The Best Online Casino Sites in the UK for December, 2024

UK Casino Reviews - What Did Our Experts Think?

Let's take an in-depth look at our picks for the top 5 UK online casino sites! By the time we’re done, we’re sure you’ll know which one is right for you!

Pub Casino

Topping our list, to the surprise of some no doubt, is Pub Casino. As one of the newer gambling brands in the UK, you may not think it has the experience and resources to top many lists of the best casino sites, but we were impressed! Pub Casino hosts all of your favourite games in classic and live dealer options, and all on an intuitive website that has a distinctive theme based on a UK pub. We especially love the super fast transactions, with options for same-day payouts and plenty of other choices so you can better control your spending. The icing on top is Pub Casino’s fantastic app, available on both iOS and Android devices, so you can take your games on the go or just play in a way that is most convenient for you!

Neptune Play

Next, we’re looking at Neptune Play. This site isn’t such a heavy hitter in the way that other sites on our list are, but we wanted to recommend it to you all the same. This simple site hides a surprisingly large and high-quality game library with titles from all of your favourite developers, including NetEnt, Play’n GO and Games Global. Neptune Play also prioritises user safety, employing strong security across the site and, in particular, encrypting transactions to ensure data stays away from prying eyes. 

Neptune Play is far from the most sophisticated casino we’ve taken a look at, and lacks some important features like effective game filtering, as right now, all of its games are displayed as a single block of thumbnails. But playing here is rewarding and easy, offering a fantastic option to new players who just want to be guided to the most popular games and have a good time.

bet365 Casino

bet365 is a site that hardly needs an introduction thanks to its international success and dominating presence in the online gambling industry. bet365 has one of the most attractive and slick websites that makes playing an intuitive experience while remaining recognisable. You’ll find more than 1000 games on offer at bet365, including classic slots, blackjack, roulette, and live dealer titles, as well as less common games like Slingo and crash games. There’s even a bet365 originals collection that covers all of these categories and more while maintaining stunning quality for site original titles. 

Add to this the plethora of payment options, fast transactions and top-tier site security, and this site is a slam dunk every time. However, we believe that the introduction of some kind of loyalty scheme would be the factor that could push the site that little bit further. 

Jackpot City

Jackpot City hasn’t been in the UK for very long, but it’s been an international brand for well over 20 years by now! And this experience really shines through in the quality of the site. The website is clean, attractive, and easy to navigate, and it houses a fantastic variety of games. While the library itself is smaller than some of the competition, with a few hundred titles rather than a few thousand, Jackpot City is much more selective with its games. Each title comes from a top developer like Pragmatic Play or Games Global, so you can be assured any game you try will be top quality.

Unfortunately, for all of Jackpot City’s quality as a casino, it supports very few payment options, with only debit cards and PayPal available. The customer support was also lacklustre, with the contact buried within the FAQ section and only a live chat to choose from. We were very pleased with the site and will happily recommend it to anyone, but if you need to use specific payment options or value fast customer support, look somewhere else.

Netbet Casino

Netbet Casino is a lesser-known site than some of the others we’ve discussed. It hasn’t been around for very long, and for most of its existence, it’s focused on sports betting. However, now that it’s properly made a place for itself among the top casino sites, we’re glad to welcome it. There are hundreds of fantastic games to choose from, all brought to you by fantastic developers, including less prolific developers like ELK Studios and Hacksaw Gaming. We also love that Netbet values customer experience, offering plenty of payment options, fast transactions and even dedicated mobile apps! 

Sometimes, Netbet Casino does run into a few more issues than other sites, and we encountered some slower loading times, especially at peak times. However, the size helped the site maintain a more personal quality, which we really appreciated. It may be a little smaller than your regular site and not quite so prestigious, but it’s a fantastic option nonetheless.

Criteria for Choosing the Best Online Casino

To place on our top five list, online casinos must meet the high standards our experts hold them to when judging. Here’s a look at some of the criteria our experts look for in every candidate.

Licensing and Regulation

Every UK online casino is legally required to have a licence from the UKGC or another approved regulatory body, like the MGA or GBGA. A licence proves that a casino site meets the UK casino laws, is free from criminal activity and protects vulnerable parties. It also ensures your rights as a player are met, like receiving cashouts. We wouldn’t even think of recommending a site without the appropriate licences. 

Game Selection

To be considered one of the best online casinos in the UK, each site should offer a diverse selection of games from the leading software providers. We place more emphasis on quality and variety than on quantity, so a site doesn’t need thousands of games to be in the running — although we never dislike seeing that. Games we expect to see include slot games, blackjack, baccarat, roulette, poker, live dealer casino games and more. 

Bonuses and Promotions

Online casinos have the advantage of easy-to-access promotional offers. Online casinos can offer bonuses to make their customers feel valued, as advertising, or to encourage players to return time and again. The best bonuses should be easy to find and claim, and there should be decent options so users can tailor their casino experience. Popular bonuses include free spins, reload bonuses, VIP schemes and cashback. 

