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4. I want my winnings!

So you've won big and you're ready to hit the mall. All you need to do is cash out, right? Wrong! All casinos have policies about how much you can cash out and when. Casinos vary widely on this, but the short answer is that you'll need to be patient. Even if the casino lets you withdraw right away it could take weeks to receive your check. Some casinos won't let you withdraw until you receive a PIN number from them through the mail. Still others require numerous pieces of identification be faxed to them so they can verify that you are who you say you are.

It's up to you to decide if you can live with the casino's demands but in any case it's best to know what they're going to want from the get-go: read the casino's info on withdrawals, it should all be spelled out clearly there. If you don't like what you see, try another one.

5. PIN number? What's that?

In most cases the casino's cash-out policies are pretty reasonable, albeit a little inconvenient sometimes. Many of them issue the user a unique identification number, a PIN that you need in order to initiate a cash-out.

Often your PIN number comes via regular postal mail which can be annoyingly slow. The theory is that it's for your own good, since receiving it confirms that you actually live at the address they have in their database. It also helps the casino avoid fraud. Whatever, it's become part of the way many online casinos do business, so you're probably just going to have to get used to it.

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