GrandMasterJack

 

GrandMasterJack Casino overview

GrandMasterJack Casino is a 2020-launched casino operated by Progress Play and licensed for UK players from their base in Malta.

The site is legal and legitimate and safe to play. It has a huge selection of games – more than 3,000 – across all of the usual sectors: slots, casino games, live casino games, and other games including virtual spots.

You can sign up at GrandMasterJack Casino and pocket a lovely big £300 welcome bonus, along with 25 free spins on one of history’s favourite slots, Gonzo’s Quest!

The design of the site is not particularly exciting or revolutionary. The splash page shows the usual top line of offers rolling by – although they are nice offers – and underneath that is the familiar never-ending flow of game tiles, with the option to list the games in a number of ways.

At the bottom of the page is the information that you need to check: licensing and banking. This confirms not only that the site has a UK Gambling Commission licence, but that it has industry body memberships, safe gambling advice, and good site security.

You can also access a good deal of information about the site from menus at the bottom of the page. We always advise that you take a good look around any site you’re considering playing at, and you should be wary of any site that makes it difficult to find things out.

There is no such problem with GrandMaster Jack, and we’re going to cover a lot of this ground in this review.

So should you sign up to learn under this grandmaster?

Let’s have a look!

GrandMasterJack Casino Pros and Cons

There are hundreds of casino sites available to UK players. What immediately jumps out about Grandmaster Jack and makes it worth your attention?

Pros:

GrandMasterJack is a legal and licensed legitimate site

No site should even be considered without a UK Gambling Commission Licence.

GrandMaster Jack is licensed number 000-039335-R-319313-016. It is also licensed in Malta, its home territory.

The licence is the one held by Progress Play, and it lists GrandMaster Jack as a white label casino under this licence. White label sites are something like franchise businesses. The parent company – Progress Play in this case – sets up the machinery to run a casino site and lets an operator handle the front-end of the site, including branding.

Grandmaster Jack is obviously legitimate, it has all the industry memberships you would expect, legitimate payment partners, and no black marks against its licence.

You can play Grandmaster Jack casino completely safely.

Grandmaster Jack has a Huge Games Selection

Everyone has lots of games. But not everyone has more than 3,000 games! That’s how many titles an audit of Grandmaster Jack has found.

Slots come spilling out of the front page with the popular titles all there, including Starburst, Gonzo’s Quest, Bonanza, Legacy of Dead, and Twin Spin.

Click on tabs to explore more slots, new releases, casino games, live games, jackpot games, and virtual sports.

A Big Live casino

The biggest producers of live casino games are NetEnt and Evolution Gaming. And those are the two providers of the huge selection of games at the Grandmaster Jack live casino.

Blackjack, roulette, baccarat, and poker in all the variants you could wish for and with a wide range of rule and style variants make up the Grandmaster Jack live casino.

It’s quality and quantity combined.

Grandmaster Jack is a PayPal casino

PayPal is the biggest payment processing organisation in the history of the internet. Whether or not you like or use it – or can’t stand its gigantic monopolistic power and the awful faux libertarian politics of some of its founders – seeing it on a casino site is usually considered a good sign.

That’s because PayPal ducked out of the industry for a while when the laws were unclear in the United States. Now they’ve come back into the market, PayPal have been relatively cautious about who they partner with.

PayPal is fast, trusted, secure and almost universal now, so Grandmaster Jack must be pleased to have their logo on their front page, and you should be too.

Cons:

Sadly, no-one is perfect, and we need to tell you the downsides of Grandmaster Jack too:

White Label

White label sites are fine. They are a perfectly legitimate business plan. However, for players, they produce a perception of variety and competition that is not always backed up by reality.

White label sites from the same producer usually have very similar setups, not just in terms of the games they offer, but with their customer service, offers, and the look and feel of the site.

If you’re tired of sites that look and feel the same, or if you have a particular issue with Progress Play sites then this might not be one for you.

Grandmaster Who

Talking of branding… it’s nice when branding is thought-through and well-developed. No-one should choose a casino site entirely because they like dig the cartoon rat – for example – that is the site mascot, but we didn’t really get the branding of Grandmaster Jack. Who is he? What is this site about? It’s a great site that looks pretty good and works well, but it doesn’t have much of an identity.

Games and Software

We’re not aware of the use of any proprietary software to operate Grandmaster Jack other than that produced by Progress Play.

The company boasts that it works with these software companies who supply its games:

NetEnt, Genesis games, Microgaming, Nextgen Gaming, Elk, 1×2 Gaming, Iron Dog, Thunderkick, Lightning Box, Chance Interactive, Core Gaming, Bet Digital, Blueprint Gaming, Gamevy, Gameslab, Extreme Live Gaming, Scientific Games, Big Time Gaming, Quickspin, Rabcat, Skillzz Games, 2by2 Gaming, Games Warehouse, Playson, Inspired Gaming, Eyecon, Just For the Win, Tom Horn, Lightning Box, Triple Edge Studios, Fortune Factory, Foxium, Wazdan, Gamevy, NextGen, Evolution, Fugaso, Magnet, Tripple Edge Studios, Crazy Tooth Studios, Slingshot, Stormcraft Studios, Switch Studios.

