Playing blackjack online offers easy access to one of the world’s greatest casino games and with some casinos also offering mobile versions of their site you can even play blackjack on the move, meaning you can pretty much play anywhere, anytime.
If you’ve never played online blackjack before, or even never played blackjack at all, our basic guide talks you through every step of the process and helps you choose a great site at which to play. Blackjack is hugely popular for two reasons: it’s really simple to play and the casino’s house edge is very small, meaning the player has a great chance to win.
Choosing and Joining an Online Casino
When selecting the casinos and blackjack sites you play at it firstly is worth considering welcome players from the USA (for US residents), whether it can be trusted to use fair and secure software and whether it offers bonuses to new players. If you can tick those important boxes straight away then away you go.
Joining an online casino is easy and it is very similar to making any other online purchase in that all you need to do is enter a few details to create an account and then fund the account in the same way you would pay for shoes, groceries or a new cell at another retailer.
Getting a Blackjack Bonus
Check the “Promotions” (or similar) page at whichever site you are looking to join and there is probably a high chance you will be eligible to claim a bonus based on your first deposit. Check the terms as you may need to enter a bonus code and there will probably be wagering requirements attached to the bonus, meaning you have to bet a certain amount before making a withdrawal, and note that blackjack is sometimes a restricted game due to its low house edge.
Choose the Right Game
Many casinos and blackjack sites offer a range of blackjack variants with slightly different rules and options. These can turn the house edge (the casino’s advantage) from less than 0.5% into almost 10%, so choose wisely. In short you want a game with full pay on blackjack (so odds of 3/2 rather than 6/5), as small a number of decks as possible, the dealer to stand on a soft 17 and late surrender.
Play Basic Strategy
Basic or optimal strategy is a mathematically proven way of playing that gives you the best odds of winning. Check out our basic strategy chart… and always stick to it!