Payment Methods

Preferably, a casino site will host two major transfer methods aside from direct bank transfers, including debit cards, e-wallets, prepaid cards and pay-by-mobile. A top casino site will support a satisfactory range of payment options so users can make transfers using a method available to them. If a new user can’t even make the first deposit, that’s an automatically lost customer. And we expect all payment options to be secure and encrypted.

Customer Support

The best UK casino sites need a reliable customer support system. We don’t expect sites to work flawlessly 100% of the time, but customers must be able to contact a support agent without much effort. The help itself should always be helpful, responsive and manned by humans, as AI help bots tend to be unhelpful and leave customers feeling unvalued. Additionally, every site should have a satisfactory number of contact channels so customers can use the support regardless of what’s available to them. This might include live chat, email and telephone contacts.

User Experience

All this and more combine to inform our impression of the overall user experience. All features of the website should function well and without disturbing your gaming. On a more literal level, we also expect the site to have an attractive website that makes browsing through the game libraries simple and hassle-free. The best sites will also offer mobile app alternatives that streamline the casino experience and allow you to take it on the go.

LiveScore Casino Review Process

A lot goes into the reviewing process here at LiveScore. Our experts put each casino through rigorous tests and look for all of their top criteria, but the actual testing part of the review is only the beginning! Here’s a glimpse of the journey our experts take to reach the list of the top UK online casinos

1. Test the Online Casino — While it’s just the beginning, the first step is always opening up the casino for ourselves and giving it a go. For casinos, we’ll claim and evaluate the welcome bonus, play a few of the games (exploring all types to ensure they all work well), and, if we get the chance, we like to test out withdrawals too. 

2. Assess Player Reviews — While hands-on experience is important, the general experience of other players is always valuable information. So we look through the customer reviews (being sure to take all 1 and 5-star reviews with a pinch of salt) and try to get a feel for the public’s overall opinion. 

3. Compare and Contrast the Casino Against Others — For lists like these, we can be comparing dozens of sites, so once we’ve looked through the site itself, we take those notes and compare them against the other sites we’re considering.

4. Create our Comprehensive Review — With our decisions in place and thoughts solidified, it’s time to get writing! This is when we write the words you end up reading, doing our best to remain unbiased and to provide clear, concise and genuinely helpful information.

5. Get the Review Fact Checked — The final step is ensuring our articles are accurate. Our writers are all human, so they make mistakes from time to time. This is why it’s important to have a fact checker review the content and search for errors, so we can guarantee the articles we show you are 100% true and trustworthy.

Pros and Cons of UK Online Casinos

Pros

• You can play thousands of casino games from the comfort of your home

• Online casinos offer generous bonuses that let you win real money

• Mobile options mean you can take your casino on the go with you

• You can win real money when you play at an online casino

• UK casinos are all licenced and safe under strict legal regulation

Cons

• Online casinos lose the social aspect of in-person gambling

• Online gambling can be particularly dangerous for problem gamblers

Casino Bonuses and Promotions

You can claim many bonuses from online casinos, but there’s so much variety that newcomers may not understand what they’re claiming. So we’ve broken down the most popular bonuses available and explained some of their key terms and conditions.

Types of Bonuses

• Welcome Bonus — This is the first and most generous bonus you’ll receive at an online casino. They come in all shapes and sizes, but the most common is a deposit match bonus, where you receive funds proportional to how much you deposit. 

• Free Spins — A free spin lets you spin a slot game without wagering any of your own money. You can win real money from these spins, but they aren’t usually worth a lot. Free spins are super popular and the most common type of casino bonus. For more information on the best free spins no deposit bonuses in the UK right now, click here.

• Reload Bonus — When you make a regular deposit into your account, a reload bonus will top you up with bonus funds directly proportional to how much you put into your account, around 10–20%. Usually available once a week, but it depends on the casino.

• Cashback — When luck isn’t on your site, cashback bonuses return a portion of your losses from the previous week as bonus funds. Even better, most cashback bonuses don’t have wagering requirements. 

• Refer-a-friend — If a friend signs up using a referral code/link you give them, when they register and deposit a certain amount into their new account, both of you can receive excellent bonuses! You can redeem this multiple times but with diminishing returns.

Terms and Conditions

• Wagering Requirements (WR) — This is the number of times you need to wager the total value of your bonus before you’re allowed to withdraw any winnings from it. You have to meet them before the bonus expires. 

• Max Win Limit — Some bonuses limit how much you can withdraw from any winnings you make; this is called the maximum win limit. Look for bonuses that have high win limits or none at all.

• Time Limits — A bonus won’t hang around indefinitely, and you’ll have a limited amount of time to claim and use it. You’ll need to meet the wagering requirements within this time. 

