The Best Online Blackjack Sites for UK Players

The Best Licenses and Regulation

This site focuses on UK blackjack players. Therefore, we give the strongest preference to online casinos that are licensed by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). The UKGC is widely considered to be the world's best regulatory organization for gaming of all types, and has a top-notch reputation for protecting players from fraud and abuse.

Legitimate online casinos overseen by the UKGC do not need to be located in the UK proper. Many online casinos opt to operate out of the "whitelisted" territories, which are various protectorates and countries with special relationships to the UK. These casinos are overseen by the UKGC just the same way as one sitting in the middle of London would be.

What's more, these whitelist countries often have their own local gaming board in addition to the UKGC. It's always a big plus to see a legitimate and well-regarded local board like the Malta Gaming Authority or the Gibraltar Gambling Commission involved. It just adds an extra layer of protection for players.

Blackjack Bonus Offers

As part of our casino reviews, we look at the full collection of bonus offers. Our top recommended casinos are often those that have bonus offers that are well-suited to blackjack players.

It's important to not focus too much on the first numbers you see when you read bonus offers. We have long experience with the online casino industry and know to check the terms and conditions to make sure that blackjack players will benefit.

Why is there a difference? Well, take the common initial deposit bonuses, for example. You might see an offer that matches 100% of your first deposit up to £500, which seems great at first. But the fine print says that there is a wagering requirement, and blackjack is one of the games that doesn't count toward it. So, as a blackjack player, that bonus isn't going to be useful to you.

We emphasize casinos that make offers that are specifically useful to blackjack fans. It certainly doesn't hurt if they give you other things, and lucrative bonuses on other games are considered, but good bonuses for blackjack players are the main thing our reviewers are looking for.

Range of Blackjack Games and Features

Earlier we touched on the wide variety of blackjack games out there. We like to see a lot of different options to keep players interested, but we also like to see games that have a good expected return to the player.

How does "expected return" work in blackjack, anyway? It depends on the rules of each individual game. Little tweaks to the rules can make a big difference in how much a player can expect to walk away with. For example, one of the biggest factors is how much is paid out for a blackjack. The standard has always been 3:2, which is considered a favourable payout. When that amount is moved to 6:5, it greatly impacts the amount that players get back over time because they get paid less for each blackjack they hit.

In addition to looking for the best sets of rules to help extend your bankroll, we also look for good interfaces and game features. Features include things such as auto-play, multiple hands at once, and indicators that tell you whether or not a particular play is the best option.

Blackjack Software and Graphics

Blackjack can be an amazing thrill ride if you're playing at high stakes, with hundreds of pounds changing hands every minute. Many players will be playing at lower stakes, however, and at that level the game can suffer somewhat if the graphics aren't lively and the software doesn't make the experience smooth and convenient. Grinding through hundreds of hands is certainly a lot easier if you like what you're looking at and you aren't fighting the interface at every step!

We also check out the software developers that provide the casino with its blackjack games. The vast majority of online casinos don't develop their own games. Many license their games from multiple publishers, so we find out who their blackjack games come from and take their reputation into account. Some software providers are known to make great games, and those games will be very similar between different properties.

The Deposit and Withdrawal Process

You don't want to waste time fooling around with financial transfers, right? You want to play blackjack! That's why we recommend blackjack casinos that not only keep your money safe, but who also make the process of transfers (in both directions) as painless as possible.

Casinos that do well with our reviewers start out by offering a good range of deposit and withdrawal options. They should provide you with at least an adequate amount of options from the various popular forms of money transfer - credit and debit cards, e-wallet service, cheques, prepaid cards and wire or bank transfers.

Processing times are also key. Generally speaking, we like to see deposits be as fast as possible. Withdrawals do face some natural banking hurdles that can take a little longer, but we generally like to see them processed in under 24 hours and paid out in under 72 hours. The only exception here is bank and wire transfers, which can sometimes take a few days to withdraw.

Mobile Friendliness

The world just keeps getting more mobile all the time. You would no doubt like to have the option of playing blackjack on any type of phone or tablet that you own. It's a great way to pass the time throughout the day!

That's why we look for online casinos that offer their blackjack games through iOS and Android mobile apps. We check out these apps to make sure that they work well and that the casino has most or all of their blackjack titles available on it.

Another option for mobile players that we review is "no download" or "instant play" options that work through just about any modern web browser. These options are great for people who have older devices, or those that don't run the mainstream mobile operating system. All you need is a fairly recent web browser to get these games to run. We look for casinos that offer a good range of blackjack games through browser play, and they definitely get extra points if they do.

Loyalty and VIP Programs

Loyalty and VIP programs are an especially important topic for blackjack players. Since the game is one of the most favourable to players in terms of expected return, casinos often try to compensate by not giving out much in the way of loyalty rewards to players who just focus on playing blackjack.

We look for loyalty programs that include blackjack players among their valued customers and that offer them generous perks and rewards for their play. If the casino has a tier system, we also evaluate it specifically from the perspective of a blackjack player.

This goes for the casino's VIP program as well. VIP blackjack players with big bankrolls should be treated just as well as slot machine enthusiasts or any other type of player. We know that "big whale" blackjack players are just as valuable to casinos as any other high roller and that they should be offered appropriate perks and incentives for their high-level play.

Customer Support

The average blackjack player seems to be pretty self-sufficient, as the game attracts people who study the casino landscape and look for the most advantageous games. Still, you can hit unexpected problems from time to time. Maybe a game freezes up while you're in the middle of it and a wager gets lost. Or maybe a bonus offer doesn't come through, or doesn't pay out like it was supposed to.

These situations are exactly why we evaluate each casino's customer service response. We check out the available methods and their hours, and test them to see how fast and how helpful the responses are. Any casino that offers poor customer service options, that takes too long to respond or that replies with incompetence and rudeness is not going to be one that we recommend. We don't want to waste our time playing blackjack at bad casinos and we don't want to waste yours either!