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We are GMBLRS, five long-time friends in real life and coincidentally of casino games who have been playing at online casinos for decades. This is a guide we have written from our experience to inform anyone who likes to play at online casinos or is about to get started. We hope you will find everything you were looking for and welcome any additional info you would like to share. If you want to read more about GMBLRS then a good place is our #aboutus page. If, on the other hand, you want to go straight to the point, below is our guide crafted with sweat, love and passion.

Best Online Casinos for Beginners and Experts

What is the best online casino? This is an eternal question that nobody can really answer in full, simply because a gaming experience is very subjective. And even on a site where you will find all things that you are looking for, there might be a bad experience waiting to happen. And where you will feel well-treated and comfortable might not be the same for your friends or other players.

For these reasons, we divided this guide into three parts. The best online casinos for beginners, the favourite picks of our GMBLRS members and finally a combination of the above for our UK visitors and members.

Just so you know, all our reviews and star ratings are based on the ratings given by our members. Hence, we as administrators do not define between ourselves what a five or three-star online casino is!

After playing at online casinos for more than 15 years, it is rather easy to forget the most important questions for a beginner. In order for a newbie to have a good first experience, the responsibility lies clearly with the operator. These picks below are made from those casinos where we know for a fact that new casino player will be received with open arms and assisted in a professional way if there are any problems. Hence, the most important criteria for selecting these brands were the level of customer service and the usability of the site from a beginner’s point of view.

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Welcome to the crème de la crème of all our listed casino brands as rated by our GMBLRS community. Every member and visitor can leave once a star rating and comment for each casino we feature on our site and we are proud to present you with their favourite choices. All ratings are recorded and an average calculated. Those scoring best make it into our exclusive listing.

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This is our second member-based listing. While they might not have the highest star ratings, they are the most talked-about gaming hangouts within our community. It provides a good impression as to where our members enjoy their gaming sessions very often and their experiences.

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To launch a new online casino take time, money and effort. The teams spent months in advance to carefully plan everything from game choice to loyalty program to ensure a smooth launch. Due to our extensive industry network, we are able to be among the first to hear about new planned openings and will be adding them to our list the soon they pass our vetting process, giving our readers the chance to be among the first to sign-up and enjoy special welcome bonuses.

Browse through our list of the latest online casinos that have just opened their doors to the gambling public. We have a healthy mix of completely new operators and the latest brands from established casino groups, each with a generous welcome package eager to offer players an exhilarating gaming experience.

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Keep an eye on this section as these casinos are preparing to launch soon. Rest assured that we have done a stringent vetting to make sure they are legit, are being run by competent people and they have acquired the appropriated licenses for their operation.

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Pay&Play is a relatively new concept that surfaced in 2017 and has since grown exponentially as it offers a no-hassle gaming experience that does not require registration as such. Players simply deposit via Trustly or Swish, who take care of the identification checks, letting players head straight for the games section to enjoy their favourites.

Withdrawals are instant or at worst near-instant as they are transferred back to the depositing bank account within minutes of being requested. Currently, Pay&Play is mainly available in Sweden, Finland and Germany with plans to add more countries in the near future. Some casinos offer a hybrid model with Pay&Play in the eligible countries and standard account registration for the rest of the world.

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Finding the right casino is not always an easy task. Players have different expectations as to how an exhilarating gaming experience should look like. Mobile-first, focussed on an adventure map or rather plain bonuses, loyalty program and more need to be considered before we call a casino our gaming home so to speak. We compiled a few groups based on specific criteria to assist you in your search for a new favourite hangout.

Casino adventure – Play and pick freebies

Gamification is a rather new word in casino speak that has gained in momentum as the rising number of online gaming sites try to distinguish themselves from the rest of the crowd. Many decided to offer players an adventure-like experience where their activity at the casino is rewarded with a variety of extras. You collect valuables, belts, freebies and much more by signing up to these sites. Below is a selection that have focused their offering on gamification.

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If somebody told us just 10 years ago that one day everyone would have a casino in his or her pocket, we would have laughed it off as an April fool’s joke. Well, it is not as today’s smartphones have advanced so much that we can play casino games virtually anywhere as long as we have a data connection. Some operators went as far as developing their own app for smartphones and tablets while others created a mobile version of their desktop sites that offers all compatible slots and games. Below is a compiled list of casinos with a focus on mobile gaming.

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Do you prefer to face a real person on the other side of the table when you place your chips? Then Live Casinos are the closest you will get to a visit at a brick-and-mortar casino. Choose between a wide range of Roulette, Blackjack, Baccarat tables and then sit down in the comfort of your home to enjoy your favourite. Mobile players are welcome too as the games are available on virtually any mobile device.

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Loyalty programs are a firm part of a casino experience where players are rewarded for their activity at a gaming hangout. From signing-in to placing bets or spinning the reels, there is a large variety of activities casino operators are taking as criteria for their programs.

The most basic ones will get you points for every bet made which you can exchange for casino chips that can be cash or bonus money. At the same time, you might advance on a series of levels from basic to VIP that will get you increasingly more generous benefits.

