888 Casino Review

Bonuses and Promotions

The main 888 Casino welcome bonus, their no-deposit bonus and comp points scheme are all discussed below.

Welcome Bonus

The main deposit bonus/888 Casino bonus is a simple 100% matched deposit bonus up to $200 – so nothing too impressive to be found here. This deposit bonus is available to new players only, and it’s only available to claim on your first deposit.

This 888 Casino bonus has a wagering requirement restriction of 30X, and you’ll need to complete these wagering requirements within 30 days for the deposit bonus to be converted into real funds. Certain deposit methods like Neteller are also excluded from the welcome bonus.

There’s also a premium welcome package offered at 888 Casino – another type of welcome bonus – and this appears to be geared more towards high-rollers. Given that we strongly recommend against playing at 888Casino, we’re not going to talk about their other welcome bonuses here.

No-Deposit & Free Spins Offers

888Casino offers a no-deposit bonus that allows you to claim $88 in free money upon joining the website – without you making a deposit. However, while it looks generous, the 888Casino no-deposit bonus comes with stringent terms and conditions, high wagering requirements and a max cashout limit – so it’s not the best we’ve seen. It looks much better on paper than it is in reality.

VIP and Loyalty Programs

Another bonus at 888 Casino is their comp points scheme, and players begin to earn comp points from their first deposit. The more you deposit, play, and wager, the more comp points you will earn. Once you’ve earned enough of these points, you can exchange them for a selection of bonus promotions, including bonus cash, a reload bonus, bonus spins and other bonus offers.

BANKING AND PAYMENT METHODS

888 Casino offers a fairly large selection of banking options. However, the deposit methods available to you at 888 Casino differ, depending on your playing location.

Some of the main deposit options you can use for deposits and withdrawals at 888 Casino include VISA, MasterCard, Maestro, Neteller, Skrill, PayPal, Wire Transfer, Interac, Sofort, iDebit, QIWI and PurplePay.

The withdrawal methods are largely the same – although some deposit methods can’t be used as withdrawal methods, including some credit cards and prepaid cards/vouchers. 888 Casino provides more information from their “Banking” page.

Withdrawal Speed

888 Casino has a relatively slow withdrawal speed – and 888 Casino themselves state that they take up to 48 hours to process withdrawals. Players accessing 888 Casino from the UK will not be able to reverse their withdrawals while they’re in a pending state. Players at 888 Casino from outside of the UK can, yet another reason not to play at the casino.

Once 888 Casino has processed your withdrawal, it can take anywhere from a few minutes to a few business days to reach your account, depending on which withdrawal method you chose.

Average Based on 1 real users

Responsible Gaming

888 Casino does, to their credit, offer a selection of responsible gambling tools – but this isn’t really the result of 888 Casino having a strong stance on responsible gambling, and more because their regulators require it.

At 888 Casino, players can set deposit, wager, and session limits, which are all self-managed. 888 Casino also offers players the ability to take a time-out or use self-exclusion in cases where they want to completely block access to their 888 Casino for a long period.

About the Team and History

888 Casino was established in 1997, making them one of the oldest casinos on the planet. Many players assume this automatically makes 888 Casino a legitimate place to play – but, as you’ll see below, this couldn’t be further from the truth.

888 Casino holds online gambling licenses from the UK’s Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority and the Gibraltar Gambling Control Commission. Their UK Gambling Commission is what all UK players play under, while most Europeans and Canadians play under their MGA license.

Complaints and Track Record

As regular readers will know, we’ve had a rocky relationship with 888 Casino and their related 888 Holdings and Cassava Ltd properties. To cut a long story short, the whole business has come down to head office saying about 8 months ago that they require a signed statement of authorisation from the player before discussing that player’s issue with us. Since then, they have not cooperated on a single player issue.

A recent complaint (PAB) against 888 Casino brought this to where we are today. The player’s complaint stated they’d been ejected from the casino for “employing a gaming strategy” — and when asked, they submitted the requested signed statement through the forum rep — who acts as the go-between to the casinos and/or head office.

The casino’s reply was, “operations have given their answer to him, and it won’t change”, and when we then requested further details from the online gaming site, they ended up completely ignoring us.

We then asked them why they were not honouring their agreement to discuss the player’s case after the requested statement had been provided. 888 Casino responded by saying: “there was no point”.

After many attempts to get them to state whether they would discuss the player’s case or not, they finally replied (again, through the forum rep) saying:

“Due to the fact that the issue was resolved, they are not willing to share any details on this issue”.

The player reported that 888 hadn’t bothered to contact him, never mind offering a resolution. Presumably, when saying “resolved”, they meant it had been resolved to their satisfaction.

The bottom line is that this casino group has no intention to discuss player cases. The “permission statement” from the player is just a stalling technique: we run around trying to satisfy their request(s) while they sit on their hands and ignore the player issues at their leisure. When everyone does what they have asked, they simply make a unilateral statement that they’ve made their decision and won’t change it, that there is “no point” in discussing the player issue(s).

In truth, Cassava and its properties have never properly cooperated with the player complaints process regarding the involvement of third parties like us: their operating procedure has always been to decide players’ fates as they and they alone see fit.

If the player or anyone else doesn’t like it, that’s too bad. If the truth gets bent, broken or thrown out the window as they “resolve” these issues, what do they care about? No one can touch them. It has been this way with these casinos for well over a decade. Occasionally they’ll make noises that they’re willing to be more cooperative, but it always ends up back in the same place: they control player monies, and the door to discussing complaints is closed.

We have no doubt that 888 and their parent company have become exceedingly wealthy from the losses of their players. Unfortunately, this seems to have left them perfectly happy to act alone in dictating terms, and everyone else is damned.

So be it, but that is a toxic environment for players: nobody is perfect, and a company holding the purse strings of player accounts must be accountable to those players, either directly or through a player’s designated representative if necessary. Because of their closed-door policy, 888 and the rest of their lot are accountable to no one. As such, this Warning is wholly deserved:

Warning: 888 and related 888/Cassava properties are ignoring player issues and will not discuss player complaints. Players must be aware that Cassava considers itself the final authority on player complaints. They offer no recourse for players who are dissatisfied with the company’s decision(s) against them: the player is totally at their mercy, for better or worse. The only alternative — such as it is — is to turn to the licensing body, Gibraltar or try eCOGRA.

We can offer no assistance if things go wrong between the player and these casinos. Players are advised to avoid these casinos unless they are willing to accept these conditions.