Peter Smith
Today, blackjack is still one of the most popular table games in live casinos and the emergence of online technology helped a new audience of online players to discover the joy of blackjack. The game attracts players for a number of reasons, from the low house edge to the simplicity of the game format.
Blackjack popularity was historically largely driven by gaming traditions in specific regions of the world but today, online gaming has influenced an increase in popularity in countries where regulated online casinos are available. Gambling laws vary massively across the globe and playing online blackjack for real money has grown in countries where gambling laws are more relaxed.
These are some of the countries where blackjack is hugely popular:
United States
Home to the casino capital of the world, Las Vegas, it is no surprise that table games are hugely popular in the US. Blackjack is the most popular table game in the US, with many variations of the game available both in real casinos and online casinos. In 1931, Nevada legalized casino gaming including blackjack and poker.
While it was some decades later before casinos expanded to Atlantic City (1976), the US was fairly early to the market in offering legalized online casinos in 2013. Developments such as live dealers in online casinos and the speed at offering mobile iGaming in the United States helped to increase the popularity of blackjack in the country.
United Kingdom
Gambling has a long history in the United Kingdom, with horse racing betting being recorded in the 1600s. Horse race betting is still very popular today and the Casino Gaming Act was introduced in 1968 to regulate casinos. Online gambling was legalized in 2005 under the Gambling Act, and the growth of the online casino market in the UK was helped further by the availability of mobile access to online casinos.
According to the Gambling Commission UK, live roulette and virtual roulette were the most popular online casino games (excluding slots) in 2024, and live blackjack was the next most popular.
Canada
Legalization of gambling in Canada took considerably longer than the UK and Nevada in the US, with the first legal commercial casino opening in Winnipeg in 1989.
Government-operated online casinos were introduced in 2004 but it wasn’t until 2022 that private casinos were legalized with the introduction of new laws and regulations.
In this short space of time, Canada’s iGaming market has grown exponentially, breaking into the top 10 countries for generating iGaming revenue. Ontario’s online gaming is experiencing huge success and blackjack is one of the most played games.
The huge influx of licensed blackjack casinos online has undoubtedly helped to grow the popularity of blackjack. Although slots are ranked as the top online casino game for Canadians, roulette and blackjack follow in the popularity rankings.
Australia
Gambling is also a big industry in Australia, where horse racing has been popular for many centuries. Pokies are huge in Australia and the Covid pandemic saw a significant increase in online gambling when Australians couldn’t visit their favorite pokies venues.
Statistics show that Australians spend more money on online gambling than any other country in the world. Blackjack has dominated land-based casinos but a number of rule changes that favored odds toward the house has resulted in many blackjack players opting for the better odds available through online casinos.
Land-based casinos remain fairly popular in the more densely populated regions but across Australia there are many remote areas where land-based casinos take hours to drive to. This has been another reason for the huge take-up in online gambling in the country.
The Future of Blackjack Playing
With today’s advanced technology and improved gambling regulations, online gambling is becoming a major revenue-generating industry. Online casino operators are developing better gaming experiences, even with traditional games like blackjack, the introduction of live dealers and VR casinos ensures that the popularity of blackjack continues to grow and reach new demographics of players.
The simplicity of blackjack helps to make it more accessible to new players, while gamification and mobile friendly casinos also make it more appealing to younger and more tech-savvy generations. Despite being one of the oldest card games in the world, blackjack continues to rank highly as one of the most played online games in the majority of countries.
Peter Smith
