and responsible bankroll before deploying this strategically across your chosen verticals and markets, while wagering with discipline at all times and utilising daily, weekly or monthly deposit limits online.

2. Target Games with a Favourable Return-to-Player (RTP) Rate

If you’re more preoccupied with seeing a return on your bankroll rather than playing games for fun, we’d recommend targeting games with a higher-than-average RTP rate.

The RTP rate refers to how much you can expect to recoup for every $1 wagered on a particular game or vertical, so targeting games that excel in this respect can result in incrementally higher and more consistent gains over time.

3. Play at Licensed and Secure Sites

In addition to ensuring that you’re playing in a state that has legalised iGaming or sports betting, you’ll also need to identify sites that are licensed by the relevant organisations.

This ensures that you’re playing to a reputable and regulated site, and one that takes actionable steps with regards to protecting your money, data and upholding anti-money laundering laws.

Sites should also be secure too, and feature 128-bit SSL encryption as a minimum standard.

4. Appraise the Available Payment Methods

You should also compare the available payment methods at online casinos, with most licensed US operators offering access to credit cards, debit cards, e-wallets and bank transfers.

Of course, credit cards may not be the ideal option given that 15% of Americans have credit debt totalling $10,000 or more, while this effectively means wagering with borrowed funds at a potentially high rate of interest.

However, the key is to choose viable and secure payment options that suit you, while factoring in any restrictions or fees that may be applied to some e-wallets (such as PayPal, Neteller or Skrill).

You can even access a growing number of cryptocurrency casinos in the USA, offering a completely unique dimension to online gamblers stateside!

5. Choose the Right Welcome Offer

Some payment options are also disqualified from certain bonus offers, so it’s important to choose the right welcome package to suit you.

This means appraising the value of the offer in question and determining whether free spins are available on a preferred slot with a generous RTP rate.

You also need to give due consideration to the wagering requirements attached to such a bonus. These are presented as a multiplier of the bonus value, while they create a playthrough amount that you’ll have to fulfil before withdrawing any winnings!

If the wagering requirements are too high and force you to gamble outside of your means, this can result in unsustainable losses or extend your starting bankroll.