Online Gambling in California in 2024

Martin Green
June 28, 2024

Many Californians were hoping to have U.S.-licensed online gambling operators available in 2024. Unfortunately, the results of the 2022 midterm elections didn’t work out in their favor and any form of mobile betting with local providers remains unregulated in the Golden State. New discussions should be expected sooner than later, but why wait?

Despite the fact that local operators are not allowed to work within the state, residents can still access online gambling sites in California that offer wagering on sports, wagering on horse races and online casino gaming in a secure environment. Some also have busy online poker rooms, offering a wide variety of cash games and tournaments with real money prizes. This guide highlights the best sites for gambling online in California.

We will also break down the different California online gambling options you can choose from and the sportsbook bonuses you can claim. You will learn more about the legal situation, and discover why you need to visit reputable offshore sportsbooks for online gambling in California.

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SPORTSBOOK	TRUST SCORE 9.6	ONLINE SINCE 2001	Expert Review Read Review	BONUS 20% Cash Bonus	CLAIM BONUS CLAIM BONUS
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SPORTSBOOK	TRUST SCORE 9.8	ONLINE SINCE 2001	Expert Review Read Review	BONUS $250 Free Bet	CLAIM BONUS CLAIM BONUS
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SPORTSBOOK	TRUST SCORE 9.9	ONLINE SINCE 2011	Expert Review Read Review	BONUS $750 Cash Bonus	CLAIM BONUS CLAIM BONUS

Resources:

Offshore Sportsbooks Betting Sites Guide

Best California Online Gambling Sites 2024

The BMR team has reviewed more than 100 sites that offer online gambling in California. We rated all of them from A+ to F, based on criteria such as security, payout speeds, betting options, bonuses, customer service, the quality of odds and the overall user experience. Our experts ultimately decided that these are the top 10 sites for California online gambling:

BookMaker – Early sports betting lines and large online casino
Heritage Sports – VIP service for all sports bettors and casino players
Bovada – Busiest online poker room in America
BetOnline – Sportsbook, casino, racebook, poker room and esports hub
BetAnySports – Reduced juice sportsbook with casino and racebook
BetUS – Very large online gambling bonuses
WagerWeb – Same-day crypto payouts for online gamblers
JustBet – Reputable online gambling site with simple interface
Everygame – Excellent online casino and comprehensive sportsbook
SportsBetting.ag – Large betting limits and bonuses

These sites are all based offshore. That means they do not need to adhere to local regulations in California, which prevent companies in the state from running gambling sites. However, there are no laws against Californians using these betting sites, meaning that residents no longer must travel to tribal casinos to participate in sports wagering.

We have vetted them all carefully, and we can vouch for their trustworthiness, reliability and legitimacy. They have all been paying customers out on time and treating them fairly for many years. As offshore sportsbooks are not regulated by the Californian government, it is important to stick to mature, established brands that have built up impeccable reputations in the betting community.

The Best California Gambling Site Reviews

The best online gambling sites California players can access have their own areas of expertise. Some really shine when it comes to online sports betting, others are great for casino games or horse racing, while some are just excellent all-rounders. Read our sportsbook reviews below to find the online gambling California operator that best fits your needs.

1. Early Betting Lines and Excellent Casino: BookMaker

BookMaker

Established 1996

Visit Bookmaker

9.8

Best For

Professional Bettor 9.0

Trust 9.8/10

Banking 8.6/10

Bonuses 8.2/10

Odds 9/10

Customer Service 9/10

Betting Limits 9.8/10

CURRENT PROMOTION

$500 Cash Bonus

Claim Bonus

Key Features

Bookmaker.eu is the No. 1 overall site for online gambling in California. The sportsbook is favored by professional bettors thanks to its early lines, attractive moneyline odds and willingness to accept sharp action. It has a clean sports betting interface, making it very user-friendly, and there is a full-service online racebook too, including a rebate of up to 8%.

The Bookmaker.eu casino offers a high volume of quality gaming titles from leading software providers. You can play video slots, 3D slots, table games, video poker and live dealer games. It offers a ton of high RTP games, such as Railway Riches (98.47%) and Frosty Christmas (98.33%).

There are large bonuses on offer and the comprehensive BookMaker BetPoints loyalty program covers the casino along with the sportsbook. Bookmaker.eu has been in business for more than 25 years, and it has a faultless reputation among online gamblers. You will be guaranteed a secure payment if you place a winning bet, and you can rest assured that your account details and your balance will be kept safe.

