Chelsea Palace

 

Chelsea Palace Casino Review

Naming yourself in relation to the Chelsea football club might be a brave thing to do, and naming yourself in relation to the UK royal family isn’t always great. There isn’t a Chelsea Palace among that family’s possessions, you’d have to walk all the way down the road to Kensington to find the nearest real palace.

The vibe of those two institutions is there in this site though, which is sort of luxury-city themed, with rather non-specific futuristic tower blocks (which we suppose are full of luxury apartment blocks) as the main image on the site.

This is a site made by Nektan, a Gibraltar company that have 239 domain names registered with the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC).

Many of these domains are now inactive; many are run by the company, and a large number of them are operated as what are called White Label sites, including this one.

White Label sites are something like a franchise model. A business like Nektan sets up the machinery of a casino site and another business runs the site. We have no idea how the revenues and decision making is divided between the two parties, but this is a popular and enduring model in the casino market.

Among Nektan’s White Label brand names are arcticspins.com, evoreels.com, playuk.com, and spinbig.co.uk.

The company’s inactive brands include blackspins.com, casinomobile.co.uk, and lovespins.com.

Currently, active sites run by Nektan include cheekyriches.com, jackpotwilds.co.uk, and spinprincess.com. The company has a big bingo site collection.

Nektan went into administration in 2020 – for the second time – and we haven’t really been able to find out what the current state of their business is (it’s possible that parts of it have been sold off). However, the company’s licence remains up-to-date and in order according to the UK GC. The site contact details tell more of the story though, linking into Grace Media, a well-regarded UK casino conglomerate with plenty of titles of their own.

The site is up and running though, and it looks OK with hundreds of slots and a biggish live casino operation.

Chelsea Palace sounds glamorous, and looks ok, but should you check it out for yourself? We’ll tell you.

Chelsea Palace Casino Pros and Cons

Every site has its ups and downs and here we’ll weigh up Chelsea Palace in our giant casino balance.

Pros:

1 – Licensed and legal

Ownership grey area aside, it’s clear that Chelsea Palace is a regulated casino provider. It has held the licence with the UK GC with over 200 sites and yet has no settlements of sanctions recorded against it.

There’s a lot less outright scamming in the gambling world these days, but we do advise that players make themselves aware of three types of safety: safe sites, cyber and device security, and safe gambling. That licence makes Netktan pretty much a shoo-in for a tick in that first box.

The site is otherwise obviously legitimate. It has games from lots of big suppliers, and payment processing is by all the well-known names.

2 – Game for it!

If you like slots you will find plenty to entertain yourself at Chelsea Palace.

Presented in the usual style – endless scrolling tiles – you’ll see a lot of familiar favourites, like Starburst, Rainbow Riches, Fishin’ Frenzy, and Diamond Mine, alongside some newer names like Taco Brothers, and Wizard of Oz, Road to Emerald City.

The games aren’t listed in any particularly systematic ways on your first visit but you can use a search function to seek out the titles that you like. Once you’re logged in you can find games via their popularity, release date, some exclusive titles, and by the provider.

The providers are very high quality, and they include: NextGen Gaming, Merkur, NetEnt, IGT, Microgaming, Big Time Gaming, ELK, and Triple Edge Studios.

3 – PayPal is our friend!

There’s a good selection of payment options at Chelsea Palace Casino. This is a make or break for players, who aren’t going to play at a site they can’t fund.

So it’s nice to see PayPal, the archetypal e-wallet. You can also use Skrill and Neteller, two of the biggest e-wallets in the gambling world, plus you’ve got the usual banking options and Boku to pay by mobile.

5 – Good Advice

Casino sites want one thing: they want players to spend money. The money that casino sites make is all lost bets. That puts the sites in something of a conflict-of-interest situation when it comes to safer gambling advice, which is almost always predicated on spending less money. So we applaud them for their safe gambling advice, which opens with one of the strongest and least understood pieces of addict8ion advice – talk to someone!

There’s actually quite a lot of well-written content at this site, which is not something we see everywhere. Well done Nektan, and well done Chelsea Palace Casino on that front.

Cons:

1 – We’ve seen it all before

Nektan have designed over 200 sites. That’s quite an achievement. We’ve written hundreds of casino reviews, and being a human endeavour that means that these things aren’t each flawlessly unique. So, if you’ve played at Nektan sites before you will recognise most of the features at Chelsea Palace Casino. That’s how the White Label model works: it saves money to mass-produce things in capitalism, so mass production is what we get.

That’s OK if you like Nektan. If you don’t – and we have some concerns about some things as you’ll see, then you won’t enjoy Chelsea Palace Casino.

More broadly, this means that players are not quite presented with an honest picture of the casino market. There is a perception that hundreds of brands are fighting it out for your attention, when in fact there are many fewer, much bigger providers.

2 – We’re confused

We found two versions of the welcome offer when we visited, one on the front page, and one beyond the splash page. One was offering a cash amount, the other free spins. If there’s one thing we hate it’s confusions like this!

