Legitimate Casinos By State For 2024

Most of the 30 or so states that have recently legalized online sports betting are also considering the expansion of casino gambling to the online space within their borders.

However, such legislation typically fails to gain traction, as states are far more hesitant to make iGaming readily accessible.

We expect this to change in the future, but it will likely take years before your state offers local online casino games for real money.

In the meantime, of course, it remains legal and safe to use any of the trusted casino sites listed on this page.

Every site included in our state-by-state guide to legitimate online gambling is 100% safe and secure. They’re all industry leaders in the space, and they’ve got the reputations to back up that status.

In other words, you can’t go wrong with any of these reputable gambling operators.

That said, if we had to pick just one site, we’d choose Bovada. Bovada has been in business for years, and its management team practically invented online gambling in the mid-1990s.

The site has famously never missed a payout, has an award-winning and easy-to-use mobile gambling interface, offers hundreds of RNG-certified online casino games, and even has a full poker room, international sportsbook, and global racebook for fans of the ponies.  

In most states, the legal age to play domestic casino games – whether in-person or online – is 21.

Commercial and Class III tribal casinos almost all require their patrons to be 21-plus, though some Class II venues (and other amusements like lotteries, bingo, raffles, pari-mutuel wagering, etc.) only require participants to be 18 or older.

However, if you opt to gamble at a legit online casino operating offshore, you typically only have to be 18 and up to join. A few trusted overseas casinos require players to be at least 21, but these are the exceptions to the rule.  

Definitely. Domestic casinos in the US are heavily overseen by the states in which they operate, and their electronic casino games are audited frequently to ensure fair-play compliance.

Such gambling venues are also governed by federal financial laws, money laundering laws, and so on.

That said, even though offshore casinos are not regulated by the US government, they’re also just as safe, as they must submit to rigorous industry standards in their own home countries and utilize the same fair gaming standards as the best state-based casinos.

In fact, the majority of the RNG games you’ll find at the most trusted online casinos operating internationally are developed by the very same gambling software brands (i.e. Realtime Gaming, Betsoft, Microgaming, etc.) that make the electronic gambling machines for brick-and-mortar casinos in the US and other retail gaming districts worldwide!

Of the few states with active online casinos, New Jersey has historically been the big winner since their online gambling portals hit the Internet back in 2013.

However, Pennsylvania’s online casinos, despite launching much more recently, are primed to be the biggest earners in the industry going forward.

Step aside, Sin City!

Despite so many states embracing online sports betting, online casino gaming has historically proven a much harder sell.

And, to make matters even more interesting, it has actually been perfectly legal for states to offer iGaming for over a decade (while online sports wagering only became federally legal in 2018 with the overturn of PASPA).

Depending on the state, there are two reasons why this is the case:

One: If the state has a more liberal outlook on gambling, it doesn’t want to endanger the profits of its brick-and-mortar casinos by allowing convenient online access. Economically, particularly for downmarket industries like restaurants and hotels, this makes sense.

Two: If the state is more conservative towards gambling, the approach from lawmakers seems to be that legalizing online play would lead to greater social ills like more widespread gambling addiction, poverty, and so on.

In many states, of course, there are also issues of tribal exclusivity re gambling, and many tribes are uninterested in online gambling because it would cannibalize foot traffic and in-person gaming, which is crucial for their reservations’ coffers.

Domestically, we really like what DraftKings is doing in the few states where they’ve been allowed to operate. BetMGM is a close second.

These brands offer the only domestic online casino iPhone apps and Android betting apps that even approach the variety provided by the top online casinos operating overseas.

Internationally, of course, Bovada is the gold standard, but the operator has been around for a long time.

As far as newer sites are concerned, we really like CasinoMax and Roaring 21, which launched in the late 2010s, as they’ve come on strong to position themselves as the top new players in the game.  

They sometimes do, but they aren’t all that robust.

Instead of bonuses, most retail in-person casinos use a rewards card system that lets you claim comped meals, free tournament entries, tickets to popular shows, and discounts on lodgings and other accommodations.

Most retail casinos do not have bonuses that award you free-plays for games on the gaming floors themselves.  

Yes, but they’re very limited.

If you live in a state that has domestic casinos online, you can expect things like a $50 risk-free bet for slots or table games, and sometimes you’ll find a perk that nets you $100 or so in free-plays, but that’s about it.

Bonuses are not a highly regarded aspect of the online domestic casino scene.

One of the biggest differences between gambling online with a local domestic operator and an offshore site has to do with the welcome bonuses and account reload bonuses you’ll get access to.

Domestic online operators do not rely on bonuses as inducements to join, as they’re more reliant on simple access. Many players don’t realize that online gambling is legal with international operators, and state-based providers take advantage of this by advertising their “exclusivity.”

Online overseas casinos, on the other hand, offer huge bonuses for new and returning members as a matter of course, giving their players thousands of dollars in free-plays for online slots, online table games like blackjack and roulette, online poker tournaments, and more.

Plus, since these sites compete with one another for your business, they’re always trying to offer bigger and better bonuses to one-up their rivals.

As a gambler, this is a very good thing, as you’ll always get more bang for your buck when gaming with these venues instead of via local providers.