Others are more elaborate and offer a range of rewards alongside cash/bonus chips. You will find free/bonus spins at a variety of bet levels, merchandise such as t-shirts, watches, mobile phones and exclusive experiences like luxury holidays, tickets to events and concerts.

VIP programs – How to become VIP casino player

VIP programs are an integral part in player retention for landbased and online casino operators alike. It recognizes loyal and high-stakes players that usually are responsible for the bulk of their turnover and revenues. Hence, it is only normal that those players are getting the special attention to entice them to stay with a casino.

Virtually every operator has a separate department that is tasked to take care of this group of players. Armed with special and bigger offers for bonuses, complimentary chips better known as comps, expedited withdrawals, higher limits, invitations to special events and other goodies, the VIP hosts do their best to keep their VIP players happy and thus returning to their casino.

If you are a high-stakes player, we recommend approaching the customer support at a casino to enquire about their program and the prerequisites for joining it. Very often, they will welcome you directly into their VIP program after an initial assessment.

Important for our UK readers to know are the latest changes casino operators agreed with the Gambling Commission with regards to VIP programs. As per January 2020, no players below the age of 25 shall be allowed to join such programs while those being invited have to undergo thorough checks known as Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD). A full audit trail is now required with all decisions regarding VIP players being authorized by senior staff at a casino.

Shops and loyalty points for all customers

Most casinos offer a loyalty program for their players where every bet will see you collecting points. These can be exchanged in a shop-like section for a variety of rewards including cash/bonus chips, free/bonus spins and other goodies. If you prefer playing at such sites, then we recommend browsing through the sites below as they all offer a loyalty program.

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Online casinos come in an endless variety that makes it sometimes difficult to find the one that best fits your style and budget. Are you looking for specific game providers or payment method? Is maybe the licence important or a large welcome package? You can use our advanced search tool to browse through our complete list and compare a range of casinos that will assist you in finding the best gaming destination.

Players from Finland may want to visit nettikasinot-suomi.com instead or the page “luotettavat suomalaiset nettikasinot“. Players from Finland may want to visit Suomen-Kasinot.com.

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Just like in any other business area, there are comings and goings. New hangouts open their doors and others are shut down for various reasons. Below is a list of the most recent online casinos that have ceased their operations.

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While most online casinos are regulated and operate under licenses from various authorities such as the MGA Malta, Gibraltar Gambling Commissioner, the Swedish Spelinspektionen and the UK Gambling Commission to name just a few, there is still an enormous number of so-called rogue casinos that prey on gamblers without any or little intention to pay winnings in a timely fashion or at all. These are the online casino you have to stay away to avoid losing your hard-earned cash without any chance whatsoever to enjoy any potential winnings.

At GMBLRS we list only thoroughly vetted online casinos that have been tested for various criteria before we add them to our site. That includes among others number of games, withdrawal time frames, licenses, customer support availability and responsiveness, years in operation and existing player complaints. Each casino is then assigned a rating to give you a clear guide which are the best casinos. The ratings are kept up-to-date in real time as all readers can submit their own score from 1-5 stars. Thus the current score will reflect how the casino is faring among players.

How to spot a roque online casino? There are a few distinct pointers that we encountered ourselves in our past gaming adventures and some that are straigh-up indication that a casino is not kosher.

The first point of call should always be a licence check. All UK-licensed casino will have a UKGC logo at the bottom of their main page which will have a link that will redirect you to the license page at the Gambling Commission. By the way, the same applies for all other legal jurisdictions. Always make sure that the licence is active and there are no restrictions placed on it. The reason why the licence is so important is the fact that such casinos have to adhere to stringent regulations for responsible gambling, social responsibility, fairness of the games and more. So always make sure to play at only those casinos that have a valid licence.

Avoid casinos that hide their license or business entity which is the owner/operator of the casino. There will be little you can do if you play at such places and then they refuse to pay your winnings.

The next thing to check is whether the games are legit, does the casino publish official RTP values and have they been audited by a reputable testing house. Every legit casino will have their games audited at regular intervals to make sure they run random as required and produce fair results for players.

Fake games are not always easy to detect, especially because some fakers are really good at what they are doing. In general, load a game in fun mode, hover your mouse over it and right-click to see a menu open up. Select “Inspect Element” and a raw code window will open up. Scroll down to find the game server on which the game is running, e.g. for NetEnt it has a domain ending in “casinomodule.com”. All legit casinos will have their games running from that server.

We highly recommend to stay away from casinos that accept players from a country but do not have a proper licence, e.g. taking UK players but only have a Curacao licence. There is little or no player protection should things get awry.

We mainly recommend playing at casinos that have an official license from your own country. If this is not possible, general licenses such as MGA and the Estonian license are good. For example, a good site for Finns is the Estonian license site viron-kasinot.com.

Here at GMBLRS, we are also monitoring the world wide web for reports about stalled or non-payments, unresponsive customer support or fake games. Our list of approved casinos is updated regularly to make sure they are all still valid and good choices to enjoy your favourite games. Similarly, we keep a list of rogues where we recommend to stay away.

