How Online Blackjack Works and the 5 Best Online Casinos for Blackjack

NOTE: Click here to go straight to our selection of the five best   Blackjack online casinos and how we picked them.

The great thing about playing Blackjack online is you can practice your skills for free and then play for real at your own pace, using the online casino bonuses to leverage your money.

Online casinos are growing explosively, so it's no surprise that online Blackjack is popular and widely available. You can play Blackjack free before wagering your hard- earned money and there is no one to notice your mistakes while you practice.

But beware! The Internet is full of land mines ready to trap the unwary blackjack player with unfavorable playing rules and online casino bonuses that look good but frequently don't apply to Blackjack bets.

But not to worry - Blackjack For Everyone will guide you through the tangled maze of online casinos and show you where to get the most bang for your Blackjack buck!

Overview Of Playing Blackjack Online

As with most things, there are both advantages and disadvantages to playing Blackjack online and it's really a matter of personal preference. Here are the pluses and minuses of playing online Blackjack as we see them.

ADVANTAGES

• You play in the comfort of your own homeand have no travel expenses.
• Playing Blackjack online is a better way to learn for beginners. Casinos and Blackjack dealers can be intimidating at first. And at home, no one can see your mistakes!
• You don't have to put up with other player's rude behavior (including the Dealer!).
• You can have your basic strategy "cheat sheets" right in front of you and take your time to make the right decision every time.
• Online casinos usually give you bonuses to compensate for casino "comps".

DISADVANTAGES

• The deck is shuffled after every hand, so card counting is impossible.
• It can be easy to exceed your gambling limit because the total amount you've lost is sometimes hidden in the glitz that surrounds the playing screen.
• The pace can be faster because you're playing one-on-one with the computer (but many games allow you to choose the playing speed).
• You don't get paid immediately and in cash.

Overall, with the exception that you can't count cards, the Blackjack odds against you in on online casino are no higher than a land casino and are frequently better. That is, if - and we do mean if - you play in the right online casinos.

Even though you can't count cards due to the fact that online casinos shuffle the cards after each hand, you have a much better chance of playing perfect basic strategy because you can have your strategy cheat sheet right in front of you. Since there is no one to rush you in an online casino, you can make the perfect basic strategy decision for every hand.

For the avid Blackjack player, there should be room for both online and land based casinos. Play online to learn and hone your playing skills, and when you want to gamble for real with no travel cost.

It's also an interesting and fun experience to occasionally travel to a land-based casino, especially in Las Vegas. You should at least experience once the thrill of pitting your skills against a dealer face-to-face!

Choosing An Online Casino

Some of them are fly-by-night operations that will take your money and run, while others are large, well-established companies that have been online for many years. It's mind boggling to think about researching them all to find the ones that are reputable, honest, give you fair shake for your money, and - especially important - have decent blackjack rules (most online casinos do not).

Fortunately, we've done the research for you. We developed and applied a tough set of criteria to narrow down the huge number of online casinos to a more manageable number representing the biggest and most well established ones. Click here to see how we narrowed 1,300 online casinos down to our final list of the five best online casinos for playing Blackjack.

And now, here is our final selection of the five best online casinos for playing Blackjack (drumroll please), in alphabetical order:

Blackjack Ballroom - Review    Play

Casino-on-Net - Review   Play

Omni Casino - Review   Play

Sands of the Caribbean - Review   Play

Virtual City Casino - Review   Play

You can play Blackjack at any of these five online casinos and rest assured that the game is honest, the Blackjack rules are favorable, you will be paid your winnings promptly, and their customer service is excellent.

The differences are mainly in the amount and type of sign-up bonuses they offer, the betting limits, and the look and feel of their online Blackjack game.

Blackjack Rules to Avoid in Online Casinos

If you choose to play Blackjack in an online casino other than the five we recommend, read their Blackjack rules very carefully to make certain none of the following unfavorable rules apply.

1. You are only permitted to double-down on a two card count of 9, 10, or 11. Sometimes it's only 10 or 11. With perfect basic strategy there are other instances where it is favorable for you to double-down, so you want rules that allow you to double-down on ANY two card count.

2. You can't double-down after splitting pairs. You will sometimes get a two card count that presents a favorable double-down opportunity after you split pairs. You want rules that allow you to take advantage of this.

3. A Blackjack pays 6 for 5, instead of 3 for 2. Not many do this, but it seems to be growing somewhat, especially in smaller and newer casinos that would rather have you play their more profitable online slot machines.

4. The dealer does not check the hole card for a Blackjack until AFTER the players make a double-down bet or split pairs. This is the single worst rule. Unfortunately, it is very widespread, even in some of the largest and most reputable online casinos.

   What this means is that if the dealer has a blackjack, that fact isn't revealed until after you double-down or split pairs. Then the Blackjack is revealed and you lose both your initial bet AND your double-down bet or your second bet for a split pair. You never see this rule in a Nevada casino because players wouldn't stand for it. Why it's accepted in online Blackjack remains a mystery to us.

   You cannot - let us repeat cannot - win with this rule. It's so unfair that it borders on unethical in our opinion. Avoid playing Blackjack in any casino, online or land based, that has this rule.

