Online Casinos

If you're looking for bookmakers and betting sites with casinos (or stand alone casino sites if you prefer) this is the section for you. Here we have reviewed some of the best online casinos available to UK players, all legal and licensed by the Gambling Commission and all operating reputable and reliable software, so you can play safe in the knowledge that you're getting a fair game.

Because there is a variety of software for the casinos to choose from, you'll find games vary from casino to casino. Pretty much all will offer the standard favourites such as blackjack, roulette, slots and video poker, but the versions you see and the different types of these games will be different depending on which games provider is being used. Some integrate multiple providers into the same platform to offer a wider array of games.

We'll soon be providing detailed guides to every aspect of the online casino world - covering the different types of software, games, features and platforms. We'll also have lists of bonuses, free spins and offers. These sections will be added over the coming months, but in the mean time you can get started with the reviews below. We also have a guide to local casinos in the UK.

Are Online Casinos Safe?

The online casino industry is a multi-billion pound enterprise and carries a huge range of options for online gamers. With this comes a certain responsibility of which all online casinos must adhere to, of which we will discuss in detail below.

To answer the initial question of are online casinos safe, then the short answer would be yes. The top and bottom is that if they aren’t they will simply be shut down either temporarily or permanently and the brand, or the company who owns that brand, will be penalised.

But, it’s likely that you are reading this because you have heard of horror stories on the web about casinos taking money or not paying out. Well, the cold truth is that this has happened previously. Some illegal operators try to go under the radar of regulators such as the UK Gambling Commission and as such catch unsuspected punters out.

It’s like all things online, you need a certain degree of common sense about where you play and if it doesn’t feel right, then for every rouge casino there will be hundreds of legitimate companies allowing you to play in complete safety.

Licensing

For casinos, or any gambling company, to enter the UK market they will need to be regulated by the UK Gambling Commission or another regulatory body that is acknowledge by the UK Gambling Commission. All reputable online casinos that are required to display their logo and their license number so players are able to look up that number and cross-reference on their database. More often than not this information can be found in the footer of the website.

The UK Gambling Commission’s role is to make sure that the casino is complying with a strict set of rules that are put in place to make sure they are offering a fair and open environment for people to play online casino games.

Part of their role is work closely with other governing bodies such as the HM Revenue and Customs and the police to highlight any wrongdoings by casinos. They hold no bias to any company or group and will make sure that every casino operates on a level playing field, if you will.

If you are at all unsure about any casino then we would highly recommend that you check to see that they are licensed by the UK Gambling Commission. The best way to do this is by using their website and entering the company name or license number. If no license number is listed and the company name isn’t showing up, then alarm bells should immediately start to ring.

How Online Casinos Work

People often get confused as to how online casinos work and how they make their money. You often hear people say that games are rigged and certain scenarios that have happened would never happen live (usually relating to table games). But, an online casino works very much the same way as a brick and mortar casinos, expect with it being online you get to play a lot more hands per hour, meaning that more indifferent results can occur.

The casino essentially makes money from you losing money. That’s the top and bottom of it to be honest. Some people will win money, but the games are designed and created to be in favour of the casino and over the long term, they can’t really lose.

Another misconception in the industry is that people think casinos are against them, however it couldn’t be further from the truth. The casino wants you to play at their casino over a rival. The games may vary from each casino in terms of theme or even design, but the basic principle for each game remains the same. They are ever so slightly weighted in favour of the casino – some games more than others – meaning that over a massive sample of hands the casino will always win.

This means that casinos really want you to play with them, win or lose. The games are already programmed to pay out a certain percentage, so to you it doesn’t necessarily matter where you play, but to the casino it matters greatly, as the more people they get in, the more revenue that they make.

A good term to tie this in is ‘casino edge’. The ‘edge’ is basically the percentage that the casino gets against the bets that you make. Let’s take roulette as an example. The rules are very simple; place your chips on a section of the board and if it the ball lands on that number you win. But, the board is actually set up in a very particular way, which is crucial to the success of the game for the casino.

A common bet is that of simply betting on Red or Black. A 50/50 chance, right? Wrong! The inclusion of the Green ‘Zero’ means that there is an additional outcome where both bets lose. So, just as a result of the inclusion of the Zero number the actually chance to hit red or black is 48.65%, but the bet still pays even money. Whilst it’s a small edge, over millions of hands the casino if guaranteeing winning money on the Black or Red bet.

