Ranking the World’s Best Casinos: Where Can You Find Them?
There’s nothing else like a casino. Whether it’s the chance of getting a big cash win or simply the chance to dress like a character from James Bond for the evening, we each have different reasons for being drawn to the games tables from the world of the casinos.
Nobody gets these games quite like us at the next-generation gaming website SlotsUp, where we believe that every casino is like a planet, and the games are like stars.
That’s why we have navigated the world to pick out the very best casinos that our planet has to offer, scrutinously analysing each one based on 17 (yes, seventeen!) different factors to determine where exactly the world’s best gambling clubs are located.
We have exclusively revealed the best casino in world, and the best in Europe too – but we have not stopped there. We have also pulled back the curtain on the gambling houses with the priciest entrance fees, the most choice of games, and the pick of amenities such as restaurants, bars, and spas. Plus, the easiest gambling houses to travel to, the world’s most well-reviewed halls, and just how safe some of the cities home to these great places are… phew!
So are you ready to roll the dice? As we reveal which clubs have hit the jackpot to be crowned one of the biggest casinos in the world…
The Best Casinos in the World Revealed
Our data has revealed that the best casino in the world is found in Macau, China. Despite being the home of the Wynn Macau casino, the Chinese Special Administrative Region of Macau has a population of just 667,490 people. The Wynn Macau receives a total score of 141.7 out of 170, and it really does hold all the cards with a perfect ten scoring in six categories, including the gallery and museum, gym, hotel, price of entry, reviews, and spa categories helping it to win the top prize.
Macau truly puts forward its case as the global home of gambling, with three more gambling houses entering the top ten. Macau’s Galaxy Hotel enters in eighth place with a total score of 129.35 out of 170, while the Venetian Casino nabs ninth place with a 128.3 total score, and finally, the City of Dreams casino claims tenth spot with a total score of 127.58.
However, three of the world’s top four world casinos are all located in Las Vegas, Nevada of the USA. The American desert-dwelling city is synonymous with the gambling scene, so it is no surprise that clubs such as The Venetian rank highly, securing second place with a total score of 140.57 out of 170. There’s also the amazing Aria in third place with a 138.14 total score, plus the brilliant Bellagio which places fourth with a 136.94 total score. Las Vegas’ final entry in the top ten is The Cosmopolitan which secures sixth place with a total score of 132.7.
Elsewhere in the top five, the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore claims fifth place with a total score of 136.2 out of 170. Our data found that this city-state-based gambling house is one of the cleanest casinos in the world, with a 9.87 out of 10 score in the cleanliness category, thanks to 379 of the 1187 English-written reviews of the casino containing the word ‘clean’.
The final entrant to the world’s top ten casinos is located down under, Melbourne, Australia to be exact with the Crown Melbourne casino claiming seventh place with a total score of 132.02 out of 170. This hall’s crowning feature is its number of bars, there are 19 of them in total, which is enough to give the gambling house a perfect ten score in the bars category – enough to cause any customers to cry out ‘crikey!’.
The Best Casinos in Europe Revealed
Our data has revealed that only one of the world’s top 25 gambling clubs is located in Europe. Birmingham, England’s Resorts World is the best ranked European casino, yet only placing 25th on the global list with a total score of 106.43 out of 170. The British-based establishment played its cards right in the amenities category, receiving perfect ten scores for its on-site spa, gym, and swimming pool. The building of Resorts World Birmingham was thought to boost the region’s economy by a whole £33m per annum too when it first opened back in 2015.
The second-best gambling club in Europe is located in Monaco in the shape of the Casino de Monte Carlo, receiving a total score of 95.41. The fourth spot also goes to a Monaco-based establishment, with the Casino Café de Paris producing a total score of 86.67. The ace up these Monaco casinos’ sleeves is their performance in the safety category, a safety score of nine out of ten is awarded to each city, sweetening the pot for these establishments.
Europe’s third place is claimed by the Czech Republic with the King’s Resort, located in the town of Rozvadov. This location has a tiny population of just 821 people, yet plays host to the largest poker room in the whole of Europe. The casino’s eight out of 20 score in the games category helps to give the King’s Resort a better hand than any other European casino, and with the hall being free to enter there is a perfect ten score in the price category too.
The best of the rest of Europe’s casinos include the Ibiza Gran Hotel in Spain and the Saint-Vincent Resort and Casino in Italy, which rank 34th with a 85.16 score and 43rd with a 63.98 score in the global list respectively.