Casino Games and Software at Chelsea Palace Casino

Games are where it’s all at for our players, so let’s take a tour around the Chelsea Palace Casino set up.

Slots

Slots are listed in a number of ways.

The providers are: Pragmatic, NetEnt, Microgaming, Blueprint, Scientific, Matrix Studios, Big Time Gaming, Crazy Tooth Studio, Slk Gaming, Eycon, Four the Player, Foxium, G.Games, Games Co, Golden Rock, Habanero, Inspired Gaming, Iron Dog, IWG, Just for the Win, Lightning Box, Markor, Merkur, NextGen Gaming, NYX, Realistic Games, Red-Tiger, ReelFeel Gaming, Reels n Dice, Rising Entertainment, Rocksalt Interactive, and Skillzz Gaming.

Top Slots at Chelsea Palace Casino

Players at this site were enjoying these titles when we visited:

Big Bass Bonanza, 100 Rainbows Superpot, the Hand of Midas, Starburst, Rainbow Riches Race Day, Fishin Reels, Top o the Bonus, Ancients’ Blessing, Congo Cash, Big Money Frenzy, and Gold Metal Ox.

New Release

The new titles going down well with players at Chelsea Palace Casino were:

Fishin Reels, Rainbow Riches Race Day, Top o the Bonus, Ancients’ Blessing, Basketball Star on Fire Hyper Hold, Fruity Bonanza Featuring Scatterdrops, Fluffy Favourites Megaways, Toro Bravo, Hot to Burn Hold and Spin, Dragon’s Luck Deluxe, Bompers, and Cubes 2.

Exclusive Slots

There is a selection of games labelled exclusives, the list was headed by these slots on our visit: Toro Bravo, Gold Metal Oz, Shinobi Supersweep, 100 Rainbows Superpot, Gold Creek Superpays, 500 BC Sparta Supersweep, and a load of scratch card titles.

All Slot Games

Listing all the games gives you these titles at the top:

Jurassic World, Fortune Money, Rainbow Pick ‘n’ Mix, Ivanhoe, Dead or Alive II, God of the Sea, Pixie Wings, John Hunter and the Tomb of the Scarab Queen, Diamond Mine, Rank Up Dragon, 9 Pots of Gold and Fishin’ Frenzy.

Scratch Cards

Scratch games or instant wins are versions of slots with mechanics borrowed from physical scratch cards, the top titles at Chelsea Palace Casino on our visit were:

Toro Bravo Scratch, Eirik the Viking Scratch, 9 Planet Shockers Scratch, Scratch Aapo’s Quest, Fabulous Fairies Scratch, 1000 Rainbows Superpot.

Table Games

The most popular casino games these days are live games, but there have been casino games for much longer than sites have been streaming from studios in the Baltics.

These older games are called RNG games because they’re run by a random number generator. There is a small selection of these games at Chelsea Palace Casino, including blackjack, roulette, and baccarat.

Bonuses at Chelsea Palace Casino

The main bonus is always the welcome bonus, but a good site will offer you an ongoing programme of promotions and bonuses to keep you interested.

We recommend all players take some time to understand the way bonuses work and what they are there for. They are not there to turn you into a millionaire without losing any money. They are there to generate profit for the casino site. That means generating new customers and getting them to spend time playing their games. All casino games are set up to deliver more losses than wins. That’s not cheating, by the way, it’s just the mathematics of casino games – losses are far more likely than wins, and things that are far more likely to happen will happen more often.

You need to understand this before you start cashing in every bonus in town. You also need to start reading the small print of all bonuses you accept, although we’ll take some of that out of your hands here, with this in-depth guide to Chelsea Palace Casino bonuses.

Welcome Bonus at Chelsea Palace Casino

The headline offer at Chelsea Palace Casino is this:

“Play with up to 300 Bonus Spins on your first deposit!”

This is awarded in three possible sets. For a £10 – £19.99 deposit, you’ll get given 100 bonus spins. Deposit between £20 and £49.99 and you’ll get 200 bonus spins. And for 300 bonus spins you’ll need to deposit £50 or more.

The games on offer are: Starburst, Finn and the Swirly Spin, or Finn’s Golden Tavern.

The spins are valued at 10p a time.

Once you choose a game you must use all your spins on that game.

Winnings are given a wagering requirement of 30-times bonus “earned”.

The most money you can reclaim from the bonus is 4 times the bonus amount. We make that 300 x 10p x 4 or £120.

You can only pay off your wagering requirement with funds from your bonus funds account. You can’t use your bonus account while you have cash in your cash account.

Blackjack and Roulette do not contribute to wagering requirements. Some slots cannot be played with bonus funds, and some games do not contribute their full value to the wagering requirement fund.

Bonus spins must be used within 7 days of being granted. The winnings you make will stay in your account for 28 days and will then be vanished.

This is a very typical bonus set-up and you can see straight away what it’s designed to do.

Let’s say you deposit £10 and are awarded 100 bonus spins, from which you win £100. We think that the maximum you can withdraw from this offer is four times the amount you are awarded, which is 100 x 10p spins x 4 which is £40.

