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Highest paying online casinos

Something not many people concern themselves initially is looking for the highest paying online casinos. A lot of folks will search for good, reliable casinos, but would rarely even think about searching for casinos known for paying more than the average. Apparently you are not one of them, since you’ve ended up on this page. For the inpatient readers, we will go ahead and start right away with the list of the online casinos paying out the most money and further down you can red more about the features we have considered when we compiled this list of highest paying online casinos.

Casinos paying out most money

#1 Bovada – this online casino is by far the highest paying one for US players. The slots are extremely loose and the payout offered on the majority of them easily crosses the 98% rate (see payout percentage for explanation of this important feature). In addition to the standard RTG games, the Bovada casino also has a number of proprietary slots, not available anywhere else. The jackpots are plenty, as are the progressive ones. Great choice for anyone looking for a online casino that would pay the most money.

#2 Vegas Casino Online – giving Bovada the run for its money, Vegas Casino Online (VCO) certainly deserves a spot in the list of high paying internet casinos. According to the last independent report published on the casino’s payout, the average video slot payout is just a tad over 97%, a great number for the slot lovers. Add to this the gigantic $3,000 bonus offered to new customers and your chances of making it big here have just increased tremendously. The paytables are above average for the RTG software, yet another reason to choose this casino over the rest.

#3 Lucky Nugget (NO USA players) – for the online gamblers outside of the USA, Lucky Nugget presents a great option when looking for highest paying casinos. While it does not accept US players, which brings it down a peg in our book, the rest of the potential customers can enjoy a payout rate on the video slots currently at 96.41%.


The online casinos, in essence, are not much different than the land based casinos, in such way that the business model is a very simple one – set a payout rate for the video slots, while the tables games already come with built-in house advantage. Therefore we will not be talking about those table games, for example, the payout for blackjack is generally the same across all casinos, since the rules for the card game are well established and the same, no matter the casino. Of course, there are slight variations, such as what the dealer would do on soft 17, or the number of decks being utilized, but in general terms, the online casinos will be paying out the same on most table games.

Here we will focus solely on the video slots, which are the most popular form of gambling at any casino, be it online or offline. There are a few ways one can look at the highest paying online casinos when it comes to the video slots offered by the gambling website: payout percentage (the most important), pay tables and jackpots. In order for an online casino to be among the highest paying ones, it must offer both very high payout percentages, large jackpots and the paytables should be beneficial to the player. The high jackpots are self explanatory, the more of them available, the best chance for the player to win really big, while betting small. Of course, the video slots offering jackpots will not appeal to everyone, hence the other factors must be given a higher priorities.

The pay tables is a very important, yet much overlooked factor when comparing video slots payout, especially when we compare the same video slots across multiple casinos. The online casinos don’t have much freedom with the gambling software, but setting up their own payout tables is one of those options. Make sure you check the pay tables of the video slots, as some will not pay enough, especially on the lower-tier combinations, to justify playing the game. Payout percentages is the most important factor, when we consider if the online casino is a high paying one or not. To learn more about it, read our payout percentage guide.

Casino Payout Percentage

You may have heard the term “payout percentage” often when reading about the online casinos, but never fully understood what it refers to. Here we will talk about this feature of the online casinos (and casinos in general) and unlock the mystery behind this number purported by many of the internet casinos.

For this to happen, first we need to start with how the casinos make money from gambling. Every casino, be it offline or on the Internet, works in the same way – it offers a number of gambling games to its patrons and those games will pay back a certain amount of money the players put in the games. This amount is based on a percentage, which is built-in the game itself, which is why it is a well-known fact that the casinos never lose money (from gambling, that is). Basically, the casino expects that from a certain amount of money gambled by the players, a percentage will be given back to its customers and a portion will be retained by the casino as profit from gambling. The percentage of total money given back to the players in the form of game wins is known as payout percentage.

There are two basic types of games at the casinos – the table games and the video slots. The table games itself already come with this payout percentage built into them, although it is more commonly referred to as “house edge” or “house advantage”. This is essentially the same as “payout percentage”. i.e. the amount of money the casino expects to win in the long term, expressed as a percentage of the whole (or amount of money wagered on that game). With the common table games, this advantage itself comes from the game rules, created in such way that a small percentage will always come to the casino. Some casinos can slightly manipulate the house edge, for example by changing the payout rules of blackjack from 2/1 to 3/2 or by using higher number of card decks. But in general, those percentages will be rather uniform across the casinos.

payout-percentage-example This is not the case, however, with the video slots, the most popular form of gambling at any casino. The video slots also have a payout percentage, but this number is set by the developer of the video slot machine and can often be changed by the casino operator to improve the return of that particular video slot, within limit, of course. After all, no video slot developer want to be known as offering the tightest slots, that would be a business suicide. But with the video slots, the machine will be set to pay back a certain percentage of the money it takes. For example, if a slot is set at 96% payout, it means that it will pay back $96 for every $100 the players lose, guaranteeing the casino a long-term profit of $4 on every $100.