The Price is Right: The World’s Most Expensive Casinos
Out of the 78 establishments looked at in this study, 68 of them are free to enter, meaning that it won’t cost you a penny to step inside 87% of the top rated casinos in the world. However, while some lucky customers can win big, not all casinos come for cheap. In fact, some of the world’s more exclusive houses can cost as much as £81.95 to enter just to get through the front doors.
According to our data, the most expensive gambling hall entrance fee in the world is at the Marina Bay Sands casino in Singapore, with this high-class casino charging customers £81.95 just to come inside. Visitors to this house and hotel do get to enjoy the best views of Singapore’s skyline from the iconic triple towers that make up the building, as well as a pick of 80 restaurants plus 2,900 games.
The second most expensive club is the City of Dreams casino in Macau, China which charges an entrance fee of £58.52. Of the five Macau-based establishments discovered by our data, only the City of Dreams charges an entrance fee of any kind. This exclusive casino is characterised by decorative chandeliers and a host of designer outlet stores – in fact, there are 142 places to shop in this complex.
Next in line is the Sun City Casino in Rustenburg, South Africa which asks customers to cough up for an entrance fee of £20.02. Despite this fee, the Sun City Casino is still the highest-ranking of three South African casinos in this study, coming in at 30th place with a total score of 95.40 out of 170.
Similarly expensive gambling clubs to step inside are found in both Monaco with the Casino de Monte Carlo which charges a £14.17 entrance fee and in Las Vegas, USA where the luxurious Mandalay Bay casino costs £13.22 to enter – making it the only house in the popular gambling holiday destination of Las Vegas to charge an entrance fee of any kind.
Game On: Casinos with the Most Games
Our data reveals that the nicest casino in the world is the Venetian Casino in Macau, China which receives a perfect score of 20 out of 20 in the gaming category. There are an incredible number of games to play, 6800 to be exact. Plus, the Venetian Casino Macau is twice the size of its sister establishment in Las Vegas – offering 10.5 million square feet of space to play.
The next best world famous casino for gaming are both located in the USA, with the Foxwoods Resort in Ledyard, Connecticut and the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, also of Connecticut tying for second place with a gaming category score of 19 out of 20 each.
Also tying for second place is the Montecasino in Johannesburg, South Africa which again receives a gaming category score of 19 out of 20. Johannesburg’s Montecasino offers a wide range of games, from poker tables to roulette wheels, there are 4838 ways to win big at the Montecasino.
The top spots are completed with a trip back to the clubs of Macau, with the Galaxy Hotel and the City of Dreams casino each receiving gaming category scores of 18 out of 20. The Galaxy Hotel offers slightly more choice of games than the City of Dreams – 2180 to 1878, but the City of Dreams has an ace up its sleeve, offering more floor space than its establishment competitor – 420,000 square feet of space compared to 400,000 square feet of the Galaxy hotel.
Five-Star Flush: The World’s Most Well-Reviewed Casinos
Using TripAdvisor’s trusted public rating system, our data has found that the most well-reviewed casino in the world is the Wynn casino in Macau, China which received a perfect TripAdvisor rating of 5.00. There are 468 reviews for the Wynn written in English, of which 69 contained the word ‘clean’, giving the Wynn an overall reviews category score of 18 out of 20.
Only one another most expensive casino in the world was able to achieve a perfect 5.00 TripAdvisor rating, with the visitors to the Rebuy Stars International Brno casino in the Czech Republic finding nothing at all to complain about. However, the data could only discover a meagre total of 12 reviews written in English for the Brno-based casino, of which none contained the word ‘clean’, meaning that this Czech Republic hall’s overall reviews category score stands at just 10 out of 20.
There are plenty more gambling houses around the world that score highly on TripAdvisor, with a total of 17 establishments receiving TripAdvisor ratings of 4.50. A good performance on the online travel site was enough to help nine of these 17 halls into the top ten best-reviewed casinos in the world, with two casinos even managing to match Macau’s Wynn casino’s reviews category score of 18 out of 20. These are the Resorts World Sentosa casino in Singapore and the Mohegan Sun casino in Uncasville, USA. Each of these clubs swept up the points by keeping clean, with 379 of Resort World Sentosa’s 1187 English-written reviews and 1000 of Mohegan Sun’s 3608 English-written reviews containing the word ‘clean’.
