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How much does it cost to start an online casino?

That is quite reasonable why a person might get a thought of starting its own online gambling business. It brings much profit, especially nowadays when online related industries are at the top. Just like the huge yearly revenues of online casinos, one has to spend the big sums of money for the business launch.

Gambling business requires many responsibilities and attention. The known stereotype about casinos that they are always cheating impose additional obligations on the casino owners. They have to license their business activity, get special certificates and constantly prove that they are safe and fair.

This ‘proof’ costs money which you as a potential owner need to pay at the very beginning. All the licenses, certificates and security technologies are the first instruments that you have to think of before you start. Not a single high roller or even a regular player will make funds into an ‘unknown’ casino without an official license.

Registration

However, in order to receive a license you need to accomplish several steps. First one is to create the company according to the laws of the country that allows running online casinos. They are usually small countries like Malta, Costa Rica, Gibraltar or it can be the UK, by the way. The company registration cost varies. In the UK it’s 550 euros, in Costa Rica you would have to pay almost 3,000 euros. However, Gibraltar and Curacao don’t take charges at all. So, let’s take the average cost of the registration of a legal entity – $1,000.

Gambling platform

The site content is the most important. It’s the face of the online casino. The real money attractive games are what people come for to the online casinos. Basically, you need to make a deal with at least one software provider and have a minimum of 500 games in your casino lobby. Nevertheless, the more games and providers, the more customers. The price is different again. It varies from $10,000 to $150,000. It depends on the provider reputation and amount of games you purchase. Mind that you will have to pay commission from each game. About 15% from one game revenue goes to the provider. Averagely, you could pay about $50,000 for games including commission.

Licensing

Finally, you can apply for the license. This step allows you to host servers and represent casino games worldwide (where they are accepted by laws, of course). Generally, the licensee is based in the same country where you registered your casino business. Accordingly, the price varies. For example, in the well-reputed Malta you can get the MGA license for about $18,000 + the same for annual fee, in total over $35,000. In Costa Rica you’ll pay totally $50,000. Besides, the license doesn’t last forever. It’s issued for several years. On average, 6 years is the expiry date. So, let’s assume that the first licensing costs $50,000 including the cost itself and annual fee.

Website development

Your casino site should be, first of all, clear and easy to navigate. Whenever a visitor enters the site, he or she must understand what the casino offers: games, bonuses, banking options, support, security and etc. Clarity, transparency and availability of all website options. The whole development of the website costs from $10,000 to $50,000. Though we can’t deny additional losses. Let’s take $50,000 for the website development stage.

Marketing

This step is necessary for all businesses. In order to let people know about you, you need a marketing plan including advertising, SEO content and affiliates. Your minimal marketing losses can be $20,000. However, it doesn’t make much sense as it pays off quite a little. For the good profitable marketing system you can pay $100,000 and even $200,000 monthly. Additionally, you will have to pay a fixed sum and sort of 20% commission to the partners that brought you clients. All in all, for the advertising stage we have approximately $100,000 a month which annually is $1,200,000.

Casino maintenance

Here you should include, first of all, salaries for your staff. It should be a whole team of specialists in the fields of design, web development, security service, support, sales and marketing, finance and copywriting. In addition, you will have to maintain the site and its security system annually. The total cost of this all will be about $500,000 a year. It depends on the salary amounts you can afford, of course.

Payouts guarantee

This is a specific amount of money you save in the bank as a guarantee that you are able to give payouts to your players. It can’t be used for taxes and other expenses. This is a necessary fund, and its minimum depends on the registration country. It will cost you about $100,000.

Total calculations

If we consider each expense given above, the online casino site costs $1,951,000 at the start. Still, you have to understand that this sum is not exact. In reality you may pay more or even less. Anyway, considering all the necessary and additional expenses, you need to have at least $2 million in your account to open and maintain the casino site during one year. With an excellent marketing plan you can compensate for the losses during a couple of years, or even less period of time.

Luckily, you have an opportunity to figure out the casino’s structure. To be aware of casinos that manipulate with players’ money and provide unfair activities. It’s important to realize the security system, welcome offers and payment methods. There are, actually, few casinos that support all necessary requirements to pay out the most. The real problem comes when you start to search for good platforms and hardly identify the legality and the payoffs process. However, we will show you the main principles of how to find the casino that pays out the most.

Check the important factors

Firstly, look at the ratings and find the ones you think are suitable for you. The ratings are built with strict scores of each category. When we create a rating, we always include the following categories: security, support, welcome offers, game selections, deposits and withdrawals, legality of activities and the interface convenience.

There are few casinos that really payout:

Jackpot City – top casino that pays out really well with a high RTP rate. In fact, RTP stands for Return to Player rate, which means how much money will return back in the long run. The higher the percentage, the higher the amount that will return. Jackpot City has a really high RTP of 95,77%. Moreover, the casino follows all criteria, which we discussed above, including high security, bonuses, fast payment methods and excellent support.

Conclusion

Knowing the main principles of how a casino pays out, you may take all advantages out of that. In addition, don’t forget to check the RTP of a certain game, in order to have a higher chance to win. However, more importantly, check the legality part of the platform. In other cases, you would win nothing.

That is quite reasonable why a person might get a thought of starting its own online gambling business. It brings much profit, especially nowadays when online related industries are at the top. Just like the huge yearly revenues of online casinos, one has to spend the big sums of money for the business launch.

