The Best Online Casinos UK

When you play online casino, you want to gamble on the games – not the quality of the casino! That's why the smartest gamblers consult The Genie! Today, we're feeling patriotic, so we asked him to pick out some of the best UK casinos!

Online Casinos in 2020

The online casino market is incredibly competitive and is only continuing to grow. With every casino in the UK attempting to give customers great deals and access to every game, it's becoming difficult for players to know which casino is the best for them.

The internet has helped bring casinos to the masses without the need to be in a particular place. Players have demonstrated their love for this new way to play, in particular with online casino slots.

While desktop platforms for online casinos have proven their ability to attract players, mobile casinos have disrupted the market and changed the way people play. Instead of having to be tethered to a physical location, players can suddenly play from anywhere they can get an internet signal to their mobile. This has increased the number of players overall, particularly amongst commuters.

With nearly every customer looking for the best casino site, it's important to find one that's both reliable and preferably with reviews that you can trust. In this guide, we'll navigate what you might want to look for when you want to play at an online casino in the UK.

What is an online casino?

An online casino is a website that lets you play casino games over the internet for real money. The UK market has grown a considerable amount over the years, with greater variability in the types of games that are available to consumers, particularly helped along with faster internet speeds.

There are some features that online casinos share with traditional casinos: they are designed to provide entertainment for customers. It was perhaps inevitable that customers would want the thrill and excitement of online gambling at a casino in their own homes, but this was impossible before the ability to play online. Now it is estimated that the majority of all gamblers are playing online, although the traditional casinos remain popular.

Different online casinos offer various features, and it can be challenging to know what differs. One sure thing is that each casino will offer a wide variety of games, such as slots poker or blackjack.

Fresh Casino Feature

A new feature of online casinos that have taken off in recent years is the ability to play against other players in a live setting, which is commonly referred to as Live dealer casino. Now players from all around the world can get together in real-time and play against each other and a live dealer.

Some people love the thrill of playing against other people rather than playing against a machine, and live playing is likely to get more popular in the future as reliability improves and higher speed internet becomes more readily available.

If you're looking to play against real people, it's important to you look for a reliable online casino to ensure that you won't be left waiting too long for a table to get full.

As online casinos attempt to draw in new players, they can offer great incentives to sign-up and begin playing at their casinos. However, while the offers may sound great, it's important to do proper research before you make a deposit. Although a number of online casinos are reliable, they aren't all the same.

Mobile Casino

One of the biggest trends in recent years is the proliferation of mobile phones. The technology has increased in capability tremendously with phones now being able to do so much more than make phone calls. Add onto that the ability for mobile phones to access the internet, now with reasonable speeds and people wanting to play games on their phones was perhaps inevitable.

Online casinos were quick to discover that customers had a desire to play on their phone, and many created their own apps for customers. The initial offerings were far from what would be considered acceptable today, but at that time, they worked well. The constant competition between different casinos helped drive the application development market forward, with each online casino attempting to create better apps than their competition, something that has been great for customers overall.

Here we especially see Leo Vegas being at the forefront, creating an outstanding mobile experience.

Offers at Online Casinos

A feature that has become a standard amongst online casinos is the new player bonus. Customers have also been known to open accounts at multiple casinos in order to take advantage of bonuses that new players receive. Welcoming bonuses can vary greatly, but very typically include deposit matching, where the casino will deposit the same amount of money into your account that you deposit.

Casinos that heavily emphasise live playing may offer bonuses to live dealer games, such as roulette or blackjack, by giving players a few chips for free to get them started.

Bonus offers may seem attractive, but it is important to note that there are often strings attached that make it very difficult for new players to take full advantage of the bonuses. After all, casinos are in the business of making money and aren't going to give money away if they don't have to. To take advantage of most offers, you are required to play for a certain amount of money. This is referred to as "wagering requirements". Although not every casino has wagering requirements, it does appear that most do. It's important to read the fine print of any casino before you claim a bonus.

Payout Rates

Many customers are looking for the best online casino payout rates. While this may sound obvious, it isn't effortless to figure out what the payout rates are for various casinos. Especially as many games come with individual payout rates.

The most common payout rate that is the 'Return to Player' (or RTP for short). RTP is displayed on many slot machine games and means the average amount returned to the player. Typical rates are between 85% to 95%, although some slot machines do offer much higher rates with even 99% not being unheard of.

Does RTP really matter?

It's not clear whether most players are likely to choose a particular slot machine game based solely off the RTP, but for those that do, they don't only look for the highest RTP but consider other factors as well.

A high RTP may sound attractive, but it may come at the expense of other features that slot machines with a lower RTP can offer. If a slot has an RTP of over 99%, then it's likely that bonuses may be smaller and that machine doesn't carry a high top prize. It's important to know what you're looking for when choosing a slot machine If you want the best chance of winning big, you may have to settle for a much lower RTP than you could get on other machines.

Online Casino Trends in 2020

The advances in technology have made it easier for online casinos to introduce their own games, which many now do. The unique games typically come in the form of a meta-game, where players can earn points or prizes for playing games on the casino as they usually would. Wishmaker is an example of a casino that has its own unique game. At Wishmaker players will earn coins through playing regular casino games that they can redeem for prizes, such as free spins no deposit on certain slot machines. 

There are always new online casino sites popping up on the market, some of which have later been shut down. To ensure that your money is protected, only start playing at a casino that has a good reputation and is covered by the right regulators.

Casino Regulation

There are several authorities over Europe that are responsible for regulating casinos, ensuring that payouts to customers are fair and according to the law. There are many in Europe though that aren't covered by regulators that are as reliable, and it may not be the best idea to try those until their reputation is more established in the market place.

In the UK it is The Gambling Commission that regulates casinos. They have a reputation for being reliable and trustworthy with their regulation, so make sure you check to see whether your casino of choice is registered with them. All casinos you will find on GambleGenie.co.uk are regulated.

Payments and withdrawals

Considering how many ways there are to pay for goods and services, it was clear that casinos would need to keep up and offer customers different ways to deposit and withdraw money. Many now offer a wide variety of ways to deposit money, with some of the more traditional methods, such as debit card or bank balance transfer, being buffeted by internet payment platforms.

If fast payments and withdrawals are important to you, check on the website as to what the average withdrawal time is. Although many casinos in the UK will offer reasonable withdrawal times, such as 3 to 5 working days, many require longer waiting periods, with some even requiring one month's wait before funds are released, although this is becoming rarer.

Conclusion

Online casinos are continuing to offer customers great and exciting new ways to spend their free time, offering all the thrill and excitement that a real casino has to offer. Online slot machines have come a long way since their very first offerings, and are sleeker and smoother than they ever have been.

The future for online casinos in the UK is geared toward mobile device usage. Customers are choosing to spend more and more of their time playing on their phones than desktop, particularly in larger cities, were commuting using public transport is more common.

Although introductory offers are common, many casino sites are now also starting to offer incentives to existing customers to keep them playing, as always, it's worth checking whether or not a casino that you're considering offers existing customers deals.

One thing that's for sure is that there's never been a better time to start playing at a casino, whether you're looking to play free slots or traditional games like blackjack or poker, there's a lot of casinos to choose between, or you can even play at more than one if that's your style.