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Best Online Gambling Sites & Reviews 2020

Welcome Bonuses

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The world of casino welcome bonuses is a diverse one. Casino Sign-up bonuses come in all shapes and sizes with deposit bonuses, free spins, no deposit bonuses and cashback being offered by different casinos. But the differences don’t stop there. The terms and conditions associated with a bonus can make a massive difference. How much are you required to wager, can you withdraw the bonus after completing the wagering requirement, do the bonus restrictions apply to play with bonus funds or any funds, what’s the maximum amount you’re allowed to bet, is there a maximum amount you are allowed to win, are there games you cannot play (live dealer casinos games are often restricted) – every bonus is slightly different and paying attention to the terms and conditions can make the difference between getting paid and having a win voided.

To make things even more complicated how is a player meant to know which bonus is better for them with all these rules? Is 100 free spins on Starburst better than 100% up to £50? Is it better to claim 50% up to €300 or 200% up to €50? Is a bonus of 100% up to $100 better with a wagering requirement of 30xbonus and a maximum win of $100, or a wagering requirement of 60xbonus and no maximum win?

There is no easy way for players to compare bonuses to each other, so we have put together a bonus review section where we simulate playing each bonus under the given rules and conditions on a widely available and highly popular game (Thunderstruck) to establish what the value of the bonus is for the player. This way you can easily compare the bonus value figures for two bonuses to see which one is offering you better value for your gambling buck. We have even built this into our casino reviews so that our recommendations take this into account. Another useful resource is CasinoBonusesNow. Please be aware that we do not discuss sports bonuses but we do review the best sports betting sites.

New Slots

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While every player has their favourite slots game, games that have gained a well-deserved place in the pantheon of slots royalty - like Starburst, Cleopatra II, Thunderstruck II, Immortal Romance or Gonzo’s Quest - variety is the spice of life and there can be no doubt that everyone loves the opportunity to try something new and engage with novelty that new slots games offer.

Recent years have seen online casinos expanding their portfolios in a shift from operators running on a single casino software platform to operator offering an array of software providers with hundreds of games available in the one place.

This has blown the market wide open, allowing scores of new smaller companies, who perhaps don’t have the portfolio to offer a complete casino suite, to gain traction providing additional games as part of a package of softwares bought in by casino operators. This increase competition on the markets has fostered creativity and ingenuity as software providers strive to create new slots games providing users with an experience that they haven’t seen before.

Established industry leaders like NetEnt and Microgaming lead the pack, constantly pushing forward with new and creative slot bonus features. Net Entertainment in particular have really set a high bar in terms of innovation with bonus features and game structures from the old staple of free spins and pick and click bonus features. NetEnt’s creative approach had challenged other providers to match them in terms of player driven games intended to keep you engaged and entertained.

This is a challenge that has been gratefully accepted by many up and coming firms. Yggdrasil Gaming have really stepped up to the play with their Vikings series (most recently Vikings go to Hell) offering a spectacular visual feast while the bonus features draw the user in as you progress towards triggering the bonus feature. Releases from this provider are continuing to improve and we’ve little doubt that players will be excited to see what they’ve got in store.

Play N Go are another top slots game production house release games with superb graphics and a intuitive user interface. Their bonus features are getting consistently better and the slot RTP figures are certainly in the competitive zone.

WMS Gaming have redefined slots games by allowing players to buy multiple spins at once. When you buy groups of spins at higher stakes you get improved chances of triggering bonus feature and a increased RTP figure (meaning the game costs less to play in the long run).

There’s plenty new to see in the online slots sector, so keep an eye this section to find out about the latest releases!

The Best Slots 2019

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As 2020 begins and we leave 2019 behind us we want to take stock of the last 12 months in slots innovation and identify what we at ThePogg believe are the best slots released last year.

The software developers did not fail to hit the mark in 2019, bringing us an impressive haul of slots, with a few of them already confirmed as instant classics.

In an increasingly competitive market it is becoming harder for the big guns to dominate like they have done in years gone by. That said, most of the industry’s best-known names will be represented here, with one in particular picking up more spaces than any other.

However, a few lesser known names do make it onto the best of 2019, hinting that the established order could face even more competition in 2020.

The themes on offer have been varied, but the old favourites continued to be rolled out with varying degrees of success. This year has seen a huge increase in the number of South and Central American themed slots, with the Incans, Aztecs and Mayans almost proving as popular as the unshakable ancient Egyptians.

We’ve seen Greek and Norse gods tussle it out with Roman gladiators and Irish leprechauns. Halloween and Christmas have been represented; one with aplomb and the other without it.

We have seen TV shows and films hit the reels but number of them is nowhere near what it once was. The growth of negative press that surrounds the industry has inevitably meant that certain brands have chosen to avoid affiliation in the name of positive PR.

