Best UK Online Casinos

In recent years, online casinos have gained immense popularity around the world. This holds especially true for the UK, where practically any online casino is available to real money and play money customers.

We’ve narrowed down the options to the three absolute best UK casinos: Spin Palace, Bet365, 888 and All Slots Casino.  You can also go through our detailed lists for other alternatives if you’re a UK player and want something unique for your playing needs.

Thanks to a gambling-friendly culture, online gamblers in the UK have a wide variety of online casino sites to choose from. Gambling has a long tradition in the UK, easy to recognize thanks to the betting shops on every street corner and the massive market for sports betting all over the United Kingdom.

In some parts of continental Europe and in much of North America, online gambling faces legal and financial challenges. Whereas gambling laws in the UK have been changed in the past decade to reflect the major changes to gambling brought on by the Internet, governments in Europe and North America haven’t been so friendly to online gaming. Banks and other financial institutions in those parts of the world are forbidden to do business with online casinos or face strong pressure from state and national governments to decline transactions with online gaming sites.

Best UK Casinos Online & Casinos Accepting GBP

Rank	Online Casino	Bonus	Mobile	Learn More
1.		£1000	Droid / iPhone / iPad	Spin Palace Casino
2.		£500	Droid / iPhone / iPad	888 Casino
3.		£1000	Droid / iPhone / iPad	All Slots Casino
4.		£1000	Droid / iPhone / iPad	Bet365 Casino

Not so in the UK. In fact, the UK Gambling Commission was setup in part to regulate so called “remote gambling,” which refers to bets placed over phone lines, Internet connections, and other non-standard gambling venues. These laws that give UK players easy access to online gambling were designed to prevent the very activities that anti-gambling legislators in America and some parts of Europe are afraid of: the UK Gambling Commission ensures there’s no link between online gambling and organized crime, state that all remote gambling must be conducted fairly, and has as part of its mission the job of making sure children aren’t allowed to gamble remotely.

Are UK Online Casinos Legal?

As long as an online casino abides by the rules of the UK Gambling Commission, it is acting within the boundaries of the law. Legal UK casinos dot the online gambling landscape, thanks to gambling-friendly laws throughout the United Kingdom.

Because laws in the UK favor proper licensing and regulation of online gambling, the general public in the UK don’t look at online gambling the way many Americans do. Declaring an activity illegal or restricting access to that activity is bound to make people suspicious, and the 2006 UIGEA bill in America (limiting player’s ability to fund their online gambling accounts) no doubt had a big impact on the image of online gambling in the US. In the UK, on the other hand, increased tax revenue and the legal status of online gambling means that the stigma against gambling online doesn’t really exist.

The UK Gambling Commission  Gambling works hard to make sure it issues licenses only to legitimate online gambling sites and actively monitors all licensed online casinos to make sure they comply with the law. The Gambling Commission is also set up to deal with the very real problem of gambling addiction; under the 2005 Gambling Bill, the UK gambling industry pays a total of £3 million a year to researchers working in the field of gambling addiction.

North American and European governments that restrict online gambling would do well to mirror the UK Gambling Commission’s activities, since they’re designed to protect people from the most dangerous aspects of online gaming and allow for government-regulated casino play for responsible adults.

United Kingdom Online Casino Currencies

Whether or not a particular UK-facing casino does business in a currency available to UK citizens depends partially on what part of the UK you’re talking about.

Though the UK is in the European Union, most of the United Kingdom does not use the Euro. Sure, you might get lucky at an airport or train station in London and find a place that accepts Euros, but for the most part, the standard currency in England is still the pound sterling. Ireland, a part of the UK, uses the Euro as its standard currency though in parts of Ireland the pound sterling is also acceptable.

For most UK citizens, finding a United Kingdom online casino means looking for one that accepts deposits and pays withdrawals in pounds sterling. Irish customers will need to look for a UK casino that accepts payments in Euros.

When hunting for a UK-facing casino, make sure that your casino accepts payment in your preferred currency. In the UK, that will either be the Euro or the pound sterling, also known as the GBP or Great British Pound. Not all UK-facing online casinos are in pounds. Why is this a problem?

UK Online Casinos & Currency Exchange

The problem with playing at an online casino that doesn’t accept payments in your currency is the extra hassle of converting currency any time you want to make a deposit or withdrawal. Converting currency when you deposit or withdraw funds from your online gaming account means added time and extra fees, not to mention the confusion of trying to do mental math to calculate your bets in an unfamiliar currency.

Since some payment transfer methods allow currency exchange, you won’t be blocked out of a casino just because it doesn’t accept the pound. If you really want to play at an online casino that doesn’t accept pounds, you’ll need to open an account with an eWallet that offers currency transfer services. Unfortunately, it will take extra time to make funds transfers involving currency exchanges, and you could face big fees for converting from one currency to another.

The Future of Online Casinos in the UK

There’s no reason to expect that online casino law will become stricter in the UK over the next few years. If anything, increased revenue at remote gambling companies (thanks to an increase in mobile gaming in the UK) will mean that UK gamblers will have more options, as other casino properties open their doors to UK players to get a piece of the action.

Citizens of the United Kingdom have lots of options when it comes to online gambling. Liberal gambling laws and a cultural history of placing wagers means that online gaming isn’t stigmatized in the UK as it is in North America and other places around the world. As long as you find a UK-facing casino that does business in your preferred currency, you shouldn’t have any trouble playing at online gaming sites in the UK. All of the casinos you see above will also allow you to play your favourite casino games on iPad, iPhone, Blackberry and Android.