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Play now »Playing casino games online for real money
STARTING OFF THE RIGHT WAY
You’ll never run out of casino games to sample, enjoy and return to. The variety that awaits you and the sheer volume of choice is something that a wise player learns to navigate correctly to suit his or her own individual preferences.
Play for free first.
It’s always a good idea to play casino games for free in demo mode until you familiarise yourself with the game interface and rules.
Playing for free saves you from losing any of your well-earned money on “empty” rounds while you’re still getting your head around how the game works.
Bet money second.
Once you’re confident enough to invest your cash into the outcome of the game, the real adventure starts. You can play all games in a real money casino.
This is where the fun’s at! As any player will tell you, nothing beats the pure ecstasy of winning money in your favourite casino game.
But before you set your eyes on the prize, there’s a whole lot of things to consider. You want to maximise your chances of landing a lucky win while enjoying the ride too, so let’s see how to combine the best of both worlds.
DIFFERENT TYPES OF GAMES
Apart from slots, the major types of casino games are table games and lottery games. Within these categories, roulette, blackjack and scratch cards dominate the scene.
Roulette
You’d be hard-pressed to have never come across a roulette table. The darlings of brick-and-mortar casino tables and a glamorous casino symbol attributed to the James Bond franchise, roulette means “little wheel” in French.
Roulette is considered a game of chance and there’s typically no strategy or skill involved in playing it. This is why it’s viewed as the archetype of pure luck and produces wins based just on given odds.
The roulette game interface is made up of two components: the wheel and the table. Slots are coloured red and black alternately on the wheel, and the wheel is manned by a croupier in live dealer games and game software in automated roulette games. In short, the game works like this:
- Players place bets by placing their chips on segments of the roulette table that correspond to slots on the wheel.
- When the ball is thrown into the wheel, the betting window automatically closes.
- Following the randomising motion of the roulette wheel, the ball settles into one of the slots.
- This outcome determines players’ winnings, which are calculated according to the probability attached to players’ bets.
Blackjack
A mainstay of traditional and online casinos alike, blackjack is here to stay. Unlike roulette, blackjack involves a small degree of skill which can influence the outcome of the game and skew it in your favour. Blackjack is famed for being a casino game where the house edge can be decreased to a considerable low and there’s a lot of potential to beat the house on a regular basis.
Players make their bets by stacking chips in the betting square on the table, after which the dealer deals four cards: two for himself or herself, and two for the player. According to your given combination, you can then opt to hit, stand, double down, split or insurance. Each of these stand for a different action:
- Hitting means taking an additional card in the hope of increasing your total card value. Standing means not taking any additional cards and playing with the two original ones dealt to you.
- Doubling down means doubling your original bet in exchange for receiving only one additional card.
- When you split, it means you’re splitting the value of the original two cards dealt to you between two hands. To do this, you’ll need to bet the original amount again to cover the split hand.
- Insurance can be taken when the dealer’s hand shows an ace, which means that there’s a high probability of forming a blackjack. You can do this for half the original bet amount.
Scratch cards
The epitome of instant gratification, scratch cards have become staples of modern gambling. You don’t have to wait or engage in any sort of gameplay to discover whether you’re a winner with scratch cards.
Each scratch card game has its own small variations on rules, themes and graphics, with each offer a different – usually monetary – prize. Follow these basic steps to play scratch cards successfully:
- Read the rules diligently and examine the pay table and prize structure.
- Place your bet on the scratch card – the larger your bet, the greater your potential winnings.
- Use your mouse or finger to scratch the designated onscreen area to reveal the hidden symbols. Some games have an auto-scratch function.
- Check the area you’ve scratched to see if you’ve uncovered a winning combination from the ones listed in the rules and pay table.
Don’t keep pouring cash into scratch card games if you’re on a losing streak, as the instantaneous losses can quickly pile up.
APPEARANCE AND GRAPHICS
Casino games are often evaluated according to how they meet the eye. This is only natural! Casino games have flaunted their development in graphics and design over the years.
The casino games industry has come a long way from the rudimentary, pixellated slots and table games of the late 1990s that ran as slow as snails. Huge advances in animation and design technology have made way for streamlined, dynamic interfaces that compete with the best video games in the business today.