As you can clearly see, the higher the payout percentage, the better the slot, for the player, that is. Generally, a payout percentage over 96% is considered great for online casino, the average payout being somewhere around 94%-95%. Of course, there are exceptions to every rule. A lot of online casinos will have video slots similar to the retail loss leaders, i.e. video slots that would pay out over 100% of the money taken in, which would result in a total loss for the online casino from that slot. The casino, however, aims to use those slots as an attraction, to get the players to join the casino and hopes to make the money back from other slots paying on lower percentages.

Keep in mind, however, that just because an online casino has a very high payout percentage, for example 95%, it doesn’t mean that if you sit down and lose $100 you will get $95 back. Those percentages are in play over the long term, while short term is governed purely by the randomness built into the games. That’s why a high payout video slot may go tight for a while, then all of a sudden – pay a huge jackpot to one lucky player. Or vice versa, the slot will pay a big jackpot, the go quiet for a while. The important thing to understand here is that the payout percentage is just a general guideline and based on long-term, while short term the video slots will still remain dependent on the random number generator.

Casino Verification: Documents requested by the online casinos

If this is your first venture into the world of online casinos, learning and preparing yourself about the customer verification process will save you plenty of time and aggravation in the future. A person who has played at the online casinos in the past is well aware of the know-your-customer (KYC) procedure established at every online casino, but if this is your first time, it’s better to know what lies ahead and make the entire process much smoother and faster.

Let’ start with an explanation of the verification process itself. Because of the nature of the business, every online casino today will require their customers to submit certain documents in order to verify their identity. Unlike a traditional casino, where if you win a jackpot you can just show your ID to the attendant (or if you are withdrawing money at the cashier), with the online casinos this face-to-face contact is non-existent. So in order for the casino to make sure you are who you are – they will request copies of certain documents all of us have access to. Here is the list of documents most commonly requested by the online casino when they try to verify your identity:

  • Copy of Driver’s License or ID
  • Copy of Passport
  • Copy of utility bill showing your name and address
  • Copy of bank statement with your name and address

These are the most common document options for verifying your casino account. Keep in mind that you don’t need copies of all of them, usually the casinos will request two copies, one of a drivers license and one of a utility bill. The management just wants to make sure you are who you claim to be and not someone who is using a stolen identity.

Keep in mind that the casino will ask for documents when you request your first withdrawal, not when you open the account. This catches a lot of people off-guard – the open an account, deposit money, play for a while and when they go to request their first withdrawal of their winnings – they get the email asking for the documents to verify the identity.

Even though some people may tell you the casinos do this because they don’t care who loses money, only who wins, the actual reason is less sinister. It takes at least a day for the customer service to go through all the documents and verify your identity and who wants to wait a day or two just to be able to play? When you sign up at an online casino you are doing so because you want to play the slots right now, not tomorrow or the day after. It’s also a time-saver for the casino personnel, who only have to review documents from players who are withdrawing for the first time, not all the customers that are signing up. If the casinos had to review the documents of every sign-up at the casino at the time they sign up, it would probably take more than a week for the documents to be cleared in each case, because of the immense backlog.

Many people will also wonder if it’s safe to send such documents to an online casino, and it’s a perfectly valid question. If you’ve chosen to play at an online casino we have approved – you have nothing to worry about. Those casinos have a long (read more than a decade) track of being safe and secure, not only with the copies of the documents, but with all data pertaining to their customers. Of course, there are other casinos who are a bit less stringent in protecting their customer’s privacy and even worse, some are outright rogue and will either use your info, such as email, or sell it to a third-party marketer. Avoid being roped in by such casinos by simply choosing only among the approved gambling websites here.

And finally, we should underline that you are required to verify your account and send those documents only one time. Once you have verified your casino account, it remains so forever and you don’t have to worry about it again. Save time and speed up your first withdrawal with the online casino by finding out which documents your chosen casino requires and have the copies ready after you request your first withdrawal. The email asking for documents will come, guaranteed, and you will be ready right away.

