Website: | GentingCasino.com |
---|---|
US Players: | US Players Are NOT Accepted |
Online Since: | 2010 |
Bonus: |
Welcome Bonus 100% up to £1000
|
License: | UK Gambling Commission |
Software: | IGT, Novomatic, Playtech, Evolution Gaming |
Location: | UK |
Banking: |
Genting is a well-established name in the casino industry, with over 40
locations throughout the UK. The online service is now 17 years running and
offers both casino and sports betting options. You won’t find an over-the-top
service with pages of bonuses and promotions or thousands of betting options and
casino games, but you will see enough of variety to appeal to most players’
likings. You will need a credit card, debit card, or Skrill to fund your
account, unless you plan to walk into a local Genting establishment and transfer
in cash.
At first glance, we anticipated the overall rating to be much higher. The
website impresses immediately with its layout and design. We also like the
casino and sportsbook combination, as it expands the possibilities for
registered players. As we got more granular with the service, though, we found
that the bases were covered with “enough,” but nothing more. The sports menu had
the variety to suit most, but left out esports and virtual sports, and some of
the matches were quite limited. It’s rare these days to see a gambling site with
so very few options. We attribute that to Genting’s focus on its UK clientele.
There’s plenty for local players, but international customers may benefit from
another service that offers more options.
The casino offers plenty of slot games and an impressive live casino area,
but the rest of it lacked options. Table games were limited, and Playtech gaming
was unavailable when we reviewed the site, so jackpot games were down to three,
and no specialty games were provided. Table games were more than made up for
within the live casino, but we recognize that not all players opt for live-table
action.
It isn’t the biggest sportsbook, but football markets more than make up for
it. What we didn’t find, though, are virtual or esports betting, which could be
disappointing for some. However, horse and greyhound racing expand the field a
bit more.
It’s a pared-down menu that will be just fine for UK players, but could be
off-putting to international customers. Credit cards, debit cards, and Skrill
are the options, and although they are fee-free, which is a plus, payouts can
take up to seven business days for credit and debit cards.
We find ourselves saying “just enough” an awful lot in this review, because
that phrase does sum up the Genting service. A standard casino welcome bonus and
a £10 first bet insurance bonus are offered to new players. Aside from that,
though, regularly-posted promotions are few and far between. The VIP Club does
provide some additional incentives, but nothing out of the ordinary.
With a 24/7 department and agents available via email or live chat, the bases
are covered. There’s even an option to request a call, as the casino’s phone
number isn’t listed. We found the agent who assisted us via live chat to be
quick-responding, cordial, and helpful.
The website is attractive and gives a very upscale flavor to the whole
experience. The sportsbook is relatively easy to navigate, but the casino caused
us some problems. The games were organized haphazardly and had some loading
issues. The mobile casino followed suit with even slower loading graphics, and
the term “user-friendly” wouldn’t be used to describe the navigation process.
The Genting Group is behind
GentingCasino.com, but the website launch in 2010 is only a small part of its
overall business. Amongst its many holdings are more than 40 casino locations,
including London’s Crockfords, Maxims, The Colony Club, and The Palm Beach
Casino. You won’t need to worry about any hidden ownership or issues with
licensing. The Genting Group has been around for more than 50 years, with more
than 35,000 employees worldwide, and first-rate licensing and regulation by the UK Gambling Commission.
If you’re outside of Britain, you may want to give the geographic exclusions
a look before you try to register a new player account. There are quite a few
areas that are exempt from using the service, including:
There isn’t any theme or character to attract your attention. Genting’s site
is simplistic and elegant. It doesn’t need to rely on anything other than its
name to show value.
To sum up the Genting service as best as we can, we’ll say that it provides
the basics without going over the top. You won’t find tens of thousands of
sports markets from which to select, but you will see the most popular,
including some in-play opportunities, as well as enhanced specials, horse
racing, and plenty of football coupons. The casino doesn’t offer the highest
number of games you can find, but it does have a substantially-sized live
casino, plenty of slots, and enough table and video poker games to appease most
players. It also doesn’t go crazy offering bonuses, but instead sprinkles in a
little bit of value here and there with one live-table promotion every day of
the week.
