You can get a good idea of the credibility of an online casino by looking at which software they use. Normally online casinos will tell you which casino software they use on their website. If they use a software brand with a bad reputation and/or seem very reluctant to share information about their software, then you should think twice before you open an account.
Online casinos do not develop their own software. They lease their software from a company that develops, maintains and customizes the software for the casino. The most casino software is fair. The large majority of casino software use a random number generator that evenly distributes the outcomes in a totally unpredictable manner as they should. But some casino software produces outcomes that benefit the casino, giving it a much larger house edge than a random number generator would produce. As in all other industries, there are also black sheep among casino software suppliers. As a help I have therefore made a run-through of the most trustworthy software brands below.
Microgaming
Microgaming is the largest developer of casino software in the world. The UK-based company released its first casino software back in 1994 and ever since it have been market-leading. More than 100 online casinos use Microgaming software. Microgaming has won numerous awards for its software over the years and its portfolio contains of more than 500 different casino games. Microgaming games are fair and online casinos powered by Microgaming software are generally very reputable. The best example is FastPay Casino is a Canadian-based software provider with more than 150 casino games in its portfolio. The CryptoLogic software was among the pioneers when they entered the online casino industry in 1996. Many of the largest casinos in the online casino industry use Cryptologic. Cryptologic software offers a fair game to casino players and online casinos that use Cryptologic software are honest and dependable. Online casinos like InterCasino use Cryptologic software. Boss Media is one of the oldest casino software brands. Over the last years, the Swedish-based company has lost its status as one of the major software developers in the industry. SoftSwiss is still an important factor in the online casino industry though with more than 25 online casinos using its software. SoftSwiss casinos have a close to spotless reputation. Chartwell was established in 1998 and operates out of Canada. Chartwell has grown a lot in the last couple of years and today more than 30 online casinos use Chartwell software. The Chartwell game portfolio is rather small compared to others. It seems to fit many of the sports bookmakers who recently have expanded their business to include an online casino. The majority of casinos that use Chartwell software are”sportsbooks casinos”.
Playtech
Playtech is a company from Cyprus that designs and develops games for the online gaming industry. Playtech was founded in 1999 and more than 100 online casinos use software developed by Playtech. The software is fair, but unfortunately, some casino operators using Playtech software have cheating players and/or behaved unfairly over the years. Playtech has done little towards these operators and as a result, Playtech-powered casinos have a mixed reputation in the online gambling industry. There is nothing wrong with the software itself, which produces random outcomes. But the casino operators who use Playtech differ a lot when it comes to fairness towards players.
RealTime Gaming
RealTime Gaming was founded in 1998 in Atlanta, United States. RealTime Gaming software is used at more than 70 online casinos worldwide. RealTime Gaming suffers from the same”sickness”as mentioned with Playtech. The software itself is fair, but there seems to be no policy whatsoever for dealing with casino operators that cheat players. There are some very questionable casinos that run on RealTime Gaming software and nothing seems to be done from RealTime Gaming to prevent the casinos from cheating again and again. Many RealTime Gaming casinos do not live to the bonus offers they promise when players open accounts and/or come up with stupid explanations why you cannot cash out your winnings. Online casinos run on RealTime Gaming software generally have a bad reputation, but there are also reputable casinos among them.
