888 Casino

888 is the largest, and one of the longest established (1997) online casinos in the world. The website looks superb, is well appointed and as you would expect, all the information you need is accessible within just a few clicks. 888 use proprietary software which is excellent, and as you would expect is faultless in its execution. Downloading the software is simple with a pop-up inviting you to do so as soon as you enter the website. Registration was fast and easy and I was ready to play in no time.

Once in the casino, you’ll find all the usual casino games that you would expect to, and although 888 prides itself in quality rather than quantity, there is still a reasonable amount of choice for whatever game tickles your fancy, though not as perhaps a wide a choice as available at other software providers. A significant plus is that 888 have live casino games for Blackjack, Roulette and Baccarat which can be played in any one of 5 different languages (English, French, Spanish, German and Italian). 888 have also got some great games in from other software providers, for example, the excellent Call of Duty 4 slot from Cryptologic.

Customer Support

As is now standard in the top online casinos, the customer support is on hand 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can contact them through the instant chat facility, phone or via e-mail, and customer support is available in 11 different languages. The customer support is excellent and we were very impressed in the turnaround time both by e-mail and the online chat support.

Banking

When it comes to banking with 888, there is a massive amount of choice, including many of the standard options, such as: debit or credit card, UKash, Click and Buy, Neteller, and Moneybookers; plus a couple that you don’t often see like PayPal. The official cashout processing times seem a little slow, with withdrawal requests being processed 3 business days from the date of request (reduced to one day for VIP’s), then an additional few days depending on the method selected. Compare that to somewhere like 32Red, where you can get an almost instantaneous withdrawal via NETeller after the casino have processed your request within a 24 hour period from when you made it.

3D Casino

888 have a 3D casino live on their site. This took a bit of fiddling to get to load, but I wasn’t using Internet Explorer – once I switched back, everything worked pretty smoothly. This is a new concept in a casino lobby (at least, not one that we’ve seen before). Instead of a list of games, you walk around in a virtual casino, walking up to and playing the games in 3D, much like in the Sims or in Second Life.

It’s a cool concept, and there are still some kinks, but we’re sure they’ll work these out – one thing that would be good to add is a “run” button that you’d get in a normal video game – it’s fairly boring having to walk between the different tables, but it’s still fairly nifty

Summary

888 are one of the top online casinos out there. Although the payouts may seem relatively slow, you don’t have to worry about whether or not the casino is going to pay you – indeed, being listed on the London Stock Exchange, 888 is no fly by night operation, plus it is regulated by one of the UK’s white-listed gambling jurisdictions – the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority, making it a fairly safe place to play at. If you’re not convinced by the above, the world of online casinos is fiercely competitive, and for a casino to have grown as large as 888, they must be doing something right, so why not give them a go by clicking here.