Initially launched nearly ten years ago, The Palaces recently relaunched with
a newly designed site featuring a Casino, Live Casino, and Bingo area. Although
its services focus primarily on UK players, it allows for international
customers around the globe in any areas where it’s legally allowed.
Fee-free deposits and withdrawals plus on-going reload bonuses are two of the benefits
The Palaces provides. You won’t find the big jackpot progressive games in the
casino, but an otherwise sufficiently sized slot, table, and video poker area.
Bingo provides for 25p tickets and pots in the £2,000 and £5,000 range.
Deposit Methods
Euro Palace is one of the few online casinos that has stood the test of time, and has even been labelled one of the best online casinos around. It’s a member of the award-winning Fortune Lounge Group of Online Casinos, renowned for their high standards of security and gaming integrity. With five other online bingo products, it makes sense that the Palaces “Casino” would have a different focus and it does. There’s a casino with slots, video poker, and table games as well as live dealer.
Ratings Breakdown
Overall
We’re pleased that the overall rating factored out so high as The Palaces is
an overall good site. Its combination of bingo and casino gives players more
choices and, not only is it a nicely designed site, but it does have some of the
most current games that are available today.
Game Variety
The quantity might not be up to speed with some of its competitors, but the
variety is certainly there. Games include some casino standards like Treasures
of Troy and Cleopatra, but brand new games like Ghostbusters Triple Slime are
also in the mix. The table games are also smaller in number but cover the bases
with Blackjack and Roulette supplemented with Baccarat, Poker, and Red Dog.
Banking
When you provide full disclosure, you’re ok in our book, and The Palaces has
a link to its financial menu right at the top of the homepage. You can sort by
country to find your particular choices, and each is indicated as being
allowable (or not) for both deposits and withdrawals. Every financial
transaction is free. No fees are added in either direction, and cash outs are
promoted as being approved daily. The only thing that’s missing is a Bitcoin
option, and a few more e-wallets and prepaid alternatives would also be helpful.
Bonuses
The scales are level regarding bonuses. On one side, there are welcome and
reload offers that come with a 35 times rollover, but it’s only on the awarded
amount and doesn’t include the deposit, so that’s a plus. On the other side,
there aren’t any non-deposit match offers. Some fun promotions, contests or
giveaways are important to some players.
Customer Service
Three methods of contact are quite handy, and players should have easy access
to a service agent when they need assistance. We’ve also read about some better
than average service provided to some, so there’s no need to deduct a star in
this category as all of the bases are covered.
User Interface
We’d give a five-star rating in this category because the site loads quickly,
the game presentation is top notch, and the entire experience is straightforward
and user-friendly. Not having a live casino and many of the games available for
mobile play detracts from the overall experience, though, and doesn’t give
players much of choice in formats, so we deducted a half star for the
inconvenience.
Restricted Countries
Here is a list of all the countries that cannot play at The Palaces Casino.
- Angola
- Argentina
- Belgium
- Canada
- Chile
- China
- Cuba
- France
- French Guyana
- Guadeloupe
- Hong Kong
- Iraq
- Iran
- Israel
- Japan
- Kuwait
- Martinique
- Mayotte
- North Korea
- Qatar
- Reunion
- South Korea
- Sudan
- Syrian Arab Republic
- Thailand
- Turkey
- United Arab Emirates
- Ukraine
- United States of America
Overview of the Palaces Casino
Physical and Virtual Worlds Combine
The Palaces is just one of the holdings of Palatial Leisure Limited, led by
Founder, Managing Director, and
Bingo
operations expert, Patrick Duffy. He’s been with the company since 1996 and
has four bingo parlors, the
London Palace, Great Yarmouth, Salford, and in Felixstowe. Palatial Leisure is
more bingo-oriented and has five sister sites to thepalaces.com including Bingo
Britain, Bingo Caribbean, Catholic Bingo, New Century Bingo, and The Palaces
Live. It’s licensed by the UK Gambling Commission, so there are stringent
guidelines that are imposed and fair gaming requirements that need to be adhered
to and are monitored.
Eligibility to Register and Play for Real Money
Eligibility is in your individual hands as The Palaces simply states that
players must be legally authorized to gamble online. However, their registration
and payment options include 244 different countries.
