Mention Betfair to most people and they will usually think of the Betfair betting exchange or Betfair Poker, but now the company has launched Betfair Casino, giving it a three-pronged presence in the online gambling world. The good news is that Betfair provides not one but two gaming lounges referred to as the Main Lounge and the “one of a kind” Zero Lounge that is sure to get serious online casino players excited (more on this later).

Whichever lounge you eventually choose to play in, the games are played via pop-up browser windows, so you won’t need to download or install any software. If you have an existing Betfair account then you can use your usual name and password, otherwise you will need to sign up for a new account to play for real money. That said, there is a “play for fun” option which allows you to explore the Betfair Casino straight away without putting any real money on the line.

The Main Lounge offers more than forty of the most popular online casino games. Although the games appear in a separate pop-up window, you can expand this to fill the screen without losing any of the graphical quality. Animation is smooth, audio is realistic and the voice of the dealer and croupier is clear and bright. Click on the OPTIONS menu (accessible via the MAIN MENU) and you can select “Ambient Sound” to play in the background. This is a nice additional feature that really helps to make the whole Betfair Casino experience more satisfying.

The Zero Lounge offers just four games, but the special thing here is not the games (which are incidentally just as good as the Main Lounge ones) but the fact that they have no house edge. This makes Betfair Casino the first in the world to offer mathematically fair games, and you will learn how this is possible in the next section of this review.

Even if the Betfair Casino didn’t offer anything else it would still be one of our favourite sites of all time, but when you add a wide range of promotions to the mix it quickly becomes a “must-join” casino. The specifics of the promotions change regularly, but usually include first deposit bonuses, entry into draws for cash and other prizes.

Our conclusion? We think that joining this site is a no-brainer. Great games, a non-existent house edge in the Zero Lounge, regular promotions and the superb reputation of the Betfair brand make this one of the most well-rounded online casinos we have ever played at.

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The Main Lounge boasts more than forty games, organised into simple-to-use categories such as Card Games, Table Games, Video Poker, Single Line Slots and Multi Line Slots. All of the favourites are here, including Blackjack, Roulette, Red Dog and Craps, along with newer games such as Monkey Love and Hold’Em Showdown. 

The Zero Lounge offers four games that have no house edge: Baccarat, Blackjack, Jacks or Better and Roulette. This is achieved thanks to Betfair amending the games or rules in favour of the player. On the roulette wheel there are no zeros (there are usually two in the US game and one in the European game). In Blackjack you are paid odds of 2 to 1 for both a suited natural Blackjack and also for a five card 21. In Baccarat the commission on the banker bet has been reduced to 2.75%. And in Jacks or Better the Royal Flush payout is 22% bigger than you will find at any other online casino.

Customer service is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. You can email info@betfair.com and expect a response within 4 hours, or you can call one of the following numbers to speak with a member of the customer service team directly:

From the UK: 0844 871 000
From Ireland: 1800 944 000
International:  +44 208 834 8060

You can fund your Betfair account with a credit card, debit card, PayPal, MoneyBookers, Neteller, BT Click & Buy, Bank Transfer, Western Union or cheque. Note that you initially deposit money into a main Betfair account and then transfer cash into your Betfair Casino account (it requires little more than the click of a mouse button). Security is excellent, with all of your sensitive data being encrypted before transmission. In fact, security is so good that Betfair has been awarded the ISO 27001 (that’s the International Standards Organisation Security certificate) by the British Standards Institution. Of course, you will have to do your part to keep your password private, but security is as tight as it gets at the Betfair Casino.