Free $22 no deposit required bonus at Slots Casino

One of the popular online casino websites, Slots lv is offering new customers a great bonus they have always asked us for – no deposit required sign-up bonus! Starting today, new players at the online casino can claim a $22 no-deposit required bonus and try the 300+ video slots at this great casino absolutely free and without any monetary risk. This no-deposit bonus also gives you the opportunity to win actual real money without spending a dime.

Note Click here to claim this bonus offer and enter promo code SLOTS22, otherwise the standard bonus offer will apply! It’s very important that you follow the link, since it’s an exclusive bonus offer and if you simply visit the casino, their standard welcome bonus (match on deposit) will apply and you won’t be able to take advantage of the no-deposit bonus $22 they can give you.

The no-deposit required bonus offer from Slots lv is limited only to new customers at the online casino and has a roll-over requirement of 100x the bonus. Keep in mind that the maximum you can withdraw when using the no-deposit bonus to play the slots is $100, anything over this amount will be forfeited, so make sure you stop at around $100 and withdraw your winnings. You can always use the money to get one of the other match bonuses that are available at the online casino. Visit them for a full list of promos, but don’t forget to follow the link above to get your free $22 without having to deposit any real money.

Bovada Casino stops accepting players from New Jersey

One of the most popular USA online casinos, Bovada Casino, announced today that it will stop accepting players from the state of New Jersey. Existing players from the US state, however, can continue playing at the casino, their accounts remaining open for the foreseeable future. New Jersey, meanwhile, is one of the handful of US states where online gambling has become legal, but limited to only existing offline entities.

The Bovada Casino, which is at the top of our recommended list, broke the news today that starting from this date forward, it will no longer accept new customers from the USA state of New Jersey. The casino said that it reached the decision voluntary on its own accord and was not pressured to seize operations int he state. With New Jersey, Bovada now don’t accept players from 3 US states, the other two being Maryland and New York. Current customers from New Jersey, already having accounts with Bovada, will be more than welcome to continue playing there.

Supreme Court rules in favor of Michigan casino

indian-casino-michigan Much to the surprise of those involved in the debacle of the Bay Mills Indian Community’s casino in Michigan, the Supreme Court handed down a decision favoring the tribe. Voting 5-4 in favor, the Supreme Court decided that the state cannot shut down the Indian casino, located outside of the tribal lands.

The Bay Mills tribe built and opened the casino, located in the Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, in 2010, but the state shut it down a year later, after a federal judge sided with Michigan and issued an injunction barring it from operating. The case reached the Supreme Court after 6th Circuit U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals threw the injunction, based on the fact that the tribe had sovereign immunity.

The Supreme Court decision in favor of the Indian casino stem from a 1998 case that extended tribal sovereign immunity to bar lawsuits arising from an Indian tribe’s commercial activities outside its territory. It is expected that the casino will resume normal operations sometime this year.

New Jersey online casino revenue shows slight decline

showboat-online-casino-new-jersey

For the first time since legalizing online gambling in New Jersey revenue has shown a decline. According to the numbers published this month, revenue for April from the online casinos operating in New Jersey fell by half a million dollars, compared to the month of March 2014. The official numbers published by the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement showed that April’s online casino revenue fell to $11.4 million, compared to the $11.9 million in March. This marks the first decline of online gambling revenue in the state. Meanwhile overall gambling revenue at the offline casinos increases 3.2% in April.

Among the popular NJ online casinos, Borgata is still in the lead for the year with $16.4 million, Caesars comes in second with $13.1 million YTD, and the top three is rounded by Tropicana Casino with just $6.2 million in online gambling revenue for the first quarter of 2014.

How to deposit money at the online casinos

casino-deposit

There are plenty of questions people new to gambling ask about the online casinos, but one of the most popular must be about how to deposit, or fund, your casino account. Gambling at the local casino is easy – you just take your cash and feed the slot machines directly with it, or exchange it for casino chips at the tables. Needless to say, buying chips at the internet casinos is a bit different, since they are the only place where cash is not the king.

How you can deposit at the online casinos will vary depending on your country, since some payment methods are either country-specific, or unavailable to all players. But there are some general types of methods to fund your player’s account and here we will take a look at those basic ways you can deposit money at the online casinos.

Credit Cards / Debit Cards – the most convenient way for the players to fund their casino accounts. You use them in the same fashion as you would at any other website. Just enter your credit card information at the cashier section, choose the amount and the transaction is processed instantly with the money available for play at the casino right away. Depending on the casino, there may be a fee associated with depositing money using credit card, but most of them would charge you nothing. You can click on the link above to learn more or to find casinos taking credit card deposits.

