In this guide
Three of the grandest gambling rooms in Mayfair have gone since 2018. The Clermont Club in Berkeley Square, The Ritz Club in the basement of the Ritz, and Crockfords on Curzon Street — whose operator’s own website now reads “Now Permanently Closed.”
That is the trouble with most casino guides to London: they were written while those rooms were open, and nobody went back. So what follows is not a ranking of glamour. It is a status, an address, and the rules that decide whether your night works.
💡 The Short Version: You do not need to be a member — the 24-hour membership rule was abolished in 2005 and the big rooms now advertise free entry. You do need photo ID, every time, whatever your age. The dress code is smart casual, not black tie. You cannot take photographs, which is why the picture at the top of this page is a stock one rather than a London table. Count the zeros on the roulette wheel — one is 2.7%, two is 5.26%. The Hippodrome is the one to walk into first: 24 hours, free, and more to do in it than gamble.
Every venue checked against its own website on 2 September 2026.
Where they are
Open, at a glance
Read the hours column twice. Several of these are open 24 hours with live tables running far shorter — the doors and the croupiers keep different diaries.
| Casino | Area | Hours | Membership |
|---|---|---|---|
| The Hippodrome | Leicester Square | 24/7, bar Christmas Day | None |
| Empire Casino | Leicester Square | 24/7 | None |
| Horizons Casino | Leicester Square | Slots 10am · tables 11am–6am | None |
| Grosvenor The Rialto | Piccadilly | 24 hours | Signed in at reception |
| Genting Chinatown | Chinatown | 12pm–5am · gaming from 1pm | Signed in at reception |
| Grosvenor St Giles | Tottenham Court Rd | 24 hours · tables 12pm–6am | Signed in at reception |
| Grosvenor The Victoria | Edgware Road | 24 hours | Signed in at reception |
| Genting Stratford | Stratford | 24/7 | None · ID at the door |
| The Palm Beach | Mayfair | 12pm–6am · gaming from 1pm | Signed in at reception |
| The Colony Club | Mayfair | 12pm–6am | Lounge bar: none |
| Metropolitan Mayfair | Mayfair | 12pm–6am | Free membership |
| Park Lane Club | Mayfair | From 2pm, into the early hours | Free membership |
| The Sportsman | Marble Arch | 12pm–6am | None |
| Grosvenor Park Tower | Knightsbridge | 24 hours | Signed in at reception |
| Grosvenor The Barracuda | Baker Street | 11am–5am | Signed in at reception |
| Grosvenor Bayswater | Bayswater | 24 hours · tables 12pm–6am | Signed in at reception |
| Grosvenor Gloucester Rd | South Kensington | 24 hours | Signed in at reception |
| Genting Cromwell Road | South Kensington | 12pm–5am · tables from 2pm | Signed in at reception |
| Les Ambassadeurs | Mayfair | Any hour | Members and guests |
| Wynn Mayfair | Mayfair | Not published | Members and guests |
The rules, which is the part that matters
Almost everything people believe about a British casino comes from an American film.
Over-18s only, and bring photo ID
Nobody under 18 may enter the premises at all — not the bar, not the restaurant, not to wait for a friend. The age limit covers the building, not the gaming floor.
Every operator runs Challenge 25: if you look under 25 you will be asked for valid photo identification, and failure to produce it means refusal of entry.
What counts is a passport or a photocard driving licence. A photograph of your passport on your phone will not do.
Bring it regardless of your age. The Empire asks every customer for ID after 9pm, and photo ID in the daytime even from people only visiting a bar. Genting Stratford scans ID at the point of entry. The door is the one place a casino has no discretion.
Membership: the old rule is gone, the door still stops you
Before 2007 you had to join a casino as a club and wait 24 hours before playing. The Gambling Act 2005 abolished it.
Three different things now happen at three different doors:
- Walk straight in. The Hippodrome advertises “Free Entry | No Membership Required”. Horizons and The Sportsman both say the same in their own words. Genting Stratford needs no membership either, but photo ID at entry.
- Signed in at reception. Grosvenor will sign you in on a first visit — free, and two minutes. Genting publishes a list of open-door casinos and none of its five London venues is on it, so expect the same at the Palm Beach, the Colony Club, Chinatown and Cromwell Road.
- Members and their guests only. Les Ambassadeurs and Wynn Mayfair. Not places you decide to visit on the night.