And in order to withdraw that £40, you will need to deposit and play with 30 times the total amount of the bonus “earned”. We’re not clear exactly how that is calculated, and no example is given: is it the maximum win for that bonus – i.e., what actually appears in your account – or is it what you can win, our £100 example.

Either way, it’s going to be at least £300 and probably £1,200. And you cannot use your own money for this, you must deposit enough money to earn that amount in bonus funds, via various promotions, and we just don’t see how that is possible without spending a huge amount of money.

The best way to think of a bonus is usually as a free tour of a site. It is almost certainly impossible to win any serious money with a welcome bonus. Any site that allowed you to walk off with all your winnings from a welcome offer without tying you to the site would soon go out of business.

These bonuses work for the site, the best way to get them to work for you is to forget their monetary value almost entirely.

Other Promotions at Chelsea Palace Casino

There are a good selection of other promotions at Chelsea Palace Casino.

These change with time, so if you’re a promotions chaser then you’ll need to check out what is available when you actually sign up there.

This is what we found on our visit:

A St Patricks Day offer with five bonus spins on Finn games.

Tiered Spins is a free spins offer for 10, 40 or 100 free spins in return for deposits of £10, £20 or £50.

A 10,000 Spins Drop picks 100 players at random in order to gift them 100 free spins. Very nice.

The Biggest Spin Winner is a £100 giveaway to the winner of the biggest prize who has deposited and played £10 on a game.

Remembering to read the terms and conditions and you should expect the same wagering requirements to apply.

Loyalty Schemes and VIP

We couldn’t find the loyalty scheme described at Chelsea Palace Casino.

There is a VIP scheme at the Chelsea Palace Casino.

VIP schemes are generally run by invitation and players who spend a lot of money are the players who get invited.

The sort of extras you’ll probably be offered include better terms on withdrawals or deposits, more personal service and so on.

Chelsea Palace Live Casino

There are live games from Evolution Gaming and Extreme Live Games at Chelsea Palace Casino.

Live casino games at Chelsea Palace casino include live roulette and live blackjack.

These games are available in a number of variants and variations.

For roulette, this means American Roulette, European Roulette, and French Roulette.

The live blackjack games include Hi-Lo Blackjack, Blackjack Perfect Pairs, Blackjack Buster Bets and many more.

You can also play poker, other table games like baccarat, and a variety of game show and other games that are becoming so popular with players in 2021.

It’s important to remember that live games operate on a slightly different way to other games. They require staff (please always treat live casino staff with the utmost respect, as you would like to be treated), so they cannot be played for free or in demo mode usually. This staffing means they are also usually slightly more expensive to play.

These games have a social aspect, and there is a possibility that the pressure to impress other players or staff may have an impact on player decision making. Make sure you make decisions that are good for you and your bank balance and your health.

Chelsea Palace Mobile Casino and App

Chelsea Palace Casino is a no-download mobile casino site.

There are basically two options when it comes to mobile gaming: an app that can be downloaded from a casino site or from a marketplace for your phone or a mobile website.

Most sites are available to mobile browsers as a default these days, and most games are now designed with the mobile market first in the designer’s mind.

You can play slots, live games, and other casino games on your mobile at Chelsea Palace Casino and you can also use the specialist BOKU app to make your mobile payments.

Banking

You can cash up your account with:

• Debit cards, from Visa, Visa Electron, Maestro and MasterCard.
• Banking, using the Trustly App, or by more traditional transfers.
• E-wallets: PayPal, Neteller, Skrill.
• Prepaid cards including Paysafecard.

 

You will be charged 15% on Boku payments. Boku is a new mobile payments app.

Other deposit methods are completely free. You can deposit from £15 on Boku or £10 with other payment methods.

Players can set their own limits as a safety measure.

Withdrawals start from £10.

Checks for withdrawals can take up to three working days. Debit card withdrawals take 3 to 5 working days to clear.

You will need to prove your ID before you can withdraw, and you should withdraw to the first payment method that you used to deposit in usual circumstances.

Customer Support

Customer support is easy to find, with chat available on the site and contact details well signposted.

The addresses you need are: [email protected], and +44 203 621 6949 for a UK telephone line.

Email is manned 24 hours a day and should be replied to within 24 hours.

Telephone and live chat are also 24 hours a day services.

The Final Verdict

There is plenty to like about Chelsea Palace Casino and a few flaws.

The new way that bonus offers are constructed makes it almost impossible to ever pay off wagering requirements in our view – how can you put enough money into an account to then convert into bonus funds via promotions?

And it’s a bit hard to find your way around the site in places.

The good things though include lots of good quality written content. Good customer support options. And loads and loads of games, including a live casino.

The site is well designed and obviously legitimate and well worth a look if you like slots particularly. The game providers are good quality and you’ll find all the games you’d expect to find in 2021.

There’s a good set of promotions too, and it’s worth checking back in to see what Chelsea Palace’s Casino latest giveaways are.

With changes afoot in the ownership of the site recently, it’s possible that there will be more changes here in future. Keep an eye on it.