Best Online Casinos for Real Money Casino Games in 2021

San Diego Magazine
 
Best Online Casinos for Real Money Casino Games in 2021
Wild Casino

The list of the best online casinos is always changing, thanks to the fact that casino sites are working hard to/ add new games and bigger and better bonuses.

Moreover, new real money online casinos are being designed to offer exciting new experiences alongside even better bonuses and promos.

The good news is we’ve kept on top with all the latest developments, and created this up-to-date article that showcases the best online casinos available to play at today. 

How to Identify a Good Online Casino Site

  1. Licensing and Security- Every casino in our list is fully licensed, safe and secure to use, and abides by the ethics of fair play.
  2. Game Variety- We know that online gamblers all have different preferred games, which is why we made it a point to add casinos that have as many game variety as possible.
  3. Bonuses - We were on the lookout for the best online casino bonuses in terms of their size, their frequency, as well as the wagering requirements. Types of bonuses include deposit bonuses, free spins, reload bonuses and more.
  4. Payment methods - Lastly, we made sure that the online casinos we chose offer a variety of payment methods so that most players are catered for, no matter what your preferred banking methods are.

Best Online Casinos Reviewed

1. Ignition - Top Online Casino For Poker 

  • Guaranteed daily tournaments 
  • High volume of poker players
  • Soft poker site

Ignition has risen to the top of the online poker world in recent years and can easily claim to be home to some of the most popular poker rooms on the planet. 

Indeed, the poker rooms attract more traffic than many rival internet casinos and there are daily tournaments going on all the time. Whatever time you sign in at, there are guaranteed to be hundreds of players to compete against.

Buy-ins are reasonable, but Ignition is in general a soft poker site that definitely suits recreational gamblers more than high rollers. However, pros are still free to sign up, and there are some higher limit tables available. 

Rake, meanwhile, is low and there is in fact a maximum rake, which means less revenue for Ignition and more potential profit for the players. Not bad. 

On the other hand, it’s a surprise that there are no e-wallets offered for deposits and withdrawals. But Bitcoin is accepted and payouts are fast. 

2. Red Dog Casino - Best Overall Casino Site 

  • New casino site
  • Generous welcome offer
  • Poker available 

Red Dog Casino was launched in 2019 and is one of the newest casino sites in town. It looks slick and super modern, and it boasts a great collection of new games alongside classic titles. 

Like many other new sites, Red Dog Casino has a very generous welcome offer on the table for new players. It also has a good selection of 100+ slots, poker variants, and a number of speciality real money games. 

A lack of live dealer games will put some players off, but Red Dog is still a fairly new site, and we expect it to keep adding titles and sections as time goes on. Moreover, the website is intuitively designed and Bitcoin is accepted. 

3. Bovada - Top Online Casino For Sports Betting 

  • Excellent sportsbook 
  • Established online casino site
  • Helpful customer service 

While Ignition has been busy positioning itself as one of the best casinos where poker is concerned in recent years, Bovada has been doing the same where sports betting is concerned.

Bovada’s sportsbook for sure has its pros and cons, but there are easily more advantages. These include reduced juice, huge sports variety, frequent and seasonal promos, in-play betting, and an excellent user interface. 

Odds are competitive, and our only real complaint is that we’d prefer it if Bovada released their lines a tad earlier. And while Bovada is a good choice for any sports fan, it’s especially popular with American sports fans.

Bovada’s casino, meanwhile, offers all the usual casino games, including roulette, blackjack, and slots. Overall, it’s one of the most established online real money casinos around. 

4. Las Atlantis - Best New Casino 

  • Great aesthetics
  • Attractive welcome bonus 
  • 200+ online slots 

We get it - not everyone cares about how an online casino looks in terms of its aesthetics. But if you like the idea of playing at a real money casino that looks like an underwater city, Las Atlantis might be for you. The idea is that you’ve gotta dive in and find the treasure at the bottom!

Fortunately, Las Atlantis has substance to match its style. The welcome bonus is generous, new games are being added all the time, and poker is available.

