r/onlinegambling: rules, karma requirements and posting culture

Who posts here

Posts are short, around 42 words, and many come from people who started gambling online recently and want to know if a site will pay out. Terms like wagering requirement and redemption get used loosely and nobody is quizzed on them. A basic question is fine here. It may just get few answers, or answers that are really adverts.

• Casual slot and keno players posting a screenshot of a win.
• People who have just won on an unfamiliar site and are nervous about withdrawing.
• Sweepstakes and social casino players comparing redemption times and bonuses.
• Bonus hunters swapping promos and asking where referral codes get used.
• Affiliates and site promoters, some open about it and some not.

Karma and account requirements

What it takes to get a post through in r/onlinegambling.

What you can post

What happens to a new post

Where the most recent posts ended up. Sample size: 400.

• Stayed up47%
• Removed by Reddit's filters28%
• Held by AutoModerator5%
• Removed by moderators16%
• Deleted by the author3%

Reddit counts a removal by the subreddit's own AutoModerator rules as a moderator removal, so that share is not all human. Held by AutoModerator means the post is waiting in the mod queue.

What happened when we posted here

We have posted here ourselves. This is how our own posts and comments fared.

Stayed up

98%

Removed by Reddit's filters

0%

Removed by moderators

2%

Period

December 2025 to July 2026

The rules, in the mods' words

1. 1

   Have A Gambling Problem?

   Please keep problem gambling submissions in /r/problemgambling. If you believe you have a gambling problem and would like to voluntarily self-exclude yourself from /r/onlinegambling, please send the moderators a message regarding your situation and we will ban you from this subreddit, as well as provide you with some resources regarding the steps to recovery.

2. 2

   Underage Gambling

   Gambling age requirements vary by region, but in general, you must be 18+ in order to gamble for real money. You can learn more about the dangers of underage gambling here.

3. 3

   Blog & Website Spam

   Promoting your own blog or website is allowed, but as per Reddit's "Self-Promotion Guidelines": For every one (1) time you post a link to your blog or website, roughly nine (9) other posts (submissions or comments) should not contain these types of links.

4. 4

   Referral Link Spam

   Affiliate links are allowed, but as per Reddit's "Self-Promotion Guidelines": For every one (1) time you post a referral link, roughly nine (9) other posts (submissions or comments) should not contain these types of links.

5. 5

   No Astroturfing

   Astroturfing, the deceptive practice of presenting an orchestrated marketing or public relations campaign in the guise of unsolicited comments from members of the public, is strictly prohibited in this subreddit.

6. 6

   Bookie, "Club", & Agent Spam

   We do not allow posts or comments regarding local bookies, clubs, or agents.

7. 7

   No Sharing & Selling Sports Picks

   Sharing your winning (or losing) betslips after the matches have completed is fine, but please do not post your bet predictions in this community. Selling your sports picks or advertising places where you are selling picks is also not allowed, nor are "fixed" betting related posts.

8. 8

   No Selling Gambling Accounts

   Selling, sharing or transferring your player account is strictly prohibited at every reputable online gambling site. Attempting to bypass KYC requirements is also against the ToS for all sites. For the safety of the users in this community, we will not allow contributions discussing or promoting these topics.

9. 9

   No "DM Me" Spam

   Contributions saying things like "DM me", "PM me" or "Sent you a message" are not allowed. If you want to message someone, just message them.

10. 10

    No Begging

    Begging for money, clicks, likes, or upvotes will not be tolerated.

11. 11

    No Surveys

    We do not allow surveys in this community.

These are the rules as archived in January 2025. Rules change. Check the sidebar before you post.

The culture

r/onlinegambling has about 77,000 members and around 15 posts a day. It is split almost evenly between images and text: about 44% of posts are images, nearly all of them screenshots of a slot or keno win, and about 48% are text. Titles are short, five words at the median. Posts do not carry flair.

The text half is mostly one question asked many ways: will this site pay me? People ask whether a casino is legit, how long a redemption takes, whether a large withdrawal will be held up, or what to do about a locked account. Bonus and promo talk fills the rest. Scores are low across the board. The most upvoted posts in our sample sit at around ten points, so replies are the thing to measure.