E-wallets – if you don’t have a credit card or simply don’t want to use it at the casino, the e-wallets are a great way to deposit money at the casinos and even get some extra bonuses. Popular e-wallets include big names such as Skrill and Neteller, but those are not available to all countries. Players from the USA are not allowed to open accounts with those gambling ewallets, due to financial regulations, but other casino-specific ones are available to the US player, just check with your preferred casino for more information. The e-wallets may appear a bit intimidating and complex at first, but nothing can be further from the truth. You can view them simply as a prepaid card – you open an account with the ewallet of choice, deposit money using either credit card or bank transfer, and use the money in turn to either deposit funds to your casino account or shop online. Some ewallets will issue a debit card, which can also be used to withdraw money from ATMs or shop offline.

Bank Transfer or Cheque

You can always simply transfer money to the casino or send them a check. Clearly, those methods for depositing money at the online casino are among the slowest – it takes a few days for a transfer to be received and the cheque will have to travel by mail and then be on hold for up to 3 days until it clears. This type of deposits are only recommended for very large amounts of money.

Vouchers and Prepaid Cards – another alternative exists for funding your casino account – the vouchers and prepaid cards. You can buy them offline using cash and then enter the information at the casino banking section and the money will be instantly available to you. Perfect for people who don’t have credit cards or bank accounts, or those who are extra cautious with their financial information online.

How to play online casino

While playing at the online casinos seems to be an easy process for most, beginners to gambling on the Internet may find the initial process a bit daunting. That’s why here we will talk about the process of how to play online casino, with step by step guide, from selection to start playing at the casinos. And even though there may be small differences between the various online casinos, the basic process will remain the same no matter which casino website you choose to patronize.

How To Play Online Casino

 

Step 1: Selecting the right casino

The most important step of learning how to play casino online is finding and choosing a good gambling website. There are virtually hundreds of online casinos today on the internet and unfortunately the large majority of them should be avoided at all cost. There is a reason that casino guides like ours not only exist but are very popular – we separate the wheat from the chaff. And believe me, there is a lot of chaff out there. Choosing the right online casino before you even begin to play is very important. Landing at a rogue casino can, at the very best scenario, lead to you not getting your winnings, and worse, you can lose your personal information to internet criminals. The online casinos listed on our home page represent the most reputable casinos and we highly recommend that you select a casino from that list and that list only.

Step 2: Download the casino software

While all online casinos give you the option to play without actually downloading the software, often referred to as “instant play”, downloading and installing the casino software on your computer is the best option. The no-download version of the casino don’t offer all the video slots available if you were to actually download the software and more – you will have to wait for the games to load every time you decide to play something else. Installing the casino on your computer works the same way you would install any other program.

Step 3: Open a casino account

Once you have selected one of the best online casinos, the next step is to become a customer by opening an account. With every casino there will be two types of accounts available: a play money account and real money account. With the play-money account all you have to do is enter your name and email and you can play at the online casino using fake casino chips, giving you the opportunity to try out the various games available, without risking actual money and, of course, you won’t have the chance to win real money. We do recommend you open a play money account first, just to make sure that the games available are to your liking.

The other type of account, the real money account, is where the real gambling commences. You open said account by filling in the sign-up form with your details and then you will have the opportunity to deposit real money and play for real winnings. Which brings us to the next step:

Step 4: Deposit and Claim Bonus

Once you have a real-money casino account, you can visit the Cashier section of the casino and deposit real money to convert to casino chips. Depending on the depositing options, you would be able to fund it with, for example, credit cards or one of the popular ewallets like MST gift cards. Which method you use will depend on what’s available at the online casino and which one you prefer. Purchasing casino chips works in a way similar to purchasing anything else on the internet. Don’t forget to claim your bonus at this step. Some online casinos will automatically credit you with the appropriate bonus, once you have made your first deposit, but others may require a bonus code. You can compare casino bonuses here to help you with the selection of the online casino, since some offer more free money than others.

Step 5: Play online casino games

The final step,once you have funded your account and claimed your bonus is the best one – play at the casino. The online casino will have a wide variety of casino games – video slots, table games, keno, etc. All you have to do at this point is simply select the game you’d like to play and start playing.

Safe online casino: Which casinos are safe?

Is this online casino safe? Is it safe to play online casinos? These are some of the questions we receive on a weekly base from our readers and today we will talk about the casino websites and their safety, something very important, but often overlooked by the players. Asking about safety is paramount in this day and age, when news about security breaches of big retailers and non payment of winnings at some casinos we won’t mention, are plenty.

