1. Betting Sites For Sports
  2. Online Gaming Betting

Drake is our favorite casino site using Bet Soft gambling software. Drake offers a 300% welcome bonus to new depositing players with up to $6,000 in real bonus cash. Drake online casino accepts players from the United States and offers bitcoin, neteller, skrill and credit card deposit options. Play at Drake Casino. Pinnacle was the first gambling betting site to get involved in eSports betting. The betting site started offering eSports gambling in 2010. After then, most of the top-rated gambling sites started to offer eSports betting. Pinnacle announced, in 2017, that it had taken up to 5 million wager on eSports.

The United States is a unique market in the world of online gambling. Americans place more real money bets than any other group, but US citizens are also subject to a complex and confusing legal system. The good news is that there are many gambling sites out there that cater specifically to American gamblers. All you have to do is find the right one for you.

Let’s start with a list of the best gambling websites for US players:

BetUS

BetUS is a US gambling site founded back in 1994. The operator is based in San Jose, Costa Rica, and features both sports betting and casino gambling on their site. BetUS boasts themselves as 'America's favorite sportsbook', and is a great option to place your sports wagers.

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MyBookie

MyBookie.ag is mostly known for is sportsbook but what many people don't realize is that they offer a high quality online casino as well. They have established themselves as one of the top all-in-one US gambling sites in the market today....

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BetNow

BetNow has quickly become one of the leading online gambling sites in the US market. They offer a wide variety of sports betting options as well as a full casino. At their site you will find a large first deposit bonus and a great customer support staff as well....

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Bovada

Bovada is one of the largest all-in-one gambling sites that still accept citizens from the United States. The company behind Bovada has been in business since the mid-90s and has maintained an excellent track record for security, payments and customer support.

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Las Atlantis

Las Atlantis casino is an underwater-themed casino with an unbeatable $14,000 welcome bonus, hundreds of slot games, video poker, and a variety of digital table games. If you're looking for a unique underwater casino experience, Las Atlantis is for you.

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Super Slots

SuperSlots.ag may be relatively new, but they're run by one of the most trusted brands in industry. With a large variety of deposit and withdrawal options, top-tier support, and an excellent selection of casino games, this casino is certainly one of the best.

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T&C Apply

The greatest challenge to finding a safe place to gamble is that there is no official regulatory authority governing US gambling sites. Basically, we have to rely on reputation and word of mouth to find safe places to play. The industry self-regulates to some extent, but there are still a few shady operations out there. That is why we place such a priority on sticking with well-known websites.

Platform

Reputation is the key to everything related to gambling. Any gaming site must have a long, established history of hosting fair games and paying out winner to be worth playing at. Comparatively speaking, everything else comes second to reputation.

Sites can make any claims they want, but reputations must be earned over time. It’s not all that difficult to run a few Google searches to see what kinds of experiences other people have had with specific services. Over time, certain sites earn positive reputations and those places generally grow to become the most popular.

All the other stuff – game selection, graphics, and so on – is nice, but that’s just the cherry on top. What really counts is:

Fair Odds

That’s what we look for when playing online and when we make recommendations.

Gambling law in the United States is a funny thing. Federal law does not explicitly make it illegal for citizens to gamble online. In 2006, the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act (UIGEA) was passed. That law did not target customers of gambling sites. Instead, it targeted financial institutions and made it more difficult to process transactions to and from those sites.

The UIGEA made it hard for customers to withdraw and deposit, but gambling websites have found ways around the limitations imposed by the UIGEA.

Sports
Best deposit methods:
Debit Cards
Cash Transfers

However, some players do still report failed credit card deposits from time to time. If you ever have a problem depositing with your Visa or MasterCard, you can thank the UIGEA. Your best option in that situation is to try a different card or a new deposit method.

The credit card is the most popular deposit method for players in the United States because it tends to be a fast and reliable way to move money to an online bankroll. Other options include electronic bank transfers (just like paying a bill online) and cash transfers.

Bank Wire

GamblingSites.net is in not affiliated with a licensed legal firm. If you have any questions or concerns regarding serious legal issues we strongly advise you to seek out a licensed attorney.

Now that we’ve covered the most important issues, it’s time to move on to the other criteria that separate good casinos from great casinos.