Only a couple more gambling houses managed to score perfectly in the cleanliness section of the reviews category, with the Concorde Casino in San Jose, Costa Rica where almost half (40%) of the reviews contained the word ‘clean’, and the Hotel Cocal and Casino in Jaco, also of Costa Rica having a quarter of reviews (26%) contain the word ‘clean’. Unfortunately, the chips are down for these cleanly Costa Rica-based casinos due to their relatively low TripAdvisor ratings, meaning that the Concorde Casino can only place 12th overall in the reviews category and the Hotel Cocal and Casino has to settle for a disappointing 29th place finish.
It should come as no surprise given how popular the destination is amongst gambling fanatics that two of the establishments where visitors felt most obliged to leave a review are located in Las Vegas, USA. The Aria casino received an incredible 32480 reviews, plus there are another 27202 reviews for The Venetian. However, these high numbers of reviews were not enough for either Las Vegas-based casino to breach the top ten in the reviews category, since the proportion of reviews containing the word ‘clean’ was naturally lower given the sheer volume of reviews received – just 3.6% for The Venetian and 3.07% for Aria. With The Venetian coming in at 11th place and Aria placing 14th, perhaps overfamiliarity does not help casinos in terms of reviews.
Two Las Vegas-based clubs that do enter the top ten, eighth-placed The Cosmopolitan and ninth-placed Wynn Las Vegas, received a significantly smaller number of English-written reviews – 4915 for Wynn Las Vegas and just 1639 for The Cosmopolitan, of which a naturally higher proportion contained the word ‘clean’, immediately improving these lesser reviewed casinos’ scores in the reviews category.
The best-reviewed casino in the UK is the Alea in Nottingham which bags tenth place in the reviews category with a score of 14 out of 20. Nottingham’s Alea is one of the 17 casinos to receive a 4.50 TripAdvisor rating. It received a total of 157 reviews, of which nine contained the word clean – enough to earn this Nottingham-based casino a seat at the big players’ table.
Vacation in Vegas?: The Best Casinos For Travelling
If travel is your biggest factor in determining a top gambling establishment then look no further than Las Vegas, with our data finding that the top five casinos in the world in terms of travel are all located within the walls of the famous Nevada desert city.
The best performing establishment for travel in both Las Vegas and the wider world is the Manadalay Bay casino which receives a score of 35.06 in the travel category. The Mandalay Bay has a total of 6852 hotel rooms inside its complex, plus 88 more hotels nearby.
Closely following are the Las Vegas-based casinos MGM Grand in second place with a score of 34.81 out of 40 and The Venetian in third with a 34.68 score. The MGM Grand offers slightly fewer hotel rooms (6071) but there are more hotels nearby (88). Whereas The Venetian offers up 703 hotel rooms in its complex, there’s slightly fewer choices to stay elsewhere with 63 alternative hotels nearby.
The distance between these Las Vegas houses and the city’s airport is another huge factor as to why Las Vegas is the ideal destination for any gambling enthusiast looking to cut down on travel time. The closest Las Vegas casino to the airport is The Venetian at just 3.0 miles, Mandalay Bay is not much further at 3.1 miles, and even the establishment furthest away from the airport, Caesars Palace is still only 4.5 miles away from the nearest airport.
The other Las Vegas clubs to breach the travel category top five are Aria in fourth (34.42) and Bellagio in fifth (33.90). A sixth Las Vegas-based casino climbed into the global top ten in the shape of the world-famous Caesars Palace, which claimed eighth place with a travel category score of 33.64.
Two casinos tie as the best halls in terms of travel outside of Las Vegas. Both the City of Dreams in Manila of the Philippines and The Star in Sydney, Australia received a travel category score of 33.77 out of 40. There are significantly fewer hotel rooms in these casinos compared to those in Las Vegas, with just 650 rooms in The Star and 938 in the City of Dreams. The Star’s ace in the pack however is the 330 alternative hotels nearby, while the City of Dreams boasts one of the shortest airport journeys of any top casino, just 2.10 miles.
Of the 78 halls analysed for this study, 33 do not have a hotel attached to them. Between the establishments that do not offer a place to sleep on-site, the Casino di Venezia in Venice, Italy and Casino Barriere Le Croisette in Cannes, France offers the best bet for travellers with 2212 nearby hotels in Venice and 1928 nearby hotels in Cannes.
