Chelsea Palace Casino Review

If you haven’t you heard of the Chelsea Palace online casino, the chances are that you may not be alone.

After all, this new casino site only opened its virtual doors on October 1st 2018, and despite its memorable and fancy name it has yet to fully capture the attention of the consumer mainstream in the UK.

The Chelsea Palace is also a relatively small online casino and one that’s powered by the established Nektan casino platform. This happens to be one an iconic and well-recognised name in the iGaming industry, and this at least adds a little weight to the operator’s burgeoning reputation.

This association is undoubtedly helping the Chelsea Palace to grow, as is the operator’s partnership with Top Hat Affiliates. This entity is associated with several established top-tier online casino brands, with the Chelsea Palace one of the latest to be added to this illustrious list.

In this review, we’ll explore the Chelsea Palace in closer detail, whilst telling you everything that you need to know about the operator.

Getting Started with Games and Bonuses

As a brand new casino operator, the Chelsea Palace is focused primarily on acquiring players at present.

So whilst it may not offer a comprehensive range of promotions to existing players, it does boast an exceptional casino bonus that provides huge value to new registrants.

We’ll review this bonus below, whilst appraising the terms and conditions that help to define it.

Are there any other Promotions Available?

As the Chelsea Palace welcome bonus proves, this operator is currently focused on incentivising new players to register with the site. Whilst it has yet to shift its attention to player retention, however, the brand is gradually beginning to introduce new promotions aimed at its most loyal patriots.

Take the Big Bang Cash Drop, for example, which is currently available for predetermined 24-hour periods on 7th, 13th, 14th, 20th, 21st, 27th and the 28th of May. This can reward competing players random cash sums of between £2 and £500, with winning accounts chosen at random through an algorithm.

The ongoing Mega Spins promotion also offers value to existing players, although this requires an opt-in if you’re to participate fully. Running until 31st May, this rewards players with 10 spins per 24-hour period so long as they’ve deposited a minimum of £20 during the previous seven days.

Last but not least, the Chelsea Palace is currently running a Weekend Spins Bonanza, through which players can deposit between £20 and £39 to earn 20 free spins. Under the terms of the offer, players who credit their account with £40 or more will receive a total of 40 free spins, whilst the promotion will run until the weekend ending May 26th.

What are the Terms and Conditions of the Welcome Bonus?

They say that the best things in life are free, but this does not typically include UK casino bonuses extended by casino operators. The Chelsea Palace promotion is no exception to this rule, as the welcome bonus comes with a number of terms and conditions aside from the minimum deposit amount.

Let’s start with the wagering requirements, which stipulate how much must a player must wager before they can withdraw their earnings. In this instance, you’ll need to wager 40-times the total sum of your deposit and bonus before completing a withdrawal, so anyone opening their account with £10 will have to play through £1,200 under the terms of the offer.

With regards to the free spins portion of the bonus offer, all winnings will be awarded in bonus funds and subject to wagering requirements of 40-times the total bonus amount. This is slightly higher than the market average, although we’d expect it to be reduced on future welcome promotions.

Once credited to your account, each bonus will remain valid for 24 hours, and the failure to complete the wagering requirements during this period will see you forfeit any remaining funds. You’re also unable to use your bonus on this relatively long list of games, whilst wagers on live blackjack and roulette iterations don’t contribute towards the reduction of wagering requirements.

What Games are Available to Players?

As you’d expect from a relatively new UK online casino, Chelsea Palace doesn’t boast a particularly large range of games in comparison with its more established rivals. However, it’s games’ library has grown quickly in a short space of time, and there’s no shortage of options for players signing up online.

Chelsea Palace has certainly developed partnerships with some of the market’s leading casino software houses (we’ll have a little more on this later), whilst also relying on a number of proprietary games from Nektan themselves. The breakdown of games ultimately includes around 500 casino slot games, along with 43 table games, 24 live titles and an impressive 16 progressive jackpot experiences.

There’s certainly a significant diversity of games available on the site, from low-variance and popular titles such as Thunderstruck and Gonzo’s Quest to high-variance jackpots like Jack and the Beanstalk and Microgaming's Immortal Romance, which offers huge returns and can be played for up to £125 per spin.

The Chelsea Palace live platform is becoming particularly popular amongst gamblers, with NetEnt and the market leaders Evolution Gaming providing a number of immersive, real-time games. These include NetEnt’s Live Roulette, which delivers an easy-to-use interface, top-notch streaming and ultimately seamless player experience.

Is there a Mobile Version of the casino?

So far, the team at Chelsea Palace have refrained from developing a native mobile app. However, players can still access the platform through their smartphone or tablet, thanks to instant play functionality and responsive design principles that adapt to the size of the display that they’re viewed on.

Whilst the brand would undoubtedly benefit from developing native apps in the future as many of their UK Casino counterparts have, one potential advantage of offering instant play on mobile devices is that it offers access to the full Chelsea Palace games’ library. This means that you can play up to 500 slots whilst on the move, including several titles that won’t be found on any other casino platform.

