10 Best Decentralized Casinos and Gambling dApps in 2024

dApp is short for ‘decentralized app’. Whenever the term “decentralized” is used in context with web applications, it usually means that it’s something built on existing blockchain technology. The first dApp on the web was essentially Bitcoin. There is no central bank that issues it and controls the supply, all Bitcoin transactions are recorded on a public ledger that anyone can access and verify. 

Being decentralized, no single party has full control over the network and it can therefore be trusted by all parties using the system or network. Likewise, any app which is built on Blockchain technology and is decentralized like Bitcoin is called a decentralized app or dApp. 

A user of a dApp may not even notice any differences. As far as the user experience is concerned, a dApp is just like any other conventional, centralized web app or mobile app. However, behind the veil, dApps have certain characteristics that are vastly different from traditional apps. Some trademark characteristics of dApps are:

• dApps are usually open-source, i.e., the source code is visible to the public and the app functions without a central authority figure controlling it 
• All transactions or data of a dApp is recorded on a public ledger and can be viewed by anyone at any time
• dApps will generally use cryptographic tokens to secure the network 
• All entities on the network have the same definition of proof of work 
• The network will monetize or incentivize entities that use computing power to verify transactions 

There are hundreds, if not thousands, of online casinos on the world wide web that accept cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, etc. Not all of these casinos are decentralized. Even a traditional, centralized, web casino can accept Bitcoin payments by simply integrating the crypto wallet functionality of the site, this does not make the casino decentralized. 

A casino that is truly decentralized will run wholly on the blockchain, with all of the benefits that the technology and related cryptocurrency tokens provide.

Traditional casino games such as slots, progressives, table games, video poker, etc. are available at these establishments. However, the game library may vary depending on which specific dApp casino we are talking about. 

How Do Gambling dApps Work?

Gambling dApps, like any other dApps, work on the basis of smart contracts. Smart contracts, a creative transaction mechanism that avoids third parties, are used to facilitate all operations and features of a gambling dApp. Smart contracts are a difficult idea to understand, but in a nutshell, a smart contract is a computer code-based agreement between two peers. They are preserved in a public database and cannot be modified because they operate on the blockchain.

Basically, all requests from the client are handled by smart contracts and responses are served through a decentralized manner where each interaction is recorded and visible on the blockchain. 

There is no central server in a decentralized system. Instead, there are numerous centres, each of which is connected to a different node in a different fashion. Penetrating the entire system at once is unfeasible since the rest of the nodes continue to function even if one is compromised. Decentralized apps also eliminate the need for a middleman because they operate on a decentralized basis amongst all participants.

Regular Online Casinos vs. dApp Casinos

As far as the player and his gaming experience are concerned, there are not going to be any major differences when playing at a regular online casino vs a dApp casino. Things will mostly be the same – the player will have an account that can be accessed by using a username and password, the player can then proceed to deposit funds and play real money slots, table games and other types of casino games.

In decentralized casinos, however, players may only be able to use cryptocurrencies for banking purposes and not fiat currencies via traditional payment methods such as credit cards, bank transfers, etc. Aside from the banking, there isn’t much difference as far as the player experience and user flow goes. 

On the backend, a decentralized online casino is vastly different from a normal online casino. For starters, the backend code and database for a normal casino is stored on servers of the casino operating company. However, in a decentralized app, the data is distributed across many different servers.  This means that, in a dementalized system, there is no single point of failure. Even if a server or node goes down, there are plenty of other nodes on the network to keep things up and running. 

Decentralized Casino Bonuses

Rarely, users of dApp casinos may run into exclusive bonus offers meant for dApp miners and general crypto holders/users. However, for the most part, the promotions and offers you will find at dApp casinos are similar to what we are used to seeing at conventional online casinos. 

Below, we discuss some of the most popular types of offers a player can look forward to at modern dApp casinos. 

Decentralized Casino Free Spins 

A free spin is a spin of a reel (usually on a slot game) that does not cost you money. If you receive a 10 free spins bonus from a casino, you are given ten free spins on a certain slot machine without having to spend anything.

Free spins bonuses are generally linked to a specific game and allow you to try out an online or mobile slot machine without risk. However, any profits gained from free spins are usually subject to wagering restrictions. So, you have to spend a certain amount of money (a multiple of the bonus winnings) within a given period of time, and only then can you withdraw your free spins winnings. 

No Deposit Decentralized Casino Bonus

No-deposit bonuses do exactly what they say on the tin: they provide you with a modest amount of extra money without requiring you to make a deposit. It’s essentially free money to play with. A no-deposit bonus can be obtained in a variety of ways. It may be as simple as registering, subscribing to a newsletter, following the casino on a social media platform, etc. 