Betting Sites For Sports

The software is important because we’re talking about real money here. It’s one thing to have a problem with your web browser, but it’s a whole other issue when you have problems that cause misplaced bets and lost money. What we’ve found is that the best software makes itself unnoticed; the focus is kept on playing and having fun.

The list of games should include all the classics (blackjack and video poker for example) along with a wide variety of slot machines and other random gambling games. Most places get this one right, but I have run across ones in the past that had maybe 20 games max. There’s no reason for these sites in this day and age to have anything less than a hundred games.

Some of the largest gambling websites offer more than one type of gambling. For example, Bovada.lv has casino games, sports betting and poker all under one roof. You can wake up, place a couple basketball bets in the morning, play a little blackjack in the afternoon and then finish off with a poker tournament that evening. It’s nice to be able to do all of this without having to deposit and withdraw at three different gambling sites.

The legal situation in the United States may be confusing, but there are still dozens of gambling sites that accept US customers. There’s no need to play at third-rate places when you have so many options at your fingertips.

If you don’t like what you see at one spot, then move on to the next! It’s OK to be picky when it comes to real money gambling. Online gambling sites do not deserve your business; they should earn it. So take your time, read a few reviews and pick the one that best fits your needs.

It’s crucially important to stay safe when betting online. In fact, it should be priority number one when assessing a site to bet on.

We’ve done most of the hard work for you by searching the web, reviewing hundreds of potential betting sites, and separating the worthy sites from those you should avoid.

Check out the sites listed in the table above. All of these passed our security checks with flying colors.

Betting Site
BonusBet Now
1 up to €30 Free BetGo to Site
2
22Bet
100% up to €122Go to Site
3100% up to €200Go to Site
4
10Bet
100% up to €50Go to Site
5 100% up to €50Go to Site

Of course, we don’t just expect you to take our word on it. That’s why we’ve outlined how we made the decision to include these below if you’re interested.

The safest gambling sites are inevitably found in the countries where it is legal and regulated. These sites have to pass quality checks and comply with strict regulations to get a license from the authorities in these countries. This is one of the factors we consider when assessing a site.

How We Decide if a Betting Site is Safe

There are literally tens of thousands of potential betting sites to choose from. We’ve visited, bet on, and reviewed thousands of them. Over time, we have developed criteria for assessing betting sites.

Each site listed in the table above passed the following tests:

It Must Have a Valid Gaming License

If a site doesn’t have a license issued by a credible authority, that’s a warning sign that it might not be safe. It’s even worse if it once had one but lost it. That means it violated the issuing authority’s rules.

There are lots of gaming authorities in the world, but the following are the ones we rate highest.

This is widely considered the gold standard of casino gaming licenses. The UK is a highly regulated market and there’s a zero tolerance policy towards cheating and scheming. If a betting site has a UK license, it’s almost guaranteed to be safe.

Malta is a Mediterranean island nation and an iGaming mecca. Lots of online casinos and software firms operate out of Malta. The Gaming Authority, therefore, takes licensing issues incredibly seriously and is quick to clamp down on anything considered unfair.

Geographically, Gibraltar lies off the tip of Spain. It’s actually a British overseas territory, though. While it governs its own affairs, gambling regulations stem from the UK Gambling Act (2005), making a Gibraltar license just as worthy as a UK one.

This small island nation in the Caribbean is home to thousands of remote eGaming operations. A Curacao license is generally held in high regard, and although the regulations are a little more flexible than the UKGC’s, for example, a betting site with a Curacao license is still considered pretty safe.

So, that’s a quick look at some of the top gambling regulators. Our recommended sites always have a valid license. You can double check these directly on the websites listed above.

It Must Offer Fast, Reliable Payouts

There’s more than one way for a site to be unsafe, but without a doubt, the most common sort of betting site scam is when you deposit and don’t get your money back.

Some sites also put up major obstacles to allowing you to withdraw, such as by asking for unreasonable verification documents or by putting in minimum withdrawal clauses which far exceed the deposits you have made.

We check the terms and conditions of each site we recommend and avoid recommending those with anything we think is ‘funny business.’

Ideally, we want to see same day payout for e-wallet withdrawals, and we want to see a maximum 3-5 business day wait for credit and debit card withdrawals.

Despite how some players feel, we actually like it when a casino asks you to verify your identity. As long as the process isn’t too complex or time-consuming, this means the site cares about fraud prevention and identity theft. When it comes to looking for safe betting sites, that’s a big plus.