Dress code: sharply different across two miles
⚠️ Nobody is going to make you wear a dinner jacket. Grosvenor says it outright — there is no need to dress like James Bond, smart casual is all that is required. The Empire and The Sportsman publish an identical line: smart casual, no jacket required, and jeans and trainers are fine as long as they are not scruffy. The Hippodrome has no set dress code at all.
What gets you turned away is specific rather than general. Horizons refuses sportswear, football shirts and soiled clothing. Genting refuses football shirts, vest tops, caps and hats, and at Stratford will not admit opposition shirts on West Ham match days. Grosvenor prefers long trousers to shorts.
The Mayfair clubs publish nothing, which is its own instruction: dress as you would for a restaurant on the same street.
Photography is banned, and so are phones at the table
This is the rule most visitors break first, and the reason every photograph on this page is either a stock image or taken from the street.
Genting’s terms are unambiguous: cameras and any other device for taking photos or footage are strictly prohibited without prior consent, and mobile phones cannot be used while gaming — at the tables, at the machines, or in the card rooms.
Assume the same everywhere, because the reasoning is the same everywhere: other people’s money, other people’s faces, and a great deal of cash on a table. Genting also states that facial recognition operates at all of its casinos. Ask a host before photographing anything, even in a bar.
Chips, minimums and when not to touch your bet
You buy chips at the table, not at a cashier. Put your money down on the felt and ask the croupier for chips — do not hand it over, and do not reach across the layout.
There are two kinds. Cash chips carry a value and work on any table. Colour chips are used only on roulette, so the croupier can tell whose stack is whose, and they cannot leave the table — say “cash out” and they are exchanged. The croupier holds no money, so chips become cash only at the cash desk.
Once no more bets is called, the layout belongs to the dealer. Do not touch or move a chip after that.
Minimums are posted, not secret — every table carries a sign stating its minimum. At the cheap end: Horizons runs roulette from £2, blackjack from £10 and slots from 1p; Stratford has £1 live roulette; Grosvenor’s electronic roulette starts at 10p.
The odds, which nobody publishes
Not one London casino states the house edge on its own tables. The operators publish general explainers — Metropolitan’s own guide sets out both roulette variants and even advises readers to pick the better one — but none of them says which wheel is on its floor. You have to look.
Roulette: count the zeros. A single-zero wheel has 37 pockets and a house edge of 2.7%. A double-zero wheel has 38 and a house edge of 5.26% — nearly twice as expensive for exactly the same bet. British casinos overwhelmingly run single-zero wheels, so the odds here are better than in Las Vegas by default.
⚠️ “American roulette” in a British casino usually means the table, not the wheel. It describes the American-style layout, with the wheel at one end and players around it — not the double-zero American wheel. Do not assume either way: look at the wheel and count the zeros before you sit down. It takes three seconds and it doubles or halves what the game costs you.
Blackjack: the payout is the number that matters. The British norm is blackjack pays 3:2, the dealer stands on soft 17, four to six decks, and no hole card — the dealer does not take a second card until every player has finished, which is different from the American game and changes how you play against a possible dealer blackjack. Played that way with basic strategy, the house edge is around 0.5%, the best odds in the building.
The number to watch for is 6:5. A table paying 6:5 on blackjack instead of 3:2 pays you less for the same hand and pushes the house edge up several times over. It is signposted on the table, and it is the single most expensive detail a casual player misses.
Everything else is worse, and that is the point. The house has an edge on every game in the building, and the edge is what pays for the building.
Tipping
Tipping is not expected and no London casino asks for it. If you want to, place chips on the table and tell the dealer they are for them — never into their hand, which Grosvenor’s own guidance calls frowned upon. Do not push cash across the felt either; the table deals in chips.
The American habit of placing a bet on the dealer’s behalf is not allowed in Britain, so a croupier who has just refused one is not being rude.
You can go in without gambling
Several of these are simply buildings with good bars in them. The Hippodrome has nine bars, two restaurants and a theatre. The Empire’s sports bar is open around the clock. The Colony Club says of its lounge bar that membership is not required. The Park Tower’s restaurant is a gallery overlooking the gaming floor.
The catch is the age limit, which covers the whole building. Bring ID even if you are only meeting friends for a drink.
Leicester Square and the West End
The rooms you can walk into off the street, most keeping hours no other London venue does.
The Hippodrome Casino
Cranbourn Street, WC2H 7JH · Leicester Square 1 min · 24/7 · free entry
The obvious first casino in London, and the only one that works as a night out if you never place a bet. It runs to 80,000 square feet over seven floors: three casinos, nine bars, three roof terraces, Heliot Steak House, Chop Chop and Magic Mike Live in its own theatre.