This type of exclusivity is a huge boon for players, with titles such as Shamrock’N’Roll, Mayan Marvels, Candy Swap, China Shores and up to 21 other games only available through the Chelsea Palace casino at present.

All of the platforms’ 24 live titles are also available on mobile devices, whilst the quality of dealer interaction and gameplay is replicated seamlessly across smartphones and tablets. All you’ll need to make the most of this is a secure Internet connection and an updated mobile browser (ideally Chrome), as this will minimise the risk of buffering or slow page loading times.

What Payment Options and Currencies are Available?

Whilst the Chelsea Palace may well be one of the newest arrivals on the iGaming market, it has taken the time to offer a viable range of payment options to its players.

Many of these can be used to process both deposits and withdrawals too, whilst the operator is working hard to minimise the time taken to complete payments.

What’s the Maximum Withdrawal?

The Chelsea Palace casino is unusual in some respects, as it has yet to impose a maximum withdrawal limit or threshold on its players. However, it has imposed a minimum withdrawal amount of just £20 per transaction, so you can at least make regular transfers into your bank account.

In total, you can withdraw your winnings using 10 different payment solutions, including the traditional bank transfer. This currently takes up to seven working days to complete, however, so it’s far from ideal from regular or prolific players.

You can also complete withdrawals using MasterCard and Visa options, and this type of transaction will take up to five working days on average. When using the available e-wallet options including Neteller, Skrill, Trustly, Sepa PayPal and Boku, you can move money into your bank account within 24 hours once the payment has been processed internally.

At present, the average pending time for Chelsea Palace withdrawals is 72 hours, although this is expected to be reduced as the operator grows and improves its processes. If you complete a withdrawal using the Boku platform, you’ll also be required to pay a 15% transaction fee.

What Currencies can you use?

As a new and relatively inexperienced casino operator, it should come as no surprise that the Chelsea Palace only allows wagers in a select few currencies at present.

British pounds and Euros remains the most popular currency options, although these have recently been augmented by Canadian and New Zealand dollars and the Swedish kroner.

What’s the User Experience Like?

There’s more than one factor that can determine the typical online casino experience, whilst each player has different expectations when they enter the iGaming space. Fortunately, the Chelsea Palace ticks most boxes as an operator, particularly when it comes to its diversity of games and the available betting ranges.

Most of the operator’s 500 slot titles boast an exceptionally wide betting range, with Rainbow Riches offering a prominent example. Here, you can play for anywhere between £0.01 and £400.00 per spin, whilst some of Chelsea Palace’s jackpot titles can be accessed for as little as £0.25 per spin.

Not only this, but the Chelsea Palace also offers an outstanding VIP membership option to all existing players who have wagered £2,000 or more through the site. This features four levels, each of which offers you access from tailored promotions and exclusive reloads to faster withdrawals and increased deposit limits.

These feature across silver, gold, premiere and elite membership levels, whilst those associated with the latter two groups will also qualify for their own personal account manager. Just bear in mind that elite level membership is typically reserved for high-rollers, as you’ll need to have wagered at least £20,000 to achieve this.

What Game Providers are here?

Despite being a fast-growing online casino brand, the Chelsea Palace is still developing its relationships with the market’s leading casino software houses. As a result, it has focused on quality rather than quantity to date, and it currently features games from a select number of well-established developers.

These include high profile brands such as Microgaming, Quickspin and NextGen Gaming, who combine to deliver the bulk of the operator’s slots library. IGT, Core Gaming and Big Time Gaming are also well-represented, as is the up-and-coming development team at Gamevy.

As we’ve already said, Nektan have also delivered some proprietary games to the library, whilst also providing the software that powers the casino. These games include the popular Dragon’s Dynasty, whilst it’s important to note that the Chelsea Palace is often one of the first to offer these titles to the public.

NetEnt and Evolution Gaming also power the operator’s live casino platform, which offers a wide range of games across both desktop and mobile devices. The latter developer just happens to lead the market in real-time gaming, having been named the Live Casino Supplier of the Year in the EGR for eight consecutive years.

What’s the Instant Play Feature Like?

Given the absence of any downloadable software or apps, it’s important that the instant play feature at the Chelsea Palace functions seamlessly across desktop and mobile. Fortunately, this is an area in which the platform excels, as it’s easily accessible regardless of which device you use.

Essentially, you need to ensure that you have a viable Internet connection (preferably 4G or through a secured Wi-Fi network) and an updated web browser that runs HTML5 natively to access the Chelsea Palace casino.

If you’re playing on a mobile device, Safari and Chrome are the browsers that work the best, depending on whether you own an iPhone or an Android handset respectively.

Although you don’t need any additional software to access the casino, you should ensure that you download the latest web browser. This will contribute to a immersive and continuous gameplay, which is particularly important for live players and those competing in real-time tournaments.

