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For anyone who’s ever had even a fleeting interest in placing a bet in the United Kingdom, Ladbrokes is a name that should be more than familiar. With a history that extends as far back as 1902, Ladbrokes has grown to command an extraordinary global presence, giving it a credible claim to be the world’s largest bookmaker, handling 10 million bets every week and a staggering £12 billion in stakes each year! Such statistics not only boggle the mind, but also can only further endorse a cast-iron reputation that should inspire utmost confidence in anyone considering playing its online casino. This is a company whose success has been established over many years by operating on principles of security, discretion and integrity, all vital attributes to be demanded from an online casino and ones that a firm of Ladbrokes stature would not compromise in this competitive sector. Basically, it's a safe bet to go online gaming with Ladbrokes, but is it fun to bet with Ladbrokes at its online casino?
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| Our earlier reviews of Ladbrokes’ online casino criticised the somewhat lacklustre website that greeted the customer, but Ladbrokes has clearly continued to work on improving its service and the casino website is now a far more inspiring welcome mat to its gaming delights. Navigation is far cleaner, and we were very excited by the menu of casino options |
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(Instant Play, Download, Live Dealer, real-world and Mobile) it offered, plus Ladbrokes have catered for a variety of non-English speaking customers with a neat language selection menu. It all looks very inviting. Digging a little deeper, we were less inspired by the rather disorganised structuring of Ladbrokes’ game guides and ‘how-to’ information to assist casino novices. Don’t get us wrong, there is lots of useful information to be found, it’s just the navigation to find it isn’t always intuitive. For instance we never did locate a description of minimum computer requirements, and we couldn’t get the search box of the ‘self-help’ service to solve any queries either. Hmmmm. To balance this moan, Ladbrokes does operate a very efficient, and prominently publicised, customer support through phone and email channels, although sadly no longer a live chat option which we previously praised. Customer support is available around the clock to answer such first-time queries, so if you do get stuck and can’t find the answer through the website’s navigation, swift and friendly human help isn’t far away.
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| Where the Ladbrokes Casino experience really begins to make its mark is when you get beyond its website lobby and actually get down to the business of gaming. Big is clearly beautiful at Ladbrokes, since its endowed its online casino with a whoppingcomplement of over three hundred games to choose from, spread between its instant playand download casino environments |
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and apparently there are more games on the way! The downloadable games are the ones to go for if you're after the most authentic recreation of a real-world casino experience, since the Microgaming Viper software used delivers stunningly rich recreations of the casino classics with silky smooth gameplay and expert options that you'll find hard to beat anywhere on the Internet. The size of the software download required isn’t particularly bulky, so it’s a viable option even for players using steam-powered modems on vintage dial-up connections, and installation and account registration were simple and trouble-free. Alternatively, players looking for an even greater online simulation of casino atmosphere will also appreciate Ladbrokes Casino’s ‘Live Dealer’ games too, which add that extra dimension to the Blackjack Baccarat, Sic Bo and Roulette tables available with this option.
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Where Ladbrokes download casino software can only be run on Windows PCs, non-Windows users should be more than pleased with what’s on offer beyond the virtual lobby in the Flash-based Instant Play casino. The range of games is no less comprehensive than its download counterpart, and a quick dabble with the freeplay examples of each option should quickly convince a potential player that these are more than up to the job of delivering the gaming goods! Sure, we’d have liked a European, rather than American croupier voice on the European Roulette tables, but that’s us being picky. On a more serious issue, we did find that a handful of the games (e.g. Atlantic City Blackjack Gold) wouldn’t play on a Mac running the most up to date Flash software. It should be stated that the majority of games did work on the same machine absolutely perfectly, so this was a curious anomaly and it has been reported to Ladbrokes’ customer support so, with luck, it will have been addressed by the time you read this review.
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On the promotions front, at the time of this review Ladbrokes Casino was offering a respectable 100% Match Bonus for new players (up to £100), plus 100 free spins on its latest slot attraction, in addition to regular casino tournaments for prize bounty hunters. (It is worth noting though that access to Ladbrokes Casino Tournaments requires downloading and installing its full casino software so you will need a Windows PC to be in on this fun). For the more serious players amongst you, Ladbrokes also offer a VIP Club with attendant rewards and promotions but you will need to be purchasing and playing a minimum value of chips every month to get in the Club and maintain membership. If you’re neither wealthy or serious enough a player to make the VIP Club your online home, then there’s always the promise of serious prize money up for grabs from the wealth of progressive jackpot slots Ladbrokes offers all its customers! Not surprisingly for a 'big' casino like Ladbrokes, the number of progressive-hunting slot jockeys venturing through its virtual lobby every day means the jackpots they’re stoking up can get very big, very quickly.
Without doubt, Ladbrokes Casino makes for a good solid choice from a good solid brand. Players completely new to online casinos may find the higgledy-piggledy implementation of help guides and other new-user information a little baffling on first acquaintance, but there is always Ladbrokes’ fine customer support service to assist here, and the choice and quality of both the download and non-download casinos is well worth getting to know. We did find the curious inconsistency of support for Apple Macs at Ladbrokes’ Instant Play casino a slight chink in its fine armour (which we hope can and will be fixed in the near future), however, for the majority of users roaming the Web with Windows-powered PCs this simply won't be an issue. With the download and non-download version of this online casino offering over a hundred games apiece to explore, there's literally more than a ton of fun to be found if you go for 'Brokes.
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