Every Canadian knows the western province in the country named British Columbia. It is a well-established place to gamble, as there are 17 land-based casinos. And that is why Canadians from the whole country gather in BC province to spend a few holidays gambling at casinos. It’s time to remember that each Canadian province has its own regulations regarding casinos, legal gambling age and taxes on winnings. To be more precise, British Columbians can gamble once they turn 19. So, if you visit BC province and you are 18 yet, you won’t be allowed to gamble unlike in other Canadian provinces.
Among other regulations about gambling in British Columbia, players won’t ever pay tax on their casino winnings. Though, these taxation rules are applied throughout the whole country of Canada with only a few restrictions towards who must pay taxes on winnings from gambling.
British Columbian Online Casinos
As for online casinos in British Columbia, the residents have a broad range of gambling sites to choose from. In fact, British Columbians can play at their own online casino guided by the British Columbia Lottery Commission (BCLC). This casino is official and has permission from the BC legislation. It is only available to play in British Columbia province. Players can enjoy a variety of online casino games, lotteries, bingo and table games. Nevertheless, if you do not really like the games or conditions offered by the home online casino, don’t get upset. There are plenty of casinos online that accept players from BC and Canada as a whole.
How to Find the Best BC Online Casino
Although many gambling sites offer fair online gaming service, the Internet environment can be dangerous as it is full of frauds and fake casino operators. So, you have to make sure the casino of your choice is reliable and that it respects players and provides them with a real and positive gaming experience. When you come across British Columbia online casinos, you need to consider many things at a casino site. Look through the following points and try to memorize our recommendations. You will need them when you choose your casino.
Legality & Licensing
A real money casino should be legal and licensed. As for the former part, Canadian government and the BC laws allow offshore online casinos to operate on the territory of all provinces. That is why you can stumble upon unfair casinos that will scam you for money and disappear. They usually fish new players who have zero knowledge of online gambling.
The other gambling sites are trustworthy. They will hold a valid license from a regulatory body. In addition, licensed BC online casinos will have advantage holding certificates and fair gambling expertise. You can easily find out if a casino follows the regulations of a license. As a rule, they display the licensee’s seal of approval at the bottom of the page and duplicate the licensing information in a fine print, mentioning the license number and date of issue.
The following gambling licenses are the most reliable in gambling industry:
- Malta Gambling Authority (MGA)
- United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC)
- Kahnawake Gaming Commission (KGC)
- Government of Gibraltar
Security
All the data you send to your casino should be strictly guarded. Otherwise, it will come to the frauds’ hands. Usually and as stated in their gambling regulations, online casinos must protect all the information, including players’ private data and documents, banking details, statistical data, cookie data and so on with the SSL encryption technology. Most sites will also employ PCI DSS protocol to protect payment transactions. Casinos in British Columbia always inform players about their general and additional protective measures by dedicating one page of their site to the security topic. So, check how your casino provides security to the players. Look for the safety signs and information.
Customer Support
Every reliable casino must give excellent support to its customers. Support team should be friendly and always ready to help, no matter what question or problem occurs. You can read players’ comments on your selected casino to find out the truth about the customer support. Another great way to ‘test’ the customer support is to contact them directly in live chat before registration to see how fast and professional they react. Besides, support agents in all BC online casinos should speak English and French fluently. This is a feature of Canada-oriented online casinos.
Payment Methods
The best casino in British Columbia offers players to deposit and withdraw using various payment methods. Casino players should see a broad range of e-wallets, online bank transfers, credit, debit and even prepaid cards. The best ones will even offer you a cheque by delivery man. Make sure a casino includes your preferable method for deposits and payouts. Pay special attention to the banking terms.
For example, some online casinos will not let you use Neteller or Skrill to claim the first deposit bonus. Often, you can cash out only via the method you deposited with, which can be inconvenient for some players. You can reach for the help of the support team and change the banking method. But it’s still better to have no problems from the beginning. So, don’t forget to find out about all these factors, including the withdrawal waiting time frame.
BC Casinos Offers
Another important point to look for before joining a casino site available in BC province is the bonuses. Especially if you are a new player and eager to claim the welcome bonus worth a couple of thousand dollars. The deposit bonuses as well as no deposit bonuses and free spins will almost certainly come with wagering requirements and other restrictions up to how much you can bet per spin and what games you can play with the bonus money. Pay attention to the play-through multiplier as it says the number of times you need to wager the bonus money before actual withdrawal of your winnings.
Online casinos can be more loyal to their players and offer non-sticky bonuses (or forfeitable bonuses). These offers come into play when you make a big win while still having your bonus credits on your account. In this case, you can withdraw your winnings, but the bonus money and winnings made with bonus money will be forfeited. So, we encourage you to pay close attention to the bonus rules and always clarify every term.
Collection of Games
Although games seem to be the last thing to worry about in terms of casino’s reliability, you can’t miss out on the provided game categories and who supplied these games to your casino. First of all, determine what type of casino game you’d like to play more often. For example, if you prefer slot machines, you can choose from nearly every licensed BC casino because most gambling platforms include online slots, table games and live casino titles.
If your gambling choice is betting on sports or horse racing, then the range of online sportsbooks will be limited. To make sports wagers, you can try Bodog casino, Betway, or LeoVegas. However, there are other great online casinos and sportsbooks in Canada.
Live Casino
Regardless of the high popularity of live casino games, many BC sites will still hold back on adding the titles of live dealer’s to their lobbies. Moreover, British Columbians will hardly be able to enjoy the games from the top live casino provider, Evolution Gaming. For some reason, their games are not allowed on the territory of British Columbia. So, even if you sign up at an online casino with Evolution games, the access to games will be denied for as long as you are playing from BC.
However, this refers only to Evolution’s games, and live games as a whole are supplied by other software providers. And we should also keep in mind that British Columbia province features 17 brick-and-mortar gambling venues, including the famous River Rock Casino Resort in Richmond. And while their doors are still shut due to the quarantine, you can gamble at the best BC online casinos following our recommendations.
Conclusion
Online casinos seem to be fun and simple, but when it comes to practice, the online gambling world is way more diverse, having rewards programs, VIP clubs, special prizes and online tournaments. And each constituent of a BC casino has its own terms and conditions which make it absolutely easy to miss a step. So, we advise you to read as much information about your casino as possible. While making your choice, keep our recommendations in mind and check your casino according to the mentioned points. If everything you learned satisfies you, then once again look through the feedback sent by other players.
If something is still unclear, don’t be shy to contact the customer support via live chat and ask for help and assistance. Get to know your casino before you sign up and pay even closer attention to what it offers after a while. Gambling must be fun, but also responsible. And this refers not only to self-control on your bankroll and time passed on casino, but also to the check-up on your gambling site and proof of its reliability.
As for the responsible player’s behavior, British Columbians should keep an eye on the gambling style of themselves and that of their loved ones. BC residents are spoilt for choice of casinos, having land-based establishments within reach and online casinos even closer — on their laptops and mobile devices. The key to safe gambling is a timed break from casino games.
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