Slots

Slots are available across the site and in a number of lists.

On the front page of GrandMasterJack, you’ll find a list of featured games including:

Starburst, Bonanza, Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead, Rainbow Riches, Fishin’ Frenzy Megaways, Gonzo’s Quest the March for Eldorado, Reactoonz 2, Koi Princess, Clover Rollover 2, and Legacy of Dead.

New slots at GrandMasterJack Casino include:

Book of Gold Multichance, Octopus Treasure, Jinchan Cash, Shaman’s Dream 2, deadmau5, Dream Zone, Viking Pays, Monkey’s Gold, Aquatic Treasures, Vegas Night Life.

The “Slots” section of the site usually lists the most popular games. On our visit these were:

Starburst, Rainbow Riches, deadmau5, Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead, Moon Princess, Clover Rollover 2, Wild Blood II, Koi Princess, Helloween, and Viking Pays.

Table Games

Casino games are simulations of the popular table and card games. At Grandmaster Jack, you’ll find the classics like blackjack, roulette, and baccarat, but also board games and poker.

Roulette

Roulette simulators at Grandmaster Jack Casino include:

European Roulette, Big 500% Roulette, 100/1 Roulette, European Roulette Darkmode, 20p Roulette, World Cup Roulette, and many more.

Blackjack

Blackjack is everyone’s favourite casino card game, at Grandmaster Jack Casino you can play:

Vegas Strip Blackjack, European Blackjack, Single Deck Blackjack, Vegas Downtown Blackjack, and Atlantic City Blackjack among many more.

Other Casino Games

You will also find poker variants at Grandmaster Jack, including Casino Stud Poker, and Joker Poker.

There is a Monopoly Big Spin game too, and a number of baccarat (and related games) variants.

Video Poker

There are no selections of video poker games at Grandmaster Jack Casino. You may find these games, but they are probably branded as standard slots.

Bonuses at GrandMasterJack Casino

Bonuses are what gets you through the door at many casinos. A good site will also offer you a great selection of ongoing events and discounts too.

In order to get the best from bonuses, you need to understand how they work. Here we read the small print at Grandmaster Jack, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t have to – you always should!

Welcome Bonus at GrandMasterJack Casino

The welcome bonus – as you’ll expect by now – comes with a very attractive headline offer for would-be players at Grandmaster Jack casino:

Up to £300 + Free Spins – 1^st deposit offer. 25 free spins on Gonzo’s Quest.

As ever, to assess this offer you need to move beyond the headline. What do we find in the terms and conditions?

The first thing that stands out is that this is a three-part offer.

The first deposit triggers 25 free spins on Gonzo’s Quest.

The second deposit can earn you a 50% bonus on the value of your deposit worth a maximum of £100.

Finally, a 25% bonus of up to £200 comes with your third deposit, along with a further 25 free spins, this time on Reactoonz.

Now, the conditions.

The main condition is the wagering requirement. The wagering requirement is a sum that the player must deposit and play with in order to unlock any winnings from the bonus fund.

In the case of Grandmaster Jack, the wagering requirement is a big 50-times the bonus.

So, to claim the full £300 in that headline offer you need to deposit:

£200 + £800 to trigger the full bonus. Once your £1,000 is in your account you then need to deposit and play with £1,500 more to release any winnings you make with the bonus.

So, £2,500 gets you £300.

Furthermore, you must use and release your bonus within seven days, so that’s £2,800 you have to spend in seven days.

Then there is the Maximum Conversion Amount, which says you cannot win more than £20 from any free money and convert it into real money.

The bonus doesn’t look so attractive now does it?

There are a lot more restrictions too, which include weighting on the paying off of the wagering restriction which means that not all of the money you spend on some games goes towards paying off your wagering requirement. There are also some patterns of play – which many players will consider perfectly legitimate tactical choices – that are considered unfair by the site and which can result in penalties, including the loss of bonuses.

Most of these restrictions are fairly commonplace in the industry, so veterans will be used to them, but new players are often shocked by all these rules, and the way they almost completely undermine the promise of the headline offer. If this is your first experience of them we’re sorry to break the spell and we wish you a good time properly assessing casino offers from now on!

Other Promotions

Do things get any better inside?

Well, there is a set of promotions that run seasonally.

Welcome offers and all other offers are time-limited, so you need to make sure that you’re aware of what offers are available to you when you sign up to a site.

On our visit a set of Winter Warm-up offers were available.

The headline offer for these was “360 free spins and up to £1,500”.

Again, these are staged deposit offers with free spins, that require a maximum deposit many many times the bonus amount and that come with the 50-times wagering requirement and the maximum conversion that means you can’t win any more than £20 and keep it.

Tournaments at GrandMasterJack Casino

There were no tournaments advertised when we visited Grandmaster Jack, but these popular promotions are not uncommon and may be added in future.

Loyalty Schemes and VIP

Most casinos now run loyalty schemes. These reward players for playing – and spending – more, giving them bonuses and discounts as they do so.

Loyalty schemes are controversial as they are thought to contribute to problem gambling by making players more likely to spend more money.

