Ladbrokes Casino [Rating 8/10]

If you have ever considered placing a bet anywhere in the United Kingdom, it is likely that the name of Ladbrokes is at least passingly familiar to you. The gaming house has been around Britain for more than a century; its origins in the United Kingdom go all the way back to 1902. Today, the company has a monumental presence in gaming all over the world, a worthy contender for the crown of largest bookmaker in the world.

The facts and stats to back that up? Over ten million bets handled by Ladbrokes every week, with an incredible 12 billion pounds in stakes placed each year. You don't get numbers like this without an iron clad reputation for fair gaming and cashouts, and that is something we like to consider whenever the question of an online casino comes up. You won't have any problems as far as security with the Ladbrokes site, but that does not always mean a quality gaming experience. Let's see what else Ladbrokes has to offer.

Click here to play at Ladbrokes

First of all, to the welcoming page of the casino. If you have read our reviews in the past, you probably know that we were unimpressed with the former appearance of the Ladbrokes home page. We felt the approach to be lacklustre, but since that time the site has clearly undergone some changes for the better. This visit had us looking at a site with a much more inspiring welcome for visitors. Included in that welcome is easy navigation, a nice and unprecedented array of casino options (including Instant Play, Live Dealer, Download, and real world as well as mobile), as well as a nod to the worldwide community of players via a nice language selection menu.

So the initial impression was very good, but we were a little disappointed with what we found when we looked below the surface. Although the content provided as far as game guides and how-to section is helpful, it remains a bit hard to get to. We like to see intuitive and straightforward navigation to any help page, and Ladbrokes just didn't deliver in this area. We did not find a minimum description of computer requirements, for example, nor could we get the search box for self help services to work.

Click here to play at Ladbrokes

On the other hand, there are great and round the clock customer service options available to everyone on the Ladbrokes site, with phone and email channels, but even there we noted that our favourite method, live chat, had been discontinued.

Once you get passed the welcome page and actually start to play, though, you begin to see where the Ladbrokes online casino really starts to excel. There is a huge selection of over three hundred games for players to choose from on the site; clearly at Ladbrokes bigger is better. These games are available across Instant Play and downloadable casino options, and Ladbrokes reports that there are still more games to come.

Click here to play at Ladbrokes

The Microgaming Viper software that powers the downloadable version of the casino makes for the most authentic casino experience you could ask for; beautifully rendered and stunningly rich representations of a casino environment have you feeling as though you can smell the cigarette smoke. Game play is silky smooth and there are expert options here perfect for the veteran player. All this within a package that can be run even on older modems with reasonable speed.

As with many online casinos, the downloadable version of the Ladbrokes casino can only be run using Windows operating platforms. However if a PC is not your computer choice, you can enjoy the Ladbrokes games by selecting the non-download, Flash based Instant Play casino. There are still plenty of games to choose from using this casino, and we love to see the free play version of each game, perfect for test driving the site.

Click here to play at Ladbrokes

It is important to note that some of the games did not run on a Mac, even though we were using the most up to date Flash software available. Strange that most of the games worked while only a select few did not - hopefully this was just an anomaly that will be addressed.

When it comes to promotions, Ladbrokes at the time of this review was offering a nice 100% Match Bonus up to 100 pounds to new players. They also offered 100 free spins on the newest slot machines and regular casino tournaments for prize bounty hunters. To enter these tournaments, you need the downloadable version of the Ladbrokes casino, and that means using a PC. A VIP club is also set up for the dedicated players; to get into the club you have to play and purchase a minimum value of chips each month, thus qualifying for the rewards and promotions only available to club members. And the progressive jackpots offer some serious money to all members, and the number of visitors playing on the slots the site offers each day mean that these prizes tend to get quite big, quite quickly.

Click here to play at Ladbrokes

A good brand name is complemented by good game play at the Ladbrokes online casino. You might have some trouble with the navigation to questions on the home page if you are a new player, but the customer support option is highly recommended and does offset this niggle quite a bit.

With the sheer number of games offered by the site, along with the generally hassle free game play (save for the issues with Mac users and a few of the games on the Instant Play option), this is a site that will prove satisfying for casino fans of all stripes.

Click here to play at Ladbrokes