The Grand Casino fills the ground floor of a 1900 variety theatre, the original Minstrel’s Gallery sixty feet above the tables, and PokerStars LIVE takes the whole third floor — noon to 6am on weekdays, straight through from Friday to Monday.
Open 24 hours a day, every day but Christmas Day, no set dress code, electronic bets from 20p, free cloakrooms, directly above Leicester Square tube.
Empire Casino
5–6 Leicester Square, WC2H 7NA · Leicester Square 2 mins · 24/7 · free entry
The Vegas-styled one, and the busiest room in London most nights. Metropolitan Gaming’s flagship spreads over three levels off the square, running blackjack, roulette, punto banco, slots and electronic games, with a poker room working cash games and tournaments around the clock.
The bars are a genuine draw in their own right — a sports bar open 24/7, a balcony bar over the square, and a Chinese kitchen.
The door policy is the strictest of the free-entry rooms. Valid ID to enter after 9pm, and photo ID in the daytime if you look under 25 — even if you only plan to visit a bar or the restaurant. Dress is smart casual, no jacket required.
Horizons Casino
1 Leicester Place, WC2H 7BP · Leicester Square 2 mins · tables 11am–6am
The only casino in the West End that publishes what it costs to sit down, which after the rest of this list deserves rewarding: roulette from £2, baccarat and three-card poker from £5, blackjack from £10, slots from 1p.
It is an independent, smaller and friendlier than its neighbours — roulette, baccarat, blackjack, three-card poker and Heads Up Hold’em, two late-night bars, a shisha terrace, and a restaurant cooking over open-fire charcoal with tables out on the square.
Slots open at 10am; live tables run 11am to 6am. Free entry, no membership, photo ID if you look under 25. Smart casual, and it names what is refused: sportswear, football shirts, soiled clothing.
Grosvenor Casino The Rialto
3–4 Coventry Street, W1D 6BL · Piccadilly Circus 3 mins · 24 hours
A casino inside the first theatre ever built in the West End, and the best-looking room of the walk-in group by a distance. The building is Grade II listed and the traditional décor survives: table games on the main floor within it, the electronic games climbing to a balcony, and a bar looking out over Coventry Street.
Around forty slots include the £20,000 jackpot games, alongside Grosvenor’s usual roulette, blackjack and electronic tables.
Open 24 hours with tables running 24 hours — one of very few places in central London to sit at a live roulette table at 5am. Reception signs you in with a passport or driving licence.
Genting Casino London Chinatown
93–107 Shaftesbury Avenue, W1D 5DY · Leicester Square 4 mins · 12pm–5am
The most baccarat-led room in central London, and the one to choose if that is the game you came for. Alongside standard baccarat it deals Squeeze Baccarat, with blackjack, roulette, live e-tables and slots carrying a £10,000 jackpot.
It is smaller and less theatrical than the Leicester Square giants, which is rather the point — it trades on being relaxed, on a stretch of Shaftesbury Avenue where everything else is a theatre or a restaurant.
Doors open at noon but live gaming starts at 1pm, so arriving early gets slots and electronics only. The late bar runs to 3am. Allow a few minutes at reception to be signed in.
Grosvenor Casino St Giles
262 Tottenham Court Road, W1T 7RG · Tottenham Court Road 2 mins · tables 12pm–6am
The one whose hours mislead people. The building is open 24 hours — but live gaming runs only from noon to 6am, so between 6am and midday there are machines and no croupiers. Check that before making it your after-hours plan.
What it is built around now is a ground-floor slots hall: exclusive games with jackpots up to £20,000, electronic roulette, live sport on big screens and self-service sports betting, all in one room. It is the most casual of the central Grosvenors and the least like a traditional casino.
Food and drink on site, step-free access, and the station two minutes away.
The poker rooms
Two venues where poker is the reason to go rather than a sideline.
Grosvenor Casino The Victoria
150–162 Edgware Road, W2 2DT · Edgware Road 5 mins · 24 hours
“The Vic” is the most storied poker address in Britain, and after a £15 million refurbishment it is Grosvenor’s flagship as well. The poker room runs cash games and tournaments seven days a week and hosts the group’s major events, including a £100,000 championship series and a progressive Royal Flush jackpot on the Hold’em cash tables.