2. VIP Service for All Online Gamblers: Heritage Sports

Heritage Sports

Established 2001

Visit Heritage Sports

9.6

Best For

Seasoned Gambler 8.6

Trust 9.6/10

Banking 8.6/10

Bonuses 8.2/10

Odds 9/10

Customer Service 9/10

Betting Limits 9.7/10

CURRENT PROMOTION

20% Cash Bonus

Claim Bonus

Key Features

Heritage Sports is another excellent all-around online gambling site that accepts players from across California. It was an invite-only betting site for many years, but management finally bowed down to overwhelming demand and began accepting all adults. Yet Heritage Sports still offers the VIP user experience that made it so highly rated.

If you like wagering on sports, you can find reduced juice -108 lines on football and basketball sides and totals at Heritage Sports. It also offers sharp moneyline and prop betting odds, so you can find great value on sports teams.

There is a detailed online casino at Heritage Sports too, along with a full racebook. It offers some generous cash-back promotions, along with its reduced juice lines. Payments are quick, secure and smooth, and customer service is strong, making this an excellent all-around California online gambling site.

3. America’s Busiest Poker Room: Bovada

Bovada

Established 2011

Visit Bovada

9.9

Best For

Mobile Bettor 9.0

Trust 9.9/10

Banking 8.6/10

Bonuses 8.8/10

Odds 8.9/10

Customer Service 9/10

Betting Limits 9.8/10

CURRENT PROMOTION

$750 Cash Bonus

BTCSWB750 Claim Bonus

Key Features

Bovada is a famous online gambling brand created as a spinoff from Bodog in 2011. It offers more betting options than any other site available in California. For starters, there is an extremely thorough sportsbook that covers a huge selection of sports and leagues. It provides a ton of prop bets and alternate lines on big games, and you can create same-game parlays. If you cannot find a market you like when wagering on sports, you can use the “What’s ya wager?” feature and the Bovada team will price it up for you.

The Bovada online casino has a strong selection of table games, so it is the best option for those seeking online casino games like blackjack and other table games. There are plenty of online slots and live dealer games too. Bovada also runs America’s busiest poker room, so you will find unparalleled liquidity and traffic there. It has a similar racebook to Bookmaker.eu and Heritage Sports, and you can bet on esports, politics, entertainment, lottery and financials too.

The betting options are always neatly laid out, and the user experience is unfailingly smooth. Bovada’s promo codes have relatively low rollover requirements compared to offshore rivals, and it has a great loyalty program. You will normally receive same-day payouts if you use crypto, which is yet another reason to sign up with Bovada.

4. Best for High Rollers and Esports Bettors: BetOnline

BetOnline

Established 2001

Visit BetOnline

9.8

Best For

Bonus Hunter 8.5

Trust 9.8/10

Banking 8.6/10

Bonuses 8.8/10

Odds 9.2/10

Customer Service 9/10

Betting Limits 9.8/10

CURRENT PROMOTION

$250 Free Bet

FREE250 Claim Bonus

Key Features

BetOnline goes toe-to-toe with Bovada by offering a world-class online sportsbook, casino, poker room, racebook and esports betting hub. Its poker room is not as busy as Bovada’s, and it does not offer as many props on sporting events. However, it has a more stylish interface, more features – including live streaming – larger bonuses, more promotions and higher betting limits. The promo codes at BetOnline can be used to access exclusive offers as well.

One interesting BetOnline feature is the re-bet option. It means you can place any bet and repeat it 60 seconds later, ad infinitum, essentially meaning there are no upper betting limits. That makes BetOnline an ideal online gambling real money California site for high rollers.

It offers a very impressive racebook rebate. If you place an exotic bet that loses at a horse racing track, you will receive a 9% rebate. Straight bets at a race track will earn a 4% rebate. Its casino bonuses are generous, there are loads of sports betting bonuses – including odds boosts, reduced juice on NHL and free bets – and it has a very large sign-up bonus worth up to $1,000.