No-deposit bonuses are typically relatively modest in value. After all, casinos can’t afford to give away huge sums of money. They are, nonetheless, incredibly popular among gamers who want a free taste of casino activity. 

Deposit Decentralized Casino Bonus

A deposit bonus is an offer that is activated when you make a deposit. Deposit bonuses are generally offered by casinos to entice customers to deposit more money into their accounts. Your deposit will be matched up to a specified percentage of the amount you deposit. 

Quick example – a 100% match bonus up to $200. This means you’ll get 100% of the money you deposited extra as a bonus. For example, if you deposit $100, you will receive an additional $100 in bonus money, increasing your overall bankroll by $200. This incentive is typically given to new online casino players who make their initial deposits. 

No Wagering Bonus 

When you successfully claim a casino bonus and win some money, the money is added to your total available balance. However, when you take a close look at your online casino cashier account, you will see that it is split into two sections – real money balance and bonus balance. The money that resides in the bonus balance section of your wallet is not available for cashout. 

So, how and when can you cash out bonus winnings? In most cases, you will first be required to complete the wagering requirements: you must wager the bonus sum several times before you can withdraw the bonus funds.

“No wagering” bonuses have no wagering requirements linked to the bonus or free spins, which means that anything you earn from the bonus or free spins is yours to keep. 

Reload Bonuses

A reload bonus is a benefit given to players when they deposit more funds into their online casino accounts. The reload bonus is given to gamers that keep their online real money gaming account active. The reload bonus is only available to players that have already made a deposit in the past.

Unlike a sign-up bonus or welcome bonus, reload bonuses are usually iterative and not one-off offers.

DApp Casino Games

Slots

If you like games based on pure luck, slot machines could be the go-to for you. Slot machines work in a random manner. This is because each slot game has a Random Number Generator (RNG), which continually runs through millions of values. The RNG determines the outcome of a spin at the time you press the spin button, making it hard virtually impossible to forecast whether you’ll win or lose. 

The return to player percentage of a slot machine will give you an indication of how much the game pays out as winnings and how much the house consumes as profits. For example, if the RTP of a slot machine is 95%, it entails that $95 of every $100 wagered on the machine will be returned to bettors as winnings over time. 

Live Dealer Games

With slots, you are leaving everything to luck and sometimes it pays off. However, with table games like blackjack and roulette, there are certain strategies that players can use to influence the results or the outcome of each round to a certain extent. This is why many calculative casino players prefer playing table games to slot machines. 

At online casinos, table games are usually computer-simulated and you can go on playing round after round, it can get quite monotonous. If you walk into a real casino, you would play table games and get to interact with other players, the dealer and enjoy the overall ambience of where you are.

Video Poker

Video poker is an excellent online casino game for players that understand 5-card draw poker and its various hand rankings. Instead of playing against other players on the table, in video poker, you will play on a slot machine.

The symbols of the slot machine are not typical slot symbols, but instead playing cards of different suits and values. The winning paylines are based on the same ranking used to compare two hands in poker and determine who holds the better hand. If the symbols line up on the reels to form good poker hands, you can expect to win money.

Progressive Jackpots

A tiny portion of every eligible wager is added to the jackpot in progressive slot games. It can be won at random or by successfully completing a bonus game. Since the value of progressive jackpots keeps increasing until it is hit, they can payout huge sums that are often as high as or more than what you can expect if you win a state-wide lottery.

Some online progressive slots will only let you win the jackpot if you wager the maximum amount of money. There are several progressive games with many jackpot tiers that cater to lower-stakes players. 

Table Games

Live dealer table games are a really unique, state of the art experience, but they do require high-speed internet with decent bandwidth for seamless high-definition video steaming. If you’re playing on mobile data or travelling through remote areas, live dealer games may not be a suitable option. 

Most dApp casinos will also offer a category of games called ‘table games’ which are dedicated to classic casino table and card games such as blackjack, roulette and baccarat. These games have snappy performance, you can play through hundreds of rounds quickly without having to wait for other players to make their call/move and you can certainly use basic or advanced strategies to give yourself the edge.

Sports betting

Online sports betting is a whole different world of its own. Some online dApp betting sites will offer casino gaming as well as sports betting. Depending on which sportsbook you are using, you can easily place bets on live and upcoming sports by just choosing your bet, adding it to the betslip, adjusting your bet amount and confirming the bet.

If you have good knowledge of a certain sport like soccer or tennis and think you can predict outcomes, sports betting is a good way to make some additional income. 

