Who and What is eCOGRA?
eCOGRA, or the eCommerce and Online Gaming Regulation and Assurance is a non-profit protection and standards organization based in London that is dedicated to fair and responsible gaming. They have set measures so that gamers will know more of the safest online gaming sites.
As for gaming website owners, having an eCOGRA seal mean that they pass an international framework of best operational and player practice standards known as eGAP (eCOGRA’s Generally Accepted Practices). eCOGRA was founded in 2003 by competing online gambling companies and has licensed some of the renowned names in online casino. They keep on working for the online gambling industry by continued updates of new measures to guarantee the safety, security and consistency to players worldwide.
Various seals can be rewarded to an online gambling site depending on what criteria they can pass. There is the Safe and Fair Seal for the online gambling operators. A Certified Software Seal for the software providers. ECOGRA’s payout review for Percentage Payout Report Seal is conducted every month and is available to all online gambling software providers and operators who have both a Safe and Fair Seal and a Certified Software Seal. RNG or Random Number Generation is done biannually for blackjack, roulette, video poker, poker, bingo, and skill games. Affiliate Trust Seal for the gambling affiliates and the Reputable Portal Seal for the online gambling portals who passed the criteria stated on the eCOGRA site.
If the site is approved, the site will display an eCOGRA banner so that players will know it has been authorized and that the site operates based on industry standards.
They also act as mediator to resolve disputes between players and approved sites. Recently, they released its 2010 statistics on disputes including their accredited gambling sites. The statistics show a slight rise in total disputes compared to 2009. In their statement:
“A total of 846 disputes (2009: 826 complaints) were submitted online to eCOGRA throughout 2010, an increase of 10 percent over 2009. 67 of these concerned companies not accredited through eCOGRA and therefore outside the ambit of the FGA’s authority.
A further 125 were found to be invalid, being fraudulent, non-specific or abusive and anonymous in nature.
The remaining, or valid, 654 disputes (2009: 628 complaints) concerned cash-in problems (44 percent); Bonus issues (25 percent); and Locked accounts (19 percent). 12 percent were categorised as ‘other’ and involved software fairness, responsible gambling and spamming allegations
Over the 12 months, an average of 43 percent of disputes was resolved in favour of the player.”
At present, eCOGRA are working on an ongoing basis with over 25 leading software providers and about 70 leading online gaming operators. 13 Software providers have achieved accreditation for their software in the form of the eCOGRA Certified Software seal. 145 online gaming sites are accredited with the eCOGRA Safe and Fair seal. Certification is still open to all software companies, operators and their affiliate programs.
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