Review of Gala Casino
Gala Casino represents the brand name of what was one of the biggest land casino chains in the UK. Over the years the online casino has changed hands a few times, forming a joint venture with Coral, then being acquired by Ladbrokes, and finally most recently being taken over once again by GVC Holdings and forming part of the Entain Group. Unfortunately the operators of Gala have earned a poor reputation over the years for repeatedly failing to comply with their responsible gambling obligations under UKGC regulations, and being caught exploiting known problem gamblers.
Blacklisted - predatory exploitation of problem gamblers
Gala and its parent companies have repeatedly been been found guilty of, and punished for, failure to enact mandated responsible gambling policies. Despite a record number of fines, this does not seem to have deterred their predatory behaviour towards problem gamblers.
Most notably, in 2017 Gala Interactive were fined £2.5m by the UK Gambling Commission after a couple of customers lost more than £1.3m of stolen money gambling at Gala Casino. The operator had not conducted any formal or informal enquiries into the customers' source of funds.
In 2018 it was discovered that Gala's operator Ladbrokes had quietly paid out £1m in hush money to the victims of another thieving gambling addict, on the proviso that the victims would not report the case to the UKGC. The incident was only brought to light after the problem gambler felt remorse and notified journalists. Ladbrokes permitted the player to keep playing with the stolen money even though they knew he had a gambling problem, without conducting a source of wealth check, and even offered the player gifts and incentives to keep playing. Quite incredibly, the UKGC did not deem this worthy of further punishment, which probably goes some way towards explaining why this sort of thing keeps happening with this operator.
The same operator racked up a new record fine of £5.9m in 2019 from the UKGC as punishment for multiple violations of player protection and responsible gambling policies that occurred during 2014-2017. One of the worst examples was once again encouraging a known addict to deposit £1.5m into their account without performing any of the mandatory source of wealth checks.
Unfortunately it has become very clear that this operator cannot be trusted to engage with its customers in a responsible manner. While ultimately a large part of the blame has to fall on the individuals committing these crimes, the fact that Gala / Coral / Ladbrokes actively encouraged and aided these people in their actions is unconscionable. For this reason we cannot recommend that anybody should play at these casinos.
Software and game selection
Gala's online offering is, like so many casino these days, an amalgamation of games from various different software developers. Under the "Casino" tab you will find a full set of Playtech games and the option of downloading and installing the Playtech casino software. This includes some fantastic branded slots like Anchorman, Top Cat, and Deal or No Deal along with other blockbuster games such Gladiator and King Kong. But look deeper into the "Slots" tab on the website and you will find games from the likes of IGT, Quickspin and Barcrest among others. The IGT slots in particular will be well known to land casino patrons, with the casino sporting well loved games such as Cleopatra, Crown of Egypt, and Wolf Rising.
The site also has a number of games licensed from TV shows such as Big Brother, Deal or No Deal, The X Factor, Britain's Got Talent, and Sale of the Century. In terms of live dealer games, you have the choice of Roulette, Blackjack, Casino Hold'em and Baccarat which are broadcast from a studio run by Evolution Gaming. This is the same studio used by most Playtech casinos.
Security, banking options and service
Transactions and gaming at Gala Casino are secured using SSL technology to ensure that communication with the casino cannot be intercepted. The casino is licensed and regulated by the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority which is a first class licensing jurisdiction with player protection and dispute mediation procedures in place. In addition Gala shows admirable transparency in publishing the theoretical RTP numbers for each and every game on the site.
The banking methods available to players are plentiful, with Gala Casino accepting most major credit cards and e-wallets - see the right column for a current list. In our experience withdrawals are generally processed within 2-3 days which, while we would prefer it to be faster considering the quality of the casino, is still pretty good. Customer service can be contacted via email, phone, or live chat. However, reflecting the casino's European focus, live chat operators are not available 24/7 so you sometimes have to wait for a response via email when you submit an enquiry.
Our main disappointment with Gala Casino centres on their restrictive registration policy which excludes almost every country in the world outside of Europe from playing there. So if you live in Europe, New Zealand, or one or two other countries you're in luck, but almost everywhere else is excluded which is a shame.
Conclusion
Gala Casino once had a good reputation, however this has been tarnished over the years by its operator's repeated breaches of its responsible gambling policies. It is clear that they place the acquisition of their players' money well ahead of the welfare of said players, and for us that is simply unacceptable. Blacklisted.
Comments
Operating in GBP only rules me out of depositing
As much as I like Playtech there are a few other good alternative casino's offering the same games and a variety of currencies.
Well it is great to read a casino review with the majority of players having a very positive attitude of game playing to withdrawals for Gala casino.
