Best online casino for most U.S. players: Bovada

If you're in CT, DE, NJ, PA, or WV, online casinos are legal in your state, and you should play at a casino licensed there.

If you're in any other U.S. state, your best bet is Bovada, not because they're good, but because everything else is even worse.  I'm reminded of the Simpsons episode where the RV salesman is telling Homer, "Simpson, you're never gonna own a finer RV.  And I don't mean that in a good way, I mean this is IT for you!"

THE GOOD ABOUT BOVADA

  1. Play the practice games without having to register an account.  Other casinos force you to register so they can market to you.  Bovada is the only U.S.-wide casino I know of that lets you play right away with no registration.  (They throw up a registration box, but you can cancel it and continue to the game.)  For example, here's the free-play blackjack.  And the games play right in your browser, so you don't have to download any special software.
  2. Better reputation.  Online gambling is mostly unregulated so if a casino refuses to pay your winnings you have little recourse.  But Bovada has a better reputation on payouts than its unlicensed competitors. (Not perfect, but better.)

THE BAD ABOUT BOVADA

  1. Not licensed.  Because online gambling in most states isn't explicitly legal, no legitimate authority will license a U.S.-wide casino.  That means if you have a dispute, you have no recourse.  This is the biggest problem with Bovada, but if gambling isn't licensed in your state, you're not gonna find better.
  2. Various other issues. Detailed here.

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Gambling problem?

  1. Call the 800-522-4700 hotline or get online help
  2. See these horror stories.
  3. Know that aripiprazole and Parkinson's drugs encourage gambling.

Resolving disputes with an online casino

Last update: October 6, 2024

Are you in a regulated area?

Online gambling is slowly becoming legal state by state.  If gambling is legal in your state, and you played at a licensed casino, then congratulations: the Gaming Commission in your state will hear your dispute.  Yay regulation.  Contact them and go from there.

But the casino you played at might not be in a regulated state, because lots of online casinos take players even in states with no regulation (one such casino being my site sponsor, Bovada).  In that case, you can't complain to the gaming commission, because there isn't one.  This article covers what do do in that case.


Kinds of disputes

If you have a dispute with an online casino, your issue probably falls into one of these areas:

  1. You think the casino's games are fixed.
  2. You didn't get a bonus you expected.
  3. You tried to make a withdrawal but the casino won't pay you.

Let's go ever each of these.


 (1) You think the casino's games are fixed

It's highly unlikely that the casino is cheating.

  1. Almost all online casinos run software from one of about a dozen reputable providers.  The software controls the game, so it would be hard for the casino to fix the games even if they wanted to.
  2. Most casinos are aware that watchdog mathematicians can easily spot cheating and out a casino which does so.  (Yes, it's happened.)  That's the kiss of death for a casinos business.  Any casino with a clue knows they'll make less money if they cheat.

  3. The casino has no need to cheat.  The odds are already against you.  If you're the kind of player who plays until your whole deposit is gone (and most players are), then fixing the games is pointless: the casino will get all your money sooner or later anyway.

Nevertheless, some clueless casinos have indeed cheated (and been caught, but that's cold comfort if you already lost your money).

If you suspect your casino is cheating, then gather your evidence and post it on the Wizard of Vegas forum, which has lots of mathematicians as members.  If your evidence is detailed enough, then someone there will help you.

But your evidence probably won't be detailed enough.  You can't simply report what happened the first time, because you didn't keep detailed records because you didn't think you'd need to report it later.  Just stating how much you deposited, how much you bet, and the approximate number of rounds before you lost your money is not anywhere close to enough evidence.  So you'll need to play again, at least 100 rounds.  So yes, you'd have to risk money on a game that you already suspect is unfair.  If you don't want to do that, I don't blame you, but you also won't be able to get any help without any evidence.

If you do play again to collect evidence, then at a minimum, you'll need:

  1. Your starting bankroll.
  2. The amount you bet each round.
  3. The details of each round.  For blackjack, every card dealt, and what play you made.  For craps, what bet you made, and each individual die (not the dice total) for every round.  For slots, which symbols you got.

(2) You didn't get a bonus you expected

Many online casinos make the bonuses really difficult to qualify for.  Usually you have to gamble a minimum amount of money, and often certain games don't count towards the play requirement.  For example, one casino I saw ignores play on just about everything — Roulette, Craps, Baccarat, SicBo, Video Poker, and Blackjack.  (Gee, what else is left?)  Even my advertiser, Bovada, excludes Craps at the time of this writing.

So the first thing is to read the fine print on the casino's website and determine whether you really did qualify for the bonus.  If you think you did, write to the casino and ask them why you didn't, quoting the terms of their bonus offer back to them.  If they still disagree, then see the section below about resolving disputes.


(3) You tried to make a withdrawal but the casino won't pay you

This is probably the most common complaint against an online casino.  If you win big, some casinos will look for an excuse not to pay you. (examples)  For example, many casinos (including Bovada) have a rule that there can be only one account per household, so if two people in your house are playing on separate accounts, then bam!, winnings seized.

The reason casinos have the "one account per household" rule is that they figure multiple accounts on the same IP address is really the same person, trying to score multiple bonuses that the casino gives when a player signs up or makes a deposit.  How can they determine whether multiple accounts in the same household are the same person or different people?  They can't, and they don't have to, because their rule is one account per household, so even if you could prove that your multiple accounts belong to different people, it doesn't matter.

So, don't have more than one account per household.


Resolving disputes

Let's say you've read the above, you've written to the casino without success, and you've waited a reasonable amount of time for the issue to be resolved, and it hasn't been.  Now what do you do?

You can try submitting your complaint to a site that mediates online casino disputes, like Casinomeister or Ask Gamblers.  Those are free services that helps players with legitimate complaints.  (I am not such a service.)

Good luck!


Practice gambling with play money

Before you throw down your hard-earned cash in a casino, PRACTICE FIRST!  Learn the games with play money where it doesn't cost you anything if you lose.  Seriously.

You can play Bovada's games (below) right away without registering for an account.  Most every other online casino makes you give up your email address just to play the fake-money games — ugh.  That's the main reason Bovada is the only online casino that gets advertising space on my site.  (When you see the registration box, you can cancel it and proceed to the game without registering.)

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