Top 10 Most Popular Gambling Games Online & Mobile

Here you’ll find the top 10 most played games you can bet on according to all the latest statistics. But because there’s more to life that stats, we’d added a little twist.

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After living and breathing the online gambling industry for over 7 years, we’ve long ago scratched the itch of infidelity.

We started with a long-term relationship with blackjack and roulette, dabbled with poker, had thrilling threesome with slots and bingo… If you can play a casino game online or on mobile, chances are, we’ve tried it.

So we wondered: which are the top 10 most popular games you can play at a casino online? So we found some statistics – a few by mobile casino sites that we trust, a few more by asking our audience, and then looking at the industry as a whole.

However, because no one wants to read boring stats, here’s our take on it: what if each had their own personality?

Who would they be in the real world and why are they so popular?

10. Video Poker – The Hipsters who know better

With their retro five card poker look and feel and low house edge, is it any wonder that online Video Poker doesn’t make it higher on the list? They are left by the way side for the far more glamorous glitzy lights of casino slot machines.

Whilst it is by no means the oldest gambling game in the books, it is, probably, the oldest electronic game, coming out in big old fashion screens in the 1970’s.

It’s a simple casino game. You get 5 cards, you can keep or discard as many cards in one round, and you are trying to create the highest hand of poker.

Online casinos haven’t been able to do much more with Video Poker machines. They are what they are, and you kinda love them for it.

They are one of the few online casino games where, if you find the right one, you can actually beat the house.

You can play with a strategy, and if you are clever (or use our cheat strategy sheets) leave the casino with more than you came in with.

Because much like the hipsters, they know exactly what’s cool: getting the best deal that no one else knows about.

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9. Baccarat – Geek is the new chic

Though you may wonder what the game preferred by James Bond is doing so far down the list and labelled as ‘geek’, hear us out.

If you are a fan of Baccarat, don’t take this as an insult, but instead as the compliment it’s meant to be. Bond was clever, and you have to be clever to play Baccarat.

Or at least understand it enough to play well. With it’s many rules, it’s one of those that gamblers who are easily scared by numbers will shun.

Yet, once you get it, you’ll know few good casino games can beat it.

Much like the world of computing, you’ll seem clever and mysterious for playing Baccarat, with some innate power over a complicated machine…

But you know the secret that this is not quite as complicated as it looks. Just takes a little effort.

And whilst most of you IT geeks will stick to the more easily found Punto Blanco genre, which is a complete game of chance, you Steve Jobs out there will know that the real fun is in baccarat chemin de fer and baccarat banque, where luck and skill meet.

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8. Online Scratch cards –  the indy rockers

Notice how this is the only one we’ve put down with ‘online’ on the front. Because we’d bet that most of you reading this have played on a scratch card or two, when paying for petrol or grabbing a magazine on the way home from work.

But how many of you play scratch cards online?

More than Video Poker and Baccarat, that’s for sure, but not enough to make it higher up the list.

Maybe many of you like the feel of the scratch on your hands.

Maybe you realise that scratchcards are nothing more than a simple slot, and so move to the more popular machines.

Either way, online scratchies are not for just any joe bloggs, but the music aficionado who knows what they love and what they love is scratch cards.

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7. Bingo – The Cheerleaders of the world

We are going to make a confession. We did not get why bingo was growing in popularity.

But then, one bored afternoon, we went to play, and realised the appeal. It was the people playing bingo itself that was the fun part.

The chat rooms during online bingo are amazing. You got so many people talking about their lives, opening up to strangers and, we found, being super supportive of what was happening in each others lives.

If we ever feel down in the dumps, Bingo always cheers you up, because the folks playing it are just lovely people.

And because you don’t have to gamble a lot to play, there is rarely the anger you can get with other games where you have a series of bad bets and then have to stop playing.

Fun, happy people of all ages, playing a fun, happy game.

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6. Roulette – The bankers and stock brokers

Roulette players will no doubt raise an eye-brow at our comparison to an industry that over the years hasn’t had the best light shined upon it, but in their hearts they can see the similarities.

Roulette players are risk takers – make no doubt about that.

But they are calculated risk players, looking at the odds of the numbers, the spread of the game, the past numbers drawn…

After all, aren’t stock brokers just using data to gamble money into the markets?

So our smart roulette player does the same. And those that don’t, end up crashing the economy; or in this case, their casino budget.