A Regal Theme?
With a name like The Palaces Casino and business operations based out of
England, you can imagine that there’s an underlying royal tone. The site has a
Royal Reload Bonus, but that’s pretty much where the theme comes to a screeching
halt. It’s surprising that it wouldn’t carry such an upscale and easily
identifiable subject throughout every page. We’re not saying that the remodel
isn’t a good one as thepalaces.com would be considered to be a quality and
above-average looking product but, why not capitalize on the name and enhance
player perception?
Bingo, Yes.. but Casino Takes Center Stage
Royal Palace Casino Online
With five other online bingo products, it makes sense that the Palaces
“Casino” would have a different focus and it does. There’s a casino with slots,
video poker, and table games as well as live dealer tables. Bingo is the third
primary area you’ll find in the top menu, but bingo focuses on three different
sessions – Golden Scoop, Silver Scoop, and Bronze Scoop. You can’t even get too
in depth checking out the bingo hall as it’s privately closed off for registered
members only.
Those Little Thoughts That Count
Today’s online gamblers look for quality and convenience and, with so many
websites out there, it’s helpful to provide some little extras to benefit the
users.
First off, we like the presentation of the relevant information that needs
to be easily accessed by players and anyone considering registering. There’s a
sound financial menu of options that break down by geography and notes deposit
and withdrawal availability.
The other thing we like that’s especially useful for slot players is the
ability to break down the game catalog in a few different ways. You can search
by individual title, by the software provider, or you can alphabetize the
collection. If you don’t want to scroll through endless graphics, changing the
format from images to a listing, cuts down on load time and does make it faster
to peruse the choices.
In the casino area, there’s a tally of today’s winners with amounts typically
over £100 that is nice to review and see what kind of money is being won. We
also like the designations on the games that let you know which ones you can
play on your mobile device.
The Casino
IGT, NetEnt, Parlay Games, and ComTrade Casino provide the software behind
the games on this site and players can pull up menus based on their preferred
company.
With IGT being used, some of the games may look familiar to anyone who spends
time in a physical casino, as there is a crossover with the slot games.
Library size – 276
Game Variety
The range of the slot and table games is about average,
but the video poker games offer some of the latest versions that you’ll find
in a casino like the very popular Ultimate Times Triple, Five, and Ten Play.
Audio and Video Quality
IGT is one of the premier providers of slot
games, and all of the software used on this site is the latest technology
that provides superior video quality. The games are fast loading even on
mobile devices.
Mobile Casino
There is a mobile version of thepalaces.com, but it
doesn’t represent a large selection of the full site’s casino. All three of
the bingo rooms appear, but only about half of the slot games and a few
table and video poker games can be pulled up on smartphones or tablets, and
the live casino is not available at all for playing on the go.
Video Slots – 200 (105 on Mobile)
The Palaces doesn’t have designated jackpot games, but it does have some of
the most current and technically savvy alternatives out there today. For
example, IGT has a new game called Siberian Storm Dual Play that has an
exclusive Multiway Xtra format. The pay lines aren’t based on a grid format. In
fact, the playing area is staggered with three-line, four-line, and five-line
reels and winning combinations include symbols that can be anywhere on the
board. With 150 coins bet, there are 2,880 ways to win this game.
Not only are the games advanced but they’re presented on a screen with a
background that matches the theme of the game. You can tell that a lot of
thought and preparation went into the overall experience. It would be hard to
imagine better presentation than what’s provided in the Palaces’ slot banks.
Other selections include:
- Ghostbusters Triple Slime
- Royal Spins
- Family Guy
- DaVinci Diamonds
- Cleopatra Plus
- Sherlock Holmes – the Hunt for Blackwood
- Transformers – Battle for Cybertron
- 100,000 Pyramid
- Treasures of Troy
- Fairy Tale Legends – Hansel & Gretel
- Motorhead
Classic Slots – 28 (11 on Mobile)
The classic slots are slightly more traditional but certainly, in no way
resemble the original one-armed bandits. Even the themes are more advanced and
include:
- Wheel of Fortune on Tour
- The Groovy Sixties
- The Super Eighties
- King of Slots Touch
- Wolf Rising
- Trolling for Treasure
Video Poker – 17 (two on Mobile)
This site has a great video poker section featuring some of the newer
offerings, but it’s a shame that more of them aren’t available for mobile play.