The Role of Game Providers

You might not be aware of this, but for the most part the online casinos don’t actually make their own games. They use dedicated game software developers for this who make the games and then distribute them to the casinos. That’s why you will see many of the same games across a wide range of sites.

Why is this important? Well, the developers will set the payout percentage on the games that they have designed. With each game the percentages will vary. For example, you may see online slots with a 97% payout percentage. This basically means that for every £1 wager, 97p will be paid out and the casino will keep 3p.

The game providers play a very important role and what you will find is that these companies will often work with the likes of the UK Gambling Commission to make sure their games are fair and just.

There are a number of key providers in the industry, which include the likes of Microgaming, NetEnt, PlayTech, Real Time Gaming, Betsoft, Evolution Gaming and Quickspin, to name just a handful. We would recommend that sticking to casinos who use these providers will ensure that you are playing fair games that are highly regulated. There are plenty of other providers outside of these that are fair and true, but make sure you take the same sort of approach with the software provides as you would the casino themselves, as mentioned above. More on software providers can be found here.

Testing

As you can imagine, the game developers go through massive levels of testing before releasing any game. This allows them to address two key issues:

1. If the game works and responds correctly
2. If the game complies with gambling regulations within that sector

The first part is often carried out in-house and allows the company to see how the game performs. They simulate millions of hands/spins worth of data before compiling it and then tweaking where necessary. The idea is to allow the punter to enjoy their time on the game, whilst also still hitting those payout percentages.

The second part works much more closely with the likes of the UK Gambling Commission. They will require independent auditors to come in and run the games through their own testing process. This will be similar to the way the game developers have done previously, but in order to make sure it’s completely accurate then they will need to carry out their own tests.

If a game is deemed fair and they are happy with the results, then it’s as simple as getting a green tick for the developers to release to their casinos. If they decide the game in fact isn’t fair, then they will have to make any changes to bring it inline. Again, this is another part of the industry that is highly regulated so no games will pass through the net.

How Do Online Casinos Make Money?

One of the things that often confuses people about online casinos is how they make money. Most are aware of the age-old saying of ‘the house always wins’, and whilst this is true to a point, the process is a little more complicated and subtler than that.

The thing is, the casino isn’t out to get you. It doesn’t just rig games so you can’t ever win. In fact, it wants you to win. It needs you to win! You won't keep coming back as a player if you lost every single time that you placed a wager in a casino. People play for the chance of winning, but you need to be aware that games are set up in a way that over a massive sample of size – we're talking millions of plays – the games will even themselves out and slightly edge the number of times the casino wins over the number of times that the punter wins.

The increments that we are talking about are tiny and almost negligible to most casino players due to low number of hands that will likely be played. The quicker that, as a punter, you become comfortable with the fact the casino has the edge, but the chances of winning are still there, the more enjoyable your time at an online casino will be.

House Edge and Return to Player (RTP)

The edge is the casinos way of making money. It’s a way in which games are set up to make sure that the punter can still win money, but for each bet the odds are in the casinos favour.

RTP works in a similar way and is often related to online slots. The RTP is the amount that people get back with each bet that they make. So, a 97% RTP would essentially mean that for every £1 wagered, you would get back 97p. But, obviously, you aren’t going to get 97p for each bet as this would be boring, so the amounts can vary either way.

With all casino games the house has an edge over the payouts that occur with each betting scenario. The edge will vary quite a lot depending on which games you play. In fact, there are only a couple of games or bets within games that offer no edge to the house. Listed below are some of the more popular casino games and the advantage that the house holds over the player (all games are based on proper play):

• Blackjack – 0.5%
• Craps – 0.8%
• Video Poker – 0.5% to 5%
• Baccarat – 1.06%
• Roulette – 5.5%
• Slots – 0% to 17%
• Progressive slots – 5% to 17%
• Keno – 25%+

As you can see the range of the edge depends massively on the game that you play. In terms of sample size, for most players the house will be a negligible number, meaning that you will be gambling on a luck basis. But, for the casino luck isn’t really a part of the equation, as all games will eventually yield positive results as a result of the house edge.

Variance

Variance is the reason why so many people go back to the casino and why so many people play in the first place. The chance of winning is all down to variance. Essentially, variance is the short-term fluctuation of results that can occur for any given action.

