Legal - Check the internet gambling laws for your area before you start gambling.  Laws vary and you need to make sure you are gambling legally. You need to be over 18 years of age.  Check the sites are authorised to operate in the country you are gambling in. Find out where the company is based.   If you need to claim money and are having difficulties, then it may be easier to make a claim in your own country.  Make sure you have a physical address as well as their phone and email address.

Money – Check the site has an easy method of depositing and withdrawing your money in your currency. Debit and credit cards are instant and you can start playing immediately. You’ll need to open an account and register before you start playing. And you’ll need to give the online poker sites a valid email address where they can contact you. Even if you already have an email address consider setting up an email address just for the online poker sites.  This makes it easy for you to find and read any correspondence from the sites without plowing through your normal emails. 

Forums – Forums can be a good indicator of what other people think of any online poker sites.  Bear in mind companies can always write their own blogs or make up experiences just to get you to sign up.  Try searching for reviews on the company you are thinking of signing up to.  Talk to people on the forums and ask them what experiences they’ve had with the online poker sites you are thinking of signing up to.  If you are checking out companies with strong histories then you will probably find masses of information already posted.  Spend some time checking the results and you should get to know which companies are best to deal with.

Due diligence is time consuming but your research will pay dividends in the future.  Once you’ve found you preferred site or sites then sign up and go for it!