5. Reduced Juice Betting Site: BetAnySports

BetAnySports

Established 2002

Visit BetAnySports

9.6

Best For

Seasoned Gambler 8.9

Trust 9.6/10

Banking 9/10

Bonuses 8.7/10

Odds 9.6/10

Customer Service 8.5/10

Betting Limits 9.8/10

CURRENT PROMOTION

30% Cash Bonus

BMR30 Claim Bonus

Key Features

BetAnySports is famous for offering reduced juice sports betting lines. Most online sportsbooks offer standard juice odds of -110 on either side of an NFL point spread, for instance, whereas BetAnySports offers -105. That amounts to a 50% discount, so you essentially need to win less frequently at BetAnySports to end up in profit. You can also choose from a variety of other welcome packages like a house money program or a casino rebate.

Its software is not as polished as the BetOnline or Bovada interfaces, but that does not really matter when you consider how good its odds are. The site is safe, it provides quick payouts and customer service is available 24/7. There is also a casino and a racebook, although it is mainly used for online sports betting.

Is online gambling legal in California?

After the Supreme Court lifted a nationwide ban on sports betting in 2018, legal gambling outlets began popping up all over the country. California, though, has been behind the curve.

In November of 2022, hopes of a potential sports betting industry in California were high. A retail sports betting initiative that would have allowed tribal gaming venues to offer sports betting called Prop 26 was on the ballot; this was along with an online sports betting measure called Prop 27.

Neither piece of gambling legislation passed. Also, lawmakers didn’t even raise the question of casino gambling. After seeing the dismal failure of the legislative efforts for sports betting, the future doesn’t look so good for other types of online gambling expansion.

However, offshore sportsbooks are not covered under California law and leave residents plenty of options; these providers offer wagering on sports, wagering on horse races and, of course, online casino gambling.

Sites such as BookMaker, Heritage Sports, Bovada and BetOnline welcome bettors from California, and they can all be trusted to grade bets fairly and pay out on time when you win.

Online Sports Gambling in California

If you want to bet on sports online in California, you need to visit an offshore sportsbook. The Golden State permits Daily Fantasy Sports contests, so you can play them at FanDuel and DraftKings, but if you want the real thing, you must head to a site such as BetOnline, BookMaker, Bovada or Heritage Sports.

We have already addressed the key question – is gambling online legal in California – and explained that there are no laws preventing you from using those sites. They have all earned A+ ratings with BMR, as they are trustworthy, top online sportsbooks that always pay out if you win.

They take bets on every professional team in California, and all the big college football and basketball games too. You will find dozens of betting options on every NFL, MLB, NBA or NHL game, while they also have very detailed sections for soccer, tennis, golf, UFC, boxing and motorsports.

Californians that visit a site such as BetOnline or BookMaker will also be able to bet on around 20 additional sports, with all sorts of worldwide leagues featured alongside the major leagues. You can bet in-play while games are unfolding, and you can also browse a huge volume of futures betting markets.

Offshore Gambling

Offshore gambling companies have been diligently serving the Californian market since the 1990s. Operators such as BookMaker and BetOnline have now been in business for more than 25 years, and they have built up large customer bases in the Golden State and elsewhere in America.

These companies are based in countries such as Costa Rica, Curaçao and Panama. They may not be regulated by California authorities, but they are licensed companies in their jurisdictions, and they have primarily been set up to appeal to American sports bettors, casino players and poker players. They all offer multiple forms of gambling.

You will find sports such as football, basketball and baseball taking center stage at these sites, and all prices and bonuses are in USD. They allow you to bet on:

Professional and college sports
Esports such as CS:GO and League of Legends
Politics, entertainment, financials and novelty markets
Thoroughbred and harness racing from the USA and around the world
Slots, table games, video poker and live dealer games
Poker tournaments and poker cash games

You can place bets on all these categories at a single site, making offshore gambling very convenient for Californians. Even if legislative efforts are eventually successful, the legal sports betting industry will be limited in what it can offer – no casino games, politics betting, esports and poker tournaments, for instance – so we expect the popularity of offshore gambling sites to endure long into the future.

It is also worth noting that it is very cost-effective to run online gambling sites outside of the USA, where overheads are lower and tax rates are favorable. That allows gambling sites to offer better odds and larger bonuses than the locally regulated operators in states like Arizona, Illinois, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Payments at an Online Gambling Site in California

You can choose from a wide variety of sportsbook payment methods at the best online gambling sites that accept Californians. They include:

Credit cards and debit cards (Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express)
Bank transfers, wire transfers, P2P transfers
Digital wallets such as Skrill and Neteller
Bitcoin and alternative coins

It is worth remembering that sites offering gambling in California are based overseas, and there can be charges for sending money across borders. It can also be a time-consuming process. For that reason, many bettors use cryptocurrencies, which by their very nature are designed to cross borders effortlessly, in a quick, convenient and secure manner.