If you have an iPhone, you’re in luck, as there is a dedicated app in the
iPhone store. Users can also take advantage of some special in-app offers that
aren’t available elsewhere. We don’t usually lean toward using an app, but we
found the regular mobile browser experience to be clunky, slow-loading, and hard
to navigate.
If you happen to live in the vicinity of a Genting Casino location (and if
you live in the UK, chances are good that you do, as there are 42 of them) you
can take advantage of banking in person. Genting allows online players to make
deposits and pick up payouts that have been processed from any of their
land-based locations. Your presence is not required, as there are other online
alternatives, but for some, it may be a bonus to conduct business in cash.
Whenever you have a casino that has expanded from its brick-and-mortar
locations to online as well, it does offer the benefit of in-person depositing,
as with Genting.
As long as you have a UK residential address and you haven’t made a credit
card deposit online before, you can go into one of the 42 casino locations and
use a service called Genting Pay. The transactions are made at the Cash Desk,
and you have to deposit at least £50. Whatever you decide to provide will then
be transferred to your online account.
There are also the same stipulations that apply to the “withdraw through our
UK Casinos” option, including a minimum of £50, UK residence, and presenting
your passport or driving license to the Cash Desk for pick-up.
As far as other banking options go, Genting primarily focuses on its UK
clientele, so it doesn’t need to provide a long list of financial possibilities.
UK players have a much easier time moving funds in and out of betting accounts,
as everything is legal and approved.
Another benefit to UK casinos is that online, they typically provide fee-free
services. Other locations, especially North American-servicing casinos, can
charge some significant fees, so free banking is a bonus.
Minimum Deposit: £10
Turnaround Time: Instant
Credit Cards: Visa and Mastercard
Minimum Deposit: £10
Turnaround Time: Instant
Minimum Deposit: £50
Turnaround Time: Instant
Genting Pay: At the casinos
Minimum Deposit: £50
Turnaround Time: Instant
There’s a good news/bad news scenario when it comes to payouts. The good news
is that they are also void of fees. The not-so-good news is that they take some
time to receive. They’re not instant.
Minimum Withdrawal: £10
Maximum Withdrawal (Without Extra Paperwork): £25,000/day (no limit with paperwork)
Turnaround Time for UK Players: 3-4 Business Days
Turnaround Time for Players in Other Locations: 5-7 business days
Minimum Withdrawal: £10
Maximum Withdrawal (Without Extra Paperwork): £25,000/day (no limit with paperwork)
Turnaround Time for UK Players: 3-4 Business Days
Turnaround Time for Players in Other Locations: 5-7 business days
Minimum Withdrawal: £50
Maximum Withdrawal: £50,000
Turnaround Time for UK Players: One Day
Turnaround Time for Players in Other Locations: One Day
Minimum Withdrawal: £50
Maximum Withdrawal (Without Extra Paperwork): £25,000/day (no limit with paperwork)
Turnaround Time for UK Players: Instant
Turnaround Time for Non UK Players: N/A
Although the payment methods page doesn’t include these options, they are
listed as alternatives in the terms and conditions page, and can take the place
of another withdrawal method:
The casino may be UK-catering, but the sportsbook covers a wider range of
punters, as it features American sports as well as horse racing and greyhounds.
The odds are fractional or decimal, and Football Coupons are front and
center.
If you prefer live-betting action, there isn’t a huge menu, but there is a
sampling of football, tennis, basketball, and, of course, horse racing. At the
time of this review, Genting had 13 Football games covered in the In-Play area.
Enhanced Specials are also covered, and sports bettors can take advantage of
some sportsbook-only bonus programs.
Genting isn’t known for having as big of a menu as many of its competitors,
but it is recognized as a book that offers some of the best odds consistently
across the board, and not just for one sport or type of wager.
The mobile casino listed an option for esports, but didn’t provide any
betting activity, so this is a more traditional sportsbook that sticks with the
mainstays.
A player can only win a maximum of £100,000 combined in one day of betting
activity, so you need to be mindful of the total wagers being placed. You’ve got
to stay at or under the £100K winning ceiling.
Football is, obviously, number one in this book, and there are plenty of
different betting options:
The sportsbook has a much better setup for mobile use than what the casino
offers to its players. It’s easy to navigate the lines, and is bold, bright, and
user-friendly.