It Must Run on a Secure, Encrypted Connection

Does the idea of advanced encryption make your head spin? Don’t worry, we feel you on that.

Gaming

There’s no need to have a deep understanding of this issue to make use of it. That’s why they pay IT professionals the big bucks. All you need to know, as an online bettor, is that you want to bet at sites with https:// at the beginning of the web address.

Online Gaming Betting

That means the site runs on an SSL encrypted connection. Without getting into boring details, this makes it virtually impossible for hackers and criminals to steal financial and/or personal data on the connection.

If you take a look at any of the sites listed above, you’ll see that they run on secure connections. We don’t take risks with your data safety, and you should avoid any sites which aren’t encrypted.

On most browsers, a little notification will appear beside the address bar telling you if a site is not secure. Pay attention when this happens. It could be a costly mistake to ignore this.

It Must Offer Games from Reputable Software Providers

Whether it’s a sports betting site, a casino site, a poker site, or a combination of things, we want to see software from established, reliable firms.

Online gaming betting sites

When it comes to online casino betting sites, for example, we really like to see games from NetEnt, Microgaming, IGT, and Playtech. These companies have a long history and are guaranteed fair.

If we see betting software we don’t recognize, that’s not an automatic write-off. We know this industry is highly innovative and are always willing to give upstarts a chance. However, we need to dig deeper and find out if these companies are reputable, and ideally want to see third-party verification of payouts.

Safe betting sites will have no problem publishing payout rates and explaining how the software works. If they aren’t willing to be transparent, we aren’t willing to recommend them.

It Must Have an Established History & Solid Base of Players/Bettors

The longer a betting site has been around the better, in our view. If a site has been servicing thousands of players since 1998, it’s highly unlikely to be unsafe. If it has survived for decades, it’s a safe bet (pun fully intended).

We’re also aware, of course, that there are lots of new betting sites coming online on a daily basis, and plenty of them are safe. In those cases, we look at the management team and company running them. If they are experienced and run multiple safe betting sites, we are happy to recommend them.

If a site is totally new, run by a startup with no industry reputation or experience, it’s highly unlikely you’ll find that site on our recommended list. They will only make it if they’ve done something exceptional to win our trust.

There are some new betting sites which make the cut, but it’s rare, and as you’ll see from the table above, most of our preferred betting sites have been around for a while.

Some of the Risks Associated with Online Betting

Part of the key to staying safe when betting online is education. We don’t mean to be patronizing, but if you’re new to this, you’re more likely to fall into the hands of predatory sites and scammers.

We want to prevent that, if possible. Other than sticking to the sites which have already been reviewed in-depth by our team of experts, it helps to know what some of the common safety concerns are.

Gaming

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the risks associated with betting sites:

  • Outright Theft – This is simply a site stealing your money or making it impossible to get it back. It happens all too often but can easily be avoided. Stick to sites with a reputation for fair, fast payouts. Also, take some time to at least skim the terms and conditions, especially the ‘withdrawals’ section.
  • Identity Theft – This is the one that really seems to freak people out these days. It’s always slightly unnerving when a betting site asks you to send a copy of your ID and a recent utility bill to verify your account. Again, it won’t be such a worry if you stick to the best-known operators who have licenses requiring them to take data protection seriously.
  • Fee Gouging – Those terms and conditions are a treasure trove of information, as we’ve said before. Still, virtually nobody takes the time to read them. This is where dishonest operators can confiscate your winnings for no reason or take back a hefty slice in the form of fees.
  • Viruses & Malware – Lots of mobile bettors, in particular, like to download an app from their favorite betting site. However, too many less scrupulous operators install malware, adware, and spyware along with the app. Get a good antivirus program which detects malware, adware, and spyware, and you should be safe.
  • Rigged Games & Odds – The crooked bookie or casino run in a smoke-filled room parlor by the mob is long gone. These days, they’ve migrated online. Some unsafe betting sites create their own odds software or casino games, which are designed to rip you off, plain and simple.

Summary

It’s always worth it to take the time to research before deciding on a betting site. You can start by reading some of our in-depth reviews.

We cover each of the points listed above in detail and leave no stone unturned. We’re not saying every site we review will turn out to be right for you, but we are saying you’ll be in a much better position to make a decision after reading one.

You can find our safest betting sites and their full reviews on the table at the top of this page. We wish you the best of luck!