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In the UK, several betting companies that were traditionally in the bookmaking business have made their initial forays into the online casino world in the last few years. Some of the biggest bookmakers, such as William Hill, Ladbrokes, Coral Casino, Betfred Casino and Tote are just a few of the companies that have expanded their online gaming capabilities to meet the public's growing clamour for online betting. The latest big name bookmaker to throw its hat into the ring is the venerable Paddy Power. For those not familiar with Paddy Power, they are the Irish bookmaking giant – they now do business in the UK and have been listed on the Irish and UK Stock Exchanges since the year 2000. Paddy Power is clearly one of the bookmaking heavies and their very name inspires confidence that the games on its site are fair and financial transaction security is iron-clad. Paddy Power's mission statement – "to make low stake betting more entertaining and accessible" certainly had us intrigued, so with that we set out to see if Paddy Power's persuasive promises were legit, or if they're just shovelling us a load of blarney!
True to its word, the games at Paddy Power are of excellent quality and key information is definitely easily accessible. We found the website, designed in the Irish colours of green, orange and white, very welcoming and easy on the eyes. Graphics are well used (not overdone) and the clear, straightforward navigation system is evidence that PP caters to the needs of both newbies and old hands. It was very easy for use to find information for online casino beginners, and the look, feel and style of the website lives up to the "punter-friendly" credo that Paddy Power promises they follow. Now we're not naming names, but other online casinos we've tried could take a few lessons from Paddy's Power-ful presentation! We loved the soft-sell technique at Paddy Power – there's no pressure to sign up and open an account – and they give plenty of prominence to the "free play" gaming option, which lets players take the casino for a spin before playing for acutal money. Obviously, Paddy Power is confident that the quality of its games will inspire potential players to enter into a long term, real money relationship. This brings us to the real question – do Paddy Power's games have the pop to make you play for real money? Let's take the games for a spin..
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Wagerworks software powers Paddy Power's powerful casino (now that's a mouthful!); their decision to use Wagerworks is what makes it different from other online casino competitors that use the Microgaming or Cryptologic suites. Using Wagerworks means that all the games on PP are "instant play". There's no software to download in order to play the 60+ games, and the use of Macromedia's Flash software means that a wider range of PCs can access the games. Of course, the usual trade-off applies whenever games are offered as instant play only, and that is that games are not as richly delivered as those offered with download software. We're not implying that the games play poorly, however – quite the opposite. We really liked playing the games powered by the Wagerworks suite – the games were fast loading and played very smoothly – we were hooked on the game of Craps PP offers. We're picky types, so we have to mention that the use of a "dealer's voice" was not consistent on different varieties of the Blackjack games, and inclusion of a feature used to speed up the play on the virtual Roulette tables – a "Turbo" option – would have been nice, too (we thought the time from the spin beginning to the results being shown was a bit too slow). However, this is not a huge deal, so we'll let it pass. To our dismay, multi-player gaming is not available on Wagerworks - so players that find the "social gaming" aspect important will have to put their money on another casino.
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At the risk of sounding cheeky, we have to say that we were pretty preoccupied by the promotions offered by paddy power. The bonuses on the site are outstanding and compare well with those offered by rival online casinos. They have lots of options that cover specific versions of games and they have a great loyalty programme that rewards frequent players. Paddy Power's promise to promote low-stakes betting is made good via low monthly betting requirements set by the casino to get to the tiered privileges of its venerable Player's Club. Minimum bets start at only £10 per month on the Bronze membership and go to only £75 per month for Platinum members. We think its great that at least one online casino – and a big player to boot – has seen fit to pamper its regular players and not just high-roller types.
Its superb, round the clock customer service is the icing on the cake of this fine online casino. Support is offered via freephone, fax, email – and (gasp!) – snail mail for the die-hard old hands. When we tested response times, we found them quick and reliable, with the customer support agents friendly, helpful and efficient. We thought that we had all the bases covered..live chat support would be nice…but we digress.
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We're positively pleased that Paddy Power's pursuit of perfection to offer accessible, low-stakes betting has been realised. There are definitely other online casinos that have a larger number of games, choices and more bells and whistles, but Paddy Power packs quite a punch – especially if you're the type of player that enjoys casino betting along with sports wagering and betting on other games. The Irish are well-known for their hospitality, and we think that online casino novices will fall for the charms of Paddy Power casino in no time. |
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