Welcome to the lecture hall: UK casino reviews
Take a seat! Here at Casino Professor, we’ve been busy monitoring the UK’s biggest casino sites so you don’t have to do all the heavy lifting yourself. Our expert reviews cover all the core subjects—from finding the most lucrative welcome bonuses to the science of securing fast payouts.
However, the Professor doesn’t just like the sound of his own voice; he listens to the student body too. Below, you can find actual peer reviews left by players who have tested these sites in the real world. We provide all the information to help you decide where to play, but we highly encourage you to read the firsthand findings of your classmates before you sign up.
Peer reviews and student field notes
How to leave your own casino review
- Internet
- Smartphone, tablet, or computer
1. Select to write your own review
At the top of the casino review page, you can select to leave a comment which will jump you down the page. Alternatively, you can scroll down yourself.
2. Write your comments in the box provided
You can then write your honest opinion – feel free to be as detailed as you want. You must leave a name and email address in order for the comment to be accepted. Your email address won’t be shown.
3. Wait for your review to be approved
You then need to wait for us to approve your comment. We will do this as soon as possible.
4. Your comment will then be shown
Once approved, your comment will then be visible to all users who visit that review page. Other users can then reply to your comment if they want to.
The Professor’s marking criteria: How we grade UK casinos
What do we look for in our real money casino reviews? Bonus spins, deposit bonus, max free spins winnings only? No, when we publish online casino reviews UK, we always try to look at the casino site as a whole. Don’t just focus on one thing. This allows us to give a proper online casino rating.
Licence and website
Real money UK online casinos are regulated. This means that not every online casino can just go online and start accepting customers from the UK. Online casinos that have a valid licence from the UK Gambling Commission are allowed to operate real money games in the UK. Any site without this licence IS NOT legally allowed to operate in the UK. So you should only play at licensed UK casino sites.
All UK casinos that we review on our site have the proper UK licence. This means they are perfectly legal and legit sites to play at.
We do not list any UK online casino that does not have the British licence.
We always include information about the casino’s UK licence within our reviews. This gives you a bit more information about who owns and operates the site.
But you can find licence information at the bottom of the casino website itself – as shown in the example image above. You can also check whether the licence is valid from the Gambling Commission using the search function available on their site:
UK Gambling Commission website information
The casino site needs to be up to date. This means that it is quick and easy to navigate on the page and players can find their favorite casino games easily. Since most internet users nowadays use mobile devices more, we want to see great mobile casinos – not just a nice page on the desktop.
Gambling sites sometimes have a dedicated app available for mobile users. In all our casino reviews, we explain how each website looks on all devices – along with the features you’ll be able to find.
Registration process (account verification)
Online casinos in the UK need to verify their customer before they can allow gambling for real money online to happen. This means they need to verify the age and identity of each player.
When doing all our UK online casino reviews, we’ve needed to fill in a registration form using our personal details – such as name, date of birth, address, and more. This is non-negotiable. Make sure to provide the correct information when doing this.
But do you always need to send ID documents to prove your identity? Not always.
That’s because every site will try to be a no verification casino UK. This is when you are verified automatically with no documents being required. This is the best outcome as you can start to play straight away.
But sometimes the account cannot be automatically verified – as shown here:
You are then requested to send ID documents such as proof of address and identity.
After you successfully provide the required documents, the account is verified and you can make real money payments in and out of the casino.
We make sure to explain the entire verification process within each casino review. So you’ll know exactly what kind of information and documents that you might be asked to provide. You can also get further information about this process on the casino’s website or by asking their customer support.
Payment methods and payouts
There are many different casino payment methods for UK players. Casinos must offer a decent variety so you can choose your preferred method to deposit and withdraw real money.
All of our best casino reviews have the most popular payment options for British players.
For example, PayPal is a very popular choice in the UK and has been for years. It offers fast, easy, and safe transactions that don’t share any sensitive information. We wrote articles for the Liverpool Echo and Manchester Evening News explaining why PayPal is the recommended payment method at UK online casinos:
You can view our list of PayPal casinos for the best options currently available.
