Latest UK Online Casino News
Keep up to date with the world of casinos with expert news reports from our top casino journalists.
UK Online Casino News
Are you from the UK?
Do you like online casinos?
Do you need news on your favourite hobby?
It looks like you’re in the right place then!
Yes, we can be your provider of UK online casino news and we look forward to seeing a lot more of you from now on.
But, you may be wondering, why do I need online casino news.
We’re about to tell you. Be patient, please.
1. The online casino market is one of the fastest moving in history
The reason this site exists is that we’re in a boom time for online casino use, online casino gambling and online gambling generally.
And the UK is one of the biggest markets in the world for this.
The boom has been going on for a while in the UK. British gambling laws used to be very restrictive. Restrictive to the extent that sports booking establishments – bookmakers – has to have blacked out windows so people couldn’t see what was going on inside.
For good or for evil – and most people would concede that it’s been a fair dollop of both – those laws were massively liberalised in the period from 2005 to 2007.
The changes – to those old enough to remember the world before them, or to have lived through them – have been very visible. From being a back-street sort of activity, gambling has become a massively public business, with (previously banned) TV advertising everywhere, and what feels like the majority of British football teams (which are some of our most high-profile businesses) carrying high profile shirt sponsorship from online casinos.
Back when the laws were changed, the industry as a whole was taking in £8.36billion. In 2017 the figure was around £14billion.
While the legislation set the backdrop for this enormous change, the technological revolution that has impacted every area of our lives completed it.
In 2009 online gambling in the UK was worth £817million. In 2017 it was worth around one-third of the entire gambling industry’s revenue at about £4.5bn.
Premier League shirt sponsorships were worth £47.3m in the 2017 – 18 season alone.
This fast-moving and incredibly lucrative market – with the addition of all the accelerating factors of the online world and superfast computer power – is unstable and exciting.
Unstable in a good way!
The Wild West days of internet gambling are pretty much over. This massive explosion in gambling went unchecked in the UK for a long time, but eventually regulators started to try to catch up, and in doing so they set much stricter rules about the behaviour of gambling sites, where they were allowed to be based, and above all, what licensing they were allowed to undertake.
For years, the UK Gambling Commission accepted licences from a number of overseas jurisdictions. That’s no longer the case, and the UK Gambling Commission must now licence every site that offers services to UK players.
The UK Gambling Commission is one of the best-regarded gambling regulators in the world, and it is often busy.
Players who don’t have a Google alert that keeps them up to date on the latest decisions from the UK Gambling Commission need UK online casino news to keep them up to date on this. The commission is often busy, and it has fined a well-known site millions of pounds recently for not looking after a vulnerable player well enough.
2. Innovation in Online Casino Gambling
The regulators are busy from time to time – and players should always make sure that they are playing within the laws and rules of their countries – but gambling companies are even busier.
There are hundreds of game developers active in the UK market.
The casino auditing site, Slot Catalog, lists more than 1,000 games from 221 game developers, at more than 1,100 casino sites.
And this is just one figure that may not be definitively correct.
What we’re saying is that there are a lot of games on the market. And they keep coming. And they keep changing.
While the fundamentals of slot play seem to have set in a relatively stable pattern there’s always a new bonus game or gimmick on the way.
So while players can understand most games as newcomers, there’s always something new to discover, and the best players are the best-informed players. Knowing what’s going on won’t alter the odds on a game, but knowing the way a game works will give you the poise to cruise through an unfamiliar bonus game without losing your head.
Getting the low-down on new games with good quality guides and reviews is the short-cut to picking the games that are going to work for you without wasting time and money on titles that aren’t your cup of tea.
3. What’s the Real Name of that Casino?
Here we come to something of an issue in the casino market, and that is networked sites and branding and badges.
Setting up a good quality casino site is not the hardest problem in the world of the internet. But it’s by no means a slam dunk. That’s made a lucrative market in off-the-peg and white-label casino sites. These are casino software sites that buy their operational software from larger companies who run their own casinos. These sites will have some control over the games they stock, the bonuses they offer, and so on, but the main difference between sites can end up being the badges on the front page and the branding.
There’s nothing illegitimate in this, it’s just the way the business operates.
In the same way, some large casino companies operate under a number of different names. Again, completely legitimate and a way to offer different services to different players or groups of players.
But it’s useful for players to know who is behind any new casino site.
The same can be true of games design. Larger companies make their own games – which they stock in their own casino sites – but are increasingly working as partners with smaller games design companies who have innovative ideas.