For example, if we take roulette and look at the house edge above which is stated as 5.5%, this means that each time we play we should lose 5.5p for every £1 that we stake. But, variance means that it is possible to place a bet, let’s say 19 Red for example, and hit that same number 5 times in a row. So, instead of losing money, we’ve actually won, and won substantially in this example.

Variance only really affects the players and less so the casino. Variance is the reason why people are able to win and take money from the casino, but it is also why people lose.

Each online casino will have good days and bad days, which is a result of variance. Some days they will see increased profits and others they may see reduced profits or even losses, even though the games on offer have stayed the same. Looking long term and the sheer volume of hands or spins that are played means that for the casino variance will even itself out and the true edge or RTP percentages will be apparent. For the player, due to the low volume of hands that have played, variance will be a huge part of their success or otherwise.

Casino Bonuses

One of the ways in which casinos get you through the virtual door is via sign-up bonuses. Some of them can potentially be worth a large amount, which on the outside looks great. Who doesn’t want bonus money to play with when they open up a new account?

But, the casinos are very shrewd businesses, and they don’t just give away this money for nothing, you have to really work for it and with some, if truth be told, in many cases the bonus money will never leave the casino.

The catch? Clearing requirements. What the casino will generally do is set up a series of goals that you must meet before you are able to withdraw your bonus or any winnings from your bonus money. When you sign up and make your first deposit the money will often be sat in your account immediately, but you won't be able to withdraw it straight away.

To keep you playing at their casino you will need to wager through your bonus several times before being able to withdraw. For example, a casino might say we will match your deposit amount with a bonus worth up to £50, but you must wager through the bonus amount 30 times before being able to withdraw. So, on a £50 bonus that would mean that you need to wager £1,500 worth of bets to get your £50.

Another catch is that you will have a limited timeframe to do so. They might give you 2 weeks or even 30 days if you are lucky and then if you fail to do it in that time then they will remove the bonus from your account. Bear in mind, you don’t normally have to pay anything extra, and they won't remove funds that you have deposited, just the bonus money that they gave you initially.

The best thing to do is simply see them as a little bit of incentive to get to know the casino, rather than money you are going to get your hands on. There will be plenty who meet the terms and get the cash, but every person who does this there will be dozens that fall short.

Casino Software

What many people don’t realise when starting out in the online casino industry is that the casino room that you have signed up probably won't have designed the games that you are playing on. The games will often come from a number of software development companies who have their own team of in-house designers who then license the games to the casinos.

Don’t be put off at the fact that many casinos will supply the same games as the developers will often have links with many casinos. It’s also very common for casinos to utilise more than one developer to get a better range of games. We will talk more about why they do this later in this section.

Why Do Casinos Outsource Their Games?

The main reason why they outsource games over creating their own is that it works out to be much more cost effective that way. It takes a lot of time and resources to develop casino games and a casino will already have a lot of moving parts to take care of such as staffing and customer services. By allowing someone else to create the games it essentially means there is one less thing to do.

The games that they can get their hands on from the developers are also much better tested than that if they made their own. Testing is a huge part in the makeup of these games and it’s a vital process to ensure that they are running correctly and are performing as they should. You will find that the developers are also regulated by the likes of the UK Gambling Commission, which means that they are fair and ready to go straight out of the box.

It also allows casinos to access a much larger range of games as well. Some of the bigger developers such as Microgaming and NetEnt have hundreds of games to choose from and whilst the casino can pick and choose which games they want, it means they include a much wider range than if they were to make their own. They are also allowed to include multiple developers in one casino, which again means more games to choose from to create a better casino experience.

Finally, the jackpot games that are on offer are some of the most popular games for any casino. You will often find that these games will hit jackpots will in excess of the million pound mark. This is because these jackpots games are played out across the network, rather than the specific casino site.

For example, you may be playing on a jackpot game such as Mega Moolah (made by Microgaming) on casino x, though casino y and z have the same game. The jackpot is run over the Microgaming network, which means players from each casino will be adding to the overall jackpot, in turn allowing the jackpot to rise considerably faster. If you think that this same game will be played across hundreds of casinos, you get an idea of the scope of the rate in which the jackpots will rise.

