I don’t have to tell you that the UK has the best online casinos because you’re on a site that celebrates their greatness. Whether you’re looking for a wide variety of games, excellent consumer protection, high jackpots, or something else, you’ll find what you’re looking for on the UK’s online casinos.
But have you ever thought about online casinos in other countries? Are they more boring/exciting? Do they offer something different? In this blog. I’ll be looking at online casino industries around the world (notably India, China, the Philipines, and the USA) and comparing them to the UK’s online casinos.
I’m intentionally not covering countries closer to home, particularly in Europe, because they have similar rules to us (i.e. the UK) and, although they don’t have the variety of games we do, there’s not much difference between us.
Finally, I do recommend that, if you live in the UK, you stick to playing on the UK’s online casinos because this will give you the best consumer protection and helps prevent things going wrong when you deposit and withdraw money. If you do choose to play with offshore online casinos, then make sure you protect yourself properly, e.g., use a pre-paid credit card or PayPal. Credit cards offer a high level of protection when you buy things online, and PayPal prevents third-parties from seeing your bank details. You might also need to download a VPN
OK, let’s check out how some other countries shape up:
India’s Online Casinos Vs the UK’s Online Casinos
India’s online casinos are a little confusing from a legal perspective. They have restrictive laws for gambling. It’s only legal in some parts of India, and even then, only covers a small number of games…but that’s about brick-and-mortar casinos.
Online casinos are a different matter. There aren’t any legal Indian online casinos, so if you find one, DON’T PLAY ON IT. Not if you want any sort of legal protection. If you can’t resist having a flutter on such a casino, then make sure you use a cryptocurrency or another payment method that prevents them from seeing who you are, but still enables you to deposit and withdraw money.
There have been attempts to get licences for online casinos in India, but none of them has been successful yet.
For people who are in India and who want to play with online casinos, there’s still plenty of choice. The law allows for players to play online, and many of them do. They have to use a VPN, though, because the law requires India’s ISPs to block online gambling sites.
Unsurprisingly, the UK’s online casinos are popular with Indian players. For UK players, watch out when you play late at night because that’s when many parts of India are waking up – all refreshed and ready to outsmart tired people! And interestingly, this IS a technique that people use because I spoke to one of the UK’s best poker players from the early 2000s, and he would play at strategic times of day to make sure his competitors were tired!
China’s Online Casinos Vs the UK’s Online Casinos
The Chinese love to gamble. They spend an estimated $145bn a year on online gambling – that’s almost $100 per person! Um, but we can’t talk – the Brits spend $108 per person per year!
But online casinos are illegal in China! Imagine how much more money they’d be spending if it was legal. As it stands now, players need to use VPNs to play online. And many of them do; the Chinese online gambling market is HUGE, despite it being illegal, and there are offshore casinos that cater specifically to Chinese players.
People in China will need to be careful if they choose to gamble online. We reported recently that the Chinese government is cracking down on online gambling because they believe the amount of money flowing out of the country is a matter of national security.
If online casinos were legal in China, I bet they’d have some amazing casinos. Just as Macau is on a par with the gambling capital of Las Vegas, their online casinos would give ours a run for our money.
I’d quite like to see that happen, actually. If we got into a commercial “war” with China, the technology would advance exponentially, and each would have to come up with new and innovative ideas to get ahead. We’d get some crazy VR/High-Psyche hybrid games that, thinking about it, would probably be extremely dangerous for our wallets and mental health, but fun for the first few times!
Because Chinese players tend to favour other Asian markets, when it comes to online casinos, you won’t find many Chinese players on the UK’s online casinos.
The Philipines’ Online Casinos Vs the UK’s Online Casinos
Online casinos in the Philipines have exploded in recent years, notably the POGOs. POGO stands for “Philippine Offshore Gaming Operator”, and it’s a licence that allows Filipino online casinos to cater to offshore customers. China is the biggest market for POGO casinos.
The games on these casinos cater to Asian tastes, and you will notice a difference between POGOs and the UK’s online casinos. Here are a few examples:
- Mahjong: this is a tile game that’s quite popular in the West, popularised by the free games on Windows PCs.
- Pachinko: a combination of slot machine-type psychology and pinball machines, these are a lot of fun but extremely addictive.
- Sic Bo: confusing and fast-paced, once you get the hang of it, this is super fun too, but again, addictive. It’s an ancient Chinese
art and everybody knew their partgame that’s been played for thousands of years. It shares some similarities with dominos, and people enjoy the element of strategy it has. - Pai Gow: another ancient game making use of dominos; they love tile games in the East. This one is more complicated than Sic Bo and can take a while to master. It has a much slower pace than Sic Bo, so it’s good for people who like to contemplate their play.
If you’re looking for some new and interesting games, then you might enjoy the POGOs. If you do choose to go ahead, make sure that you do your research and ensure that you’re playing on a safe and secure site. I always tell people that the safest bet, if they’re in the UK, is to stick with the UK-regulated casinos.
The USA’s Online Casinos Vs the UK’s Online Casinos
As expected, because of state and federal laws, online gambling in the USA is complicated. Gambling is controversial in the USA, and there’s plenty of legislation around it. Gambling’s banned outright in Hawaii and Utah and, in other states, different types of gambling might be allowed or not.
However, the online gambling market in the US is worth $47.57bn, but it’s set to almost double by 2025, to an estimated $94.37bn. So as the UK starts to tighten its rules for online gambling, the US is opening up. In particular, sports betting is getting bigger.
What does this mean for UK players? Well, it means that there’s going to be a rapid influx of online casinos with players who don’t necessarily know what they’re doing. That makes the US casinos a great place to hone your skills, especially on strategy games, like poker.
Compared to UK online casinos, the US is nowhere near our calibre, but this is expected to change quickly with the US taking a dominant position within the online gambling market in the next few years. This is supported by government legislation and a supportive landscape for online gambling. Expect to see innovative new technologies and ways of gambling as the US starts to take a leading role within the industry.