Our data has revealed that one of the least accessible gambling halls in the world is the Casino Espinho in Portugal. Espinho, a small town south of Porto, has an approximate population of just 29,484 people and the local casino has no hotel attached, has just two alternative hotels in the area and is 25.1 miles away from the nearest airport. Casino Espinho’s total travel score is just 2.34 out of 40 – all bets are off!
Beyond Games: The Casinos with the Most Amenities
A trip to a casino is about more than just gambling on the games tables or cashing in chips. A stay at a truly top establishment needs to provide guests with plenty of ways to relax such as a pool, a gym, bars, shops, and restaurants – and why not an art gallery or museum too!
The two casinos with the best amenities in the world are both located in Las Vegas, USA with both The Venetian and Caesars Palace scoring 66 out of 70 in the amenities category. There are plenty of places to shop at each of these Las Vegas-based casinos, with 116 stores in The Venetian and another 108 inside Caesars Palace. There’s an exceptionally large number of bars inside Caesars Palace (10), while The Venetian boasts a high number of restaurants (35).
The next best establishment for amenities is the Venetian Casino in Macau, China which scores 65 out of 70 in the amenities category. Matching that score in the amenities category are the Grand Hyatt Baha Mar in the Bahamas and the Wynn casino also in Macau. Unsurprisingly each of these casinos comes equipped with its own gym, spa, swimming pool and even an art gallery or museum – talk about holding all the cards!
Our data found that some gambling halls go above and beyond when it comes to one amenity in particular, for example, the Galaxy Hotel in Macau, China plays host to a remarkable 120 restaurants – that’s more than any other casino in the world. What’s more, is that it’s a 50% increase in the casino with the second largest number of on-site restaurants – that is the Marina Bay Sands casino in Singapore, which is home to 80 restaurants.
Some casinos choose to prioritise shopping, in particular the Venetian Casino in Macau, China which is home to 360 different places to shop. Elsewhere, other clubs make for wonderful watering holes with the Crown Melbourne in Australia proving to be the casino of choice for those on the lookout for a choice of bars. There are 19 places to grab a drink (shaken, not stirred of course) in the Crown Melbourne’s complex – more than any other top halls in the world.
Play it Safe: The Safest Casino Cities
Whenever you go gambling, it is important to remember that safety is a number one priority. Out of the 78 greatest casinos analysed by our data, we looked at the crime index of each city to determine just how safe each location is.
The safest location home to one of the top 10 casinos in the world is Baden-Baden in Germany, which hosts the Casino Baden-Baden and has a low crime index score of just 9.31. This southwest German spa town has a population of just 55,449 people and is considered to be one of the more aspirational places to live in Germany, which may account for the low crime index.
The second safest location is Dawson, Canada which is home to the Diamond Tooth casino and has a crime index score of just 22.55. This small town on the icy Yukon River is truly out in the sticks. With a population of 1,375 people, the nearest major city Vancouver is a good 2927km away and will take you 34 hours to travel to by car.
The crime index score is also on the low side in Macau, China, standing at just 22.64. Macau has a population of 667,490 people, which when you compare it to China’s most densely populated city Shanghai (22.3m) seems minuscule. However, Macau is still home to five of the world’s top halls, including our data-proven world’s greatest casino – the Wynn Macau.
Our data reveals that European casinos tend to be much safer with crime index scores in locations such as Monte Carlo, Monaco (22.94), Santander, Spain (24.90) and Den Haag, The Netherlands (25.50) much lower than locations in the rest of the world. For example, Las Vegas, USA which is home to eight of the world’s greatest casinos has a concerning crime index score of 55.12.
Furthermore, crime index scores in casino locations across South Africa are the highest of all, with Rustenburg reporting a crime index score of 77.53, Johannesburg holding a crime index score of 80.51 and Klerksdorp with a crime index score of 84.73 – the highest number discovered by our data.
Methodology: Taking 40 casinos around the globe, we discovered the best casinos in the world. Taking 12 of the following factors each with a max score of 10 to find the highest scoring casino: Price of entry, number of restaurants, presence of an onsite hotel, number of hotel rooms, hotels nearby, number of games, gaming space size, number of shops, city safety, airport accessibility, reviews and cleanliness.
Sources: Hotel websites | Booking.com | Wikipedia | Numbeo | Google Maps | TripAdvisor