These days, more and more travelers are choosing a life on the road as a digital nomad. Enhanced opportunities to work remotely, along with home sharing platforms like Airbnb, make it an increasingly alluring prospect.

The life of a digital nomad might represent the ultimate freedom for some people. However, it does present various challenges when it comes to entertainment on the road.

One such challenge arises when it comes to choosing an online casino when you’re living in exotic countries. What was just a matter of registering, depositing, and playing, can become a lot trickier when you’ve no fixed abode!

While this will affect those who enjoy gaming as a hobby, it’s also a big challenge for those who use gambling as their side hustle for making money while traveling. But here is a guide with everything you need to know.

 Best Online Casino for Digital Nomads (Guide to Gaming on the Road)

Why Can’t I Use Any Online Casino?

Choosing your online casino among the many available can be a hard decision, and considering that you’re moving on a regular basis, that choice can be even harder as some casinos are only licensed to operate in specific countries.

The casinos available in the country you’re living in might only accept players with government-issued identification documents and local banking access. Of course, this probably excludes you as a digital nomad.

Your access to different casinos really depends on local laws. In some countries, gambling is illegal. In others, regulations mean that only those officially registered as living there can use the casinos serving the nation.

Finally, other parts of the world might have no laws governing the use of online casinos but still have offshore casinos offering their services to those living there.

Consider Your Home Country’s Casinos

If you were born in a nation with an active online gambling industry, the first option as a digital nomad is to try to play at casinos from your home country.

Of course, if you try to register for an account on a foreign internet connection, you’ll likely receive a message stating that players from whichever country you’re in are not accepted at the casino you want to play at.

However, you can often get around this using a VPN.

Using a VPN to Access Geo Restricted Gaming

A VPN routes your internet connection through a private server located somewhere else in the world. If you’re in Spain, for example, and are trying to access a UK-based online casino, you can set your VPN to route your connection through a UK-based private server.

This will make it look like you’re accessing the website from your home country. You can then use your regular bank account and identification documents to register and deposit.

There is a flaw with this option though. Many online casinos actually block traffic from servers that are known to be associated with VPNs. This will mean you cannot even access the website of the casino you’re wanting to play at.

However, this isn’t a universal policy. The best way to see if a VPN is a viable option for you is to try it out. The worst that will happen is the company will reject your attempt to set up an account with them.

If you already have a favourite online casino with which you have an existing account, a VPN can provide a quick solution to the problem of finding an iGaming venue as a digital nomad. However, thanks to the potential blockages discussed above, you might have to try a different solution.

International Casinos

If you’re staying in a nation that doesn’t have a regulated online gambling industry, you might find that big international casino operators do offer accounts to players from that country.

One potential stumbling block here arises when it comes to payment options. You probably don’t have a local bank account, which might be required in order to use said venues.

You can get around this by exploring the various e-wallet services available. Companies like Neteller, Skrill, Revolut, and TransferWise all offer services that mimic banks in many ways. However, they’re not actually banks and, therefore, don’t need to conform to the same regulatory standards as actual banking institutions.

You might find that the offshore casino you’re hoping to sign up at is happy to accept your foreign passport to register and a Neteller account to make deposits.

Since there are so many different regulatory arrangements around the world and different AML and KYC policies govern different gambling venues, it’s impossible to say whether this approach will work in your individual case.

Again, your best bet is to just try and see how you get on.

Cryptocurrency Casinos

A final option, and one that’s guaranteed to work for digital nomads, is to use a cryptocurrency casino. Cryptocurrencies are country agnostic. It doesn’t matter where either the sender or receiver is in the world.

If you can send a transaction via the network of your choice, the casino will receive it and allow you to play there.

Since they’re not bound by the same banking regulations as non-crypto casinos, this new form of online gambling venue can be considered truly international. In fact, in some cases, you won’t even be asked to register for an account or to submit an address.

At these more anonymous gambling venues, you’ll probably never need to provide identification documents to prove you’re from a country that the casino is happy to work with.

However, such freedom does come with some downside.

Cryptocurrency casinos are almost never regulated in the same way that other online casinos are. This means you’ll have to sacrifice some of the player protections those living in areas with regulated online gambling enjoy.

Whereas a fully-regulated online casino is highly unlikely to ever dupe you out of money, the same cannot be said about unregulated venues. For this reason, we highly recommend that you always do your homework before signing up with a cryptocurrency casino.

Check out review websites and visit social forums like Reddit.

You’ll often find resources like Reddit to be more reliable than review sites. This is because the opinions expressed on forums are usually those of real players who have actually had either positive or negative experiences at a particular venue. By contrast, reviews can be, and often are, sponsored.

Where There’s a Will…

As you can see, trying to gamble online as a digital nomad can be something of a headache. Different regulatory arrangements around the world can and likely will make it trickier than if you were just living in your home country.

However, it’s definitely not impossible to enjoy your favourite casino games on the road. We recommend trying the above tips in the order that they’re presented.

If you access a regulated casino from your home country using a VPN then the casino has no reason to believe that you’re anywhere but that country. Next, try the offshore route.

If all else fails, do some research about what’s out there and hit up a cryptocurrency casino.