Gambling business requires many responsibilities and attention. The known stereotype about casinos that they are always cheating impose additional obligations on the casino owners. They have to license their business activity, get special certificates and constantly prove that they are safe and fair.

This ‘proof’ costs money which you as a potential owner need to pay at the very beginning. All the licenses, certificates and security technologies are the first instruments that you have to think of before you start. Not a single high roller or even a regular player will make funds into an ‘unknown’ casino without an official license.

Registration

However, in order to receive a license you need to accomplish several steps. First one is to create the company according to the laws of the country that allows running online casinos. They are usually small countries like Malta, Costa Rica, Gibraltar or it can be the UK, by the way. The company registration cost varies. In the UK it’s 550 euros, in Costa Rica you would have to pay almost 3,000 euros. However, Gibraltar and Curacao don’t take charges at all. So, let’s take the average cost of the registration of a legal entity – $1,000.

Gambling platform

The site content is the most important. It’s the face of the online casino. The real money attractive games are what people come for to the online casinos. Basically, you need to make a deal with at least one software provider and have a minimum of 500 games in your casino lobby. Nevertheless, the more games and providers, the more customers. The price is different again. It varies from $10,000 to $150,000. It depends on the provider reputation and amount of games you purchase. Mind that you will have to pay commission from each game. About 15% from one game revenue goes to the provider. Averagely, you could pay about $50,000 for games including commission.

Licensing

Finally, you can apply for the license. This step allows you to host servers and represent casino games worldwide (where they are accepted by laws, of course). Generally, the licensee is based in the same country where you registered your casino business. Accordingly, the price varies. For example, in the well-reputed Malta you can get the MGA license for about $18,000 + the same for annual fee, in total over $35,000. In Costa Rica you’ll pay totally $50,000. Besides, the license doesn’t last forever. It’s issued for several years. On average, 6 years is the expiry date. So, let’s assume that the first licensing costs $50,000 including the cost itself and annual fee.

Website development

Your casino site should be, first of all, clear and easy to navigate. Whenever a visitor enters the site, he or she must understand what the casino offers: games, bonuses, banking options, support, security and etc. Clarity, transparency and availability of all website options. The whole development of the website costs from $10,000 to $50,000. Though we can’t deny additional losses. Let’s take $50,000 for the website development stage.

Marketing

This step is necessary for all businesses. In order to let people know about you, you need a marketing plan including advertising, SEO content and affiliates. Your minimal marketing losses can be $20,000. However, it doesn’t make much sense as it pays off quite a little. For the good profitable marketing system you can pay $100,000 and even $200,000 monthly. Additionally, you will have to pay a fixed sum and sort of 20% commission to the partners that brought you clients. All in all, for the advertising stage we have approximately $100,000 a month which annually is $1,200,000.

Casino maintenance

Here you should include, first of all, salaries for your staff. It should be a whole team of specialists in the fields of design, web development, security service, support, sales and marketing, finance and copywriting. In addition, you will have to maintain the site and its security system annually. The total cost of this all will be about $500,000 a year. It depends on the salary amounts you can afford, of course.

Payouts guarantee

This is a specific amount of money you save in the bank as a guarantee that you are able to give payouts to your players. It can’t be used for taxes and other expenses. This is a necessary fund, and its minimum depends on the registration country. It will cost you about $100,000.

Total calculations

If we consider each expense given above, the online casino site costs $1,951,000 at the start. Still, you have to understand that this sum is not exact. In reality you may pay more or even less. Anyway, considering all the necessary and additional expenses, you need to have at least $2 million in your account to open and maintain the casino site during one year. With an excellent marketing plan you can compensate for the losses during a couple of years, or even less period of time.

To ensure that we are thinking about one and the same thing, let me clarify the differences between the real gambling sites and fake ones.

A real online casino is a gambling platform operated by an officially registered company. The owner takes responsibility for the good customer-oriented reputation of its casino which is achieved by following the strict regulations.

On the other hand, a fake online casino also has an owner. But this owner is a fraud who has never actually created a company, and the more so, haven’t registered it officially. He is just a smart person with excellent computer skills. He can make a fishing site within a day, put it crudely. Later, he only waits for the naive people who fall for the easy-made site and deposit without reading terms.

Real Online Casino Checklist

As we can see, apart from the fraudulent gambling sites, there are also real online casinos that provide appropriate service to the customers. They follow regulations issued by the gambling authority license, which is, by the way, a proof of the real and legitimate existence of an online casino.

Let’s sum up what you need to know about real online casinos. Before you sign up, review the casino for the following points.

  • License. The casino site must be licensed. The top licensees are Malta GA and the UK Gambling Commission.
  • Official data is transparent. The online casino that takes care of its reputation should place the information about the company registration and licenses right on the main webpage, or at least in the ‘About us’ section.
  • Appropriate terms. The golden rule of all gamblers is to read the T&Cs very carefully. If you see something that prompts doubtful thoughts, don’t sign up. The same is applied to the bonus T&Cs.
  • RNG certificate. The so-called Random Number Generator usually powers all the games in the lobby. The proof for the randomized games is a certificate. The most reputable one is issued by eCOGRA. The Independent Auditors sign also is accepted as the testing certificate.
  • Comments. The last but also very important thing to check is the comments section. The feedback given by the real players is the #1 indicator of the real online casino. The fact is that frauds can just add the info, license and certificate signs to the webpage to deceive users. To avoid this experience, try to find the real comments on the online casino that you select.

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