Many hardcore gamers are now turning to the online casino games industry to keep up with the latest exciting developments in the gaming world. Players don’t have to download extra programs or wait for a long time for games to load, you simply log in to your chosen casino, and play instantly. Most of the games are quick as lightning, and have been designed to offer players a fully immersive and entertaining experience – complete with compelling visuals, captivating sound and an awesome interface that greatly facilitates gameplay.
As with casinos, appearance and graphics are a metric by which you can measure the game’s worth. With a seemingly infinite supply of casino games out there, players can use their honed instincts to suss out the games whose appearance and graphics are a cut below the rest.
Although this correlation is not always foolproof, games with a stunning appearance and excellent graphics tend to be of higher quality. When enough time and dedication are put into producing a game, it generally shows!
GAMES SOFTWARE AND PLATFORMS
User experience and user interface design (UX and UI respectively) can still be considered buzzwords outside of the tech community but are essential aspects of the development of casino games to their high standard today. By constantly improving the ways players interact with the games and the overall experience of the player, game providers, developers and designers have created casino games that stimulate the player on all fronts. To achieve this, games software and platforms are crucial.
Games software is what enables games to run smoothly and efficiently on different devices and platforms, and is normally developed by game providers. Nowadays, the software of casino games is frequently built into the game interface so that it’s seamless and unnoticeable. Downloadable casino games software has become rare, although you’ll still find games that require software on the side to be played.
Game platforms, on the other hand, are technological solutions that provide the infrastructure for casino games to be published and played. Typically, smaller game providers use game platforms engineered by larger, more established game providers to launch their games when they don’t have their own resources to rely on, or it makes sense from a business perspective.
PLACING BETS (WAGERING)
Wagering is what makes casino games different from regular games. Because you can place bets in casino games and win or lose money, there’s an edge and a thrill to playing them. When real money is tied to the game’s outcome, it becomes a whole lot more gripping. The wagering element of casino games adds an extra dimension to the gameplay which is missing from the demos, but also introduces a new level of complexity. As with personal money management matters, educating yourself about betting in online casino games will help you play intelligently.
Odds
Casino game odds are the likelihood of players winning in relation to their wagering.
EXAMPLE: If you bet on the red slots of a European roulette game, your odds would be 18:37, since 18 of the 37 slots on the roulette wheel are red. When you calculate the odds as a percentage, the odds of a winning bet are approximately 48.6% (18/37 x 100 = 48.6). The odds also determine the size of the payout when you place a winning bet, although different casinos set different payout rates for their games. The same ratio applies, so if the roulette ball settles into a red slot, you’ll pocket roughly twice the size of your original bet.
This is not always the case, of course – odds are calculated as a generalised mathematical ratio, and don’t account for the lucky wins that happen in online casino games. Odds are a measure of probability for a specific casino game, but you should never use them to predict the outcomes of a casino game – even over an extensive period of time. Probabilities, although accurate, never guarantee a fixed outcome. Remember that all casino games are subject to random chance and this remains the largest factor in determining the outcome of the game.
If an online casino publishes the outcomes of its games, take advantage of this information and use it to arrive to a general estimate of the value those games offer.
House edge
Roulette, blackjack, scratch cards and all other casino games are ruled by randomness. The nature and structure of these games lends an advantage to the casino (the house). This advantage is measurable and is called the house edge. Usually denoted in percentages, the house edge describes how much the casino is expected to retain from each hand, round, or spin in the game. Simply put, it means how much the casino will win from players’ losses.
EXAMPLE: In blackjack, the dealer wins all bets from losing players – even if the dealer’s hand isn’t a winning one. On the other hand, a player only wins if his or her own hand beats that of the dealer. This is how the house edge works. In other cases, the house edge is applied in a different manner. In roulette, the casino pays slightly less than the actual odds for a given bet. The “true” odds for a single roulette number to win in a European roulette game are 1:36, since there are 37 slots in the wheel. However, the actual payout from the casino can be lowered to a rate of 1:35 to include the house edge.
The higher the house edge in casino games, the more money the casino is likely to pocket from your wagering. Opting for casino games with a lower house edge is always the better option if you want to maximise your winnings. This is how you can use your knowledge of the house edge to your advantage.
“Return to player” (RTP)
You’ll definitely come across the term “return to player” (RTP) if you frequent online casinos on a regular basis. RTP is the payout percentage of a specific online casino or game. This indicates how much of a player’s bets the casino or game is expected to pay back to the player over an extended period of time. RTP is usually used for slots but can also be applied to table and lottery games like roulette, blackjack and scratch cards.