We’d argue that, despite its style, site navigation could be improved upon. But this is still a fairly new casino that gets most other things right. 

5. mBit Casino - Best Online Casino For Cryptocurrencies 

  • Lots of cryptos accepted 
  • Daily contests
  • 2000+ real money casino games 

If cryptos are your preferred payment method when using an online casino, mBit Casino is a solid option. Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin and Ethereum are among the digital coins accepted here. There are no transaction fees and withdrawals are prompt.

Naturally, there’s more to mBit than cryptos. This is a stylish, unique real money casino that has over two thousand games, lots of contests and an excellent user interface. 

On the downside, fiat currencies of any kind aren’t accepted. However, if you’d rather pay using a fiat currency, there are of course lots of alternatives. 

6. El Royale - Best for Bonuses 

  • Awesome user layout
  • Excellent mobile casino
  • Great for casino bonuses

El Royale is a classy online casino that sports an elegant theme which takes you back to 1920s America. The homepage is drenched in purples and blacks and sophisticated gamblers will feel right at home here.

Beyond the look and feel of the site, though, El Royale is just a basic online casino. There’s nothing wrong with that, of course. All the usual casino games are here, poker is available and there’s a good selection of slots. It’s just that choosing El Royale over other casinos will mostly come down to whether you like the web design, as well as the attractive bonuses on offer. 

7. Cafe Casino - Best Online Casino For Tournaments 

  • Daily tournaments with promising payouts 
  • Bitcoin accepted 
  • Video poker 
  • Great for mobile gaming

If you enjoy playing tournaments at online casinos that give you the chance to win big, Cafe Casino might be worth a look. They have casino tournaments going on each day and list their winners on their homepage. 

And if you want to find out when the next tournament is on, there’s a whole section dedicated to tournament schedules.

Other than that, Cafe Casino offers a pretty damn comprehensive online casino experience. There are live casino games, poker games, blackjack variants and lots more. 

8. Slots.lv - Best Online Casino for Slots

The fact that it isn’t available outside in too many countries will rankle some players. But if you can legally access this casino, it’s got pretty much everything the modern-day casino player wants and needs. 

  • Hundreds of online slots
  • Progressive jackpots 
  • Frequent promos 

Choosing a real money casino that’s best for slot games is not easy. You’ve got lots of great choices, but we think Slots.lv just edges things. Most of their games are provided by Real Time Gaming, which guarantees excellent gameplay, lots of bonus rounds, and smooth graphics. 

And, did we mention exciting progressive jackpots?!

There are hundreds of slots available, as well as a number of high RTP slots (great for winning big). 

It would be nice if Slots.lv could add some more live dealer casino games to their repertoire. But their overall selection of casino games is respectable, banking options are varied, and the web design is fun and colorful. 

9. Slots Empire - Best Mobile Friendly Casino

  • 24/7 customer support 
  • Poker available 
  • 200+ slot games 

As its name suggests, Slots Empire is another of the top online casino sites that’s largely dedicated to slots. Where we feel it really excels is with its Bitcoin slots. In fact, Slots Empire is a Bitcoin casino, and its Bitcoin slots are the same ones you can play at fiat currency casino, with the only difference being that you can stake BTC. 

There are 200+ slots to play, a generous welcome bonus, as well as a unique theme. We also like the fact that you can play practice slots to test the waters.

Overall, this is a casino site that’s very hard to fault. However, high rollers won’t be happy with the restrictions on payouts. But for recreational bettors, Slots Empire represents a good choice, both for slots and table games in general.

10. BigSpin Casino - Best Online Casino for Live Games

  • High maximum bet limits 
  • Colorful web design
  • Video poker

BigSpin Casino is a colorful and super entertaining casino aimed at online gamblers who just want to have a bit of fun. Slots are splashed all over the homepage, video poker is available and there are all kinds of interesting offers, including Blackjack paying 3:2.