Other e-wallets are also popular in Britain. One of the most widely used is MuchBetter where you can store money to deposit at a casino in seconds via their app. There are a lot of online casinos that accept MuchBetter too so you have a range of options to choose from. If you’re lucky enough to win while playing then any withdrawals are processed very quickly using this e-wallet.
There are other options besides e-wallets too. For example, one type of site that’s becoming more popular with British players recently is the instant bank transfer casino. Although pretty much all online casinos have bank transfers available, only a few accept these payments instantly. That’s because this technology is quite new and is usually powered using a service like Trustly. So we are now updating our casino reviews based on whether their bank transfer speeds are instant or not.
When it comes to payouts, pretty much all UK players want to play at casinos that pay out quickly. Slow withdrawals are one of the most common complaints within the real player casino reviews from our readers. So we test exactly how long a casino’s average withdrawal time is from start to finish to give you an idea of how long you’ll need to wait. Our research on this has been featured on Mirror.co.uk:
You can view the fastest payout casinos that we’ve tested to get access to your winnings quickly.
Online casino bonus reviews
Most sites offer UK casino deposit bonuses to new British players who sign up. Many of them look good on the face of it – big amounts of extra money, free spins, etc. But all of them have terms and conditions attached. It’s these terms that decide what the most attractive offers are – not how big the bonus is.
Our UK online casino reviews show you the significant terms and conditions of a bonus.
But we also do an honest breakdown of the terms and conditions to explain how likely it is that you’ll actually win real money from the bonus.
The most important part of an online casino bonus is the wagering requirements. This determines how difficult it will be to turn your bonus money into real cash.
The lower the wagering, the better. Many of the best online casino reviews listed above are even no wagering casinos. These sites are very popular because all wins are paid out as real money straight away, as we explained in our article on WalesOnline:
Other important terms include:
- Qualifying deposit amount (the minimum you need to deposit your own money)
- Active bonus time (Bonus is active only for a certain amount of days. After that bonus funds expire)
- Max bonus bet (Maximum bet is capped, usually 5 pounds per spin on slots)
- Bonus excluded on certain games (eg. live casino games don’t contribute towards wagering)
The deposit bonus is commonly available in most casinos for new players. But some casinos offer free spins for new players too (these are sometimes known as bonus spins in the UK). This allows you to play slots without depositing any of your own money first. We will always make it clear what the casino is offering in full.
Online slots & games review
Casino sites mainly offer slots as they are the most popular casino games at the moment. The best online casinos have a wide selection of slots (from multiple providers). This allows them to offer the biggest casino games that are available to UK players.
Live casino games are very popular as well. Evolution Gaming is the biggest provider of live casino games and is hence commonly seen on most online casinos. Some casino sites might still have a better live casino product despite having the games from the same provider as the other online casino. Because Evolution Gaming sells dedicated live casino tables that are branded to a certain casino and cannot be accessed from another network. LeoVegas for example has its own branded live casino tables.
Customer support
All licenced British casinos have English support available. Most of the top online casinos have support available around the clock (24/7) – but not all. If a site does not have 24/7 support then we will mention this in our casino review to let you know.
Usually, support is available via live chat but some casino sites also offer email and phone support. Some even continue to accept letters sent by customers which is the slowest method possible to get help.
Most casino sites also have an extensive FAQ section that provides answers quickly to the most common issues faced by players. So if the issue you’re facing can be seen as somewhat “generic”, you might want to first head to the FAQ section to see, if there is a quick answer already available.
Responsible gambling
Best online casinos take responsible gambling seriously and offer players tools to control their gambling online. These tools can be:
- Time limits on gambling
- Deposit limits on gambling
- Self-assessment tests
The UK has a national gambling helpline (GamCare) available as well that helps people in need. If you or someone you know might have a gambling problem and need help, you can get in touch by talking to them now.
Active development and innovation
It’s important to keep up with the times and actively develop the casino product. The website should be updated regularly to make sure the design matches modern web development. MrQ has done a good job of this since launching in 2018, as shown in the image above.
Casinos should also give users what they want. New slots are popping up left and right and players expect to be able to play them. An online casino needs to actively add new games to the selection and make these games available to the users. Listen to the feedback and improve your product.
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