For some parts of the world, like the UK, asking whether you can win real money on online casinos appears to have an obvious answer.

Gambling online and offline has always been legal in the UK, providing the casino has a UK Gambling license issued by the Government.

In other parts of the world the laws are not so lenient.

It may seem strange to someone in the UK that the U.S, which seems to allow almost anything, has such a strict view in terms of not being able to drink alcohol until the age of 21, and not being allowed to gamble online unless you live in one of six states.

On the other hand, someone in the U.S. may think it unusual that in the UK it isn’t legal to drive until the age of 17. In the U.S. this is as young as 14.

In the UK you can win real money on online casinos providing a real wager is staked, or gaming with a free to play bonus. In the U.S. only residents in the states of Delaware, West Virginia, New Jersey, Michigan, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania can win real money on online casinos. Sweepstake casinos are an alternative.

Sweepstake online casinos are like a real online casino in the U.S., where regular casino games can be played, but with coins or tokens. These are either won or bought.

It is possible to win more tokens playing the casino games, which can then be exchanged back to USD or CAD, depending on where you live, it is just more a complex process.

Only Washington and Washington D.C. have banned sweepstake casinos across North America.

How to win real money on online casinos

Now we have covered the geographic history of online casinos, let’s look at ways it’s possible to win real money.

Casino odds are notoriously against you for every £1 or $1 you wager. To see this in practise we only have to at a roulette table.

There are many combinations of play at a roulette table such as individual numbers, groups of numbers, odds, evens, red or black, street, square, split etc.

Playing the Odds

You’ll notice on a UK roulette table there are 37 numbers to choose, ranging from 0 to 36. So, therefore, there is a 1 in 37 chance of choosing the right number.

The odds though given by an online casino on an individual number is 35-1, not 37-1.

This £2 variance is the online casinos edge, and an example why the casino will always have an edge, and rightly so, otherwise they wouldn’t earn a profit to operate.

If 37 players all staked £1 on each individual number, and the result was number 18, then the online casino pays out £35 from the £37 staked to the winner and keeps £2.

Knowing the odds will always be against you is key to knowing how to win real money on an online casino.

The best way to win real money is to choose the stakes with the odds in your favour.

The odds on choosing one number from a roulette wheel is 1 in 37, which gives you a 2.7% chance of a win.

The odds on choosing either red or black is 1 in 2.3, which gives you a 48.6% chance of a win.

This is because on a UK roulette wheel there are 18 reds, 18 blacks and 1 green, meaning the myth of an exact fifty-fifty chance isn’t exactly true.

Lower odds will give you a greater chance of winning a greater number of times, but each win will be smaller.

No Deposit Bonus Plays

Many online casinos offer a No Deposit Bonus.

This is the casinos way to incentivise you for joining and playing their games. The assumption is the average person who signs up for a no deposit bonus will continue to play with real money deposits in the future.

You can’t cash out your bonus deposit, but you can use it to play the online casino games and any money won using the no deposit bonus is yours!

Unfortunately, many people who play no deposit bonuses go for high odds games, as the deposit is free, why not chance for a higher reward.

With such a low chance of winning, many users walk away disappointed.

The best no deposit bonus play strategy is to diversify the deposit across low and medium odds, with a small percentage left for a high odds game.

This spreads the bet providing a greater chance of a win, which can increase and accumulate your account balance.

Using this strategy, you could split your no deposit bonus in the following way:

• 30% on games with odds of 2-1 or less
• 25% on games with odds of between 2-1 and 4-1
• 35% on games with odds of between 4-1 and 20-1
• 10% on games with odds greater than 20-1

The intention is to accumulate your no deposit bonus play across varying degrees of probability to maximise your win potential – rather than putting it all on a 100-1 long shot and hope to strike fortune!

Smarter Casino Game Choices – High RTP

This strategy comes down to playing the odds but takes a slightly different angle.

Many people play slots on online casinos, but not all games are created equal Some have a higher probability of winning, albeit with shorter odds.

The strategy here is to boost the no deposit bonus to accumulate the funds and earn as much as possible using the free plays.

This means looking for the games providing the best returns.

Reputable online casinos will show a legitimate RTP rating, shown as a decimal such as 94.12.

This represents the percentage of wagers paid back to players over the longer term, meaning 94p of every £1 is paid back to players and the casino would keep 6p for providing the game.

This doesn’t though mean if you play for £1 you will win a minimum of 94p, it simply means if over a longer period of time the game calculates all wagers and all pay-outs, the pay-outs would be equal to 94.12% of the total wagers.

Not all games have the same RTP though.

Although often the percentage variance can be small, it makes sense to get every edge you can and look for those slots with the highest paying RTP.

A quick look at a popular online casino has immediately shown one casino slot paying 93.47 RTP, and another at 96.28 RTP – which is paying 3% more.

It is using strategies like this, taking every percentage opportunity for yourself, and increasing your own odds against the casino, that is likely to provide the best returns.

Winning real money on online casinos – In Conclusion

It is possible to win real money on online casinos, depending on your geographical location, but those in the UK can play and win freely, provided you are over the age of 18 of course.

The odds will always be in favour of the online casino, but that doesn’t mean strategy and a game plan can’t be used to leverage your chances and increase your own odds of a win!