The programme at GrandmasterJack is called VIP Club.

It comes in just five levels: bronze, silver, gold, platinum, and diamond.

The perks on offer are:

Access to VIP gaming rooms, a monthly newsletter, customer support, points to cash conversion with a sliding upward scale of maximum conversions of 500, 2,000, 5,000, 10,000, and 30,000 points, VIP customer support, Birthday Presents, VIP hotline, personal account manager, and personal gifts.

You need to earn 500, 1,000, 5,000, and 10,000 points to get up the ladder, with £16 buying you one point, so you’ll need to spend £160,000 to get to the top of the heap.

GrandMasterJack Live Casino

GrandmasterJack has a big live casino offering featuring games from eth world’s two biggest providers, the undisputed heavyweight champions of the world for live casino games: NetEnt and Evolution Gaming.

There were a total of 47 tables operating when we visited.

Live casino games don’t work like computer games so there may be different restrictions.

Some games come with limits on the number of players at a table. Others may be exclusively for players at a certain level of the VIP programme. The betting limits are commonly a little higher at live games, which use real staff (who should be treated with respect) to run the games and thus cost more. Not all live games may be available at all times.

Live roulette

There were 10 roulette wheels at GrandmasterJack on our visit.

They included:

American roulette from Evolution Gaming, standard roulette from the same company, NetEnt’s Auto Roulette Live, and immersive and VIP games from Evolution. There was a silver level VIP club table.

Live Blackjack

There are always a lot of blackjack tables at a good live casino.

On our visit, there were 21 tables in action.

They were:

Blackjack gold, blackjack black gold, blackjack white gold, blackjack ruby, blitz blackjack high roller, blackjack silver, and blackjack diamond all from NetEnt.

Evolution gaming had Blackjack Party, and seven standard blackjack tables, seven VIP tables, and four higher-level VIP tables.

Live Baccarat

Baccarat is a sophisticated casino game that is a He favourite in East Asia. It has French terminology and bet-names but is often styled around Macau casinos and has several Chinese-themed relatives. It’s among the best value games in any casino.

There were five baccarat tables at GrandmasterJack casino. They were:

Baccarat Squeeze, baccarat control squeeze, two-speed tables, and two standard tables.

GrandMasterJack Mobile Casino and App

Grandmaster Jack casino can be played on mobile phones that including iPhones and Android smartphones.

You do not have to download an app to play GrandmasterJack casino. Apps allow you faster access to a casino site, but they can also – we think – encourage you to be too loyal to just one site when you should be shopping around.

A large number of games, including live games, are available from GrandmasterJack at their responsive mobile site, just browse there with your usual mobile browser.

Banking

You can use a number of payment methods at GrandmasterJack, including:

• Visa and MasterCard, and Maestro cards.
• PayPal.
• PayviaPhone, with a 15% fee on deposits.
• PaySafeCard with a maximum deposit of £700.
• Trustly with a maximum deposit of £700.
• EcoPayz.
• Neteller with a maximum deposit of £5,000.
• Skrill.
• Fast Bank Transfer with a maximum deposit of £5,000.
• Euteller.

Withdrawals take a pending period, a processing period, and a transfer period, these periods are:

• Cards: 3, 1, and 3 – 7 business days.
• PayPay 3, 1, and 3 – 7 business days.
• Skrill 3, 1, and 1 business days.
• Bank transfer 3, 1, and 4 – 10 business days.
• Trustly 3, 1, and 3 business days.
• ecoPayz 3, 1, and 3 business days.
• Neteller 3, 1, and 1 business days.
• Euteller 3, 1, and 3 business days.
• Qiwi 3, 1, and 3 business days.
• WebMoney 3, 1, and 3 business days.

 

There is a PayViaPhone sign on the front of the site that shows you can pay with your mobile bill too.

Customer Support

Support is available 24/7 via a live chat window or an email form.

We could not find a single email address or a telephone number on the site.

There are good guides to how to use the site and also how to play safely, and we recommend you visit the FAQ page to check these out.

The Final Verdict

There’s a lot of very good things about GrandMasterJack: you can play thousands of games, they’re great quality, and you’ll have a good time doing it. The site works pretty well, looks fine, is completely legitimate and you’ll have a good time while using it.

The downside, beyond those we’ve covered above in our pros and cons lists, aren’t too numerous.

There are a couple of issues with design features that are slightly annoying – no more than that. And there’s no phone number for support. The biggest issues for us have to be with the bonus. The restrictions on this bonus are ridiculous. A 50-times wagering requirement is right at the top of what is available right now. The full terms and conditions didn’t properly match the headline offer. Putting the welcome offer in a three-tier format meant players had to deposit hundreds of pounds to even trigger the offer. And, the maximum winnings that can be converted is just £20!

So, this is an offer you might want to consider turning down. Or at least treat it as just a chance to enjoy the site without having to deposit.

Offers aside there’s no reason why you wouldn’t have a great time using this site. Quality games are all over the place and you’ll find all of your favourites easily enough. Us, we like the Blackjack tables and we’ll be logging on and chasing 21 as soon as we finish this!