The most commonly used cryptocurrencies among bettors are Bitcoin, Litecoin, Bitcoin Cash, Ether and stablecoins such as Tether and USDC. You will often benefit from same-day payouts if you use crypto at a site like Bovada or BetOnline. Bitcoin and Ethereum network fees can be high at certain times, so coins on other blockchains – such as ADA or DOT – can be useful. BookMaker also stands out by reimbursing Bitcoin network fees, making it a great choice.

You can use traditional, fiat-based methods, but some betting sites charge you for doing so. It is worth checking to see if there are any fees so that you are armed with all the facts before making the payment.

Online Gambling Laws in California

We have explained the legal situation in depth above, but it bears repeating that there are no locally regulated gambling sites in California, but there are no laws stopping you from using offshore gambling sites.

If you are looking for locally regulated online gambling, you will be limited to two options: wagering on horse racing and DFS. Operators such as TwinSpires and TVG are permitted to offer online racebooks in the Golden State.

To bet on sports, casino games, horse racing and poker in one place, you just need to sign up with an offshore gambling site. We recommend BookMaker, Heritage Sports, BetOnline and Bovada. It only takes a minute or two to sign up with those California online gambling sites, and you can then start betting on your favorite leagues and casino games straight away.

In terms of in-person betting in California, there are card rooms, tribal casinos, racetracks and off-track betting parlors for horseplayers. However, they are often inconveniently located, and it is time consuming and expensive to visit them, so it is much easier to simply bet online at reputable gambling sites.

Advantages of Online Gambling California Sites

When it comes to online wagering on sports, you have plenty of options that will allow you to bet on all types of games. As long as you are of legal gambling age, you’re just a few clicks away from online wagering. There are lots of advantages to using the best online gambling California sites. There are the top three benefits:

Accessibility and Convenience

It is very easy and convenient to bet on sports, casino games, politics, poker tournaments and horse races at California online gambling sites. They offer high-quality mobile sites, so you can place bets very efficiently from your smartphone or other mobile devices. Their desktop sites are also very polished and easy to use.

Using an online casino is a lot easier than visiting cardrooms or land-based casinos. You can start playing your favorite games in seconds, and you do not have to spend money on gas fees or public transport. That makes it far more cost-effective. You will also enjoy the social aspect of visiting a casino if you use the live dealer section at a highly-rated online casino site.

Lots of Gambling Options

Offshore gambling sites put thousands of exciting betting options at your fingertips. For example, BetOnline is divided into six sections:

A sportsbook covering more than 20 sports, plus entertainment, financials and politics.
A live betting section that offers live streaming of major sports events.
A casino with all types of games including table games, slots, video poker, live dealer tables and specialty games.
A racebook that covers hundreds of U.S. and international races each day from the most popular horse racing tracks.
A poker room featuring cash games and tournaments.
An esports hub with live streaming and coverage of many different tournaments.

Bovada offers a very similar breadth of options, with a great loyalty program spanning them all. You will never run out of interesting betting opportunities at the best gambling sites as there are plenty of options.

Bonuses and Promotions

Online gambling sites offer bonuses and promotions you can’t get at a land-based casino. There are lots of rival companies vying for your attention in California, so they offer these promos to stand out. These are some of the offers you can claim:

Large deposit match welcome bonuses
Reload bonuses
Free bets and risk-free bets
Rebates and cash-back deals
Odds boosts, profit boosts and parlay boosts
Reduced juice specials
Loyalty and VIP programs

These bonuses span the sportsbook, the online casino and the racebook at the best online gambling sites. They provide you with lots of opportunities to bet with house money, which improves your long-term chances of making a profit from your California online gambling activities. These bonuses make betting on your favorite professional sports leagues a breeze.

The Best California Gambling Sites

There are hundreds of gambling sites targeting Californians right now. However, we would highly recommend that you stick to the legit, reputable sites we have highlighted on this page. Unfortunately, there are scam sites in operation, which we have highlighted on the BMR blacklist, and they must be avoided at all costs. If you sign up with Bookmaker.eu, Heritage Sports, Bovada or BetOnline, you will enjoy a safe, high-quality online gambling experience. If you need more information about these operators, you can read our detailed reviews before deciding upon which California online gambling site is right for you.