Just as you’re about to find with the casino, the sportsbook doesn’t go
overboard on bonus-type offers either. It does provide revolving price boosts,
and we see more value in that kind of perk.
New players making a bet of £10 or more have a £10 insurance policy if it
doesn’t win and the odds are 2/5 (1.4) or more. The £10 is returned as a free
bet that can be placed on a selection that’s 4/1(5.0) or less.
A guarantee of the best odds on the UK and Irish races from 12 pm to 9:30 pm.
The Genting Casino area is predominantly slot games and live-dealer casino
tables. You won’t find much in the way of regular table games, and there
currently aren’t any specialty games at all. So, no bingo, keno, scratch cards,
or other non-traditional gaming choices. It’s a bit surprising that there is
only one blackjack game in the regular casino, and no craps or Punto Banco.
Note: We’re basing this review on the current service being provided. All of
the Playtech gaming has been removed and
has been down for a bit. We contacted customer service, and they did say that it
should be back in three or four weeks, but we also noticed that the game titles
were notably absent from the full library list located in website footer area.
163 is a generous figure, as there may be some overlap in games. Genting
promotes over 300 games, but that would include the Playtech games that are not
currently available.
Slots, table games, video poker, and live casino games offer
at least a sampling of what most casino players would be looking for, but
specialty games are absent from the mix, and regular table games don’t appear on
mobile.
An A to Z listing of its games, as well as some slot
categories broken out for players on the full site, like Jackpots and UK Casino
slots.
IGT, Novomatic, Playtech, Evolution Gaming
We counted 84 current games in the mobile casino, but we do
have to be honest and say that it’s not a user-friendly experience – at least not
on smartphones. On an iPad, we didn’t have a problem, but on an Android phone,
the graphics were slow-loading, and the menu items kept running into each other.
It was an attractive presentation, but not very useful.
The mobile casino did offer slots, video poker, and live table games, but we
couldn’t locate any regular casino table games. It could be attributed to the
absence of the Playtech catalog, but time will tell.
Don’t hold us to the strict 122 games figure, as it was a challenge to count
up the selections. The “UK slots,” as opposed to “slots,” and then again “all
slots,” was quite confusing, and there was bound to be some overlap.
There are only three jackpot progressive games that aren’t separated out in
the mobile casinos, but the rest of the slot banks are full of some fresh new
games and some IGT favorites that many slot
players will recognize.
We won’t take up too much of your time listing out the bonuses and promotions
offered by GentingCasino.com, as there aren’t very many.
It’s about as straightforward as it gets with welcome bonus offers. You
deposit anywhere up to £1,000, and you receive a matching amount in bonus play
funds.
Genting’s rollover for this particular promotion is set at 50 times on the
bonus amount (not the bonus/deposit combination). Any deposited cash is played
first, and then the bonus is set into motion. The maximum bet while working off
that wagering requirement is £25. Most slots will provide a 100% contribution,
but other games come in at 10%, 25%, or 50%.
Blackjack Surrender, Blackjack Switch, Craps, Pontoon, Pirate Hi-Lo, and
Double Up Slots and Video Poker don’t provide any help toward meeting the
playthrough.
The Mystery Card Bonus promotion is on Live Blackjack only, and players have
to be staking at least £10 per hand. Twenty chances to win £10 will be on the
tables, as players could receive a mystery card at any time.
The Mystery Card Bonus gaps are filled in with this Live Roulette promotion.
To claim an up-to-£10 bonus, you must have first deposited and played at least
£20 in cash. Then, if you have a minimum £1 riding on Live Roulette and a “0”
comes up, you get a refund on your bet. But…you need to wager it 15 times for it
to mean anything.
Genting’s VIP or Loyalty Club provides players with points based on their
betting. And, like most other loyalty programs, bettors can level up with more
activity. The perks include weekly deposit matches, returns on some losses twice
a month, and a typical “cash to point/points to cash” program.
We agree with Genting’s players that customer service is prompt, polite, and
informative. Our experience was pleasant, and our question was answered fully.
We’ve had many customer service interactions at other casinos where we had to
keep going back and asking questions to get the complete response. So, it was
refreshing to receive a full and thorough reply.
