PartyCasino is the stand alone casino branch of online poker giant partypoker. And although partypoker is without doubt one of the most recognisable names in the online poker industry, it was PartyCasino that came first albeit under a different moniker. 

Way back in 1997 (yes we did have the internet back then) PartyCasino launched as Starluck. Not a great name and so it’s no surprise that it later became PartyGaming. Regardless of the odd choice of name, Starluck and later PartyGaming quickly became one of the most successful online casinos on the planet. 

By 2001 the company decided to jump into the online poker industry and partypoker was born. The site grew to become the largest online poker room in the world, but that all came to a halt with the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 (UIGEA). As a result of the UIGEA, the brand pulled its operations from the US and focused on its global marketing. 

Then, in 2011 PartyGaming merged with bwin Interactive Entertainment becoming the world’s largest online gambling company. 2016 saw bwin acquired by GVC Holdings who then rebranded PartyGaming and launched PartyCasino in 2017.

Right, so now that you know the complete history of the brand, let’s talk about PartyCasino in the states. 

Party in the USA

When partypoker left the USA after the enactment of the UIGEA, things didn’t look too good for a possible return. The outlook was bleak to say the least and it was a full seven years before US players got a chance to enjoy some legal online casino fun. 

Thankfully, New Jersey paved the way in 2013 by legalising online gambling. By November of that year partypoker was back in New Jersey and thriving thanks to its partnership with the Borgata Hotel Casino in Atlantic City. 

Casino games were available on partypoker NJ, but in 2018, GVC decided that it was time to create a separate site for casino games that didn’t include access to the main poker room. 

The new PartyCasino NJ site was modelled on the highly successful PartyCasino UK site and quickly started to bring in decent traffic. 

The brand has plans to serve Pennsylvania and a soft three-day launch in early December 2020 has been heralded as a great success. The soft launch was under BetMGM which is under the Roar Digital umbrella that controls partypoker and PartyCasino. The official launch of PartyCasino in Pennsylvania will likely take place in early 2021 but from what we know so far, the games and features will be exactly the same as the NJ site. 

With this in mind, the review below will focus on the New Jersey PartyCasino offerings. When the brand launches in Pennsylvania, we’ll update our review to cover any differences between the two sites. 

Who can play PartyCasino in New Jersey?

If you’re 21 or over and you’re within New Jersey state borders, then you can play at PartyCasino NJ. 

A common misconception is that you need to be residing within the state, but that’s not true at all. You can drive your car across the state line, park up (somewhere safe of course) and start playing on your mobile device. And once you’re not parked illegally, you certainly won’t break any laws. 

What games are available?

Where do we start? 

Let’s just say that if you can think of a casino game, then the chances are PartyCasino has it. 

And that’s as it should be as most online casino operators these days offer the full range of table games and slots. Anything less and it’s not really an online casino, is it?

PartyCasino’s range of games is extensive to say the least 

There are over 500 games available from over a dozen game providers such as IGT, Novomatic, NetEnt, Microgaming, Evolution, and BetSoft. 

At our last count, there were 417 slots which is a pretty incredible library. This number is constantly changing though as they remove unpopular titles or add new ones. 

Titles include Guns N’ Roses, Spartacus, Double Cherry, and Mango Madness. Honestly, there are just so many to choose from that you’ll have no trouble finding one that you like. 

The slots also include the usual popular progressive jackpot titles so if you’re extremely lucky, there’s a chance of a huge jackpot win. 

Interestingly, there are also some exclusive games on the site that you’ll only find on PartyCasino. There are 53 titles right now but as we just mentioned, this number changes from time to time. 

 

But it’s not just about the slots, players can also enjoy games such as:

• Roulette — six variations
• Blackjack — five variations 
• Poker — select variations and video poker
• Slingo — Bingo and slots combined
• Baccarat 
• Craps
• Live dealer games — including poker, blackjack, roulette, and baccarat

Remember that PartyCasino is an ever-evolving site so by the time you read this you may notice that there are actually more games than those listed above. 

Live dealer games

Live dealer games are very well-organised

At the time of writing this review, there are 13 live dealer games that include variations of blackjack, baccarat, poker, and roulette. There’s also a game called Dream Catcher where players have to guess the right number to come up on a money wheel. It’s a little like roulette meets Wheel of Fortune. 

The live dealers are polite, professional, and know their stuff which is all you can ask for. Games used to operate on a schedule from afternoon to early morning, but now they’re available 24/7. 

Individual games may have betting limits and these can be explained to you by the dealer. 

Software

Unlike its sister site partypoker, PartyCasino NJ uses a browser-based client. Not having to download any software onto your computer is always a good thing but some online casino providers end up with laggy, glitch-ridden browser clients. 

Thankfully, that’s not the case with PartyCasino.

As we mentioned earlier, the New Jersey site is modelled after the PartyCasino UK site and that site has had plenty of time to iron out any kinks in their software. 

This means that New Jersey players can expect a glitch-free casino client that doesn’t require ultra-fast hardware to run. 

Live dealer games may take a little longer to load than other games but that’s to be expected. Once in the game, you’ll find that there are very few issues. 

