* Is the casino licensed?

To qualify for a license, an online casino must meet certain standards set in the country where the site is hosted. License fees start from about $50,000 and are usually valid for at least 2 or 3 years. According to estimates, some 20% of online casinos don't have licenses. Here's the golden rule: If they're not licensed, don't play there!

* Does a reputable accounting firm certify the payouts?

A casino that values its good name will commission an accounting firm to audit and report on the percentages of payouts. PriceWaterhouseCoopers, for instance, reviews the historical payouts to gamblers by Microgaming and its licensed casino sites. You can usually read the reports on the casino websites.

* Does the casino belong to a reputable watchdog organization?

There are watchdogs and just plain dogs; you can't trust all of them. Many times the so-called "watchdog" is nothing more than an online advertising gateway to a group of casinos. If the watchdog organization is any good, it will prepare a set of best practices that must be observed by all participants, including casinos, software dealers, casino portal sites and online gamblers.

Here are a few more things you should check out before you start gambling:

The important gambling message boards should reflect trust and faith in the casino.

Any online casino should be affiliated to a physical, non-digital casino.

There should be a self-labelling system for users to rate the contents of the casino site.

The recognized and well-known casino portals should support the individual casino website.

A casino that intends to succeed in the long term will go to the trouble of building a well-structured site supported by reliable software.

It will be monitored by an accounting company, and of course it will be licensed.

This is the type of casino that doesn't have to crook its customers to make a profit. It's the type of site operated by owners who honestly and professionally work to entrench a trusted and popular brand name.