The most significant benefit that Genting offers is its reputation and
longevity in an online world with casinos that come and go in an instant. It’s a
well-respected name with substantial backing and the best regulation possible
through the UK Gambling Commission.
We wouldn’t dispute that the site provides “enough” for most players, but it
seems more like an extension of its land-based casinos, rather than a standalone
service. What we mean by that is there are a lot of restricted locations, so the
majority of its customers are most likely UK-based.
The banking menu directly reflects a British-catering service, with only
Skrill, debit, and credit cards being offered. If it were targeting
international clients, we would think the list would be more extensive and
include some prepaid options, Bitcoin, more e-wallets, or other
location-specific alternatives that online players typically use.
Admittedly, we didn’t get the full experience, as all of the Playtech games
had been removed and won’t be back for at least a few more weeks, according to
customer service. But, if we see limited casino options, so do other potential
new players. There isn’t any posted information about some of the regular gaming
options being unavailable, so no one would know unless they specifically asked
about it.
If we put aside the emphasis on catering to local customers, there are still
some other positive attributes to the site.
Let’s start with the casino-sportsbook combination. It’s helpful for many
players to have both betting options combined into one. They only have to
register and fund one account, but can take advantage of everything offered on
the website.
As far as bonuses and promotions go, we are not big fans of massive
offerings. It confuses things and creates enormous player frustration. If you
take a peek at some online player forums, you’ll see that many of the
complainers are venting about bonus stipulations. They didn’t read through all
of the fine print and ended up losing value rather than gaining any.
Online bonus programs are just downright complicated, and the less that
people have to read, the better.
What we especially like about Genting’s program is that it does offer a
substantial welcome bonus for casino players, and we understand that it’s a
must, or some players would just pass them by without a second look. Welcome
bonuses are enticing and necessary to compete with other providers.
The welcome bonus is about as straightforward as it comes, though. It’s a
one-time offer of a 100% match up to £1,000, period. There’s no multiple levels
or add-on free spins or anything to over-complicate the situation. Now, that
offer still comes with a 50 times rollover and some game restrictions. But it
allows for up to a £25 maximum bet during the playthrough, and that’s
comparatively high, so it’s an additional player benefit.
Aside from that, the promotions currently listed are in-game related on live
roulette and blackjack. They do require a small deposit to have been made, but
they’re not “reload bonuses,” so they’re a bit more fun and not as confusing.
For the sportsbook, although there is a £10 First Bet Insurance offer, we
prefer to see the enhanced odds specials that are on display.
Speaking of that sportsbook, while you can easily find a longer list of
matches and markets through some competing sites, Genting is known for providing
some of the best all-around odds, as opposed to promoting a few stand-out
opportunities.
In-play betting also takes its lead from the rest of the service, and offers
enough without going over the top.
Despite some other information you may have read, the casino is not strictly
a Playtech casino. In fact, even though the Playtech games were removed when we
reviewed the site, there were still over 150 casino options.
IGT, Novomatic, and Evolution Gaming provided slots, table games, video
poker, and a good-sized live casino. If the Playtech games do indeed return,
then the size will nearly double, but we don’t even currently see any Playtech
titles listed in the footer area with the entire list of gaming options, either.
So, we don’t want to say that they will definitively be back. Maybe Genting has
some other surprises in store?
Getting back to the casino, though, we did find it challenging to identify
what was being offered. The sorting was somewhat unconventional, and many of the
titles overlapped into each area. They’ve got “all slots,” “casino slots,” “UK
casino slots,” and then just “slots.” Hmm…
Just to simplify things a bit, let’s bullet-point it for you.
Genting Casino provides an exceptionally good service for players who reside
in the United Kingdom. The combination of sports betting and casino plus live
casino makes it a one-stop shop for British punters, who can also take advantage
of in-person banking through any of the 42 land-based locations. International
players may find it more challenging to fund their player account, and there are
some geographic restrictions with which to contend. All in all, it’s a safe
choice with a reputable operator and the best licensing and regulation. Genting
doesn’t go over-the-top with gaming options or bonus offers, but instead
provides a straightforward betting and casino service.
This review was made by: GamblingNerd.com Rating: 3.5 out of 5