Las Vegas SignThere’s nothing quite like the buzz of a casino, with the sights and sounds of cards being turned, roulette balls being spun and cheers erupting sporadically. It’s trick to translate that level of excitement to the online world, but pick the right online casino and you’ll find something at least approximating it.

The best online casinos fill their sites with colours and as much visual stimuli as they can manage. It might not be exactly the same as being there in person but if you allow your imagination to run away with you then it can be just as thrilling. As with a physical casino, you don’t need to bet big to enjoy yourself, either.

See also: £1 Minimum Deposit Casinos | £5 & £10 Deposit Free Spins

£5 Minimum Bonuses: Deposit £5 Get £20+

Just because you’re only depositing £5 doesn’t mean that you can’t get a decent bonus. In fact many UK based online casinos offer very generous bonuses on smaller deposits – meaning your £5 deposit could earn you a bonus of £20 or more. We’ve even seen offers up to £80!

£10 Bonuses: Deposit £10 Play With £50/£60/£70+

Whilst the first set of offers can be claimed with a minimum deposit of £5, a lot of the best bonuses tend to kick in on a £10 deposit. So if you’re happy to bump that minimum up slightly you’ll have access to a whole new set of bonuses.

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Minimum Bets By Game

The minimum amount that you’ll need to bet with will differ from game to game. Some games even have different amounts applicable within them, depending on what you want to bet on. The outside options on a roulette wheel are often different to the amount you’ll need to bet on the inner numbers, for example.

Here we’ll have a look at various different popular games at online casinos and explore what the minimum is that you’ll have to spend in order to be able to bet on them. One thing to bear in mind is that it will differ between online casinos, so if you’re on one and it seems a bit too expensive then be sure to have a look at a different one.

Roulette

Roulette WheelOne of the most popular casino games can also be one of the most confusing ones because of the number of options that you’ve got available to you. The general principle of roulette is that a ball spins around the wheel and lands in a slot that corresponds to a number, with those that have bet on that number winning.

In practice, though, there’s much more to it than that. Most casinos will allow you to bet on whether the ball will land in a black or red slot, in a particular column, on an odd or even number and so on. Because there’s more chance of these outside bets happening they tend to have a higher minimum bet than if you’re just wanting to place your wager on a specific number.

One thing to remember is that some online casinos, as with some land-based casinos, offer high-stakes roulette tables. We’re going to steer away from them and concentrate just on the world of low-stakes roulette. Here are the prices for different bets in three different online casinos:

Casino Minimum Inside Number Bet Minimum 50/50 Bet (Such As Odd) Minimum 1 in 3 Bet (Such As 1st 12)
1 10p £1 50p
2 10p £1 £1
3 20p 50p 50p

As you can see, then, the amounts differ but all hover around roughly the same sort of area. You won’t have to bet more than £1 on the outside options if you head to the right online casino, whilst bets on number can start as low as 10p. That’s just the selection from three random casinos on their basic roulette game, but some will offer you the ability to play 1p roulette.

Blackjack

Blackjack TableThings are a little bit easier when it comes to blackjack. In the game of blackjack you’re going up against a dealer and hoping to get closer to 21 than them without going over it and therefore being bust.

There are some variations when it comes to blackjack as some casinos will offer you things like insurance, which is where the dealer gets an Ace, for example, and you can pay money to protect yourself from them getting Blackjack. That is often half the price of your original stake, but can differ.

It can also be complicated slightly further by the ability to split cards of the same value and so on, but normally this is just your stake amount again. Keeping things simple, then, here’s a look at the three casinos used for the roulette and what their minimum stake is for the most basic blackjack game that they offer:

  • Casino 1: 10p
  • Casino 2: £1
  • Casino 3: £1

Though £1 doesn’t seem like a huge amount, the thing you need to remember is that most of the time you’re only likely to double your money. Whereas with roulette the odds can mean that you can get significantly more for your small stake, with blackjack you’ll have to play for a while to build up your winnings. Just remember that as it’s a quick moving game.

Video Poker

Video PokerThere are a number of variations to video poker and the majority of online casinos will offer you all of them. From Deuces Wild to Aces & Faces, you can opt for whichever variant takes your fancy.

Whilst it’s obviously possible for an online casino to offer you different minimum bet amounts depending on the game, most of them will keep things uniform for the sake of ease. There is usually as minimum bet per hand and you can then decide how many hands you wish to play.

Following the same principle, then, here’s a look at the minimum bets for the various video poker games on the three online casinos:

  • Casino 1: 25p
  • Casino 2: 10p
  • Casino 3: 5p

The key thing to remember is that different games will have different minimums. Texas Hold’em had a £1 minimum, for example, whilst some went as low as 1p. Shop around the different online casinos when you’ve found a game that you like.

