Playing online casinos on your Android device

Ah, how has online gambling evolved over the years, starting with the classic download, through flash-based web casino portals to the present popularity of mobile gaming. Truth be told, downloading the full online casino software on your desktop or laptop remains the best way to experience everything the casinos have to offer today – stunning graphics, sounds, speed, etc. Alas, in the modern world of today, a smart phone and/or tablet are items everyone owns and uses routinely. So today we will see what’s out there for those of you using Android devices, whether they be tablets or phones.

Our regular readers would’ve noticed by now that this is not the first time we have covered mobile gambling. But they also won’t be surprised by this fact – consumption of online entertainment has moved nearly to the mobile side of the spectrum. In fact, there is a 9 in 10 chance that you are reading this on a mobile device right now.

If you came here in search of the best Android casino apps and mobile sites, we already covered this topic in quite of detail, just follow the link to see our ranking. Today we will delve into playing online casinos on an Android device in general: what’s good, what’s bad, how do you do it and more.

Why play online casinos on Android phone / tablet?

The easy-out answer would be, because you can. Although in reality, it’s more like “because you have to”. As we discussed earlier, everyone is using their smart phones for everything these days, from directions, to finding things to do, to checking the latest game scores, outside of work (and some serious gaming), people today don’t see much value in having a hunk of a desktop occupying large chunk of their available real estate. You need to dedicate an office room to it, can’t use it from the couch or while gardening outside, reasons galore not to use a desktop. Laptops have helped alleviate some of the burdensome requirements of the desktops, but with the rise of popularity of the tablet computer, they are also seeing a decline in actual use.

So when you use your large-screen phone or tablet for all your online (and even computer) needs, it only makes sense to play the casinos on the Android device, as well. Sadly, the gambling industry has not caught up yet to the demand, and nearly all casinos still use a browser (mobile website) as their “app” version. But it’s not all bad, there are some online casinos with stunning mobile websites, see the earlier link to our review of those Android options.

It’s also much more convenient. Have some downtime during your commute? Nothing easier than pulling out the phone and playing some slots at your favorite casino. We hope, however, that in this case you are commuting by train or bus, not driving to work. It’s a bit uncomfortable to pull out a giant 17″ laptop on the train just to play some slots, to say the least. But if you look around – people are nose down in their phones all the time, why not join the movement? 🙂

What are the negatives of playing casinos on Android?

The convenience factor is certainly the main driving point to switching your gambling to and Android device. But with the convenience come a few drawbacks. It’s up to the user to decide whether it’s worth the trade. One should now that when you move your casino play to the mobile arena, right away you would sacrifice some of the graphical advances we have reached in recent years. The size of the screen and the software that the Android devices can run simply cannot match to what’s available on a traditional computer, desktop or laptop. When playing the download version of the online casino, all games, particularly video slots, look amazing. And if the video slots have a lot of cool bonus animation – you are just robbing yourself out of a part of what makes video gambling fun – the entertainment factor.

Another point to consider is that only the very latest phones and tablets posses the processing power required to run a graphics-heavy casino game. Even when you play in-browser, it’s not uncommon to have the device crash, because it’s using too much memory or because of overheating, since those games are quite computation-heavy. The online casinos understand this and some of them have intentionally “dumbed-down” some of their games, to the detriment of people with the latest Android gadgets.

Speed is another factor, albeit a small one. When playing the casino games on a mobile device, expect some loading time. Switching between games will definitely take some time, as the device has to load those games into memory the first time you play them. The is virtually no delay when playing on a traditional computer. But in general, this is a very small price to pay for playing online casino games on Android devices.

What are the alternatives?

While we would be the last to try and discourage anyone from going mobile, there is something one can do to improve their experience when playing casinos on tablets. The best option is to forgo Android for the Microsoft Surface family of tablets. Essentially you would end up with a Windows laptop that can run full-fledged software (including downloading the casino itself), while keeping everything in a relatively mobile tablet format. Of course, the drawback of such switch is the much higher cost of those devices, compared to some Android tablets which can be bought for as little as a few hundred brand new.

For the smart phones, there is really nothing that can be done. Phones with larger screens would offer better entertainment value, but are not as comfortable to use on a day-to-day basis. We can only hope that the online casinos will be able to deliver real casino apps, akin to some of the more popular phone game apps. Until then, convenience should be the factor that trumps the few minor cons that come with playing your favorite casino on your favorite Android device.

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