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eCommerce Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance (eCOGRA) is an independent testing agency approved in more than 30 jurisdictions worldwide for quality assurance and compliance reviews regarding the gambling industry.
There are two divisions to eCOGRA, with their own objectives. These are the Approved Testing Agency (ATA) Service and the Self Regulation Services (SRS). Here's what these do:
Approved Testing Agency
Testing and offering accreditation to online gambling systems and software.
To date, ATA completed more than 500 compliance reviews for 80 top software providers and operators.
Some names include Betway, 888, and providers like NetEnt and Microgaming.
Self Regulation Services
Freak Explains
These testing services are vital for a healthy ecosystem in the gambling industry. Through the systemic evaluation, eCOGRA ensures that all online casinos and software providers are fair, secure and respect the highest standards of conduct expected from them.
Clients requesting evaluation will be assessed based on eCOGRA's Generally Accepted Practices (eGAP). If they meet these criteria, clients will receive eCOGRA's seal of approval, which they can later display on their site to signal their level of regulatory compliance to players.
Founded in 2003, eCOGRA helped establish and maintain high operational standards and player safety requirements. The company takes pride in its independence and objectivity, a sentiment which we can see in its re-vamped brand purpose statement:
Compliance Without Compromise
eCOGRA has the first online gambling testing lab authorized to offer operators and providers accredited testing and certifications for Information Security Management and the first lab to provide Alternative Dispute Resolution services.
Before eCOGRA launched, the online gambling industry was catching wind and on its way to becoming a multi-billion dollar industry. Naturally, many sites operated without oversight, and there were still no generally accepted practices to unite operators, providers, and affiliates.
Many rogue casinos, ran by unscrupulous operators scammed players and got away with it since players had no recourse over these sites. Moreover, the regulatory framework was still blurry at the time, as many jurisdictions were unprepared for the abrupt rise of online gambling and its implications.
By now, the benefits of an independent, well-prepared, multi-national testing agency are apparent. The industry needed someone to level the playing field and put together a set of procedures that could demonstrate whether a gambling product is objectively safe and fair.
eCOGRA's seals of approval did exactly that by offering players an easy-to-recognize mark from a trustworthy and transparent institution, which says, "Hey! You're going to be safe gambling here!"
eCOGRA is approved as an independent testing agency in more than 20 European countries, six states in America, and parts of Asia, South America, and Canada.
They've never had their accreditations suspended or revoked, which serves as a testament to their impeccable services and commitment to fairness.
Freak Fact
According to the official eCOGRA site, the company is the only non-American test lab to have authorization for testing, inspection, and certification services in the United States.
Plenty of players gained the habit of looking for the eCOGRA seal of approval before they registered in a new casino. Players of eCOGRA-certified casinos know their casino is:
Apart from the peace of mind you'll get while playing in a certified casino, you can always benefit from the following eCOGRA services.
eCOGRA regularly verifies the total wins and total wagers placed on specific games and determines whether the game works according to its specified RTP rate.
This is different from their RNG testing, but it's yet another layer of monitoring that ensures games in eCOGRA casinos output what they are openly supposed to output to an acceptable level of randomness.
In other words, this monitoring aims to identify any potential products that don't pay out according to their published payouts.
The ADR was created to quicken the process of resolving disputes without having to go to the court system. The goal of this service is to find amiable, mutually acceptable solutions to a dispute through mediation, arbitration, and negotiation.
Players found that solving their disputes through ADR was generally faster, less costly, and more confidential than traditional dispute resolution, so the service is becoming more and more appealing to both operators and players.
All players at eCOGRA-approved sites have unhindered, full-time access to this dispute resolution service at no extra cost. If you wish to log a dispute, you can do so through the online form present on their official website.
Players can check detailed reports of past disputes on the same page.
This is the certification gold standard offered to companies when a testing agency determines their information management system is safe and appropriate for the scope of their operations.
To put it simply, this certification indicates that your personal data and funds are kept safe and handled in accordance with internationally recognized standards.
Moreover, some prerequisites for this certification include the implementation of a system to promptly identify and reduce risks and the development of internal procedures to allow quick recovery from disasters and continue business as usual.
Here are some of the most common types of certifications operators can receive from eCOGRA, along with a short description of what they mean for a player.
Well, safe and secure sites have become the norm in the gambling industry. No one wants to play at casinos that don't go through the motions of ensuring their players’ peace of mind, not to mention the security of their funds.
And since "rigged games” are a couple of dreaded words by gamblers worldwide, we'd obviously all prefer to play games that were tested by third parties to ensure acceptable random outcomes.
So, why should you play at an eCOGRA-certified casino? Well, a few simple reasons to boot:
eCOGRA seals are the industry standard for signaling trustworthiness, fairness, and security in an online casino. So, if you were to ask me, that should be a good enough reason to look for the seal of approval in any casino you visit.
The golden rule of responsible gambling is to understand why you’re gambling. Do you gamble because it's entertaining, or do you find yourself gambling to distract yourself from something?
According to QuitGamble.com - Responsible gambling means that we gamble for entertainment. If you gamble to distract yourself, it’s not responsible gambling anymore. One way to understand your gambling behavior is to finish the following statements:
Spend time with these statements, and if you start listing things after the third statement, you might have or be in the risk zone of developing a gambling problem.
