Until recently, I believe the oldest land-based casino in London, England, was Crockfords [gentlemen’s club], which closed its doors for the last time in October 2023 after 195 years, which many said marked the end of an era.
It opened in 1828, but in recent years, my favourite brick-and-mortar venue has struggled to attract wealthy tourists, ultimately leading to the decision to close the premises.
Now that Crockfords has gone for good, it means that the oldest building in the capital today offering traditional favourites like blackjack and roulette is the Hippodrome.
Let’s dive straight in and take a closer look at some of the main decisions that led to the closure of London’s oldest casino building and reveal the names of some of the other iconic venues that are still open today despite similar contributing circumstances that could lead to the closure of more of London’s most iconic venues.
I’ve visited most of them, and they offer a range of entertainment activities, not just the classic table & card games.
Now that Crockfords has closed its doors for good, it means that the London Hippodrome is the oldest venue here. However, it has only been operating as a gambling venue since 2012. In other words, the building itself is old, but the business is less than 15 years old at the time of writing.
The Grade II listed building was designed by Frank Matcham and it can be found in Leicester Square, London. If you like me and enjoy playing any of the traditional favourites and plan on visiting London at some point, the five most iconic land-based sites to visit include the following:
- Venue: The Hippodrome. Location: Leicester Square
- Venue: Palm Beach. Location: Mayfair
- Venue: The Vic (the Grosvenor Victoria). Location: West End, near Marble Arch)
- Venue: Genting China Town. Location: Chinatown
- Venue: Crown London Aspinall’s. Location: Mayfair
Some of my other favourite spots include The RitzClub, Aspers in Stratford, The Park Tower, and the Grosvenor Barracuda, to name just a few. They can also be found in Kensington, Piccadilly, and other high-end areas of London. Yes, there are plenty of web-based venues to choose from, so if you manage to cross all of these stunning land-based buildings off your list of places to check out and then decide to have a flutter online while you’re visiting London, my best advice would be to visit the askgamblers.comiGaming review site because it has over 300 trusted websites to choose from. The writers and researchers on this site have over 18 years of experience finding the safest UK sites, and they are all fully licensed and regulated by the UKGC. Just like London’s land-based venues, you must bet at least 18 to join any of their featured brands, and you can easily access them using any decent-working, Wi-Fi/internet-connected PC or mobile device.
I’ve tried most of their top 10 brands and haven’t encountered any issues whatsoever. I’ve found that the sign-up process on each site I’ve joined takes less than a minute to complete, and there’s a guaranteed welcome bonus for all new members – something that you can’t claim when walking into any of London’s iconic land-based venues.
The websites employ a range of highly sophisticated firewalls and are protected by 128-bit cryptographic encryption to ensure your personal details are in safe hands at all times and that the cybercriminals can’t gain access to your account or steal any money you store on these sites.
They all have thousands of online fruit machines, blackjacks, roulettes, and other classic favourites, as well as online scratchcards, bingo, keno, video poker, and more.
Some of the content to play on these sites is computer-generated and uses frequently tested RNGs (Random Number Generators) to produce realistic outcomes with higher or above-average RTP% (return to player) payout rates of around 93.00% to 98.00%, whereas the rest is streamed in real-time and presented to you by actual humans (aka live dealers).
They all accept Pound Sterling and welcome a range of tried and tested UK online payment methods, including debit cards, prepaid cards, eWallets, and bank transfers. Unfortunately, cryptocurrencieslike Bitcoin and Ethereum can’t be used at any UK-licensed sites, and it’s also not possible to use credit cards to deposit or withdraw. I prefer using PayPal to top up my account, but when this isn’t accepted, I settle for using my Visa debit card or the Trustly bank transfer option. I’ve found on a few sites where the minimum deposit amount is as low as £5.00. However, most of the time, it’s £10 or £20.
The last advice I will give anyone considering joining one of the top suggested sites from Ask Gamblers is to gamble responsiblywhenever you log in to place bets. In other words, consider setting yourself a sensible spending budget before depositing, and then to ensure you never exceed your initial budget, use any of the tools, like deposit limits, win/loss limits, and session time reminders, that your chosen site provides.