How to Help Your Grandparents Gamble Safely Online

There are some things that will never change no matter what is happening in the outside world, and pandemic or no pandemic, there will always be something on the internet that you will have to explain to your parents or grandparents. All of us at one point or another over the last twelve months will have had to explain to our older relatives and friends how to download and use software for video calls, for example, and we almost certainly will have had to help them figure out how to do shopping online. However, now that we are more than a year into this Coronavirus reality, we have started to move from helping them understand the online essentials like banking and paying bills, to more recreational activities.

That’s right, you’ve added them onto your Netflix account, you have shown them how to create a Spotify playlist, but there’s a very good chance that they are now ready to dip their toe into the world of online gambling.

If your grandparent or elderly relative is missing their regular game of cards, or if they have always had a weakness for the slots, then online gambling could be the next fun activity that it’s going to fall to you to help them with. And why not? Online gambling saw a big step forward in popularity around the world over the last twelve months thanks to the pandemic, but if we’re being honest it’s been getting more and more popular for a good long while now. It’s fun, it’s easy to do, and it’s an incredibly accessible hobby. But if you’re not familiar enough with the world of online casinos to simply message your grandad or grandma which app they need to download, here are a few things you should know before you get them started.

They Are Going to Be Swamped with Options

Anyone who has grown up shopping online for anything is used to scrolling through a lot of bad options before they find the one that they want. It doesn’t matter if you’re shopping for a new computer chair or if you’re looking for an online accountancy course, we’ve all got used to filtering out the noise and ignoring everything until we spot something that works. Your grandparents, bless them, may not have that, and that could make their first steps into the virtual gambling world quite tricky.

Because as those of us who gamble online know, there are a whole load of different online casinos and gambling options available, and they are all desperate to get your attention and your money. If you want to avoid your elderly relative getting overwhelmed or making the wrong decision, do your research first. Talk to them about what kind of games they’re looking for, what kind of money they’re looking to spend, and then go away and find the right fit for them. Say they’re a big fan of roulette, for example. In this case, they may want to consider live roulette as an option because it uses a real dealer, rather than a bot. Online Casinos also offers reviews and rankings of casinos offering live roulette as well as a wide variety of different options.

They Are Going to Need to Set A Budget

Now, we would never want to cast aspersions on your grandparents’ ability to keep close tabs on how much they’re spending, but frankly this point goes for anyone looking to dip their toes into the waters of online gambling for the first time. It is always going to be different for different people, but there are those out there who find that spending money virtually is a little tougher to control than having the physical chips sitting in front of you, or a stack of coins that will only give you so many cranks of the slot machine. However, the good news is that there are ways that you can help them stay aware of exactly how much they are spending.

The first is the most old-fashioned, which is to set a limit ahead of time. This is never going to be a hard and fast way to keep them from going over it, but there are payment apps where you can set a limit. Remind them that anything spent online is just as real as anything spent in a brick-and-mortar casino and remember to keep talking to them about how they’re getting on to keep an extra eye on them.

Online Gambling Is Safe but They Still Need to Be Sensible

We have all had to go round to our grandparents’ house to help them set up an antivirus programme on their computer, and we have also all had to go round to our grandparents’ house to help them get a virus off their computer. If the idea of them gambling online is filling your head with flashing warning signs about malware and stolen money, then you should be aware that the majority of the big online casinos take cybersecurity incredibly seriously. After all, this is a competitive marketplace and being able to boast about a great safety reputation is something that really helps you stand out. When you and your elderly relative think that you’ve found an online casino that you like the look of, have a look at their security certificate and do some research on social media and chatrooms to see what the word of mouth is.

However, given how things are in the world right now, we could all do with giving our cybersecurity a bit of a boost so this would be an excellent time to remind your grandparent how important it is, and what they should be doing to protect themselves. Make sure that their computer is kitted out with the latest updates and that they use a password generator for their online gambling access. A two-step authenticator for their email account is a great idea and remind them that any suspicious looking emails should be marked as spam. If they’re confident online then they will know most of this already, especially as it’s been in the news so much, but it never hurts to remind them, does it?