We like its selection of live dealer games the best. There are numerous blackjack and roulette variants in here, early payout tables, and maximum and minimum stakes vary. Minimum stakes will be a tad high for some players, but if you fancy the chance of winning big and have a healthy budget, BigSpin could be a good choice. 

  • Poker oriented 
  • 36% rakeback
  • Quick withdrawals 
  • Bitcoin casino
  • Fiat currencies accepted
  • Frequent promos 
  • Sports betting available 
  • Great mobile casino 
  • Generous welcome offer 
  • Crypto casino 
  • Fiat currencies accepted 
  • Great selection of weekly tournaments 

Best Online Casino Sites: FAQ

Where Can I Play at an Online Casino? 

Most countries allow you to play at an online casino - but not all countries regulate online gambling. If you live somewhere where online gambling isn’t regulated, you can still sign up to offshore casinos, but you need to be very careful to make sure they have a license, which means they are tested for fairness and legit.

If you live in a country where internet gambling is permitted, you can of course play online casino games with few worries. That said, some countries which are made up of states (such as the USA) often have state laws whereby some states permit internet gambling, while others don’t. 

Are Online Casinos Safe?

Playing at a real money online casino is perfectly safe as long as you sign up to fully licensed, secure casino sites. Licensing is a sign that the casino has been vetted and authorized by your country’s gambling regulator, and this ensures safety, security, and fairness. 

Do Online Casinos Cheat? 

This is a common question but there’s no blanket answer as such because there may be some online casinos that cheat—but fully licensed gambling sites most certainly don’t cheat.

Fully licensed online gambling sites are held to account by gambling regulators who monitor their games for fairness and transparency. Moreover, they use something called RNG (Random Number Generator) which guarantees the outcome of their games are decided by chance (and not by any nefarious means). 

Do Casino Sites Ban Winners? 

Some people think that online casinos look to protect their own interests by banning winners.  

If you’re winning large amounts of money often, you might find that certain casinos will ban you. Certainly, a number of casino reviews suggest players do get banned sometimes.

However, most online casinos - especially those which accept large stakes, such as BigSpin and betworthy - won’t ban you for winning. Moreover, it’s often the case that an online casino might limit your stake on a certain online casino game, while still allowing you to bet freely on others. 

That all said, it’s rare that a person is banned from an online casino for winning. Also, a smart way to avoid detection is to not deposit huge sums of money into your account in one go. 

What Payment Methods Can I Use? 

Modern-day online casinos offer a variety of payment methods, including credit and debit cards, bank transfer, eWallets, and cryptos. 

Naturally, the exact payment methods that are offered depend on the casino itself, as well as your location. This is why it’s important that you find out which payment methods are offered before signing up. 

How Fast Do Real Money Online Casinos Pay You?

In terms of releasing winning funds into your account so that you can place another bet, many online casinos release funds almost instantly, while others take a few minutes to verify that the bet has won. Most casinos don’t take any longer than 5-10 minutes to release your funds into your casino account.

When it comes to withdrawing your money, however, the exact processing time varies according to your withdrawal method. Bitcoin withdrawals are the fastest, while eWallets are typically the second-fastest method. Bank transfers take longer (some over 24 hours), while the average withdrawal processing time can be between 24 hours and 5 days. 

Have Fun Exploring Casino Sites!

When choosing the right online casino it’s important that you pick one according to your tastes, needs, and preferences in terms of its game variety, bonuses, payment methods ,and overall user layout. When you get this right, playing casino games is so much more fun. 

The good news is that each casino in our list is fully licensed and safe and secure to play in multiple countries. All you have to do is take a closer look at the ones that stand out to you - and take things from there. Whatever you decide to do, just remember to always gamble responsibly!

18+ only. Online gambling is intended for entertainment purposes only and carries with it a degree of financial risk. Players must be responsible when gambling online and only wager funds they can afford to lose. 

This review is intended as a guide for both newbie and experienced players in choosing the sites they can sign up to. It is not intended as gambling advice and, therefore, does not guarantee any profit or gambling success.