Despite this move away from the megabrands and vast commercial appeal there has been a number of slots released this year that have musical connections, with Play ‘n’ Go even opting to promote some lesser known European rock/metal bands in some genuinely innovative ways.

With TV and film characters becoming less and less prominent, slots designers now need to do the hard work themselves. There is more emphasis on creating new characters, new worlds and new features. Those elements will play a huge part in determining the outcome of this list, but what we consider most important will be the connection between theme and feature.

Slots that can marry those two elements will always score highly from us, and are pretty much a requirement for any slot looking to score that elusive score of 10 out of 10 from us. We’ll also expect some value for money, a slot that looks good and anything else that might contribute to a more eventful gaming experience.

Read the full article about The Best Slots of 2019.

Classic Slots

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There are some online slot games that will forever be seen as classics by players. They are not always the games that critics (like us) think are the most impressive. They are the games that players vote for with their fingers. The games that get disproportionately high volumes of spins. The games that players come back to again and again and again.

Every software provider knows which games fall into these categories, many will try to copy the themes and styles of the most popular games offered by their competition, and gambling forums are full of players talking about wins on these big hitters of the slots world.

These games stand the test of time, appealing to something in the playing community that is hard to place a finger on, but once tapped into demands loyalty from slots lovers everywhere.

Take NetEnt’s Starburst. Deconstructed, this game would not appear to offer anything all that spectacular. But the game sums to far more than its parts. Something about the aesthetic combined with that spacy soundtrack, the ratio and size of wins and the free spins with expanding wild symbols has made this easily one of the most popular slots games of all time.

If creating a classic slot game was easy, everyone would be doing it. The combination however, is intangible. Hard to define and harder to recreate. Game after game has been put out by competing providers trying to capture that x-factor that Starburst captured, but all have fallen well short of their goal. Even Net Entertainment have not managed to re-create this success.

And NetEnt are far from alone in this experience. Look to Microgaming’s Immortal Romance and Thunderstruck II. Both games that could be considered old by current market standard, yet both games that consistently rank highly on many operators lists of ‘most played games’.

Whatever it is that lodges these games so firmly in the consciousness of slots players everywhere, these games have reached heady heights with their appeal and longevity amongst players.

Casino Complaints

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Here at ThePOGG, the busiest section of our site is definitely the casino complaints section. We deal with a large number of player complaints and the number of complaints being submitted to our mediation service is growing all the time. We believe that every player has a right to fair treatment and that casino support staff have the right to work in an abuse free environment – a rule that we enforce on our site too.

We have a vast amount of experience dealing with complaints management arising from a variety of the areas associated with online casinos. Casino bonuses generate a fair number of complaints at this portal – often such complaints arise as a result of player mistakenly not completing wagering requirements associated with the bonus, or breaches of the maximum bet term stipulated for a particular bonus. Reading bonus terms and conditions is of paramount importance when accepting a bonus.

Casino software also gives rise to a number of complaints for a variety of reasons ranging from genuine glitches to provably unfair games. Our complaints manager’s background in mathematics and statistics means a unique skillset is at our disposal in-house when we are investigating such issues: a definite advantage to our users.

More and more complaints are arising as a result of responsible gambling issues and casinos not on gamstop but luckily gambling regulators are becoming more and more adept at supporting players with problem gambling habits and at ThePOGG we have developed our own tool to support such players in the form of our app,BetBlocker, which allows users to restrict their device from accessing thousands of gambling websites quickly and easily.

Generally, the best online casinos hold licenses with the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) and the Maltese Gaming Authority (MGA) are of good standing and we work closely with these casino regulators to provide a fair and robust complaints management service. We have previously served as an ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) for the UKGC which allows us a unique insight into how this regulator works and we still enjoy a close working relationship with this organization which we believe uniquely benefits our customers.

We strive to resolve every complaint that is logged at our site and players can rest assured that we will thoroughly investigate any issues brought to our attention. To date we have managed to negotiate the return of over two million dollars to players that have logged complaints with us over the course of managing over 2k complaints.

Situated in in the south-west Pacific Ocean is the island of New Zealand. The population of New Zealand is quickly approaching the 5 million mark. The gambling sector in New Zealand is incredibly healthy and all forms of gambling are popular with citizens of this jurisdiction. New Zealand regulates gambling and also forbids any advertising to citizens resident in its jurisdiction that may induce them to gamble with foreign operators and fines are levied against operators that are found to be doing so. It appears that players from New Zealand are permitted to gamble with providers situated beyond its own shores – there is no record of any criminality or prosecution attached to the activity but New Zealand does not offer player protection if a player has a complaint against a foreign based operator.

Disclaimer:

The above information is what we believe to be the the legal status of online gambling, however information on this topic is limited and hard to find. We accept no liability for any errors or ommissions. It is the reader’s responsibility to ensure that they know the legality of online gambling in their country before engaging with any online gambling service.