These are the two games that you can play on smartphones or tablets:
- New Joker Pro Touch
- Five Play Draw Multihand
- Deuces Wild Double Up
- Joker Pro
- Match Times Pay – Jacks or Better
- Ultimate X Triple Play (or Five or Ten Play)
Table Games – 26 (Four on Mobile)
Don’t get too excited to read about many table game options as this area
encompasses 26 Blackjack, Roulette, and other games.
- Roulette Touch
- Roulette
- French Roulette
- Double Bonus Spin
- Three Wheel
- Roulette Advanced
- Roulette Mini
- Triple Bonus Spin
- European Roulette
- American Roulette
- Blackjack Classic
- Blackjack Classic Touch
- Blackjack Professional Series
- Double Exposure Blackjack Professional
- Blackjack
- Single Deck Blackjack Professional
- Blackjack Touch
- Pontoon Professional Series
- Blackjack
- Mini Blackjack
- Casino Hold ’em
- Texas Hold ’em Professional Series
- Red Dog Progressive
- Baccarat Professional Series
- Oasis Poker Professional Series
- Caribbean Stud Professional Series
Live Casino – 5
NetEnt and ComTrade
Gaming provide the five-selection live dealer experience. The quantity is
small, but the variety is decent.
- Live Blackjack
- Common Draw
- VIP
- The Palaces Live Roulette
- The Palaces Live Blackjack
Bingo
If you’re familiar with Palatial Leisure’s land-based bingo clubs, you would
expect that its websites would be bingo crazy with all kinds of promotions and
different themed rooms, but the company took a different approach with The
Palaces, as it already has other dedicated bingo sites.
The focus is on the casino, so the bingo area is streamlined with three main
sessions:
- Golden Scoop – £5,000 – .25 ticket
- Silver Scoop – £2,000 – .25 ticket
- Bronze Scoop – £2,000 – .25 ticket
You can play on the full site or mobile and pre-order games on either as
well.
The scoop jackpot is awarded if bingo is in 43 numbers or less and the bingo
lobby lists the schedule of upcoming games.
Banking Options
One of the marks of a good casino is providing customers (even not as yet
registered) with their alternatives for depositing and withdrawing. The Palaces
has a prominent link to this information at the top of the homepage, and the
menu is customized per region. Select a country from the drop down box, and you
get a list of financial providers available to your home area, and it’s noted if
they can be used for withdrawals as well as deposits.
As the site focuses primarily on UK players, we’ll do that too by providing
the options available to the United Kingdom.
The following are available for both deposits and withdrawals. A cash out
request is honored using the same method.
- Visa
- Visa Electron
- Visa Debit
- Mastercard
- Maestro
- Skrill
- iDeal
- Envoy Bankwire
A few helpful notes:
- Minimum Deposit – £10
- Minimum Withdrawal – £20
- Maximums depend on account and financial services provider
- Both deposits and withdrawals are fee-free
- Withdrawals are internally processed within a few hours but then
additional turnaround time may be needed depending on the individual
transaction - Currency accepted: GBP, EUR, CZK, DKK, PLN, SEK
Bonuses and Promotions
We wouldn’t say that this is a particularly promotional-heavy service as
there aren’t any tournaments, drawings, or other types of prize opportunities.
We didn’t even locate a loyalty program.
What you will find, though, is a solid collection of deposit match bonuses
starting with the welcome offer and carried through into reloading
opportunities. There are some designated for casino only and others for bingo.
Each welcome bonus is good for new players making their first deposit so you
can’t have both. From what we can ascertain, you’d need to decide if you’re
going to the casino or if bingo is your priority.
100% (three tier) Casino Welcome Bonus up to £250 plus 50 free spins
Casino players will opt for this one if they’re accepting a match reward as
it applies to slot play.
