Article written & published by Simmo! on November 1st, 2015.
Playing High Stakes on Table Games
Previously, I dealt with
problems that high rollers face when playing online, often without knowing there is a problem looming until it is too late. The frustrations of low withdrawal limits and/or low maximum bet limits have hit me time and time again and right royally p**s me off! The number of casinos that offer what I consider to be a good "
high stakes experience" is actually quite small.
So this series of articles draw on my 10+ years experience (
with the latter years playing high stakes) to help other similar players find the right online casino from the get-go, without having to mess around like I did, hitting low limits, restricted cashouts and crap VIP support. Or even recognition for that matter - you'd be amazed how many casinos can't even spot a high stakes player, yet alone look after them.
If you play slots, then this is the point to head on over to my "
High Limit Slots article" as this article focuses specifically on table games and roulette.
The principle reason for this is because in general, although you are playing at the same casino for both, the platforms for live dealer and RNG are often from different developers which can impact the maximum bet size in some instances. Withdrawal limits are generally decided by the casino but in the case of the casinos I recommend, these shouldn't come into play as I have weeded out those with high-roller unfriendly terms. You also have a wider choice of high stakes operators if you stick to RNG games.
There is also a widely-held belief that live casino players are more valuable customers than their RNG counterparts and therefore get better treatment. I have to say, that that isn't necessarily true as there are operators I have found that value both equally as well (or as badly!).
Where Best to Play for High Stakes
For this section, I have enlisted some help from my friend Neil who is an experienced live games player and knows his onions on table limits and where to play for the best experience. I have played at all of these casinos myself so the combination of his knowledge on the software and mine on the casino service levels are a nice match.
As you are probably already aware, max bet sizes can severly impact strategy, especially if you play Martingale style strategy or derivatives thereof which rely on steadily increasing bet sizes. The
casinos that offer the biggest bet sizes tend to use the Evolution live casino platform which allows a lot of flexibility and of their licencees, three stand out for high stakes play:
Unibet,
BetVictor's BV Grand and
William Hill but all for slightly different reasons, as I'll explain below.
If you like a
blend of Roulette and card games then
Unibet &
William Hill's live dealer casinos probably offer the best cross-product choice although as casinos go, I prefer
Unibet for a more personal service and deals personally. Like the other casinos menioned here, they will also consider raised minimum bets for "known"players who high roll so once you are established, a VIP team member will have been in touch and you will have some flexibility.
With that established, let's look at the table minimums.
Unibet's live dealer casino allows up to
£100,000 per spin on Roulette!. Caveat that with the fact that if you are betting on the single numbers then all casinos will limit you further and in Unibet's case it is £250 with £4,500 on each-way (red/black or odds/evens) bets. They also a £5,000 maximum stake on
Blackjack, £10,000 on
live 3-card poker and £4,500 on
Casino Hold 'Em. Perhaps where they fall down a bit is the £2,000 max on
Baccarat.
High limit Baccarat players will prefer
William Hill where you can bet up to £10,000. They also offer "
Salle Privee" Roulette with up to £500,000 on a single spin allowed, however the maximum stake on a single number is £1,000 and an each-way bet limited to £5,000 although that pales in comparison to BetVictor's BV Grand (
see next paragraph).
Like Unibet,
William Hill's live 3-card poker has a £10,000 maximum but
Blackjack is £10,000 and
Casino Hold'Em to £7,500. Personally, I'm just not a fan of William Hill: I find the support incredibly slow, the VIP experience poor by comparison and you feel more like a number. But, they are reputable and like the others here, fast to withdraw. A typical "big business" in almost every regard.
My final choice for High Stakes play and also my favorite of the 3 casinos mentioned here is
BV Grand Casino, operated by BetVictor (
hence the "BV" if you hadn't already figured that out!). With a maximum stake of
£25,000 per spin and very responsive support, BetVictor have no less than
4 different live casinos now too so you have plenty of choice. That said, for games aside from Blackjack, the table limits are a bit more modest with
Roulette allowing a £20,000 maximum: still high enough for many high stakes players though to be fair.
So just to round off, all three of the "live dealer" casinos at
Unibet, BV Grand Casino and William Hill are among the best options for High Limit players and I'd recommend all 3 with
BV Grand taking my top accolade.
High rollers who show their colours should get assigned a VIP host and awarded extra incentives. A hint here: larger deposits seem to get the attention of VIP hosts faster but obviously all players, no matter who you are and where you play will be asked for ID docs quite early to satisfy regulatory KYC requirements. At the casinos above, this was handled promptly and painlessly for me (
driving licence, letter with address and debit card which I photographed, bluetoothed to my PC and emailed).
Of course there are
plenty more live casinos out there but you'll find the bet limits and withdrawal limits at many of them, even at some of the bigger names, way too restrictive for high-stakes play. Even a company like
Bet365 (
who I rate highly as an operator) has pretty low limits on their live casino games, although their RNG card game limits in the download casino are decent.
Some casinos will happily negotiate higher limits with you I'm sure but they will almost always only do that with players who have already proved some loyalty to their brand.
The Pitfalls of High Rolling Online »
Playing High Limit Slots »
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