Slots

Slot MachineAs much as the other games mentioned here have some variations to the overall theme, none of them come even close to the world of slots. In fact, the variations here are so wild that we’ve got an entirely separate section on them elsewhere on the site. It’s worth offering a quick mention here, but if you want more detail then have a look at that page instead.

Slots are what you might well remember as one arm bandits if you’re old enough or fruit machines if you’re a pub-goer. The biggest difference is that nowadays they’re all themed around wild and wonderful things according to their game makers and the computerised nature of the games allows them to go crazy with them.

In terms of slot options there are plenty. More than you could possible even begin to get your head around, to be honest. The result is that there’s no easy way to look up what the minimum bet is that you’d be able to place if you found the right game. Instead we’ve had a look at a random game on each casino and here’s the very minimum bet that you can place on each:

  • Casino 1: 10p
  • Casino 2: 10p
  • Casino 3: 10p

Not a huge amount of money, then, but don’t forget that you’ll have to bet much more than that if you’re hoping to hit any sort of jackpot. Usually the biggest wins are reserved for people playing the largest stakes, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t still have fun on low stakes.

Live Dealer Minimums

When you’re looking to play some live dealer games then you’ll need to remember that the minimums are almost always going to be higher than on the computerised versions of the same games. The reason for that is easy enough to understand: casinos actually have to pay a human being to deal the cards or spin the balls rather than getting a computer program to do it.

As always, some online casinos will try to avoid this and have lower minimum stakes, so do shop around if you’re wanting to find the lowest amounts available. Here’s a quick look at our three random casinos again, concentrating on the main live dealer games:

Game Casino 1 Casino 2 Casino 3
Live Roulette 20p £5 50p
Live Blackjack 50p £1 50p
Live Poker £1 £5 50p

You can see, then, that the options vary massively. At most online casinos they have numerous different live versions of your favourite casino games, so the minimum amount that you’ll likely have to pay will differ depending on which version of the game you want to play.

Auto Roulette

Some casinos will offer you the chance to play something of a hybrid version of roulette, in which you can see real balls spinning around real wheels but they’re automated and there’s no human involved. These are often cheaper than live dealers but more expensive than computerised roulette.

That being said, online casinos will still try to find ways of making it as tempting as possible for you to play, so some of them will continue to have a low minimum stake. Obviously this automatic version of a game can only happen with roulette as you couldn’t have an automatic dealer of cards for blackjack, say.

Here are the minimum stakes available from our three example casinos:

  • Casino 1: N/A
  • Casino 2: 50p
  • Casino 3: N/A

As you can see, it isn’t a given that every online casino will offer auto roulette and in the case of the casino that did out of our random three it was the same minimum stake as with the live roulette. As always, make sure you shop around if auto roulette sounds like something you’d enjoy playing.

Which Game Gives You The Most Bang For Your Buck

The question that you might well be most interested in the answer to is about which of the games will give you the most bang for your buck. After all, knowing what the stakes are is one thing but if your 10p wager will only last you fifteen seconds before you need to bet again then you’ll be making your way through your stash of cash pretty quickly.

The answer is a tricky one to give. The truth is probably that it’s the slots, for the simple reason that they offer a quite high return percentage of your winnings. You can bet 10p, win 20p back and keep on playing, meaning that it will make your evening last longer.

Yet, whilst you can definitely hit some decent prizes on the slots, most games only offer the top jackpots to people that are playing every line and at the top stake amount, so your chances of winning big with just a 10p bet are limited. That’s certainly something to bear in mind, but if you’re just hoping to make your night last as long as it can then the slots are the place to head.

Away from slots the other one to consider is roulette. The minimum stake is often higher than on the slots, but you can win decent money if your number comes in. Betting on the likes of black and red promises even money, whilst betting on the columns will pay out 2 to 1. A winning bet on a number normally sees you receive a payout of 35 to 1. That means that you stand more chance of winning big if your luck is in.

Ultimately it’s a matter of personal choice. Do you want to have an evening that lasts longer with the occasional big win possible, or a higher chance of a big win but the possibility of your evening being cut short if you burn through your stash too quickly? The one that we’d always say is the worst of both worlds is blackjack. The odds might be more in your favour, but the most you stand to win for a 10p bet is 15p if you get blackjack.

Perhaps have a play of a few different games and see which one ticks your boxes. The most important thing to remember, though, is that you should go into your evening with a set budget that you can afford to lose and don’t add money to your account if you lose it unless you can also afford to keep losing. Always gamble sensibly, safely and responsibly.