• Game Exclusion — When playing with and wagering your bonus, you’ll have to bet it on games, but not all games will be compatible. Usually, this just means that if you play certain games, it won’t contribute 100% (or anything) to the WR. 

• Valid Payment Options — Even if a casino supports all the payment options in the world, they can’t all be used to claim a bonus. If your bonus needs a deposit, look in the T&Cs to find out which methods will work (typically debit cards).

Online Casino Games

UK online casinos can host thousands of games of all types! This variety is one of online gambling’s greatest strengths, as you can play whatever you want whenever you want. Here’s a look at some of the most popular kinds of games you’ll find online:

• Slots — The most common games at online casinos are slot games, as they’re abundant and easy to develop. You can find upwards of a thousand at most online casinos nowadays, and new slots are released every month! Most promos are geared towards slots players.

• Blackjack — The most popular card game in the world is obviously going to have plenty of online equivalents. If you’ll find any table game at an online casino, it’ll be blackjack. 

• Baccarat — A popular French game that’s seen many iterations. In its most popular form, baccarat is a fantastic fit for online play thanks to its being controlled by the dealer.

• Roulette — An iconic casino game that translates excellently to online gambling. You’ll find rooms with both American and European wheels at almost every casino.

• Poker — While poker is a little harder to capture in online play, online poker offers a whole new way to play that’s just as fun! You’ll find poker games at casino sites, but a larger selection at dedicated poker sites.

• Live Dealer —  A newer way to play online casino games, live dealer games have you play classic games through a live stream with a human dealer.

Popular Casino Payment Methods

UK online casinos support various payment methods, but they all tend to fall into one of a handful of categories. Here’s a look at what each one is and what you can expect from using them.

• Debit Cards — The most common payment method. Cards like Visa and Mastercard can be used at almost every casino, are super reliable and can facilitate withdrawals. However, they tend to be slower than most other methods.

• E-wallets — Internet-based transaction methods like PayPal, Skrill and Neteller are the fastest payment methods, are very secure and even support withdrawals. But they have low transaction limits.

• Prepaid Card — These let you make deposits from a card you’ve put money on ahead of time, and you can’t deposit more than there is on the card. This is an excellent option if you’re trying to limit how much you spend, but these don’t allow for withdrawals.

• Pay-by-mobile — In the UK, we can add casino deposits to the end of our phone bills. Play now and pay later. However, you can only make tiny deposits, with a max of £30 a day, and it doesn’t allow for withdrawals. 

• Direct Bank Transfer — The default payment method at online casinos; use this method to transfer money without any middlemen. This method can transfer almost unlimited amounts of money but tends to be the slowest option available. 

Mobile Casinos in the UK

For a long time, mobile casino apps were viewed as an inferior product to the main website, often running slower and with fewer games in the library. But this isn’t the case anymore. Mobile apps offer streamlined, convenient casino gaming with all the same features you love from the website. Some mobile apps even have exclusive bonuses to convince you to try the app out. Not all sites support an app, and in that case, you’ll have to turn to their mobile websites. These are more direct translations of their websites. 

Mobile gaming can be very convenient, but it isn’t for everyone. Separating your gambling time by allocating a location to it is healthy, after all. However, if you don’t own a regular PC, with just a phone or tablet to access the internet through, mobile casino apps will be your dream come true.

Customer Support

A good customer support service can act as the foundation of a high-quality online casino site. Things will inevitably go wrong, and this is where we turn to get them fixed, so we expect it to be an easy task. The best support systems will have multiple points of contact, including live chat, SMS, email, telephone and social media DMs. The support itself should then be friendly, prompt, and preferably handled by a human. All of this can help a user feel valued and respected and will inevitably lead to good reviews.

Responsible Gambling

Thanks to the legal importance of responsible gambling, the UK is one of the safest countries for gambling. All online casinos are required to host appropriate responsible gambling tools, helplines, and to track activity to make sure customers aren’t spending wildly out of their means.

As much as sites are legally obliged to protect users, there’s also a burden of responsibility on us as users to play in a healthy way. So, never be afraid to use the tools available, regardless of your relationship to gambling — deposit limits, time outs, and reality checks are not to be underestimated and can significantly improve your experience. Also, take regular breaks and try to let someone know when you’re playing so they can check up on you. 

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Are online casinos legal in the UK?

Online gambling is legal in the UK as long as the gambling site holds appropriate licencing from the UKGC.

What is the safest online casino in the UK?

Any online casino licenced by the UKGC is guaranteed to be safe, but if you need some specific options, you can check out our top five at the top of this article.

How do I know if an online casino is fair?

All UK online casinos must undergo independent fairness testing by a testing house like eCOGRA or iTech Labs. If you see their logo at the bottom of the screen, you know it’s fair.

Can I win real money at UK online casinos?

Yes, UK online casinos let you wager and win real money. 

What are wagering requirements? 

This is the number of times you need to wager the total value of a bonus before you can withdraw any money made from it as cash. At casinos, this will usually be around 40x.