Totesport Casino Review

It seems as though the trend these days is for UK bookmakers to make the jump into the online world, and “the tote,” is no exception to this rule. The company was founded way back in 1928 and claimed that their purpose was to gain profit for use in, “purposes conducive to the improvement of breeds of horses or the sport of horseracing.” From this rather humble beginning, the Tote has grown to include 450 betting shops, 4,000 employees, and the title of the UK’s 4th largest bookmaker. Now they are introducing Totesport online casino to add to the mix. With all this history we can be assured that Totesport will be a safe place to partake in our fun, now we just have to figure out if it will be a fun one as well.

To provide the engine for all the fun, Totesport has gone with the increasingly popular choice of Playtech software. While once it was rare for us to come across this package, it is quickly becoming more and more widely used. This platform allows the casino to offer 60 different games for their casino floor. Players can choose between a downloading or non-downloading instant play format based on their own system and preferences. The downloading version will always be the more deluxe of the two, but does require a Windows based system to operate. The non-downloading format while not being as flashy does open the door for a much wider base of users and systems. Also this is a great choice if you find yourself behind several different computers over time as there is no installation necessary in order to play. Players will enjoy the realistic look and feel of the club, and Playtech delivers on a wide range of customization options. The one perk we couldn’t find that we have run across at other Playtech sites is a live dealer function. This is not a necessity, but it goes a long way towards make the experience that much more real.

Now, here is where we first started running into some problems. Totesport has some real navigational issues going on at their casino. We can get past the fact that the site just doesn’t look that great, but we can’t get past the very poor usability. For instance, when we clicked on the very tempting, “Play Now!” link we were lead to nothing more than a 404 Page Not Found error message. As this is the main link to the games, that can pose a bit of the problem. There are other ways to get there if you poke around a bit but this is a problem that needs to be fixed sooner rather than later. Also when we tried to take part in the free play options while using our Mac we were denied access on all fronts. We have used this exact combination (Mac, Playtech, and browser) at other sites and had no problems so this is definitely a problem for Totesport. If you are going to make a site accessible to Macs, make sure it works everywhere not just in specific areas.

While Totesport does have a section devoted to user guides, we didn’t find them to be very helpful at all. In fact they were hard to find and didn’t contain what we felt to be basic user information such as the minimum system requirements. Since we were having absolutely no luck searching on our own, we decided to take our issues and head to customer service. We really hoped that they could shed some light on an ever darkening day. So off we went on another search, but this time for customer service. Now we found that there was no such page, and the only option was the site’s contact us link found in very small text hidden at the bottom of the screen. When we opened the link all that popped up was an e-mail box. After a very long time spent combing every page we could find, we finally found a freephone number hidden in the user guide for downloading. This is not something that should be this hard, and Totesport is well below the industry standard here. When we gave them a call we found that the agents were efficient though not as knowledgeable as others we have come into contact with. We spent several minutes on hold between each question as the answers were sought out.

Totesport Casino did a bit to get back in our good graces with a 1% cashback bonus on all wagers over $10. That and a few very nice progressive jackpots assure that the promotions pool is not completely dry.

In the end we have to say that Totesport Casino needs some real work to bring it up to par. There are some shining moments of greatness in their game quality, security, and company integrity but there are some serious problems too. If you can get past the lack of any kind of coherent help structure and lack of overall usability then you will find some really great games. All the right pieces are in place, someone just needs to do the work to put them together.