Based on all the posts from some individuals on some casino forums we made the decision to write a comprehensive article about the services eCOGRA offer and what the standards are that they require from casinos before the casino can carry their seal.
The following information are factual and researched in depth but are summarized in order to be more understandable for the reader. Players need to know these facts in order to understand why we support eCOGRA and recommend that other online casinos should much rather be avoided with the exception of 32Red and Ladbrokes.
Introduction
eCOGRA is an independent standards authority for the online gaming industry. It's main objective is to ensure safe play, fair play and responsible conduct by operators. The concept is fairly simple, if an establishment is approved they are allowed to display the eCOGRA seal and their name appears on the eCOGRA site under Approved Sites. Part of the service that eCOGRA offers is to assist players with disputes and to ensure that the online gaming establishment fulfill their promises.
Independent
One of the major burning issues that some people have with eCOGRA is the independent directors being representatives from different gaming establishments. Surely this should make sense from their perspective to include different operators to evaluate the software developers and operators? As this is being done by different operators in the industry it ensures that there are expertise and objectivity in the approval of the software developers. A further benefit of having these independent directors are that they are actively involved in the industry and are in touch with the latest changes and happenings. It is important to further note that these directors only makes recommendations and in no way have any authority over the management and decisions that eCOGRA make.
In our opinion their standards are extremely high and difficult to meet and for this reason alone it will be difficult for just any software developer to be approved by eCOGRA. They are also responsible for qualifying the operators that will carry the eCOGRA seal based on the findings of the Audit panel's findings. The audit panel can only consist out of independent global audit firms operating from major financial centers.
Player protection
The main objective of eCOGRA is to ensure the safety and protection of players by ensuring that the establishment meets their standards on the following.
- Payments to and receipt of payments from players
- Minimum information requirements
- Minimum security requirements
- Responsible gaming
- Player and Game funds
- Player information
- Software development and maintenance
- Gaming transaction reviews
- Server connectivity requirements
- Game characteristics
- Disaster recovery
- System malfunctions
- Anti-money laundering measures
- Responsible advertising and promotions
As you can see these points cover the entire spectrum of requirements for a solid and safe online gaming experience. We will now discuss each of these points in more detail as they are of extremely high standards and these are the points that in our opinion make eCOGRA the most advanced casino standards authority in the industry today.
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