The Biggest Online Poker Sites Compared to 2023

Especially beginners and newcomers to online poker can find it difficult to get a reasonable overview of the various poker rooms. Macdougallecology.ca therefore, lists all well-known and well-known poker providers where playing poker is really worthwhile.

Due to the seriousness and beginner-friendliness, the PokerStars the first choice for a poker room.

The following list gives an overview of the most popular platforms. All these have been independently tested by us and carefully checked in terms of seriousness and offer.

PokerStars	Go to the test report	up to 100% $600	Go to the page
party poker	Go to the test report	up to 200% $40	Go to the page
Full Tilt	Go to the test report	up to 100% $600	Go to the page
GGPoker	Go to the test report	up to 100% $100CA	Go to the page

Our test

For the comparison, we tested individual casinos and poker providers and then compared them. This results in the list as it can be found above. The test was carried out by our team of experts to the best of our knowledge and belief. Basically, two main categories are considered for each test. On the one hand, we look at the background of the provider, so we make an accurate background check, in which the company is in the foreground. In addition, we take a close look at the offer of the poker room and say what is good and what is bad about it.

Backgroundcheck: Seriousness in the foreground

Behind every poker site is a company or a company that distributes its products via the online presence and brings them directly to the players. Usually, it quickly becomes clear on the websites of the providers who is responsible for the offer. With this information, we start a search on the World Wide Web and look at what the respective company is still responsible for. For example, is it just an investment company that buys interesting and promising poker providers from everywhere? Or is it an owner-managed company that has been drawing attention to itself in the field of gambling for several years? With this information, it is no problem to find out which key figures about the company are still available. It is interesting for us how many employees are employed by a provider and how big the influence in the industry really is.

Most companies are also active in other areas of online gambling and thus offer solutions for Forex or CFD trading, for example. Here we will look at which other products are being marketed and what the general assessment of customers about this service is. Based on this, a basic assessment can be made of how much value the company attaches, for example, to transparency and customer satisfaction as well as to other things such as fair payout percentages and being mentioned in public.

Another interesting aspect of our background check is how many countries the company already operates in. If a company is on the market with its first offer and does not yet have any experience and only invites players to play poker in one country, we would generally advise beginners and beginners against signing up. However, if it is a company with real reputations and long-term experience, the registration is not a problem at all.

Licenses and Regulations

Strictly speaking, this section still belongs to the backgroundcheck. For the sake of clarity, however, we explain in a separate paragraph what the so-called regulation is all about. This factor should by no means be ignored when choosing a provider. Because this is exactly where the real suppliers differ from the black sheep in the industry.

In Europe, all providers of online gambling, which includes online poker, require a license. This is issued by an official body. After the provider has made a request to the competent financial supervisory authority in his country, they will check whether a license can be issued in principle. For this, certain basic requirements must be given. If such a gambling license is distributed, this means that the poker site is now officially regulated by the state. For this purpose, for example, programs and systems are called on the schedule, which continuously monitor the events at the provider and its platforms. If technical manipulations take place that lead to the fact that the customers' chances of winning are no longer transparent and easy to understand, these systems sound the alarm and there is a manual basic check.

Which European country issues the license does not matter according to the opinions of the gambling industry. With an EU license, it is therefore possible to operate legally in every EU country. However, some countries, such as Austria, see this a little differently. They think that the country itself would have to issue an official license to allow online gambling. Judgments on the part of the EU are still pending. However, we assume in our texts that an EU license is sufficient in principle to be able to act and operate legally in every EU country.

Many online poker providers have registered their headquarters in Cyprus. This is due to tax reasons, since there is much less money to pay to the state there than, for example, in Canada. Poker sites based in Cyprus are regulated by the CySEC based there. CySEC, on the other hand, is subject to the instructions of the EU, just like any other European financial supervisory authority. There are therefore no differences between the regulations and controls of CySEC and, for example, the German BaFin. In plain language: a regulation in Cyprus is no worse than one that takes place in Canada.

Customer Support and transparency

Customer support is also included in our test reports. We think that customer service is also an important indicator of how reliable and reputable a provider acts and works. There should therefore be German-speaking employees who strive and take care of the needs of customers. Good customer service must be reachable in various ways. There should be a free telephone number with the provider, which is best occupied 24 hours a day. A live chat is also very useful to solve minor problems quickly and easily. The email contact, which is available at every poker room, is mandatory.

In our test, we also examine how friendly, competent and helpful the support really is. To do this, we ask the employees some questions and fake problems. We then hope for meaningful answers. As we have been advised, about 50% is included in the grade, which we give at the end for customer support.

Customer reviews from the World Wide Web

In our experiences and tests, we do not want to rely only on our own opinions and views. Rather, we are moving on to letting other customers speak as well. For this purpose, we collect opinions and statements about a provider from the Internet and, if possible, present them in a very shortened form in our own review. From our side it is then, for example, "Customers of the provider say that...“. This information comes from the Internet and can usually not be verified by us. If opinions are to be found more often, we will include them in our rating.

However, a basic note on the online reviews of providers must be made at this point. Basically, customers who are not satisfied with the services and the service of a provider are more inclined to make this known in portals and rating platforms on the Internet. So if there are a lot of negative reviews, especially on smaller sites around the topic of online poker, and these completely exceed the positive ones in number, it does not necessarily have to be a dubious provider. We are trying to filter here.

In addition, there are also many customers who have had to accept losses and are therefore understandably upset. Out of a euphoria, many others are usually blamed for the fact that no success has occurred in gambling. The first candidate for this is the poker provider. Reasons are being sought why this allegedly provides an insufficient offer and is bad. In our review section of customer opinions from the World Wide Web, we also occasionally try to refute these claims or to show that the reviews are directed more against poker on the Internet as such than around the provider of gambling.

Offer criteria that play a role in the evaluation

At Macdougallecology.ca it's not just about the seriousness and professionalism of the provider. Instead, we also strive to evaluate the online casino on the basis of other aspects that include the offer and the conditions. Specifically, we take a closer look at the following aspects, among others:

Black Sheep in Online Poker

The possibilities to cheat and rip off customers at poker on the Internet are admittedly diverse. A simple manipulation of the game can lead to the fact that the probabilities are distributed differently or at a certain point the bank (the computer) wins exclusively and the player loses with it. In order to prevent such illegal activities, the regulatory institutions are installing programs and systems that detect such fraud.

But there are also other types of fraud in online poker. For example, a much easier way to deprive customers of their money is to delay withdrawals indefinitely. Dubious providers are beginning to request more and more documents when players request a payout. This is usually accompanied by a very long response time to questions by email or on the phone. It is promised to deal with the matter quickly. In the end, however, nothing happens. When you are sure play other gambling games online if you want, take a look at my special page. There is also a special page on the subject of real money casinos. Among other things, there is a list of top providers to discover, which can be found in our Online Casino Reviews have received the highest ratings.

The request for documents can go so far that first one and then another document is required. However, if the second document is submitted, it is said that the first document is "outdated" and the customer must submit or request it again. In this way, the customer will starve on the long arm. He has no chance to receive his rightfully due payout. This problem is common. A first indication of this are Internet reviews that describe exactly this procedure.