Decentralized Casino Experience

dApp casinos today offer a taste of what online casinos in the future are going to be like. For a player, the experience is pretty similar to traditional online casino gaming, but the inner workings of a dApp casino are far superior to a conventional online casino in terms of security, privacy, fairness and transparency. 

Another great aspect of playing at a dApp casino is that the operators have more room to offer their players games with higher return to player percentages. Since dApp casinos will have lower operating costs, the offset can be used to offer high payout percentages to players. 

Security, Licensing, and Provably Fair

dApp casinos are naturally more secure than conventional casinos because of the fact that they don’t have a single point of vulnerability which is a weakness with centralized systems. In a dApp casino, the hacker would have to hack into more than at least half of all the nodes on the network (which can sometimes entail hacking into hundreds or even thousands of nodes).

When it comes to licensing, the same online casino regulators such as UKGC, MGA and Curacao eGaming can also license dApp casinos. Depending on which dApp casino you are using, the license issuer and the details of the license will vary. 

All game results are recorded in a public ledger (the blockchain) and this includes the workings of the random number generator. Any player can access this information and verify for themselves the game outcomes were fair.

Staying Safe While Gambling in Decentralized Casinos

Staying safe in the world of decentralized finance can be daunting even for tech-savvy users. However, just be the act of playing at a decentralized casino instead of a conventional casino, you are already in safer hands. Unfortunately, some casinos that claim to be decentralized are not truly decentralized. You should always look for reviews from other players and see what they have to say about a casino before you sign up and start putting money into it.  

To have a safe and user-friendly decentralized experience, you must utilize a secure, convenient crypto wallet to communicate with decentralized applications.

When you see games at an online casino, you should know that the games are almost always supplied to the casino operators by other companies. Some studios make amazing slots, while others are all about the best live dealer action. Even dApp casinos usually get their games from the same providers that supply to the world’s biggest and best conventional online casinos. 

Some of the top names in the world when it comes to casino games and software development are brands like Realtime Gaming, NetEnt, Games Global, Playtech, Play’n GO, BetSoft, iSoftBet and many more. When you explore the various games at dApp casinos, you’ll likely find the game provider that appeals to you personally. 

How to Choose a Decentralized Casino

There are many parameters of a dApp casino to take into account when deciding whether you should invest your money in the casino or not. While many factors are personal to each player, the below metrics should always be considered. 

• Game collection – When you’re thinking of signing up with a dApp casino, you should look at the game collection and even play games using free-play or demo mode to understand if you like the collection and it suits your gaming preferences and stake ranges.  

• Bonus offers – Virtually every online casino, dApp or conventional, will offer a bunch of promotions. When it comes to promotions, they should not be taken for face value – make sure you always read the bonus terms and conditions.  

• Banking – Let’s face it, most dApp casino players at this time are mostly people that hold/own crypto tokens. When choosing a dApp casino, you want to think about which type of dApp casino it is (is it Ethereum based? Is it based on Tron?). You also want to consider if your crypto wallet will be suitable for the casino and whether you can use tokens that you already own to fund your dApp gaming.

• Customer Support – You should choose a dApp casino that has a well-established customer support service. Ideally, a world-class online casino will have a customer support department that is operational 24/7 and can be contacted via multiple communication channels, including email, live chat and telephone. 

• Pick one from our list – Don’t have the time or patience to go through different dApp casinos manually and compare the pros and cons? Finding a good dApp casino is not easy, there is no set-in-stone way to do it. We’ve already done the leg work for you and made a list of recommendations above. An easy way to pick a great dApp casino would be to just choose one from our list of options. 

Decentralized Casino Login

Logging into your dApp casino is the same as logging into any other online casino. Clicking or tapping the login button and then entering your username and password is the usual way to access your account. 

If you forget your password, most dApp casinos include a reset password feature, in which an email is delivered to your registered email id with guidelines on how to create a new password and retrieve access to your account. If you don’t have an account at a dApp casino, you can use the signup or register feature to create an account, it only takes a few minutes to set up your account and get the ball rolling. 

The next generation of gambling is here and it is based on blockchain technology and decentralized applications that work using smart contracts. The gaming business is all set to benefit from improved openness, security, and accessibility thanks to blockchain technology. Gaming dApps are certainly the future, but they could have arrived a little ahead of their time right now. 

Many online casino enthusiasts are not yet comfortable with cryptocurrencies and the general idea of blockchain technology. Also, the volatility of crypto coins seems to make a lot of players apprehensive and stick to conventional, centralized casinos. Having said that, there is little doubt that dApp casinos are superior in nearly all ways and players will have to migrate to decentralized casinos sooner or later.