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5. Blackjack – The white collar workers

Yes, Blackjack are the office workers of our gambling worlds. Because:

• Everyone has played Blackjack at some point in their lives – much like most of us have had to do filing.
• It’s easy to understand and you can quickly get on with the playing – or inputing that data in Excel, or photocopying those papers or…
• You probably played a variation of blackjack (or 21) before you were technically even allowed to gamble – these days you can’t leave school without the basic knowledge of online docs.
• It has a strict mobile blackjack strategy you can follow that gives you good odds of winning – stay in any one job long enough and you’ll start moving up the corporate ladder.

Blackjack is the safe game. And we don’t mean that badly – remember we started our gambling lives as blackjack players. But whilst there are many variations on the game of 21, the basic simplicity of it remains the same.

You get dealt a card hand and try to beat the dealer by getting as close to 21 as possible with as few cards and without going bust.

With a high payout percentage and simple game play, it’s why it’s still more popular than roulette worldwide from UK to Canada. Even if you haven’t read any blackjack strategies, you still have good odds of winning, if you don’t play recklessly.

And if you do… well, there is a reason why casinos online and off pay close attention to blackjack players. They are the ones that can break the house, or end up CEO’s of their own conglomerate.

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4. Poker – On the fringe of science

Poker players like to say that they are not gambling: they are reading people.

And whilst this might be true when you are sitting side by side with other players in hoodies and sunglasses, when gambling online and on mobile this is a very different story.

You are still playing other people, of course, but without seeing their faces or features. So you have to try and figure out their strategy based on how they play, and more importantly, what cards have already been played.

Maybe you’re a Texas hold’em type, maybe you prefer Pai Gow poker or 3 card draw… Either way this is the thinking man’s game.

And the truly great poker player is a little like a mad scientist: pushing boundaries, taking calculating risks and willing to do whatever it takes to get that pot at the end.

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3. Slot games – The PR media moguls

It may surprise many of you to know that the single most popular game in online and mobile casino is none other than slots.

Or it may not, seeing as the first thing you see when you open up any gambling site online is the huge array and variety of slot machines online.

The first casino to launch on the web was in 1996, and it had a total of 11 games. Guess how many were slots? We’ll give you a clue. More than 10.

They have the best press, the best stories, the best casino bonuses; being a slot player means you get the best treatment.

Every casino software is pushing new slot games every month, trying to entice you with big features, different features, new features… bigger, better wins.

And if it sounds like we are complaining; we are not. Offline slots may have the reputation of being an old ladies game, but online, slot machines are the glitzy, glamour of the shiniest magazine, getting the hottest super models, and big win juicy stories everyone wants to read.

Because where else can you play for a multi-million jackpot as easily, at any time, during any point of the day?

Pure round the clock entertainment at the palm of your hand.

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2. Sportsbetting – The Jocks

Yeah, we couldn’t come up with a better analogy than that. Reason being, gambling on sports is as popular as… well… watching sports. Or playing sports.

There is really nothing else to compare it to.

Not to be cynics, but betting on the outcome of two rival sides is probably as old as the caveman betting for or against the mammoth.

Sports betting, other than our top number one most popular casino game below, is one of the most accepted forms of gambling.

Whether it’s your favourite team, the final of that great cup, that once at the races, or an every 4 year bet on the olympics, everyone has made that one bet on a sport at least once.

And short of your kids basketball game, we suspect there will be an online bookie willing to give you the odds on almost anything.

That includes the sex of the next celebrity baby or the ‘cross your fingers’ that your football team will somehow pull it out of the bag this season.

It’s bigger than casino, more famous than slots, and has a wider global reach than Justin Bieber.

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1. Lottery – The white picket fence and 2.5 children

It comes as no surprise to us that the top number one most popular game of chance is… Lotto.

Helped no doubt by the fact that’s it’s the one truly worldwide regulated form of gambling – mostly because it’s run by the states themselves rather than companies – no matter where you are, there is a form of lotto you can play.

You have tombolas at school fairs, keno online, the big lotto draws on the weekend and then, of course, Bingo and Slots, which, let’s be honest, is just a slightly more complicated version of the lottery.

In terms of how much money it generates worldwide, the numbers are crazy high compared to the others.

And whilst it doesn’t have as good odds of winning as in roulette or blackjack, it’s where you usually get the biggest life-changing jackpots.

And isn’t that why we play after all?

So that in one struck of luck our whole life could be changed?

Of course, we prefer our mobile casino games with slightly better odds, which is why we write game and casino reviews, as well as the offer they give you as they come out, so you can play smart.

So who you going to be? The popular media mogul? The unique indy rocker? Or maybe the cash high stock broker?

Time to find out with a great welcome offer of 20 free spins on the ZOOM slot when you register at Vera&John Casino, – T&Cs Apply