There are several ways one can interpret “safety”, thus we will look at all of them, starting with safety as in security of the information you send to the online casino. In this term, the majority of the online casinos are safe and certainly all casinos we have recommended offer an industry-leading 128k bit SSL encryption of all the data transferred to and from the casino server, this is standard for some of the biggest websites and the casinos have taken upon themselves to provide your connection with as much safety and security as, let’s say, some of the biggest banks. In addition, the information stored on the casino server is maintained and stored behind firewalls to avoid getting into the hands of the wrong people. And since the online casinos don’t have the offline presence of many other companies, breaches of the security via offline means is virtually non-existent.

When some people ask about safe online casinos, they often have in mind that fact that a lot of the casinos you can find by a simple Google search are rogue and will not pay your winnings. And to be perfectly honest, there are probably more rogue than safe casinos on the internet today. This is one of the major reasons review websites like ours exist today – to separate the wheat from the chaff. The casinos we have listed on our website are safe and with a proven track (of more than a decade) of paying their winning customers. Sure, we have not listed hundreds of casinos, you can count them on your fingers, but if you want to play at a safe online casino – these are your best options. We cannot stress enough how important it is to play only at the safe online casinos listed on our website. Don’t get fooled by free money bonuses, paid advertisements or do one of the biggest mistakes many new online gamblers commit – simply searching for online casino and joining the first one that pops up. The forums are full of people, who have been burnt by a rogue casino in the past. Avoid all this trouble and if you want to play at a safe online casino – select one that has been recommended by us.

Have more questions about casino safety? Send us an email using the contact form at the top.

Are there online casinos taking Amex credit cards?

The credit cards (and debit cards) are the most popular instrument for payments on the Internet today and not surprisingly – at the online casinos, as well. And while many people deposit at the casinos with credit cards and a lot of casino websites take certain credit cards, the question of which ones accept Amex (American Express) comes up quite often in your emails.

American Express, also referred to as Amex, is among the top 4 most popular credit card brands and it’s only natural that people who gamble online will look for online casinos taking Amex as a payment method. Unfortunately, there are no internet casinos at this time that accept Amex for deposits and withdrawals, not only for USA players, but for online players all over the world. The fact that the online casinos don’t take Amex cards is not so much as a result of tougher credit cards processing, rather the problem lies with American Express itself. A long time ago this credit card issuer decided that people who use their card are not grown up enough to make their own spending decisions and completely cut all forms of gambling from the approved list of transactions one can make with their Amex branded card, both credit and debit. Even legal gambling websites, for example, US horse racing or UK casino, are not allowed to accept American Express cards as a depositing option.

Of course, there are ways one can use their Amex credit card at an online casino. For example, many UK online casinos offer ewallets that themselves will take Amex cards and then the player can use the ewallet to fund their online casino account, but it’s nothing short of jumping hoops and racking up credit card fees. And if you are an US player, it is nearly impossible to fund your casino account with American Express, since no casino will accept this payment method. For those players, using a different credit card brand will be the best option for depositing money. See which casinos take various credit cards by following the link on the menu to the right.

Real Money Online Casinos

Even today, well over a decade since the popularity of online gambling exploded, there are people skeptical about the online casinos and finding it hard to believe that they work with real money. Yes, there are plenty of websites where you can play casino-style games (such as video slots or roulette) absolutely free and only for fun, but the online casinos are a real business and they do offer their customers the option to gamble with real money and win real money.

We should make a note right away that every online casino today offers two versions of its software, the one with “play money” and the other where people play for “real money”. They play-money version can be used to make yourself familiar with the casino or to simply try the games without having to use real money. Of course, any winnings during your fake money play are also fake.

On the other side, if gambling with real money is your goal, you should chose to play the “real money” casino version. This is where you risk real money, but any winnings are also real. A lot of people have been made millionaires by some of the most popular online casinos, but you have to play the real money casino to have that chance.

And we know what’s coming next, the question – if I play the real money online casinos will I get paid? Yes, but only if you chose your casino wisely. If you select any of the best online casinos on our home page, your winnings will certainly be paid. These are only the most reputable gambling websites and they have been paying their customers for many, many years. On the other side, there are more rogue online casinos than there are honest ones, it seems some days. Make sure you don’t chose a bad casino that would be more than happy to let you play for real money and lose real money, but when it comes time to paying you – they find an excuse to not do so. Stick with the reputable casinos when playing for real money and you’d have nothing to worry about.