The Best Online Casinos and Real Money Games for British Players
The idea of playing games online and winning real money seems appealing to you? Of course it does! So what’s stopping you? Oh, it’s probably the fact that you don’t know where to start. Worry not as we are here to guide you through your first steps in online gambling. Here we’ll take a look at the best casino games that you can play online, the top offers you can claim and the best online gambling operators in the UK, the top 3 among which are:
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We chose 888 as our number one recommendation for a real money casino because of the fact that they offer a huge number of promotions, rich slots and table games selections, as well as a high level of security. But don’t’ trust us blindly on this, learn which are the most important aspects of real money online casinos further down this page so that you can make the most out of your experience playing online.
The Best Casino Games for Your Personal Taste
The most important criterion in picking a suitable casino site is undoubtedly the game selection. After all, what good are the juicy bonuses, the stable software, and the excellent customer support if you cannot play your game of choice? Thankfully, most reputable online gambling operators have diverse game selections consisting of hundreds of slots, many table and card games, as well as scratch cards and video pokers, so you’ll have no problem picking a title you like. You can read more about which operators offer the best real money casino games on www.online-casinos.com. Now, let’s take a closer look at the biggest game categories you will encounter at casino sites.
Slots and Other Simple Games of Chance
Slots are hands-down the most popular casino games and, as such, they have hundreds, if not thousands of exciting variations, especially online. From famous movies and TV series to popular computer games, stories and mythical characters, the creators of slots draw inspiration from all types of sources in order to create their next exciting title. Some of them also offer progressive jackpots which can reach life-changing amounts. As far as other games of chance go, at every relatively big casino site, you will also be able to play more than one video poker variation, as well as some instant-win games such as scratch cards.
Roulette and Other Table Games
Roulette is a true classic in the casino world and a favourite of the high rollers. It offers some of the biggest betting ranges a casino game can have and, at the same time, allows for many low-risk bets. I won’t go into much detail about this particular game in here, as we do have an extensive article dedicated to online roulette, but you should know that a casino that claims to be among the best should have a solid selection of roulette variations which includes the three main types – European, American and French, as well as some innovative variations. Other table games that you can enjoy at the best online casinos are craps, Keno and Sic Bo.
Blackjack and More Popular Card Games
The typical card game selection of an online gambling operator features many casino poker variations such as Casino Hold’em, Triple Card Poker, Caribbean Poker, Oasis Poker, Tequila Poker and many more, as well as some other games such as baccarat, Red Dog and Casino War. Yet, the bigger part of the casinos’ card game selections consist of many exciting blackjack variation. That is not a big surprise, as blackjack is one of the most popular casino games in the world with rules that are easily tweaked to created hundreds of different variations, the most popular among which are Classic Blackjack, Pontoon, Blackjack Switch, Double Exposure Blackjack, Perfect Blackjack and Blackjack Surrender.
Live Dealer Casino Games
One of the few drawbacks of playing real money games online is the lack of social interaction and engaging casino environment. But even that is no longer a reason to prefer land-based casinos to virtual ones, because today, all of the big online gambling operators offer live dealer games on top of the RNG ones. Those games combine the convenience of gambling from home with the experience of playing and interacting with a real human dealer. Plus, they are a real relief for the players that don’t trust the random number generators used for the virtual games, even though they are regularly tested by reputable auditing agencies in the field such as GLI or eCOGRA.
The Software Platform
Every online operator uses a specially designed and developed platform which contains all of the game titles. The quality and usability of this platform are quite important for the users not only where the ease of use is concerned but also when it comes to their safety and their privacy. And though there are some operators that have proprietary platforms, like 888 Casino for example, most of the operators hire external companies to take care of the technical development and support of their software. We’ll take a quick overview of the software providers and their products in the next section of the review.
Casino Software Providers
There are many software houses that develop real-money games and quite a lot of them also offer whole platforms that the operators can use. The biggest and most popular companies that offer the complete portfolio of products that a gambling operator might need are Microgaming, Playtech and NetEnt. These are also the developers whose games you will encounter the most online.
- Playtech Most Popular Casino Software
- NetEnt Games of the Highest Quality
- Microgaming Biggest Game Selection
Other companies that develop casino games are IGT, cryptologic, Novomatic, Blueprint Gaming, WMS, Play N’ Go, Orbis, QuickSpin, Betsoft. All these companies have great portfolios of games, but don’t offer complete platforms and also, unlike Microgaming, Playtech and NetEnt, don’t offer live dealer casinos. There is, though, another software house except for the big 3 that offers live games – Evolution Gaming. This is actually a company that deals only with live gaming and, unsurprisingly, has managed to create the best live casino product. Therefore, if you want to play real money live dealer games, then you should definitely pick a live casino powered by Evolution Gaming, such as the one at 888.