The fault line is promotion. The rules allow referral and affiliate links in moderation and ban astroturfing outright, and the sidebar itself carries a list of casino links. In the comments you can see the same sign-up code pasted under unrelated threads. Regulars know it, and a lot of what gets posted is read as an advert until proven otherwise. More than half of new posts do not stay up.

What lands

• A win screenshot with the stake, the game and what you started with. Commenters ask for exactly those details when they are missing.
• A specific payout question about a named site: has anyone withdrawn a large amount, and how long did it take.
• A warning about a site or bonus that did not behave as advertised, with a screenshot.
• A plain how-to question about deposits, crypto transfers or bonus terms.
• Useful explainers, such as how gambling winnings are taxed, though they draw few replies.

What gets removed or ignored

• Titles with an emoji or symbol. AutoModerator removes these on its own, and it is the only automatic removal reason it states.
• Bare sign-up posts: a link or a site name with a join now message and nothing else.
• Referral begging, such as asking people to use your link as a favour or promising to pay them back from the bonus.
• Club IDs and agent adverts, which the rules ban by name.
• Business pitches aimed at operators, like payment services for gambling sites, and posts pushing a self-made tracker or tool.
• The same post submitted twice in a row.

The unwritten rules

• Type the title in plain characters. Flags, money signs and emoji will cost you the post.
• Say how much you bet and how much you put in. A big number with no context gets doubted or shrugged at.
• Comments are short, about 13 words, and people are blunt about each other's bankroll and luck.
• A post that praises one site and ends with a code reads as an advert, even where the rule allows the link. Expect it to be treated that way.
• Problem gambling posts belong in r/problemgambling. The rules say so and AutoModerator repeats it under every post.

Self-promotion

On paper this is one of the more permissive subreddits. The rules allow you to promote your own blog or website and to post affiliate or referral links, as long as roughly nine of every ten things you post contain no such link. What they ban is astroturfing: a marketing campaign dressed up as ordinary users. In practice the line is hard to hold. Some referral posts stay up, many sign-up and promo posts are removed, and moderators took down about 16% of posts in our sample. A promotional post that survives usually reads like a player describing what happened to them, with the link as an afterthought.

How people write here

Typical post length

42 words

Typical title length

5 words

Titles phrased as a question

25%

Typical comment length

13 words

Comments that include a link

3%

The regulars

The accounts that showed up most in our sample. Worth reading before you post: they set the tone, and they are usually the first to reply.

Top keywords

The words and phrases that show up far more often here than in other communities, from recent posts in r/onlinegambling.

• casino 59 posts
• bonus 37 posts
• spins 18 posts
• win 27 posts
• deposit 21 posts
• play 32 posts
• playing 26 posts
• online casino 13 posts
• casinos 14 posts
• slots 15 posts
• won 25 posts
• gambling 16 posts
• redemption 12 posts
• money 42 posts
• spin 14 posts
• withdraw 13 posts
• bet 16 posts
• played 15 posts
• online 30 posts
• stake 10 posts
• games 18 posts
• cashed 9 posts
• bonuses 11 posts
• legit 15 posts
• jackpota 5 posts
• slot 11 posts
• online gambling 6 posts
• winnings 8 posts
• crypto 12 posts
• winning 11 posts
• wins 12 posts
• sites 16 posts
• redeem 8 posts
• lucky 11 posts
• game 20 posts
• pulsz 4 posts
• jackpota major 4 posts
• sportsbook 7 posts
• betting 9 posts
• sign 15 posts

Recurring topics: casino, online casino, bonus, online, free, legit, win, bet, site, gambling.

Growth

1. 20128
2. 201312
3. 201415
4. 201596
5. 2016363
6. 2017826
7. 20204.8k
8. 202214k
9. 202321k
10. 202432k
11. 202554k
12. 202678k

Related subreddits

• r/slots
• r/Casino
• r/OnlineCasinoGambling
• r/gambling

Common questions