I am a fan of Playtech games and with many of the casino's currently running Playtech games being of questionable character .
I am pleased to have found a solid Playtech casino and I will deposit and play due to the good reviews
CL - klaw
Great bonuses daily, love the vault feature , good fast kyc and fast 24hr payout is maximum time for me,
Support are very kind ans fast acting.
many games to pick from and lots of banking options
Hope this helps
CL-Ed
I do not have a strong opinion about this casino. But I can't describe it as unreliable casino room. I mostly used Gala for poker. Poker traffic was poor enough here, but here were a lot of weak players, limpers and maniacs. Later I tried casino software. Gala has very big Playtech platform. I have deposited 20€ with sign up bonus and later I have finished wager requirments, I had made cashout of ~200€. I had to wait couple of days, but later I have received my winning. So if you are a big Playtech fan it's a perfect choise for you.
CL - klaw
Gala Casino,
One big Positive Experience with them! i played there because they offered an amazing variety of different gaming providers where i was definitely searching for, an Hole in one casino! lot of great deposit options available, and withdrawal options too! very good designed casino, for me it was easy to find my games, reach chat support, found rules for bonuses, and promotions. they also sended me quite lot of freebies,spins,offers! which is always nice to get! withdrawals took mostly few hours (2-8) pretty fast for such an big and incredible casino;) never had troubles with them, but i'm sure chat support is great!🙂 definitely i would recommend to them other members of CL or to my friends, because it's a big place with excellent high class service;)
CL-Ed
i had just make a account here amd wow very nice casinio and almost simmalor as williamhill this becomes my new casino i think the games are the same and it is looking very good but i miss the bingo on the site
PeDrone’s Gala Casino Review
Casino Software
This online casino using games created by Electracade, IGT, Playtech, Evolution Gaming, Quickspin, Barcrest, Amaya Gaming and WMS Gaming (really? Until I read it in the official review, I recognized only Playtech and Marvel slots there 😂). It is operated by Gala Interactive, probably another solo-operating one. Personally, I do not like this casino very much, since it began publishing no deposit bonuses only for UK, or with 72 hours waiting time.
Welcome bonus
Very important part, but take care about the T&C of each particular bonus! The casino offers on the first player’s deposit 200% match bonus (exclusive to CL.com) – I have received from 16 credits 48, WR was 20*(D+B) = 960 to wager. This bonus has great WR, and percentage is also not bad – bonuses very positive.
Deposits and withdrawals
There are many deposit and withdrawal options, as well as software providers 🙂 I used VISA card to deposit, it was ok – even without any fee.
This time, I succeeded with withdrawal, I took off 80 credits (VISA option) – verification took 2 days and cashout 4, that is quite long time (although most of that time is not caused by the casino).
Customer support
Live chat support service is available. Live support representatives are ready to help 24/7, I rate this service fine, but once I experienced less qualified operator. During my personal communication with support, the representative was always polite and available.
Gameplay
I played only one game on this casino, it was Gladiator.
Began at 0.25 stake , first bonus paid that well that I raised to 1.50, then lowered and then, after many spins, decided to withdraw.
Summary
I recommend the casino, but it does not incude my favorite software games. The bonus is worth depositing and if you are lucky, you could also redeem 25 free spins no deposit!
CL - klaw
Once. Only once i tried this casino, and i can't say that my experience with it was good, no, far away from good. It was in 2012 when i join this casino. Took 200% welcome bonus with 40 euros deposit and start playing. Have a great luck at playtech marvel slots, and also gladiator paid very good to me. I am keep playing and my balance keep growing and growing. I had decent wagering requirements, because bonus that i get was high, but i pass my WR without problems and request withdrawal of 600 euros. Casino ask my documents, nothing special, regular documents that most online casinos ask. During 2 days i do not get any reply, and my withdrawal was still pending. I am keep trying to have answer from live chat, but was told just to wait. Finally on fourth day i got email that my account verified and withdrawal will be processed on next day. I really do not want to touch this casino again, if they spent 4 days to verify two of my documents it is telling me about their service, and probably they past fast after verification, but i am not that guy who want to test it out.
CL-Ed
Gala casino is famous UK brand, and for this of course not hard to expect good reputation from online casino. But unfortunately like in most times happens, when casino oriented on some country, all other players get a bit less in case of promotions and bonuses. Let's start from pluses for this casino:
+ Games collection and software. Everything good with it here, games not laggy, and selection have wide range - playtech, IGT, quickspin, amaya , WMS. So it is good softwares for those, who feel tired from MG and netent.
+ CS. Customer support at gala casino is ok, i never test email support, but live chat was always good and i get help and answers when i was need it. Not sure about working time, but if it is important - it is not hard to check.
