Offshore gambling is a term that you will come across pretty frequently if you hang out on online gambling blogs and forums very much. It is used by both those want legalized online gambling and those who do not so it can be pretty confusing to those who hear it. Is this a bad thing or a good thing?

The truth is offshore gambling is neither a bad thing or a good thing. Or should I say, it has its pros and cons just as any other term. Offshore gambling simply means that the online casino is not licensed or operated in the jurisdiction of whatever country you reside in.

Opponents of gambling will say that offshore gambling means that the businesses are not regulated or under the oversight of any governing body. They try to make it sound insecure and unsafe, like the wild west of the gambling industry. While in the early days of online gambling this may have been true, it really is far from the truth today.

Most of the online casinos are fully licensed by governing bodies such as Aldernay, Malta and Gibraltar. These places fall under the province of the UK government and are overseen and monitored by agencies there. There are also a number of independent agencies that monitor the offshore registered online casinos.

These third party organizations can’t force an online gambling establishment to join them, of course, but they have stringent rules of conduct for all those online casinos who voluntarily become members of the group. Both players and competitors can go to these organizations to lodge complaints against their members. The group investigates and tries to mediate any disputes for the good of the industry.

That’s not to say that there aren’t any disreputable online casinos because of course there are some around. However, they are few and far between these days. Most online casinos know that their players want reassurances that everything is on the up-and-up. For that reason, you will find that most offshore online casinos are members of one or another of the independent organizations.

To be sure that the site is being monitored, check the website to see which group they are affiliated with. You can double check this by going to the organization’s website as they generally provide a list of member casinos for people to view. You can then read the rules of conduct for the group to see what standards the online casino has pledged to uphold.