Start Here
Each guide is self-contained. Read the one for the game you are about to play; there is no order to work through.
What These Guides Are For
A casino game has two kinds of rule: the ones that decide what you are allowed to do, and the ones that decide what it costs you. Most guides on the internet cover the first and skip the second. These cover both.
Where a decision changes your odds (and in blackjack a great many do), the guide says so and shows the correct play. Where it changes nothing, which is every decision in roulette and every decision on a slot, the guide says that too, plainly, instead of dressing a coin flip up as skill.
What You Will Not Find in Them
- Betting systems. Doubling after a loss does not change the odds of the next hand; it changes how quickly you run out of money.
- “Due” numbers, hot machines or cold tables. A shuffled shoe and a random number generator have no memory.
- Any suggestion that a game can be beaten with the strategies here. Played perfectly, blackjack still has a house edge.
The Three Games Side by Side
The three games look alike from the lobby. What separates them is how much of the cost you control.
- Blackjack is the only one of the three where your decisions move the numbers. On a good table, played by the chart, the house edge is around 0.5% of what you stake. Played on instinct it costs several times that, which is why the blackjack guide is the longest and why its trainer checks every decision you make.
- Roulette has one choice that matters, and you make it before the first spin: the wheel. A single-zero wheel costs 2.70% of everything you stake, a double-zero wheel 5.26%. After that, every bet on the layout costs the same on average, however you spread your chips.
- Slots leave you no decision that changes the odds. A return to player of about 96% is the middle of a UK lobby, and the same title can run at 94% or lower at a different casino. Your stake, the number of lines and when you stop change how long a balance lasts, not what the game pays back.
If you only read one guide, read the one for the game you play. If you are choosing between games, the list above is the short version: blackjack rewards learning the moves, roulette rewards picking the right wheel, and slots reward nothing but a budget you keep to.
How the Guides Are Written and Checked
Each guide is written by one of our editors and fact-checked by the other before it is published. The rules come from the published game rules and help pages of UK-licensed casinos, and the odds are worked out from those rules, not copied from a casino’s own marketing.
Rules differ between casinos, and between tables at the same casino. Where a variation changes the odds (the number of decks in blackjack, whether the dealer stands on a soft 17, one zero or two on a roulette wheel), the guide names it so you can check the table in front of you. When a rule a guide relies on changes, the guide is updated, and the date in its byline says when it was last reviewed.
Where to Go Next
The guides explain the games. The rest of the site covers the casinos that offer them:
- Our ranking of 15 UK casinos, scored on bonus value, game range, payments, safety and support.
- The best UK casinos for slots, if the slots guide is the one you came for.
- How to read a casino bonus, including what wagering does to the value of an offer.
- Payment methods compared, with minimum deposits and withdrawal times for each.
Practise First, and Set a Limit Before You Do Not
Every guide with a practice tool runs it for free, in your browser, with no account and no money. Use it until the decisions are automatic. If you then choose to play for real, decide what you are willing to lose before you deposit, and set that limit at the casino, not in your head. Every UK-licensed site is required to offer deposit limits, time-outs and self-exclusion.
Free, independent help is available from GambleAware, from the National Gambling Helpline on 0808 8020 133, and through GamStop, which blocks you from every UK-licensed gambling site at once.