Comparative Evaluation Between Standalone Online Casinos and Poker Room Casinos
It can be very difficult to determine whether an online casino is a trustworthy and honest place to play. In order to ensure that they are getting a fair experience, some players rely on ratings of casino websites made by various reviewers, while others trust their own instincts and conduct their own research of individual online casinos. There are a number of important signs on a casino’s website that can help to identify its fairness. Some of these signs are obvious, while others are more difficult to spot. KeyToCasino researchers spend significant amounts of time studying various indicators on casino websites to determine their fairness and then share this information with the public.
This report outlines online casinos that also offer a poker room on the same site, in addition to traditional casino games. This is essentially an option to play online poker against real opponents. The poker room link on these casino websites is usually prominently displayed due to its popularity. For many of those sites, you can play in both the casino and the poker room from the same real-money account.
The poker room feature makes it more convenient for people wanting to play both poker and casino games on the same site, and it also appears to indicate a larger, more reliable, and thus safer operation in general. This observation has led to the belief that online casinos with poker rooms are a better option for all players, even for those just looking for online casino games. This report seeks to determine whether that belief is actually true. Are online casinos that offer a poker room generally better and more reliable? Do they tend to pay out faster? Are they less likely to pose a non-payment risk? In order to answer those questions, KeyToCasino researchers have analyzed all online casinos with poker rooms in the database and compared them to casinos without a poker room feature.
Methods
The study relied on a sample of 798 online casinos owned by 337 companies. For each casino, we determined whether it was connected to a poker room. Furthermore, we pulled the relevant information for every casino from the database: information on the availability of languages, deposit methods, currencies, and payout times. Additionally, the KeyToCasino database contains information on real player experiences collected from a total of 4,146 player posts on 7 major forums and message boards. This information was categorized by the nature of the comment (negative or positive), and the payout time was recorded where applicable.
Additionally, we estimated the non-payment risk for every online casino based on the number of payouts and non-payouts reported by players. Multiple operators (skins) under the same ownership were combined and their data was averaged in order to avoid any bias.
Results
To start with the basics, the KeyToCasino research team compared the average number of language versions, available currencies, and deposit methods for the casinos offering a poker room and the standalone casinos. The casinos with a poker room are 9% more likely to speak your language, 15% more likely to offer your favorite deposit method, and 15% more likely to honor your currency.
Based on the real player experiences collected from multiple gambling forums, casinos with poker rooms generally received better feedback. The percentage of positive experiences was 57% for those with poker rooms compared to 49% for standalone casinos, and the percentage of negative feedback was 36% and 44%, respectively. Also, among the negative stories, 38% remained unresolved for the standalone casinos, compared to only 30% of issues remaining unresolved for casinos with poker rooms.
When we compared the advertised payout times, it appeared that casinos with poker rooms tend to pay players faster than standalone casinos. On average, it takes 1.6 - 3.1 days for casinos with a poker room as opposed to 2.5 - 4.7 days for standalone casinos to pay out the winnings to players. At least, this is what the casinos promise.
The question remains, do casinos keep those payout promises? In order to answer that question, we averaged the reported payout times from the collection of player experiences. The difference appeared even more notable. Online casinos with poker pay in 2.9 days on average, which is within their promised interval. Their standalone counterparts, however, take as much as 4 times longer to pay, 11.4 days on average, which is also more than twice their "maximum" promised time.
Additional analysis has shown that the percentage of fast-paying casinos (those paying in 0-1 days) was higher for casinos with poker rooms (41% vs 25%), whereas the proportion of slowest-paying casinos was 26% for casinos with no poker rooms compared with only 5% for casinos with poker.
Waiting for 10 days to receive your winnings may be unpleasant, but not receiving them at all without a valid reason is far worse. Complete non-payment is now more rare in the casino world than it used to be, but it still happens. Also, it appears that the non-payment risk is lower by more than one-third for casinos offering poker (8%), compared to standalone casinos (13%).
Furthermore, when studied in greater detail, it appeared that operators with the highest non-payment risk are overrepresented among the standalone casinos (11%), compared to the casinos with poker (4%).
Players who win big often encounter the issue of payout restrictions that vary by casino. In some cases, such players cannot withdraw their winnings in one piece due to the monthly payout limit. Our research found that for casinos with poker rooms, the max payout limit is an average of 2.5 times higher. Also, players in online casinos with poker are 70% less likely to be hit by the most stringent (<10k / mo) payout restrictions. Conversely, high payout limits (500k+) are much more common for casinos with poker rooms than for their standalone counterparts.
Conclusion
The results of our research clearly demonstrate that online casinos offering poker rooms are better, more reliable, and more trusted than those without poker rooms. They pay players faster, have higher payout limits, and players are far less likely to have a negative experience (e.g. have their payout denied). Obviously, our results do show some negative experiences in casinos with poker rooms, and there is no guarantee of quality or reliability in the online casino world. There are bad and dishonest operators in all areas of the industry. However, the measurable results show that online casinos offering a poker room have a significant chance of being more reliable and safer operations.
If you are an online poker player looking to try out some traditional casino games, a safe bet would be trying out the casino offerings attached to your favorite poker site. If you are simply a casino player looking for a new casino site to play, remember that online casinos offering a poker room under the same general management are a statistically better choice for a positive experience.
Note
Materials included in this document are available for general use. Publication of the research and the enclosed figures is allowed, provided that a link to the KeyToCasino website is included in the publication.