Real Money vs. Practice Play
Most Internet casinos offer you two ways of playing: for real money or in demo mode, or practice plays, as it’s also called. This practice play mode is especially useful when you want to try a new title as it lets you get familiar with it and its rules without spending any of your own money. Let’s say that there is a new slot title that the site you’re playing at has launched. It seems pretty profitable and you immediately imagine yourself playing it and winning big cash amounts, but you know nothing about it and are worried to put your own money on it. Well, here’s where the practice play option comes into the picture, letting you learn everything about the slot and its features and test it absolutely for free. Of crouse, this also means that you won’t be able to win any real cash either but at least you can play for free for a while. Then, when you feel comfortable enough with the gameplay, you can switch to real money mode.
No Download vs. Download Platform
Online casinos usually come in two forms: download and instant-play (or ‘no download’, as they are called by most players). The former can be downloaded from the site of the operator in the form of a .exe file and then installed on your computer so that it is accessible with one click directly from your desktop. The latter is pretty convenient for players that want to play real money games on many different devices, as it is accessible directly from your browser. There are some casinos that offer only instant-play platforms which is not a big flaw, but still something that is nice to take into consideration. Also, it’s good to know whether or not the instant-play platform is also mobile-friendly, a topic that we’ll cover next.
Mobile Gambling
In an era where the mobile phones have become pretty much extensions of our arms, it’s not that surprising that mobile gambling gets bigger and bigger. In fact, all reputable casinos in the UK, and around the world in general, already have great mobile versions, accessible from the most popular portable devices – smartphones and tablets running on Android or iOS. Of course, these mobile platforms don’t feature as many titles as the desktop ones, especially when it comes to titles besides slots, but at least they are expanding by the day.
Generous Bonuses and Promotions
What’s better than getting the chance to win some real money without paying a penny? This is absolutely possible at some casinos! Many operators offer the so-called no deposit bonuses to all the new players at their site – one of the weapons in their arsenal of marketing tricks for attracting new customers. And even better than that – when you make your first deposit at the site you’ve newly registered at, you will be rewarded also with a generous welcome bonus which might double the amount you’ve topped your account with. A great example for a casino that has both types of bonuses for the new players is 888. There, you just have to open an account and confirm it via email and the £88 free play bonus will be yours! You can use this bonus cash to play all the slots at the casino, as well as all the other games in 888’s portfolio. Then, when you make your first deposit, you will also be rewarded with a 100% match bonus.
- . Get Bonus! Free Play Bonus£88 Best Bonus• £88 No Deposit Gift upon Registration • 100% up to £100 First-Deposit Bonus
Still, the welcome bonuses are not the only type of promotions you can take advantage of, though they are the most generous ones for sure. There are many great promotions for the regular players as well, something that every casino customer should appreciate and take into consideration before signing up at an online casino. These additional promotions come in various forms: cashback, reload bonuses, prizes, draws and free spins. The high rollers would also do well to check out what the VIP programme of the operators offers as they would most probably be invited to participated somewhere down the line.
Accepted Payment Methods
In order for you to take advantage of most casino promotions, you will have to make a deposit at the site of your choice. Making payments online has become quite easy and fast in the past few years, and on top of that secure, so you should not have any concerns about the transactions. The only thing that you should check before signing up at a casino site is whether or not it supports the payment method of your choice. Here are the most popular payment methods that gambling operators accept:
- Credit/Debit Cards: MasterCard, VISA, Maestro, VISA Electron, Delta, Diners Club
- E-Wallets: PayPal, NETELLER, Skrill
- Prepaid Cards: Paysafecard, Ukash, Entropay
- Other Methods: Bank Transfer, Cheque
The best online casinos accept payments made via all the most payment services: debit and credit card, prepaid cards, e-wallets, bank transfers. Still, only a hand-full of them support PayPal, for example, so it’s always recommended that you check what the casino has in store for you.
Customer Support and Help Section
No matter how computer-savvy you are and how smoothly things are going for you in the beginning of your experience, it’s always important to check whether or not the casino you’ll be playing at has an around-the-clock customer support service that you can contact in many different ways. First of all, you might experience some unexpected technical issue that you will need help solving. Then, it might happen so that you have some question that you don’t find the answer to in the help section of the site. It’s really important that there’s a professional customer support service that is there to provide you with the information and help you need at all times. The best online casinos, in fact, offer 24/7 customer support which can be contacted via phone, live chat or email.
Picking the Best Casino for You
So, in this article we’ve taken a look at the most important criteria you have to take into account when choosing a real money online casino and those are the slots, table and card game selection, the live casino, the software, the mobile compatibility of their platform, the bonuses, the payment methods and the customers support service. Remember that you have only one chance to be a new player at a casino site and that that is the time when you can benefit from the most generous promotions and free gifts so give it all you got to play as much as you like and claim as many bonuses as you can.