The higher the RTP, the greater the percentage you’re expected to win back from your wagering.
EXAMPLE: A blackjack casino game with an RTP of 95% means you’d roughly receive £95 back with every £100 you bet on the game – although this will be spread out irregularly over a lengthy period. RTP can be thought of as the inverse of the house edge. For example, if a casino or game’s house edge is 3.4%, the RTP will probably be 96.6%.
How to find the best casino games for you
ENTERTAINMENT
The way you like to be entertained dictates your choice of casino games. If you like a serene and pleasant low-key atmosphere, live blackjack will tick the right boxes for you. If you prefer being entertained by jingles, colours and familiar themes, a slot game based on a slice of your favourite pop culture is for you.
Whatever your style of entertainment, be sure that there’s a casino game for you. Once you decide which sort of game fulfils your specific entertainment needs, go for it!
SKILL
Skill is not at all important when it comes to playing casino games. In fact, you’re in for a lot of fun if you’ve never played in online casinos at all until now. However, if you’re not new to online casinos or have already acquired skills from playing card games in real life, you might want to take these into account when choosing your casino game.
Some players have a natural ability for table games and will want to expand their knowledge of game strategy to widen their skillbase. In this case, playing the same game for some time makes sense – the familiarity of the game interface will be a “training ground” for you to practice in.
Highly skilled players want to be at the top of their game, so they’ll be more inclined to play casino games that allow them to flex their muscle. By contrast, players with some skill might prefer to play many different blackjack games to put their skills to practice. Others prefer games that require zero skill, so will avoid casino games involving a small degree of skill completely. It’s up to you to see what works best for you, and adapt it to your player profile.
AESTHETICS
Finally, the aesthetics of the game will make or break your gameplay. While some people are not too fussed on the appearance of casino games, for the majority it’s the crux of the experience. Considering that you’ll be interacting with the game screen for substantial periods of time, aesthetics matter.
Everyone has a different idea of what their ideal game looks like. For some, it might be a spectacular roulette table in VR, with animated characters and players included in the scene. You might warm up to the human element with a male or female live croupier dealing your cards, or have a penchant for crisp, clear game graphics in a certain colour. Game providers might also have a familiar mode of presenting their games, which becomes an aesthetic you look for.
Whatever your comfort zone is, be sure to know it and also venture outside of it every once in a while. This will help you understand what casino games appeal to you the most while still keeping you open to the fast-moving evolution of casino games out there.
Casino games with the best odds of winning
Many different factors and mechanisms underly the odds of you winning at casino games.
- Odds alone aren’t enough to accurately estimate the chances of winning at a particular game: there’s the house edge and RTP to be considered too.
- With all this taken account of, blackjack is, hands down, the casino game with the best odds of winning.
- With a structure based partially on knowledge of the game and skill, and less on pure chance, blackjack is the casino game you should master if you want the best playing field to beat the house. Blackjack has a house edge that varies between 0.3% and 2%. Depending on the player’s application of strategy and skill level, the low house edge in blackjack still gives ample opportunity to play a potentially lucrative casino game with little risk.
- After blackjack, the best online casino games to win money are baccarat, craps and roulette – in that order. Baccarat’s average house edge is around 1.06%, making it a favourable second best. Craps also has a range of different bets with a different house edge, but it comes close at an average of 1.4%. Roulette presents a wider house edge ranging from 1.35% to 5.26%, depending on the type of roulette game and the wheel layout.
So if you’re looking for the best casino game to make money, try your luck with the table games blackjack, baccarat, craps and roulette first. These are the ones that go easy on the house edge and allow you more room to use your skill to bypass the casino’s inherent advantage.
Play casino games with a bonus
Online casinos distinguish themselves from the competition (other online casinos and brick-and-mortar casinos) through their bonuses. Casino game bonuses usually consist of extra casino credit awarded to players when they first sign up at an online casino or as subsequent goodies when making deposits.
- Bonuses redeemable in roulette, blackjack and scratch cards are normally deposit match bonuses you receive when you create your player account in a new online casino. A deposit match bonus matches your deposit amount by a percentage.
EXAMPLE: If you deposit £20 in an online casino to play a blackjack game and receive a deposit match bonus of 100%, your initial deposit will be doubled (£20 + 100% of £20 = £40). You’ll start with a bankroll of £40 instead of £20, which is a good deal indeed to make your way to the blackjack table.
