PokerStars at a Glance: 

• Top highlights: Great-looking and easy-to-use website; dedicated casino mobile app 
• VIP or loyalty programme: Yes
• Other offerings: Poker; bingo; sports betting

About PokerStars

There’s a good chance that you have at least heard of PokerStars, even if you aren’t exactly experienced in online casino or poker gaming; the site has been around since 2001, and it has built a reputation as the dominant force in the online poker market. 

For the purposes of this review, though, we aren’t taking much interest in PokerStars as a poker site; instead, we want to know about its online casino arm. 

With this part of the site serving up slots games, jackpots, a live casino, and table games (to cite just a few of the options), in theory, it seems like a fine place to dabble in casino games online. But what is the reality of playing the casino titles here? We thought we’d take a closer look. 

Promotions 

The leading casino sites typically offer various promos and bonuses to tempt people to sign up, and PokerStars is no different. 

There is a very decent selection of casino-specific (or at least casino-relevant) promotions on offer here at any given time. At the time of our visit to the site for the purposes of this review, the attractions included the likes of a hefty first-deposit bonus, free spins, and chances to win cash prizes. 

Range of Casino Games 

When you land on the casino part of the PokerStars website for the first time, you will immediately see that there is an impressive amount of choice here as far as casino games are concerned. 

You might, of course, simply fancy a slots game or two – in which case, you will be able to pick from plenty, encompassing the likes of Big Bass Splash, Legacy of Dead, and Monopoly Megaways. 

However, the site also makes available live casino games powered by renowned software providers such as Evolution Gaming and Playtech, not to mention an in-depth complement of PokerStars Originals titles. Examples of the latter, exclusive games at the time of our visit included x100 Spin & Win Roulette, Power Fishing Megaways, and Stars Sunday Jackpot. 

We could go on and on, but we think you get the idea. Below are just a few more of our favourite games at PokerStars Casino: 

• Pacific Boom II 
• Rich Wilde and the Book of Dead
• Live Roulette Lobby 
• Musketeers Heroic Spins 
• Classic Blackjack 
• Sugar Rush

But it’s not just the games themselves being a lot of fun that helps to make PokerStars a great place to play casino games. That’s because the site is also available in smartphone and tablet-optimised forms, with PokerStars having developed Android, iPhone and iPad apps that are dedicated to the online casino games here. 

Other Offerings 

You will pretty much already know that PokerStars is as much of a magnet as an online poker destination, as anyone could ever hope for. 

One other aspect you might not know about, though, is the attached sportsbook, which enables members here to place bets on all manner of football, tennis, horse racing, basketball, and other sporting fixtures. You can have a flutter on the outcome of a given sporting event before it takes place, or you can partake in the exciting in-play betting markets here. 

Oh, and we should note that PokerStars also offers a decent choice of bingo games within its casino, such as Viking Runecraft Bingo, Rainforest Magic Bingo, and the exclusive Bingo Blitzer. 

Software and Graphics 

With its well-known black, red, and white colour scheme, the PokerStars website is instantly recognisable. But no less importantly, it is also a fairly easy site to get around, with its logically laid-out navigational options and a well-placed search feature that will enable you to quickly begin narrowing down the games on offer. 

In common with almost any other casino site today, PokerStars does not depend on just one supplier for its games; instead, it brings together titles from a variety of renowned third-party software providers. 

Those providers include the likes of Stars Studio, Pragmatic Play, Blueprint Gaming, Play’n GO, Evolution Gaming, and Red Tiger Gaming. The games of these software developers are consistently associated with the best in crisp, realistic graphics, and slick gameplay; so, if there’s anything that leaves you disgruntled about your experience of the PokerStars casino, it is rather unlikely to be the games themselves. 

Extra Value 

At the time of us writing this review, PokerStars was a “team partner” of the all-conquering Red Bull Formula 1 team, and the site has sought to play to this with a feature known as “Casino Races”. 

You will find more information about how this feature works on the PokerStars site, but the essentials are as follows: you select a Casino Race that interests you, followed by choosing and playing your preferred game, and earning points with each winning spin. 

With the leaderboard points being awarded based on multipliers of winnings, you don’t necessarily need to be a high roller in order to triumph in one of PokerStars’ Casino Races.  

Loyalty or VIP Programme 

The VIP or loyalty scheme at PokerStars is known as PokerStars Rewards. The way it works is that as you play through the site’s real-money games, you will earn reward points. As you collect a sufficient number of points to complete your progress bars, you will be granted access to Chests loaded with rewards, which will be personalised in line with the games you like to play. 

There are six “Chest levels” in this rewards scheme – Blue, Bronze, Silver, Gold, Diamond, and Black – and as you work your way up them, the “Chest value” will also go up. 

In the case of the casino games here, you will earn reward points at the point of wagering. Bear in mind that different types of games here have different “earn rates”, so you might have to work harder on certain games to accumulate points. 

Deposit and Withdrawal Methods 

The breadth of payment options that players at PokerStars can pick from is as great as we have seen almost anywhere. Basically regardless of your preferences when it comes to putting down money at a casino site, you can expect PokerStars to offer a suitable payment method or several. 

*Current as of May 2023; check PokerStars’ website for updates

Payout Policy 

Withdrawals at PokerStars are first processed back to whatever method, or methods, the given player used to deposit. This policy is widespread across online casino portals today, and serves as a crucial security feature protecting users against fraud. 

*Current as of May 2023; check PokerStars’ website for updates

Customer Support 

As a player at PokerStars, you should see a ‘Help’ link at the top of the page; click this, and you will be taken to a customer support database, with answers to a wide range of common queries in relation to such matters as user accounts, deposits, withdrawals, special offers, and more. 

In the event that you can’t find an answer to your question or concern on the PokerStars website itself, it is easy to fire up the site’s ‘live chat’ feature; from here, you can be guided to the help that you require on your query. 

Who Can Play? 

In order to create an account at PokerStars, you will need to be at least 18 years of age. Furthermore, you must ensure that your use of the site’s services would be legal in whatever jurisdiction you are based in. 

The site’s terms and conditions make clear that if you are in a “prohibited jurisdiction”, you must not access or use PokerStars services. 

Such jurisdictions include, as well as the United States, any jurisdiction that is subject to any trade or economic sanctions, embargos or similar laws or regulations, examples of which included, at the time of us reviewing the site: 

• Cuba
• Iran
• North Korea
• Syria
• The Luhansk, Donetsk, and Crimea Regions of Ukraine

Licence

The casino at PokerStars is subject to licensing and regulation by the highly reputable Gambling Commission in the UK. 

Bottom Line

Despite its name, PokerStars really does make sense as an all-round online casino gaming and sports betting destination, not just as a place for the player to take on the very best in online poker. 

With its formidable breadth and depth of casino games from various respected software providers, as well as a graphically sophisticated and easy-to-use website and even a casino-specific PokerStars mobile app, this is a site that more-or-less has it all for the online casino aficionado. 

So, why not sign up now to discover for yourself what the fuss is all about? 

Contact details

• Website: www.pokerstars.uk/casino/   
• Email: support@pokerstars.net 
• Phone number: 0123 456 7890
• Chat: Yes