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It’s not easy to find a respectable online casino nowadays. The difficulty comes from the oversaturation of the market as there are many casino sites to consider.
On a mission to help our UK readers find only the most reputable casinos to play at, we searched the UK casino market. Our team has undergone through a thorough search of a seemingly endless gaming universe to pluck only the top sites.
The aim of the comprehensive list in this article is to help players from the UK find reputable sites. It is important to narrow down the overwhelming catalogue of casinos that hold a license with the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC).
The UKGC regularly updates its public registry of licensees. Right now, the registry contains the total of 435 operators catering to the UKG residents across various gambling verticals. That includes primarily online casino. But sports betting is popular there too! However, the digital gambling sphere is our main area of interest here today. So, let’s dive in.
As we said, a total of 435 registrants work through a whopping number of 2,156 domain names.
However, the staggering list includes double names with different extensions – with .co.uk and .com being the most prevalent ones. But the list requires trimming. There are many inactive domains – 475 in total – which we first need to eliminate from the list. Once we do that, we are left with 1,699 gambling sites providing services to the UK audience. And that is still, you’d agree, huge.
Registrants holding a full license for online gambling operation in the UK make a resounding list of 1.138 strong. But the number can be further broken down as follows:
An average online casino player will surely be taken aback with the sheer volume of opulent choices surrounding them. After all, picking a perfect online casino to play at and invest money in is not something that can be taken lightly. Hence, we took it upon ourselves to lend a helping hand. We compiled our list of top 25 UK casinos that holds only the biggest most reputable names on the market.
You will see the list presented below split into the following categories:
BestCasinos.com’s comprehensive listing of popular UK online casinos is not a randomly generated arrangement of gambling websites. Quite the contrary.
It is a detailed inventory of sites lined up by a number of crucial parameters presented through Alexa’s traffic rankings.
Alexa.com is a flagship brand of the Alexa Internet Inc., an American company wholly owned by Amazon.com. It collects data based on the users’ browsing behaviour in its global data panel, further breaking it by audience geography. And in this instance, we are focusing on the United Kingdom.
Alexa ranks websites using a plethora of factors and criteria. It first compares them to other countries by per cent of visitors. Next, it pits them head to head with websites in the same country to determine their ranking relative to other sites across a determined timeline.
In plain English, a combination of measures that we gain from Unique Visitors and Pageviews generates a site’s ranking.
With a little help from statistics obtained from Alexa and the overall reputation certain online casinos brands boast across the globe and within the UK, we did our best to narrow the list to 25 within each separate category.
Domain Name | UK Traffic Ranking |
Casino.WilliamHill.com | 299 |
888casino.com | 851 |
MrGreen.com | 1,954 |
LeoVegas.com | 7.143 |
ComeOn.com | 7,349 |
Casumo.com | 8,552 |
GentingCasino.com | 8,575 |
VideoSlots.com | 10,096 |
Bgo.com | 11,250 |
32red.com | 11,438 |
Dunder.com | 13,994 |
PlayOjo.com | 17,292 |
RoxyPalace.com | 22,368 |
RoyalPanda.com | 25,385 |
Joreels.com | 30,224 |
EnergyCasino.com | 41,184 |
Thrills.com | 96,112 |
MansionCasino.com | 92,420 |
HighRoller.com | 45,855 |
HippodromeCasino.com | 54,041 |
VegasHero.com | 67,547 |
SupperLenny.com | 76,505 |
The list above includes some of the most notable names in the industry right now. Over the past couple of years, they all have stuck their head above the rest of the casino lot. Their social presence, award-winning reputation, and global reach scored them a spot on this list.
Ranking them by their overall UK traffic standings, we realized that William Hill is the flag bearer of this list.
One of the most reputable gambling houses in the country has roots dating back to 1934. The brand is by far best known as a betting operator. Latching on its highly successful sportsbook, William Hill boasts an equally successful and strong online casino too. The casino, alongside 888casino, proudly stands among the top 1,000 websites in the country.
See our UK Online Casino Top List rated by BestCasinos expert review team and players.
If you want to see the full list of casino licensees operating in the United Kingdom you can click right here.
White Label business is getting increasingly popular in the online gambling industry. The advantages of setting up a white label casino – starting from licensing and legal, payment processing, customer support, operation to the overall facilitation of the setup – are too huge to ignore. Moreover, with the sophistication of software providers offering turnkey solutions, white label casinos have also become quite a convenient and cost-effective solution.
When it comes to the UKGC registry and White Label operators, the industry is flourishing. The total number of gambling oriented white-label websites operating in the UK stands at a whopping 592 domains. Mind you, this number includes the same sites with different extensions as well, but the sheer amount is impressive nonetheless.
Looking at the back office and companies holding the ownership behind the total number of white labels operating in the United Kingdom we come down to the number of 28 companies presented below and lined up in alphabetical order.
This way, the top list transformed into a list of 28 white-label companies operating in the United Kingdom.
A closer look at some of the most prominent names of all 592 domains reveals interesting discoveries. Larry Casino, Dunder Casino, Casimba, SpinJuu Casino, and High Roller Casino stand as the most prominent white-label online casinos.
Online casino landscape expands at a rapid pace which can at times be frightening. The technological development and the lifestyle of the newest generation of mobile-oriented Millennials have ushered a new era. This new, booming era has online casinos emerging on the scene weekly, if not daily.
The latest update to the list on newly emerged casinos comprised of 15 names. We ranked them by launch date. All these venues managed to stir the pot from the moment they hit the stage. Let’s have a look:
Best Casino’s expert team has thoroughly reviewed the likes of High Roller Casino and Vegas Hero Casino. Click here to read all you need to know about these already prominent members of the online casino industry.
Numbers and presentations above attest to the volume of the United Kingdom gambling scene. With so many operators to deal with, the UK watchdog needs to be on constant alert. Its main task is to make sure all licensees are playing by the book. After all, they must obey the strict set of regulations that the UKGC keeps updating regularly.
The United Kingdom Gambling Commission is not powerless. The gambling authority has the power to apply certain measures to licensees in case of a regulatory breach, including:
During the first three months of 2018, the UKGC has issued two warnings and one with a financial penalty. The UKGC administered punishments to Malcolm Rankin (GamezMonkey), the Royal Air Forces Association (Wings Pub Lotto) and ElectraWorks Limited (operating the likes of Bwin.com, Partypoker.com).
William Hill was also one of the licensees penalized in 2018. The UKGC determined that the brand failed to spot problem gambling and prevent money laundering. And for that, William Hill was issued a £6.2 million fine.
Looking at the previous year, the situation was not that different. The most notable sanctions in 2017 included the record £7.8 million fine issued to 888 for failing to protect problem gamblers. Furthermore, one punter was caught stealing £55,000 to fund his betting activities.
The UKGC performed a detailed investigation which discovered significant flaws in 888 UK Limited’s social responsibility processes resulting in the record-breaking penalty.
Moreover, a slightly lower fine above £2.3 million was ordered to Ladbrokes Coral towards the end of 2017 too. It happened after the UKGC determined that the operator failed to intervene after two problem gamblers lost the total amount of £1.3 million of stolen money.
The fine came just days after the UK government warned online gambling companies to tighten up the grip on problem gambling. Furthermore, the institution urged them to protect their customers more diligently. After all, that was – and ultimately remains the focus of the always-alert UKGC.
Full list of UKGC regulatory decisions by date of issuing is available on this link.
Last Updated:
March 16, 2018 – Article posted
BestCasinos team consists of online casino experts dedicated to spreading their knowledge and experience to a wider audience, all in effort to help even the most inexperienced players gain their footing in this exciting industry.