- Bonus casino games normally have a catch that goes by the name of wagering requirements. Wagering requirements are a betting quota you need to meet before you can withdraw any winnings earned from a bonus. Always read the game’s terms and conditions to see how the wagering requirements are set. If you don’t find enough information to form a full answer, check the casino’s terms and conditions for information about the wagering requirements for casino games.
EXAMPLE: If the same 100% deposit match bonus has a wagering requirement of 45x, for example, you’ll need to play through 45 times your original deposit amount, bonus amount or deposit and bonus amount to cash out your winnings.
With the infinite variety of casino game bonuses on offer, you can scrutinise them to select the best one for your gameplay objectives. Of course, the bigger the bonus, the more extra casino money you can use to play, but this doesn’t always mean that it’s the best option.
Get familiar with game providers
Game providers are the companies behind casino games. They create and supply the software needed for the games to run in online casinos.
These companies design and build all kinds of casino games, but may also specialise in a specific type. Each game provider will craft its own style of casino game, so game providers build a loyal following of casino fans over time.
Some game providers have a long legacy of producing top-quality casino games, so their brand name automatically conjures a seal of approval. Here are some notable examples:
- Microgaming is one of the oldest casino game providers and a father of the iGaming industry. Known for its resilience and adaptability to change in a constantly evolving gaming landscape, Microgaming has revolutionised the industry with its consistent repertoire of dazzling casino games.
- NetEnt is another world-famous titan. NetEnt continues to blow players away with its graphically advanced and reliable casino games software, game diversity, flawless cross-platform experience, bountiful bonuses and loyalty programs.
- Playtech also sits among these game provider giants. Playtech pioneered the introduction of live dealer games a few years back and still rolls out interesting offerings like the unique progressive baccarat jackpot game.
Casino game providers require a licence to supply their products to players and casinos. Reputable game providers are licensed by the Gambling Commission – these are the only ones we feature on Bojoko if you’re a player based in the UK.
Gaming licences help to regulate the industry and certify the legitimacy and quality of a game provider.
The hottest current trends in gaming
MOBILE
The ease and convenience of mobile gaming has led to a multitude of casinos and game providers that specialise in mobile casino games. Mobile casino apps facilitate the gaming experience with highly simplified and usable game interfaces accessible anywhere, at any time, without any hassle.
The advent of live dealer games on mobile is a spectacular accomplishment. You can now play a realistic game of blackjack, roulette and other table games in a fully animated atmosphere with a human croupier – all through your small, portable screen.
The magic of mobile gaming is only beginning, and game providers and casinos are poised to continue tailoring their content for mobile devices and amping up their gameplay wizardry.
VIRTUAL REALITY (VR)
Virtual reality gaming does away with the boundaries between the player and the game interface. For the first time ever, you can be present on the scene without a screen to separate you from where all the action happens.
Imagine a blackjack table with a dealer and other players gathered around a virtual table, where you can make your game moves and interact with your environment as though it were the real world. All you need is your VR equipment and a reliable connection to a VR casino to make this virtual gameplay dream come true.
VR gaming is envisioned to grow substantially in the coming years, so you can expect a great deal of innovation and investment in this extraordinary new way of playing casino games.
PROVABLY FAIR
Even though online casinos having been around for decades and regulation has grown proportionally to the industry – as well as public resources and knowledge about vetting online casinos – some players still find it difficult to trust the outcomes of casino games played online. For some, a “certifiably fair” casino isn’t enough.
Provably fair casinos solve this problem. Using blockchain technology and the same decentralised system as the cryptocurrency bitcoin, provably fair casinos and games have no way to cheat.
These elements of the blockchain can be compared to a digital fingerprinting system that can’t be corrupted by any external source due to its in-built verification method:
- The digital fingerprint is the hash function.
- If anyone or anything tries to alter the hash function, the changes will be recorded on the blockchain and can be read by any user with access to the blockchain.
- Every outcome in provably fair games can be checked by an ordinary player using a hash calculator, which confirms whether the hash values reported on the casino’s end and the player’s end actually match.
You don’t need to put blind faith into casino games’ random number generators (RNGs) or business practices. You can now opt to play casino games which you yourself can prove to be fair, and also extend this principle to your casino banking methods.
How more ingenious and secure can gameplay get? We have yet to see!