Online Casino Sign-Up Bonuses

There are two basic types of bonuses: "free" bonuses, and "deposit match" bonuses. A free bonus is given whether or not you make an initial deposit. Essentially, it's free money with which to play. A "deposit match" bonus is one where the online casino will match a certain percentage of your deposit.

The catch here (there's always a catch, right?) is that you have to wager the bonus amount, and frequently the deposit amount, a certain number of times before you can withdraw any of the bonus or the winnings on the bonus.

For example, you may be required to wager the bonus and deposit amount four times before you can cash out. This means that if you deposit $50 and get a 100% match of $50, you must wager that combined $100 four times, or $400 worth of bets, before cashing out.

These bonuses can be very generous, sometimes up to 200% of the amount you deposit, subject to a maximum. However, most online casinos have recently placed much more restrictive conditions on their sign-up bonuses due to player abuse of these bonuses.

Gamblers are an intelligent and innovative lot. They quickly figured out they could make money on the online casino bonuses by playing a game with good odds (Blackjack was a favorite!), wagering the minimum amount required and then cashing out the bonus. They would do this several times at several different casinos and end up making several hundred, or even thousand, dollars.

Here's an example. A player would sign up at Casino A, which had a 100% match bonus up to a $200 maximum, and required that it be wagered twice, for a total amount wagered of $400. The player would deposit $200, get the $200 bonus, and then meet the minimum wagering requirement of $400 by playing Blackjack. With perfect basic strategy, the house edge with Blackjack is only 1%, so the player would lose an average of only $4 on the $400 wager and then cash out the remaining bonus for a profit of $196!

The player would repeat this at 10 or 20, or more, online casinos and could end up with a net profit of several thousand dollars. For once, it was the casinos that were getting fleeced!

After getting banged around financially with their own bonuses, the online casinos finally figured out what was going on and swiftly reacted with several changes to the bonus rules:

• They increased the number of times the bonus had to be wagered, up to 8, 10, even 20 times. For Blackjack, many of them double the number of times the bonus and deposit have to be wagered (because of the low odds)

  Special Note: Casino On Net only requires the bonus to be wagered two times, which is the most generous of the major online casinos. It is also one of our five recommended online casinos. If you plan to play online for money, play here first before they cahnge the rules. Click here to play.

• They now frequently require that the amount to be wagered include the bonus plus your deposit, effectively doubling or more the amount to be wagered.

• Some casinos now only permit you to withdraw the winnings on the bonus, not the bonus amount itself. Thus, if the bonus is $100, you can only withdraw amounts over $100. In other words, the bonus amount itself is subtracted from your balance and you can only withdraw the difference as winnings (by the way, the casinos we recommend do not have this restrictive rule).

• Worst of all (in our opinion) is that Blackjack play is now frequently excluded from meeting the minimum wagering amount to collect your bonus. This is, of course, because a good Blackjack player will win more that players of other games. Craps, roulette and baccarat are also frequently excluded. In essence, many of the casinos primarily want you to play their slot machines, with the high house edge.

The net effect of all these changes is that sign-up bonuses are no longer the excellent deal they were as recently as six months ago. Consequently, bonuses should not be the determining factor in choosing an online casino.

One final word on bonuses: read the rules very carefully and adhere to them exactly. It's not uncommon for there to be a clause that you meet the wagering limit within a certain period of time - sometimes as short as 14 days. This varies widely among online casinos. Also, bet just a bit more than the maximum total amount required, just to be sure you collect your bonus with no question.

Some Tips For Playing Online Blackjack

• Almost all online casinos have free versions of their games, where you can download and play the games with "play" money. You should always do this before playing for real money, in order to get a feel for the game and the rules. This is also an excellent way to practice and perfect your Blackjack basic strategy.

• If the game play is too slow or too fast, you can usually adjust the speed by clicking on the "options" button (if there is one).

• A running count of your cards is usually displayed next to your Blackjack hand. You should ignore this and always count your cards yourself for the practice. When you play in a land based casino, there is no one to count your cards for you and you must be able to do it quickly and accurately unless you want the other players to glare at you.

• Choose a "beginner friendly", low limit online casino first. We recommend Blackjack Ballroom. Click here to read the review and play.

• As you gain experience, you can switch to a higher stakes casino. We recommend Casino On Net for the experienced player. Click here for the review and to play.

• Check out the casino website for details on their payout procedures. Most pay by wire transfer or check.

• Remember that all online casinos shuffle the deck electronically after each hand. This means that card counting is useless and card clumps do not exist.

• Funding - some credit card companies will not allow charges to online casinos. Look at the casino web site for the funding types they accept. You may have to sign up for one of the alternative funding methods if credit cards aren't accepted.

• Collecting your winnings - each online casino has its own cash-out methods but they are mostly similar. If you funded by credit card, you cash out by getting a credit to your credit card (but only up the amount you funded with the credit card - the rest will be sent to you by check or wire transfer). If you funded by any other method, you generally receive your deposit amount by this method and any additional winnings by check. Be sure to check out the "cash out" procedure very carefully before playing for real money.