Again, these partnerships are just the way capitalism works – big sharks eat little fish – but it’s useful to players to know if they can expect the same old big-designer bonus set from a supposedly new game that they thought was coming from an exciting new studio.
4. New Titles All the Time
Wherever they’re coming from, there’s an enormous number of new games hitting the market. Most will make relatively little impression and vanish. Playing some of them will, quite frankly, be a waste of your time.
That’s why you need good quality UK casino news and reviews from people who know and love slots and understand the market.
In January 2019 alone, we counted 14 new games from one big game company. How are players supposed to keep on top of that and know that they’re not missing out on the game that could change their lives?
5. A Diverse Business
We’re also aware that the online casino business itself continues to morph and change.
The explosion in mobile play has changed the business massively, with companies scrambling to keep up to date with the latest tech innovations.
This has seen an interesting trend with players picking up on simpler, more old-fashioned looking games, and even the return of more three-reel games that work well on small screens.
The other big change is in the massive availability of live streaming. Casino games are moving beyond the computerised simulations of the game that were the norm when online casinos started up and are now much more like a real casino experience.
Live streaming games feature skilled dealers actually playing a live game with the player. It’s possible to get involved with a social aspect of the game and there are a growing number of different experiences available to players, from immersive games with large numbers of cameras, to speed games that get through the gambling and paying as quickly as possible.
You can now find online live streaming casino games in a number of languages too.
UK online casino news will help you make the most of this exciting new world. Most players come to online gambling via slot machines, which are fairly easy to understand, but more and more are enjoying the heritage and depth of older gambling games.
The likes of roulette, blackjack, baccarat and poker are really taking off. Good sites offer good instruction, and live games should have some help available from dealers too. However, knowing all you can about a game before you sign up and start to throw cash around is the best way to get the best out of a game.
Did you know that video poker and blackjack almost always offer the best value to players at an online casino site? No! Well, that’s exactly the sort of thing you need to know.
6. Bonus, bonus, bonus!
And finally, the casino world is a world of money. The games might have a certain entertainment value, in fact, some of them are genuinely deep gaming experiences.
But if we’re honest, the vast majority of players play online games – slots, table games, live casino games, scratch cards and instant wins (the least sophisticated gambling games) – is for money.
So prizes need to be understood. The theoretical return to player explained – the good news is that this is a figure that seems to keep going up – and the best decisions on staking advised.
There are gambling strategies to explore too, although most of them can be pretty swiftly dismissed.
Bonuses are an enduring part of the online casino landscape too. In fact, a news site could fill up its entire output with bonus news – and such sites exist.
But bonuses are never quite what they seem, and it’s vital that players understand how they work, the restrictions on their use, what they mean for the casino, and what they will cost you in the long run.
Sometimes it’s better for a player to turn down a particular bonus – no matter how generous it might look – rather than get involved in a long commitment to a site with multiple restrictions on your balance while you work through a playthrough requirement that demands that you spend 40-times the amount you deposited before you can open up the site.
So, yes, if you like a site, it has great games, and it can be trusted, you might be saving yourself some time and frustration – especially if you’re an experienced, established player – if you just skip the complex bonus and get on with playing the games you love.
Whether or not you take them on, bonuses are almost always best with new sites and new games. Launches mean publicity pushes and giveaways, so you’ll need a good news site to keep you on top of what’s coming up – and to advise you on whether you’ll be better off sticking with a trusted site that continues to offer you good value.
7. Safe play, the law, and scams
If you spend any amount of time online you’ll know that there’s plenty of scamming going on. Sadly, the online casino business has been historically a venue for this sort of thing.
The customers of casino sites often include the very people who are most likely to fall victim to criminals: people who are desperate for quick, no-strings money, and people who are already trying to circumvent rules to get their hands on money (hello, underage gamblers!).
These people – and others who are just naïve – can easily become prey to bad-faith sites, scams, identity theft and criminal fraud.
Casino news sites need to keep an eye on the latest news about dishonest sites and scam games.
Fortunately, for most players, staying safe online and in the online casino world is pretty simple, but it’s something that needs to be kept on top of if you want to enjoy your UK casino sites without looking over your shoulder all the time.
UK online casino news is a tool that every British slots player should have in their locker. A well-informed consumer is going to make the right decisions, is going to play safely, and be able to jump on the best games and the best deals as soon as they hit the market.
Keep your eyes on our online casino news and we’ll get you ahead of the game.