Chelsea Palace Casino RTP

Whilst new casinos often lack the pedigree and the resources of their rivals, there are some ways in which it can steal a march on its competitors. One of which revolves around offering a generous return-to-player (RTP), which can be achieved by creating a library that’s packed full of low and mid-variance games.

The Chelsea Palace has certainly heeded this message, with its overall RTP rate currently estimated at 98%. This has also been publicly audited and verified, so players who register with the casino can look forward to a rewarding and fully transparent gaming experience with the brand.

This is best embodied by the jackpot Cleopatra slot by IGT, which offers payouts of up to £4 million on the maximum bet of £400 per spin. Despite this, it provides a competitive RTP rate of 95.02%, making it a mid-variance slot that also has the potential to deliver progressive prizes.

Then there’s 243-payline slots like Lara Croft: Temples And Tombs, which is another mid-variance game that boasts a top prize of 5000x your stake. Incredibly, the average RTP for this title is an impressive 96.06%, meaning that players can also bank on frequent base game wins as well as big jackpot payouts.

Customer Support with the Chelsea Palace

Arguably, the quality of customer support delivered by an online casino brand is the single most important factor for the vast majority of players. It’s also something that new operators need to focus on from the moment that they enter the marketplace, or risk losing significant ground to their closest rivals.

In the case of Chelsea Palace, the brand has created a number of ways through which customers can settle their queries and questions. The most popular channel is email, as you can make contact with the team in writing at [email protected] at any time of the day or night.

The team also strives to answer your written queries as quickly as possible, and responds to most requests within an hour of receipt on average.

You can also contact the Chelsea Palace support team by telephone, on (+44)203 621 6949. This is available between the hours of 08:00 and 00:00 each and every day, whilst outside of these hours you can also review the site’s FAQ page to find answers to the most commonly posed questions.

Like most operators, the Chelsea Palace also offers a live chat feature to its players whether they’re logged in or not. This can be accessed either through the support tab on the homepage or the floating “Live Chat” tab that appears in the bottom right-hand corner of every landing page.

“I was really impressed with the customer support team here – I emailed them with a login issue and they responded within the hour. Not only this, but the issue was also resolved quickly and efficiently, and I’d definitely trust them to handle any other problem that I may encounter on the site.”

Is the Site Secure and Well-designed?

Last but by no means least, we’re going to take a look at the site’s level of secure and the quality of its design.

These are important metrics, as they have a direct impact on the retention and acquisition of players. So, let’s a take a look to see how the Chelsea Palace measures up.

Is Chelsea Palace Safe?

If you have any doubt at all, let us assure you that the Chelsea Palace is a reputable and legitimate casino platform. In partnership with software giants Nektan, it’s site is also secured by 128-bit SSL encryption, which helps to safeguard financial transactions and each players’ individual data.

Then there’s the platform’s RTP rate, which is exceptionally high and has been independently verified. You can also access the individual RTP rate for each game listed on the site, which in turn helps you to manage the bankroll and select titles that suit your philosophy.

When you visit the site’s homepage, you’ll also notice that there’s a “Play Responsibly” tab located on the sticky menu. By clicking through this, you’ll access details of the operator’s commitment to responsible gambling, along with direct access to helpful organisations including Gamcare and BeGambleAware.

The operator also offers time out and self-exclusion initiatives to its players, enabling them to take indefinite breaks from the site and its marketing messages. The Chelsea Palace has also introduced an innovative “Reality Check” feature, which is available in “Your Account” and allows you to set playing limits and receive notifications when you’re about to exceed them.

The Site’s Licensing

At present, the Chelsea Palace headquarters are based in Gibraltar, so it should come as no surprise that they currently hold a license with the Gibraltar Regulatory Authority.

In order to operate in the UK, the Chelsea Palace has also received a full license from the UK Gambling Commission. The operator is licensed under the name of its parent company Nektan (reference number 39107), and you can see the full details of this here.

The Bottom Line

The Chelsea Palace is one of the newest kids on the iGaming block, and as a result of this it has yet to have a real impact in the minds of players.

It also has a long way to go to compete fully with some of its more established rivals, but this is only to be expected given that the brand is less than one year old.

It’s also fair to say that the operator has exceeded expectations in some respects, particularly when you consider its quality of customer support and its range of responsible gambling features. These are indicative of a progressive and customer-centric operator, and one that has considerable scope to grow in the future.

Along with a surprisingly diverse games’ library, an excellent RTP rate and the support of software giants Nektan, these factors have helped Chelsea Palace Casino to achieve a great deal in its eight months of trading.

So, whilst there are plenty of areas in which the operator can improve, the Chelsea Palace undoubtedly offers a viable platform to its players and has the potential to become a true market leader in the future.

We at GambleGenie have high hopes for the future of Chelsea Palace!