MENUBest European Gambling Sites
Europe boasts a healthy online gambling industry thanks to lax laws and a general attitude of acceptance. Each country has its own take on gambling, but for the most part, European gambling sites are free to do business as they please.
Most European sites accept players from around the world, excluding the United States. What this means for you is that you won’t have any problems finding a place to play online. The main thing you have to worry about is choosing the best site for your needs.
Here’s a quick look at our most highly-recommended gambling websites for Europeans:
About these Sites
We didn’t just pick these sites at random because they accept European players. There’s a process involved in making these recommendations. First of all, the number one thing we look at in any potential recommendation is the reputation of the gambling site in question.
The online gambling industry is super competitive and we have seen sites in the past take shortcuts. So, safety and reputation play the biggest role in our recommendations. You can rest assured that when you deposit and play at these places that you’re getting a fair deal.
One other thing these websites all have in common is that they accept players from most European countries. Gambling laws vary greatly across the EU, but most countries are fairly accepting of online gambling.
Languages
Gambling sites that focus on the European market provide their services in multiple languages. In fact, the biggest ones offer services in more than a dozen European and Asian languages. Bet365, for example, is available in 17 different languages.
Language compatibility is more than just a convenient touch. When you have to contact customer support, it goes so much easier when they speak your language. It also goes to show that the site values its customers enough to spend money on multi-lingual support personnel.
Currencies
It’s always nice to play and wager in your native currency. The Euro works for many of us, but it’s hardly the only currency in all of Europe. When we come up with our rankings, we give bonus points to sites that allow players to deposit, play and withdraw in a wide variety of currencies.
The gambling sites with the most customers do a pretty good job in this area. We did some research and found that some places support upwards of 2 dozen currencies. That means you can deposit and withdraw without constantly worrying about exchange rates.
Actually playing in your currency is a different story. You can place bets in a few different currencies, but some of you will have to do short term currency conversions. Gambling websites handle this by exchanging your currency when you join a casino game (or place a sports bet). Then when you’re done wagering, the money is exchanged back to your currency. Rates do fluctuate throughout the day, but you shouldn’t see anything too drastic during the short time you’re actually seated at a game.
Deposit and Withdrawal Options
The first and last real-money experiences you have with any gambling site are making a deposit and making a withdrawal. These parts of the process need to be smooth and stress-free. This is your money that’s being moved, and these sites know how much customers don’t like being jerked around on money matters.
Every gambling site has its own unique list of deposit and withdrawal methods, but all the most popular are available at our top-ranked sites. Deposit methods such as the credit card, bank transfer, wire transfer, cash transfer and e-wallet are available at every single site listed above. The same thing also goes for popular withdrawal methods.
Where you will see differences are in the regional deposit and withdrawal methods at each site. For example, Poland has a popular deposit method called Przelewy24 that many gambling sites offer. Other countries also have similar money transfer services that some cater towards.
If you log in to the cashier’s area of a gambling website, you’ll see a dropdown list that shows all of the available methods in your location. The odds are you’ll find something that works well in your location. These places do not spend advertising dollars looking for new customers only to lose them to a lack of deposit options.
Gambling Law in Europe
There’s way too much to cover here on just a single page or even a single website. Every country in Europe takes a different approach to gambling law. So, we’re going to keep this part pretty generic and straightforward. And one more thing: we are not lawyers and this is not legal advice. This is just a quick summary of an extremely broad, complex topic.
Most European countries seem rather ambivalent towards online gambling. They don’t officially endorse it and they don’t do much to discourage the activity. They simply look the other way and let people do what they please. Things can always change, but that’s where we’re at right now for most European countries.
Some countries have chosen to specifically address online gambling. The UK enacted legislation in 2005 that paved the way for a licensed and regulated online gambling industry in that country. So far, it has been a resounding success. Gamblers are safe; sites operate in the open and minors are kept out.
Other countries have gone the complete opposite direction by attempting to ban online gambling completely. In 2008, Germany enacted legislation that blocked access to gambling sites and financial transactions to them. That was reversed in 2010 when an EU court ruled against Germany’s monopoly on gambling. Gambling websites were allowed to apply for operator licenses beginning in 2012.
The debate continues to this day in Germany, and that’s just one country! The point is, the legal landscape in Europe is complicated. But if we look at it from a very general, overhead point of view, it’s pretty good to be a European gambler right now.