Of course, the desktop client isn’t your only option. 

For those players that want to cross the state line and sit in their car to play, there’s the mobile apps for both iOS and Android. Sorry but if you have a Windows phone, you’re out of luck as there’s no app for you. 

That said, smartphone users can still play on the mobile version of the site. It works surprisingly well which is also good news for players that aren’t too pushed about having a dedicated app on their device. 

The mobile apps for both iOS and Android work pretty well but the one thing we did notice is that you won’t find the same selection of games that you do on the site itself. Yes, there are tons of slots to choose from, but for the full library of games, you’ll need to use the browser-based client. 

Overall, we only have good things to say about the software on both desktop and mobile. 

Sign-up bonuses 

Yes, of course there’s a sign-up bonus and a pretty good one at that. 

PartyCasino offers an instant no deposit $25 bonus for new players. 

You can also receive a 100% deposit match bonus of up to $500. You don’t need to deposit that all at once as it can be spread over your first three deposits. While this bonus is usually up to $500, it has been known to jump up to $1,000 on occasion. 

Join at the right time and you might be lucky enough to get a 100% deposit match bonus up to $1,000

The $25 bonus is pretty good considering that you don’t need to make a deposit and it’s a great way to try out the site first before putting any of your own cash into it. 

The match bonus will only become actual cash that you can withdraw once you have wagered 30 times the bonus. So if you have a $10 deposit bonus, you must wager $300 before you can take that bonus as cash. You can, however, still play games with your bonus money.

Promotions 

What’s an online casino without a few promotions to keep its players happy? 

Thankfully, PartyCasino doesn’t disappoint in this regard. 

These promotions can include tickets to sweepstakes, free spins, bonus cash, deposit matches, and other prizes. 

One of the most popular promotions is the Saturday Saver that gives you back 10% of any losses you make on Saturday. 

They also have a Sunday Play & Earn promotion which rewards you for playing a certain number of games. 

Keep an eye on the promotions page as they usually come up with something new depending on the time of the year. For example, for Christmas 2020 there’s the PartyCasino Snow Globe that you can shake to win prizes. 

Rewards

The rewards system is unsurprisingly just like that on partypoker. 

Players must play to earn points. Once you earn enough points you move through the loyalty levels. You must meet these thresholds every month to retain your loyalty level. 

As you can guess, higher levels means better rewards. 

The levels are:

Bronze:     0 points/month

Silver:   50 points/month

Gold:             750 points/month

Palladium:   2,000 points/month

You get 1 point for every $25 that you bet on the slots and every $125 you bet on video poker roulette, table games, and live games with blackjack being the exception. 

For blackjack, it’s 1 point for every $250 you bet. 

It seems like you need to spend quite a lot of cash in order to hit the higher levels so it’s not great for the casual player. 

If you’re a pretty regular player and can hit the Gold level, then you can exchange your points for cash at a rate of 2,750 points for $200. 

At the Palladium level, you get $500 for 5000 points. 

There are other casino bonuses that you can exchange for points at other levels including some poker tournament tickets that you can use on partypoker NJ. However, the best value is the cash exchange. 

Deposits and withdrawals

Deposits and withdrawals are a pretty straightforward affair with plenty of options for each. 

Deposits

• eChecks
• PayPal
• Online banking 
• Skrill
• Electronic transfer
• Visa/Mastercard 
• PayNearMe
• Play+ Card 
• Discover

Withdrawals

• eChecks
• PayPal
• Online banking
• Skrill
• Play+ Card 
• Check by mail

Withdrawals can take a while as they must be approved by a review team. Incredibly, this can take up to 5 business days, but we haven’t heard too many complaints of long withdrawal times so we guess it rarely takes that long.

Customer Support

PartyCasino NJ has a pretty nifty FAQ section that covers all the basics. If you can’t find an answer to your problem there, then you can opt for live chat, call the site directly, or send an email. 

Live support has been shut down from time to time due to high traffic, but this is often only a temporary measure. 

They are usually on the ball with email replies which is good, but nothing beats that live chat feature when you want to talk to someone about your money. 

Despite the recent temporary closure of the live chat feature, we still think that customer support is where PartyCasino really shines. As you may be well aware, sometimes getting a hold of someone to answer your question can be near impossible on other online casinos. At least here, you have several options available. 

Party Casino NJ & PA pros and cons

What’s the final conclusion?

We’ll be honest with you — we struggled to find much wrong with PartyCasino. Although we may not have played each and every game (did you really think we’d play 500+?), we found that those we did play worked very well with glitch-free gameplay. 

The live dealer games were a particular highlight with the dealers being both knowledgeable and polite. Slot games also paid out about as much as we would expect them too while the exclusive games and weekly promotions were a nice touch. 

The biggest plus for this site though is the great customer support options. Like we said earlier, so many online casino providers make it impossible to talk to a real person so this is a major plus point for us. 

Overall, PartyCasino NJ is a great option for playing online casino games in New Jersey. Hopefully, we can say the same for the Pennsylvania site when it opens in the near future.