5 Features to Look for in a Legal Poker App

Nowadays, there are seemingly endless options when it comes to online poker rooms and games.

With more choice and competition, online poker sites must find ways to differentiate themselves from each other to attract more players and stay up-to-date on the latest trends.

However, some online poker sites don’t execute as well as others and it may be hard to sift through the noise and find a great poker room.

Thus, below we put together 5 of our top features to look for in a legal poker app. These features are what you should look for when choosing your next online poker site.

1. Software & App Quality

Most, if not all, of the best poker sites invest in quality software for their app and websites. For one, quality software and app mechanics will yield a better user experience in terms of gameplay, app navigation, and overall app interaction.

Secondly, quality software makes it more difficult for hackers to hijack a poker game or app to cheat and ruin ongoing games for players who are merely looking for risk-free and drama-free online poker games.

Legal online poker apps will disclose what gaming providers they work with to power their app and website.

This information is typically found in the about section or a subsection within the site (hint: check out the bottom navigation bar).

Top providers include Aristocrat, Evenbet, and Digient among others. After you begin to check for which software providers each app uses, you’ll likely begin to see repeat brands across various apps.

This is a good sign as that would indicate that the apps are enlisting a reputable company to power their online poker app.

Thus, the overall experience is probably going to be excellent and the risk for hiccups and glitches is low.

2. App Reputation

Next to software quality, arguably 1a and 1b, is app reputation. Today, it’s relatively simple for any company to launch an app, and more specifically, an online gaming app.

In the online poker industry experience matters. The longer an app has been around the better — in most cases.

Looking for top online gambling companies like MGM Online or Caesars is a good place to start.

In addition to longevity, the app’s reputation matters. You may want to do some quick Googling to find out if an app has a history of scams, controversies, or issues.

Of course, any reputable brand will have disgruntled players but if an app has been around for a long time and has more good reviews than bad, odds are it’s a solid app worth checking out.

Finding best poker apps

Another component of reputation includes customer service. If you do come across a scandal or previous issue, try to find out if the company communicated back to the players in a timely manner.

Perhaps even look on their app or site to see if their customer support options are readily available. If they are, it’s another good sign that the app is a viable online poker app.

3. Welcome Bonuses

To remain competitive, legal poker apps offer welcome bonuses to new players to help attract them to their app and earn their business.

On the surface these promotions may look spammy, however, they are legitimate. They, of course, do come with terms and conditions but nonetheless, they are real.

Any good poker app will offer new players some sort of bonus or promotion to help them get started.

It’s an excellent marketing feature and a great way to reward players.

Additionally, most poker apps offer existing players promotions as well but they are usually marketed less relative to welcome bonuses.

When looking for your next legal poker app be sure to compare each welcome bonus to find out who offers the most competitive bonus as they do tend to change throughout the course of any given year.

4. Tournaments

It’s a fair assumption to say that most online poker players are looking for cash games. However, the best online poker apps also offer tournaments, which add variety and help spice up their offering.

What makes a good poker app

Moreover, most top poker sites allow simultaneous play so you can play cash games and tournaments at the same time, which is another great feature that cannot be done in brick-and-mortar poker rooms.

5. Player Traffic, Accessibility, & Community

Lastly, perhaps the best feature of them all is 24/7 accessibility. Note, this is par for the course with any top poker app as it’s the nature of the product — online, anytime, anywhere.

Nevertheless, top poker apps allow you to track the number of players coming in and out of games and rooms and some make it really easy for you to organize games with players and friends from around the world.

It’s a good sign if a poker app consistently has players funneling in and out at all hours. It likely means it's a reputable site, with good games running, and it can be trusted.