Is it Safe to Play at Stake.com?
Do you want to know if it is safe to spend your money playing at Stake.com? The short answer is that yes, it most definitely is!
But you may want to know why that is the case, so in this article we are going to explore why it is safe to play at Stake.com. And hopefully, what you learn here will enable you to judge whether it is safe to play at a wide variety of other betting sites and casino operators too. But first, let’s understand why it is important to ask yourself why any casino is safe to play at.
Why Is Safety Paramount at Any Online Casino?
In the early days of online casino and sports betting gaming, many companies sprung up online that had somewhat dubious credentials.
Unsurprisingly, many of these casinos proved to be less than secure for customers. People who signed up with these casinos could find they encountered a huge number of safety concerns such as:
- Their funds disappearing with no recourse to get them back.
- Their details being sold on or used without their consent.
- Winnings from games not being paid to them.
- Financial details being compromised, and money taken from bank accounts etc.
- Personal details provided being used for phishing scams or infected by malware or viruses or accessed by hackers.
- Games not being provably fair so customers would never stand a chance of winning the prizes advertised.
It soon became clear that unless you lived in a part of the world that already had stringent online betting and gaming regulations (and in the early days of the Internet, that wasn’t too many), that something needed to be done.
As such, companies and countries quickly began to develop a number of different processes and technical innovations that made genuine online casinos safer and more secure.
These improvements included the following:
- Licensing
- Firewalls
- Encryption & Secure Socket Layer (SSL) technology
- Password
- Know Your Customer Protocols & Verification
- Anti-Money-Laundering Policies
- Casino Game Testing & Verification as Provably Fair by third party companies
- Promotion of Responsible Gambling
- Account tools and services to help an individual control gambling spending and duration.
- Help & Advice for those that may struggle with Gambling.
So how does all this apply to Stake.com you may wonder? And that is a good question, so let’s look at the different security measures in place on the site.
What Security and Safety Measures Are in Place at Stake.com?
We’ve already said that Stake.com, or its other sites under a slightly different name in countries such as Mexico or the United Kingdom, is a safe and secure site to play at. So, why do we say that?
Firstly, there’s our own experience on the site, but you’ll have to take our word for that. However, we think that when we show you the range of security features available on site, you’ll understand why Stake.com is a safe, secure and responsible place to play.
Licensing
In most jurisdictions, Stake.com operates under the Curacao Gaming Licence. This is one of the most common licences that allows companies to operate legally in many jurisdictions around the world.
To obtain the license a company must ensure that its operations and services comply with the requirements to qualify and maintain the license.
In other parts of the world where the Curacao Gaming Licence is not accepted, Stake.com has secured local licences to operate in countries such as Mexico and the United Kingdom.
The UK Gambling Commission has a particularly stringent set of rules and regulations companies must follow to receive and operate under the licence in the UK. All of which should reassure Stake.com customers, or customers of its sites in other countries, that the company adheres to all the major legislation designed to protect customers and their data.
And that is in addition to ensuring that they provide safe and fair gaming and betting opportunities as a minimum service.
Firewall & SSL-128 Bit Encryption
When it comes to site protection from hackers, one of the most common ways sites do this is via a Firewall. Stake.com do likewise and encrypt their site using SSL encryption. This is the industry standard and is used by many other online casinos and betting sites all over the world.
RTP Percentages
Stake.com is one of the companies that will publish a feature of their games called the Return to Player percentages. (RTP for short).
The RTP indicates how much of the money that the game takes in over its lifetime, it should pay out on average. The higher that percentage, the more of the money a game takes in, it will pay back out in the form of prizes.
RTP is different from volatility (which is how a slot or game pays out the RTP – either in fewer bigger value wins (high volatility), or more frequent lower value wins (low volatility)).
Provably Fair Games
Given that Stake.com has partnered with a great many of the most reputable names in the betting and gaming industry, these companies work hard to ensure that their games are not just exciting and fun to play, but that they are provably fair too.
These companies not only design and produce the games, but they are then tested by companies such as GLI, i-Tech Labs and eCogra, who will verify and authenticate the slot as playing as stated by the developer and the casino.
Password Protected Accounts
When you open an account at Stake.com, not only is your account protected by a password that you can decide, and which only you should know, but you can also set up further protection.
This is called “2FA’ which is 2-Factor Authentication, which means that in addition to logging in with your email address and password, you can also request further confirmation that this is you by using another authentication option, such as by sending and receiving a code to your mobile or sending a code via email.
Responsible Gambling Promotion
Responsible Gambling has been one of the buzzwords in recent times and it is now incumbent upon casinos to ensure that they are promoting Responsible Gambling in a variety of ways on site.
Stake.com does this with a full commitment to offering a variety of tools to customers, as well as links to helpful articles and help services to combat problem gambling and its habits, as well as promoting responsible gambling habits.
Know Your Customer and Verification
As part of sites anti-money-laundering policy and to ensure that customers are who they say they are, sites such as Stake.com have their own policies to prevent money laundering and to ensure a customer’s identity.
This is known as a Know Your Customer (KYC) policy, a significant part of which is the verification of the identity of the user.
Sometimes, this can be checked online, but for other customers, they may need to provide identification and proof of address to Stake.com to facilitate a monetary transaction. Especially for fiat currency.
This usually takes the form of a photo ID such as a driving license or passport, as well as a proof of address such as a recent utility or phone bill or similar.
Completing this process can delay an initial withdrawal or deposit on the site (depending on when you verify your details), but it is a very good way to confirm the age and real identity of the customer.
Cryptocurrency Payment Options (in some countries)
While not available in all countries, many parts of the world allow customers at Stake.com to deposit, wager and withdraw from their account using a variety of cryptocurrencies.
Crypto has a built-in security feature – transactions are anonymous. This means when you make a deposit, play a game, spin a slot or withdraw some currency, no private details are attached to that transaction.
That means that anybody ‘listening in’ to transactions or tracking them, cannot get their hacking hands on any of your key details!
Combine all these different factors onto one site, and it is abundantly clear that this is a site that can be trusted in terms of looking after your personal data, offering you a fair game and also a place to play that is as safe and secure as possible.
So it is well worth remembering that the only thing you risk at Stake.com, is the money you decide to bet on the site, nothing more!