Download Versus Instant Play

You are probably going to be able to play in two ways; download or instant play. The download version is pretty self-explanatory in that you download the casino client your computer and then play it from there. Instant play is where you fire up the casino in your browser and play direct from that, without any download needed. It’s not uncommon for casinos to offer both platforms, but these days it is becoming rarer to see both.

The technology for instant play casinos has moved on leaps and bounds over recent years, mainly down to the capabilities of both Flash plugins and HTML 5, which is a coding base allowing greater freedom and interaction for these types of games within browsers.

As many casinos use more than one game provider, the download function is becoming defunct, as it doesn’t allow for cross-network casino games to be played on one client. This is also the main reason as to why the instant-play games have become so popular.

The switch to HMTL 5 also means that the casinos are able to offer much more capable mobile offerings. The platform allows designers to be able to quickly and much more fluently scale their casino to fit on mobile devices, without having to use dedicated downloads for apps. Often, you simply need to visit a casino on your mobile and you will be able to play games from the browser of your phone, rather than download an app.

Major Software Providers

There are hundreds of software providers and as a result there is a mixed bag in terms of quality. But, there are a handful of companies that are used by most of the major online casinos and that are UK friendly when it comes to the games that they offer. These are listed below:

Microgaming

Microgaming are probably the best-known game provider and are used by hundreds of online casinos. In fact, they are one of very few companies who are linked with casinos that hold single licenses to include only Microgaming designed games.

The company have been about since 1994, which also makes them one of the oldest. What’s interesting is that Microgaming have had a short stint on the other side of the rope offering up a successful online poker and casino games in their own right, but these days they are very much a game developer and one of the best at that.

They are best known for the quality of their games and the quantity of their games. They offer up over 400 titles in all, with almost 80% of these being video slots. Their jackpot games are what attract a lot of the major casinos, with some of their games hitting jackpots upwards of £10million. Their Mega Moolah slot holds the record for paying the largest jackpot of all time, amassing an incredible £13,209,300 back in 2015.

NetEnt

NetEnt (also know as Net Entertainment) have been around since 1996 and have established themselves as one of the best in the industry. The company aren’t as big as Microgaming, but they do provide some of the best looking games in the industry.

It’s been clear from day one that NetEnt weren’t interested in the number of games they provided, but spent a huge amount of resources in making sure they were the best games. Visually they look stunning and they also offer up some of the best bonus features within their slots selection.

The company is probably best for players who are looking to play lower limit games as the stake ranges from as little as 1p a spin in some games, but will cater for higher rollers as well.

PlayTech

PlayTech were formed in 1999 and make up one of the ‘Big Three’ of the game developers (including Microgaming and NetEnt). The years of experience that they have behind them has helped massively in not only creating huge number of casinos that are associated with them, but also one of the best ranges of casino games that you can find.

To give you an idea of the size of the company, they employ over 3,500 people and are publicly trading on the London Stock Exchange (LSE: PTEC). They cater for a number of casino players, ranging from low stakes to high stakes, with everything in between.

It’s probably fair to say that the slots section is where they really excel, with some of the best games in the business including the likes of Age of the Gods, Great Blue and Lotto Madness. But, with each game you will see a really good return to player percentage, usually over 95%.

IGT

IGT is the oldest of the group, being established back in the 1950’s. In those days they were concentrating their efforts on penny slot machines and even video poker (1980), before in 2005 they turned their hand to online casino games through the purchase of Wagerworks for a staggering $18.8 million.

These days the company offer up a great range of online games and whilst the brick and mortar based games are still run, they work through a subsidiarity of the company in Barcrest Gaming.

They work with some of the best designers in the industry and with that are able to offer up a great range of slots to choose from. All games are based on the instant-play format, meaning that it becomes accessible to all online casinos.

Gamesys

The youngest of this bunch comes in the form of Gamesys who were founded in 2004. The company are based in the Netherlands and offer up a wide range of casinos.

What’s unique about Gamesys is that they offer a very special feature, which is zero house edge. This means that you can play versions of their games where the house has no advantage at all. But, there is a catch. You will need to pay 10% of your winnings from each session with these games. This is great for new players or low volume players who are likely going to see much higher swings of variance than that of players who play many hands per day or per week.

The games aren’t the best here when it comes to design, but they are solid and they offer you a good range to play throughout their software. They do offer up a good range of table games as well, which is probably the company’s strongest suit.