+ Bonuses and promotions. Everything good with it, but like i said UK players have much more better bonus offers. But even so, reload bonuses is nice, and sometimes i get cashback offers, not high, something like 10%.
+ Withdrawals. I did not win much in this casino, but once i request cashout, i am really can expect money on skrill within 48 hours. KYC passed easy and fast.
I did not see any minuses in this online casino.
Final mark:
Good and safe online casino with interesting softwares.
CL-Ed
Thanks for pointing that out mrohacek. That was my bad :'( I have now set those exclusives to appear only for UK residents as Gala's T&Cs for these bonuses suggest.
mrocharon
This casino offers quite many online casino slots softwares, most of them are quite unknown for me, but one sign shines between them all - its Playtech software, which is certainly more known for most of us (at least in comparing to the other).
As I discovered Casino Listings' exclusive promotion offer, I decided to sign up to this casino and utilize it fully, as I dont claim cashback promotions very often (better said, I claimed only 1 in my life, because they are mostly less % than deposit bonuses, and mostly also need to be wagered, so usually prefer deposit bonuses with higher percentage bonus amount).
But, as I learned myself from previous experiences, firstly decided to check T&C - and here appeared first surprise, cashback is only for UK residents. Fortunately they are offering 100% bonus up to 400$ also. So I redeemed this one.
I played only Gladiator slot - first began with 0.25, after a while of colding highered to 1.00, when triggered bonus feature, that gave me over 600$. I was really surprised and happy and because I needed some more to get wagered, higher the bet to 5$, got greedy and the slot got cold. Absolutely. I felt to 100$ and still not finished wager, but in this phase, slots were "set" on 5$ stake and some 0.50 stake couldnt make them warm again.
So I ended up this casino with 3/5. Because of "lying" about 100% cashback offer, and because of not paying me 😀 For each 1 star down.
Gala casino it is very good one playtech casino at least i am think so and even without chance to download software on PC i have very good game that i am always play at this casino it is casper mirror name i did not know who create it but this is really amazing video slot you should try it it has stacked wilds on all reels and 40 paylines and also nice freespins feature with mirrors. I can not say anything bad about support in gala casino because i never contact it and also deal with this support once when verify my account it take about two days for gala casino documents team and this is good speed i am ok with it. Slots working very well for me and i can not remember any bad experience about it payouts always take 2-4 days for me and this is also not very long in my eyes specialy because most times it was 2 days only and few times i get payout on my skrill account with something like 24 hours. Bonuses and promotions is good and casino sent to me bonuses often in past i can not really say that i am really miss this casino but of course i have only good experience with it.
CL - klaw
Hi, i hope you will enjoy my review of gala casino. This casino few years ago giving out no deposit bonus of 10$, and i decide to try this few free money, why not. I did not had any luck with it, but after this i forget about this casino. I decide to deposit there something like year ago, once i seen someone post about it on forum. I checked what bonus i can get, and checked what slots i can play. There was playtech and IGT and gala casino offers me 100% bonus. I made 50$ deposit and start playing IGT slots, but i did not know why i lost on it everytay. Games are interesting and nice, but i just can not find any luck to hit something decent, and always found myself at zero balance after short time of playing. I should stop playing this software, but i am everytime think that this time my luck will change. I made there few more deposits in past few months, but did not win anything.
Support: I did not had any reasons to contact support.
Software: Playtech + IGT , few others.
Withdrawals: Still did not managed to win at this casino. But i am sure soon my luck will show me its face.
CL-Ed
Hello! Gala casino had a lot of different games on their site + offers to me a 100% welcome bonus, so i decide to give them a shot. Also i read many good things in internet , so i think to myself why not, and after confirming from live chat that i am eligible for welcome offer, i made 100$ deposit from my skrill account. Bonus was credited without any problems, and of course i decide to start from my one of the favorite playtech game - gladiator. Really, this is amazing slot machine, if you never try this, i recommend you... or not recommend. I am always losing money on this game, but i found it very entertain and lof of fun. Also not so long ago playtech made jackpot version of the game, in bonus game you should get all golden helmets, and if you did it - bingo, you won big jackpot. But i did not play jackpot games usually, as they suck RTP. Regarding my deposit, all 200$ i lost playing only gladiator. But made few more deposits past time, and had two withdrawals.
Support: Nice and friendly, what more i should write here?
Withdrawals: Both my withdrawals comes in 72 hours timeframe, for playtech games its ok!
Software: OK!
I believe gala casino deservs something like 3.5 stars , math told me that 3.5 its 4, so i give them 4 stars.
CL-Ed
very good
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