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1. How do Online Casinos work?

Online casinos are service providers listing a range of slot and games you can play either in fun or real mode. The games are hosted on the servers of the game developers and directly integrated on the casino page or via a so-called aggregator. When you play any game, the casino is taking your bet and sends a request to the respective game server, which will return a random result back and display it on your screen. The process is repeated every time you press spin or deal. Payments are made to the casino which will also handle potential withdrawals.

2. How to play at Online Casinos?

Playing at online casinos is nowadays easy and hassle free. What started in the late 1990s as a niche offering is today part of everyday life just like ordering from Amazon or watching Netflix. It is also safe due to secure connection protocols, tax-free in selected countries and absolutely legal in most western countries, including the United Kingdom.All is quite simple, you only have to create an account with one of the available online casinos, deposit funds and you are ready to play. It works even faster with so-called Pay N Play casino where verification is done via BankID without the need to register an account. You can find the best of both, standard and instant casinos in our extensive list of tested casinos.Funding your casino account can be done with several payment methods, the list has continuously increased in the last two decades. You can use debit/credit cards, e-wallets, prepaid cards, pay-by-phone solutions, instant banking, cryptocurrencies and the standard bank transfer. If you do not want to risk your own money, there are ways to still enjoy the games. You can play them in Fun mode with virtual credits or better, make use of no-deposit promotions for free spins or credits some casinos offer you to give their games a spin. For the best deals simply check our casino listings.All online casinos will require identification in order to among other things prevent minors from playing real money games. Instant Pay N Play Casinos will not ask for verification as that is all done via the BankID. Worth noting is that any winnings have to be withdrawn by using the same method as for the deposit or via bank transfer after you verified your bank account. At some casino, cashouts are either instant or near-instant, especially for e-wallets. With other methods, you could be looking at 24-48 hours on weekdays for a withdrawal to be processed. The best online casinos will execute even big withdrawals going into five and six figures in a timely fashion.It all looks and is mostly very easy and straightforward. You can always find answers to questions you might have here at GMBLRS on the posting board or in the chat. Don't hesitate to ask as each of us opened his or her first online casino account at some point.

3. How to win at Online Casinos?

As much as we would like to have a strategy on how to win at online casino, there is none. A casino offers games of chance with a built-in house edge. On a lucky day, you will come out ahead but in the long term the casino will always win due to the house edge.

4. How to beat online casino slot machines?

Similarly, there is simply no strategy on how to beat slot machines. Today's games are complex pieces of software that run on an average Return-To-Player rate (RTP) that is measured over billions and billions of spins. Any round you play will generate a random result that will be either a loss or a win. There is no way to predict what the next spin will produce. We however recommend to always play within your means and keep your bet sizes to a level you can afford. Anyone trying to sell you a slot-beating strategy is a fraudster.

5. How to start an online casino?

Starting your own online casino is no easy feat. First, you will need the financial backing which in today's regulated markets requires to be at least a few million. Second, you will need a name that is still available as a domain and then, of course, careful planning of all other steps that will allow you to open the doors of your gambling site.

6. How much does it cost to start an online casino?

As mentioned earlier, it costs millions to start an online casino. Although the final amount depends on whether you will set-up your own platform or use so-called white label providers. They offer the total package from the front to the back end that a casino operation needs including games, payments, customer support, compliance etc.

7. How to win at Online Roulette?

Roulette is probably the most popular table game in the world and has been around for centuries. Yet, there is still no fool-proof strategy to win as it is basically a game of chance. You place your bets on one or more numbers, colour or a range of numbers and hope for a lucky moment once the wheel starts turning. There are some strategies such as Martingale or Fibonacci but none are fool-proof nor a guarantee to see you win. Remember, the casino is there to make money, so they will always have a house edge.

8. What is a good online casino?

The decision as to what makes a good online casino is very subjective. What is defining for some, might not be for others. In general, you should always look for a casino that has a large game choice, proper licenses, plenty of promotions, if possible 24/7 live chat, fast payments and a loyalty program. If a casino checks all or most of the boxes, then you are bound to have an entertaining gaming experience, however, never forget, you can't always win.

9. What is best online casino?

Just like with the question of a good online casino, classifying one as the best is in the eye of the beholder. What works for some might not for others. At the end of the day, we can only recommend casinos based on our experience/reviews and player reports, the decision whether it is the best for you is then yours to make.

10. Which online casino is the safest?

Generally, all casinos with a UKGC or other major licence are safe to play as they have to adhere to stringent regulations. However, for UK players there is one more item that should be checked. The UKGC requires casino operators to keeps player funds separate from company funds and for that has three classifications - basic, medium and high. While the first means that funds are held in segretated accounts they are not protected in the event of insolvency. Only the latter two offer that protection.Further, you should always check that the entire site is using secure encryption (https in front of the domain) to make sure your details are protected.

11. What online casino pays the best?

There is no difference between casinos when it comes to who is paying best. The games are hosted on separate servers that belong to the game providers and not the operators, hence, a casino has no influence on the outcome of the spin/round. You could see a casino as the middleman between you and the game servers.