We all know that gambling online isn’t a good way to make money. The online gambling industry is worth $60 billion, and all that money is coming out of the pockets of willing players.
So, instead of wasting your money gambling, why don’t you start an online casino? It’s a lot easier than you think (as long as you have money to invest), and it’s a great way to make passive income online.
Read on to learn everything you need to know.
Choose Your Casino Software Provider
You can’t start an online casino if you don’t have games. So unless you plan on hiring a team of developers to create your own games from scratch, you’re going to need to use professional casino software.
Choosing the right casino software is the most important step in setting up an online casino. The software is your foundation.
There are a couple different models. Some will sell you all the software for one price, and then you use it on your site as necessary. And others will sell you a monthly subscription to use their software.
Although the first one might sound easier and cheaper, we recommend the second, especially if this is your first online casino. By using the subscription model, you let the software company handle security and maintenance, and you minimize the amount of tech support you need to hire directly.
Furthermore, the largest, most reliable software companies almost exclusively use the subscription model. We recommend that you choose one of the big casino software providers when you start an online casino.
Microgaming is the largest and one of the oldest casino software providers in the world; Playtech and Real Time Gaming are two other reliable behemoths. But there are plenty of others to choose from.
A good casino software provider will probably cost you more than $10,000 a month plus a percentage of your profits. So don’t make this decision lightly. Look for reliability, quality, and customizability.
Choose Your Licensing Jurisdiction
The second major decision you’ll make when you start an online casino is where you’re going to license it. The legality of gambling and casinos is complicated, and therefore, you need to be very careful when you start an online casino.
Because gambling is illegal in most countries, most online casinos take out licenses in specific jurisdictions with favorable gambling laws. These jurisdictions include off-shore island countries such as Malta, Gibraltar, and the Isle of Man, as well as larger countries such as the United Kingdom and Denmark.
This is another step in which you need to be cautious and take your time. You need to consider how long it will take to get the license, how much the license will cost, what the license requires, and how much money you’ll have to pay in taxes.
Some places, such as the Isle of Man, don’t require any taxes, but you might make up for it with high licensing fees. Do your research and balance these cost and time considerations to best suit your business model.
Finally, you need to consider the reputation of the jurisdiction. For example, Gibraltar and Isle of Man run many well-respected casinos; therefore, if you license in one of those jurisdictions, users will be more likely to trust your site. When running an online casino, always consider your reputation.
We should tell you that it is possible to start an online casino without jumping through all these hoops. You can go through what’s known as a white label option. These services take care of the entire infrastructure for you, but they give you much less freedom.
Design Your Online Casino
You’ve set up your software and your legal framework, now it’s time to design your online casino. Unless you’re an experienced web developer, we recommend you hire someone to help you with this step.
Before you design your site, think about what kind of online casino you want to run. Will you focus on table games? Or maybe on sports betting?
Think about what kind of clientele you expect and how you can entice them with your design. You want your casino to be both welcoming and exciting. Explore already existing online casinos such as w88 for inspiration.
At this point, you also need to think about payment options. You should have a wide variety of payment options available on the site, from PayPal to credit cards, but be careful about accruing fees.
You’ll also need to consider what currencies you want to support. Obviously, the more the better, but your final choice will depend largely on the part of the world you plan to market to.
The casino software you’ve chosen will have a lot of the infrastructure already in place to help you with each of these decisions. The designer’s job is to bring these features to the forefront of your site and make them easy to use.
Market Your Online Casino
Now it’s time to market your online casino. You want to project quality and trustworthiness. This will probably mean releasing a slew of well-designed ads onto the internet.
There are a lot of online casinos out there, so you want to make yourself stick out. Find a niche without a lot of competition and make that a central part of your marketing campaign.
Once you have users on your site, you need to figure out how to keep them there. Set up a loyalty program to reward long-time users and give your users perks for passing certain milestones.
Go Start an Online Casino
You know what you need to do. Now start researching casino software providers and gambling jurisdictions. Then, when you’re ready, start your very own online casino.
We’ll warn you: it won’t be cheap. Not only will you need to pay legal fees and software fees, but you’ll also need to set some money aside in case one of your users wins big.
However, if you do it right, your casino could make you rich. Read our blog about running a business to make sure you have the edge you need to make it big.