Since compulsive gambling is a serious social problem in the UK, the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC) has decided to address the issue by creating several public projects whose mission is to facilitate reasonable and sane online gambling culture. One of such projects is GamStop, which purports to prevent compulsive gamblers from betting on the UK-licensed casino sites. It’s supposed to be done with the gambler’s permission for the period of time stipulated by the latter.
In actual fact, however, neither the membership nor the duration is always quite voluntary; plus, GamStop doesn’t seem to do anything to remove from their lists the players who ended up there by accident. Fortunately, there are many online casinos, especially foreign ones, over which GamStop has no legal power. In this article, we shall briefly review the most essential features of such non-GamStop online casinos.
Freedom from the UKGC
As most of these casinos are licensed outside the UK, they’re not subject to the UKGC’s rules and regulations, which certainly gives them several significant advantages over the UK-licensed gambling platforms. As a player, you’ll be a lot less restricted by the changes in the law related to taxes, designs of the games, and other important issues. The range of options they offer you is a lot wider too, since they don’t have to obtain an official permission to do that.
Incidentally, this freedom is a double-edged sword. Although not having to submit to the UKGC’s policy is most definitely a good thing, you should keep in mind that in case you have some problems with one of those sites, you won’t be able to seek the Commission’s protection either. Which of the two sides of the sword cuts deeper is a question we shall leave for you to answer.
Nevertheless, many of them have licenses from some international gambling authorities, most commonly in Malta, CuraƧao and Gibraltar. At least, all the best casinos do. Those authorities may be addressed in case of unresolved disputes, but it’s going to be a little more complicated due to their overseas location.
Global operation
Most of the non-GamStop casinos offer their services internationally. They have multiple licences from gambling authorities in different countries, which allows them to welcome gamblers from all over the world, irrespective of the latter’s place of residence. In other words, you can bet there even if you’re currently located ouside the country. And of course, this is a very easy way to go round your self-exclusion scheme with GamStop in case you have one.
Easy registration
Creating an account at the non-GamStop sites is generally a very quick and uncomplicated procedure. You won’t be troubled by any restrictions or qualifications, and the entire thing will only take a few minutes. And the same applies to the identity verification: they won’t be asking you for nearly as many documents as the UKGC sites do, and there’ll be no obligatory know-your-customer hassle in the way.
Lucrative bonuses and promotions
The non-GamStop online operators will offer you incredibly generous bonuses too. Their Welcome Bonuses, for instance, may even be as large as 500% of your first deposit. Next will come all sorts of free spins, birthday bonuses, free competitions, cashbacks and loyalty promotions. Besides, there’ll be few or no wagering and deposit limits.
Large variety of games and options
What really impresses bettors on the non-GamStop online casino sites is a huge selection of games they offer. Their menus also include numerous options that are not available in the UK at all. The main reason is, they don’t need permission from the British authorities to offer their games in the UK. You will find lots of different slots, like lottery, all sorts of jackpots, pokers, blackjack and roulette.
Another special feature of these platforms is, they update their games quite frequently, so you’ll never cease to be amazed by the kaleidoscopic variety of new options showing up on the daily basis. And a cherry on top, virtually all of their games may be played in real-time as well.
Convenient payment methods
The non-GamStop casinos provide numerous innovative deposit options. Besides your credit card, you may pay by almost any method imaginable, including PayPal, e-wallets, and cryptocurrencies. You may even deposit money from your mobile phone’s credit.
Finally, most of these casinos, and definitely all the best ones, support an almost infinite list of withdrawal methods, so you will most probably be able to withdraw your winnings via whichever payment system you’re accustomed to.
Conclusion
These are the most essential differences between the non-GamStop online casino sites and the UKGC-licensed operators. If you’d like to bypass the self-exclusion scheme and find easy access to a large variety of convenient and profitable options, these gambling platforms definitely seem to be worth considering.