Slot games are the only games that meet the rollover requirement of 35 times,
and the award breaks down as follows:
- 1st Deposit – 100% match up to £100 plus 50 free spins on Starburst
- 2nd Deposit – 100% match up to £100
- 3rd Deposit – 100% match up to £50
100% (two part) Bingo Welcome Bonus up to £250 plus 50 free spins
If you’re shooting for the coverall, this is the offer for you. Instead of
taking advantage of the casino bonus, you can opt for this one and use it in the
bingo room. The bingo wagering requirement is set at two-times instead of 35x as
needed through slot play.
- 1st Deposit – 100% match up to £100 plus 50 free spins
- 2nd Deposit – £150 that’s divided up into 30 individual £5 bonuses
issued daily. £10 wagering is needed per £5
50% Royal Reload Bonus
If you’re playing on Friday, you can get a 50% deposit match of up to £150.
This one also has the 35 times rollover, and a minimum deposit of £20 is needed
to activate it. Whereas slots were the only games that offset the welcome
requisite, scratch cards provide at 100% for this reload offer, and video poker,
table games, and live casino provide for a 10% contribution.
100% Saturday Night Madness
This promotion has the same premise as the Royal Reload Bonus but is only
offered on Saturdays and provides at 100% instead of 50.
Saturday Night Fever
Instead of madness, you can have a fever. With a £20 deposit, you get £10 in
bingo play with the standard two times wagering requirement.
15% Anytime Bingo Bonus
This bingo-only offer is the counterpart to the Royal Reload Bonus offered to
casino players. It’s a 15% deposit match reward that provides up to £150. The
wagering is also two times to fulfill the rollover mandate.
Two additional considerations:
- The good news – the 35 times wagering requirement
applies to the bonus amount only. Most casinos factor in the deposit amount
with the reward and then apply the play through percentage so, The Palaces
does have a slightly better program with all other things being equal. - The not so good news – If you win during your 50
free spins, you then have to wager those winnings 35 times. You can’t simply
cash it out and call it a day.
Customer Support
- Live Chat
- Contact Email – [email protected]
- Contact Phone – +44 (0) 78 99 66 0000
Summary
We were taken back (in a good way) when we first went to thepalaces.com.
Typical online casinos don’t have a face or a name associated with them. They’re
run by a company that you may or may not even know about, and you don’t really
consider the human factor into the equation as everything is automated or done
by live chat or email.
The founder of The Palaces, Patrick Duffy, is a well-known name and a
recognized face in the bingo circuit throughout Britain and he puts his name
front and center with The Palaces and with its sister sites as well. There’s an
introductory letter from him posted which gives you more of a personalized
service and more faith in the product that’s provided.
As far as the website, the redo resulted in a nicely designed, very easy to
navigate and play casino and bingo club that features little extras that make a
big difference.
It’s always a benefit to have free deposits and withdrawals as well as some
welcome and reload bonuses for those players who appreciate the added value. A
few little things could be added to enhance the experience, though. Some fun
contests or tournaments are appealing and would jazz up the deposit-match only
bonuses that are currently provided. More games available on mobile devices
would also be helpful as so many more players these days want access to gaming
on the go.
Verdict
Free deposits and withdrawals, plenty of financial options from which to
select, welcome and reload bonuses with a rollover on the award amount only, and
some of the most current games that you can find, all combine to put forth an
all around quality service for casino and bingo players.
Frequently Asked Questions
If I want to play bingo and some casino games, can I use my bonus in both places?
No. Every bonus is designated for use either in the casino or for playing
bingo as there are different play throughs and stipulations. However, you could
take advantage of the casino reload on one day and fulfill the wagering
requirement and then reload another day with a bingo bonus as long as you meet
each separate rollover accordingly.
I just want to try it out. Do I still have to make a deposit?
Most of the casino games are available for free practice play without even
needing to register a membership. However, if you want to try it out and put
your hat in the ring to win some real money, all you need is a £10 deposit to a
player’s account, and you can give it a spin.
Am I going to have to wait weeks to receive my winnings?
The Palaces approves cash out requests daily so its internal processing
should only delay things by one business day at the most. The rest depends on
what type of method you used (i.e. e-wallet, credit card, bank transfer, etc.)
as your withdrawal is issued back to the same card or account.