The early days of online casinos was like the Wild West. The technology was still very much in its infancy and not only was this exploited by a lot of scammers, but even the legitimate ones were limited in what they could do.
On top of this you had an unregulated affiliate industry that didn’t exactly promote spam, but also didn’t do anything to stop it. The early casinos could only work when they were downloaded or installed with installation CDs, and affiliates were paid for every installation they triggered. You also had companies that would fill their installation CDs with promotional applications and tracking software, as well as those who would use them to spread malware.
It was a mess, to say the least, and while it didn’t last very long, it made an impact that could still be felt many years later. Simply put, gamblers distrusted downloadable casinos and while they wanted to play, they didn’t want to expose themselves to the risks.
And quite frankly, who could blame them?
A change was needed, and that change eventually came in the form of no download casinos, three magic words that helped to grow this industry considerably and ensured it took one giant leap out of its very dark and murky past.
What is a No Download Casino?
These casinos operate just like any other, only instead of taking advantage of the storage space on your local drive, they use the storage space and bandwidth of the casino’s server. In the old days, internet connections were slow, bandwidth was limited, and storage was expensive. It simply wasn’t viable for an online casino to host all of the games themselves, and even if it was, the technology needed to play these through browsers simply wasn’t there.
As servers became cheaper and technology improved, this became much easier for them to do. In the early days they still limited their no download offerings, often allowing members to play just a handful of games and requiring them to download the software to play more. In fact, some casinos that have a large number of games still operate in this manner as they believe it improves performance and playability, but there is certainly not a need for it anymore.
Are No Download Casinos Safe?
Safety was also an issue in the past, but that is no longer the case. When you play through your web browser you are taking advantage of the site’s security, which often comes in the form of an SSL certificate. They may also use a third-party provider to add an extra element of security.
Not only does this make them very hard to hack but even if such a hack was to take place the data would not be useable and would simply be displayed as a long list of random characters.
Encryption technology has come a very long way in a very short space of time, and for the most part home computers have been stuck in the past. They are certainly more secure than they once were, but they are not very far ahead of hackers, or malicious programs, which means that no download casinos are much more secure than download casinos are.
What are the Benefits of Instant Play Casinos?
We have touched upon a few of the benefits above, but there is more to it than security and usability. They are also much quicker (for most users) and much more convenient. They are not at all taxing on your local hard-drive, and there is no risk of downloading a malicious program or any other program that you didn’t request.
Instant play casinos also work with any browser, and that’s key for non-Winders users. In the old days of online casinos you were very limited if you had a Mac or Linux computer. It was either Windows or nothing at all, and developers showed no interest in changing this so that non-Windows users could join in the fun.
Browsers, on the other hand, tend not to discriminate. You can download and use popular browsers regardless of whether you use Mac or Windows. There may still be restrictions with regards to the games themselves and to apps like Flash, but these apps can also be downloaded on any platform and you should not have any issues in this regard.
The mobile element also comes into it. Sure, there are mobile casino applications, but if you prefer to just visit the website and play then you can do this whether you are using a desktop, a laptop, a tablet or a phone. And as with the desktop platforms, there should be no limitations with regards to the mobile platform that you use— no download casinos are equally accessible on iOS as they are on Android.
The Best No Download Casinos
It is actually very rare to find an downloadable casino these days. As discussed already, there are casinos that offer both no-download and download options, but these are far outnumbered by he casinos that are all no-download.
If a casino was created any time after 2014 then it should be all instant play, and unless it was created prior to 2005 and has not been updated since then it should have at least some kind of instant play element.
In any case, you can find the best instant play casinos by checking-in with our top lists. We only focus on casinos that are updated on a regular basis, casinos that are secure, safe, fast and convenient, and this pretty much includes all no-download casinos. So, take a look at our lists, the links to which you can find at the top of this page , see which ones we have highlighted and then signup!
The beauty of no-download casinos is that you can play them instantly after you have signed up. You just need to input and confirm your details, deposit a little money and then find the game that interests you the most.