Away from the cards it is a full casino: roulette, blackjack, baccarat, electronic tables and around 80 slot machines, with its own restaurant and an outdoor terrace bar.
Open 24 hours with tables running the whole time, no membership needed, and on-site parking, which is rare this close to the centre.
Genting Casino Stratford
Westfield Stratford City, E20 1ET · Stratford 5 mins · 24/7
The largest casino floor in the UK, and by Genting’s own claim the biggest poker room in the country — and the only one here nowhere near the West End. It was Aspers Casino Westfield until Genting took the name over, which is why half the internet still sends you to the wrong brand.
There are 150 slot machines, roulette, blackjack, three-card poker, baccarat, Heads Up Hold’em and Perfect Pairs, plus £1 live roulette and a low-stakes zone — the cheapest serious gaming floor in London. A sports betting shop sits inside it, along with two bars and live music weekly.
Open 24 hours and no membership needed, but you must show valid photo ID at entry, and ID scanning operates here.
Mayfair, Knightsbridge and Marble Arch
Smaller rooms, later hours, and a different kind of quiet.
The Palm Beach
30 Berkeley Street, W1J 8EH · Green Park 3 mins · 12pm–6am
An icon of Mayfair for over fifty years, and one of London’s largest casinos by floor area despite a Berkeley Street frontage that gives nothing away. Blackjack, roulette, baccarat, three-card poker, slots and electronic gaming fill the main floor, with private gaming rooms behind it.
The food is a genuine reason to come rather than a convenience, with a lounge bar alongside the restaurant.
Doors at noon, live gaming from 1pm, closing at 6am. Green Park is three minutes away. Allow time to be signed in at reception.
The Colony Club
24 Hertford Street, W1J 7SA · Hyde Park Corner 6 mins · 12pm–6am
The most straightforwardly beautiful gaming floor in Mayfair — polished marble and plush interiors, running roulette, blackjack, baccarat and poker, with VIP tables and private rooms behind them.
What makes it useful to a visitor is the rest of the building: a restaurant and a teppanyaki bar, both 6.30pm to 2am, and a lounge bar from 6.30pm until late with live DJs. The lounge bar states plainly that membership is not required — so this is the Mayfair club you can book a drink in without joining anything.
The casino floor opens at noon and closes at 6am.
Metropolitan Mayfair
14 Old Park Lane, W1K 1ND · Hyde Park Corner 6 mins · 12pm–6am
London’s newest luxury casino, in its own words, and the one that does high-stakes gaming in a small room rather than a grand one. The whole proposition is intimacy: a Mayfair room built to feel private rather than public, with a terrace attached.
Dining is at Parlay, reached through a crystal wall, with a bar meant for stepping away from the tables rather than for a night out of its own.
Open 12pm to 6am with free membership rather than the closed door of the Curzon Street clubs. Challenge 25 applies.
Park Lane Club
22 Park Lane, W1K 1BE · Hyde Park Corner 7 mins · from 2pm
The latest-closing casino in London, running well past the Mayfair standard of 6am and later than anything in the West End.
Its real distinction is the address. The club sits inside the Hilton London Park Lane, and hotel guests reach the casino from inside the hotel without stepping onto Park Lane at all. Above it are the hotel’s sky bar and restaurants; below, an intimate gaming floor with a menu designed to be eaten at the table.
It does not open until 2pm, which is the thing to know — an evening and overnight room, not an afternoon one. Free membership, Challenge 25, and parking in the Hilton.
The Sportsman
16 Old Quebec Street, W1H 7AF · Marble Arch 1 min · 12pm–6am
Las Vegas styling a minute from Marble Arch, and the most relaxed of the Metropolitan rooms — classic table games, slots, chic bars and a restaurant, plus an outdoor terrace for open-air dining and drinks that almost no other London casino can match.
Its slots club runs a monthly rewards programme, and the venue leans harder than its neighbours into being somewhere you eat and drink rather than only play.
Entry is free and, in its own words, you don’t have to be a member. Challenge 25 applies, dress is smart casual, and it is open noon to 6am beside Marble Arch station.
Grosvenor Casino The Park Tower
101 Knightsbridge, SW1X 7RQ · Knightsbridge 2 mins · 24 hours
The quietest serious gaming floor in London. Grosvenor calls it the home of serious gaming in a discreet yet relaxed environment, which is corporate language for a room where nobody is shouting and the stakes run higher than in Leicester Square.
The distinguishing feature is the gallery-style restaurant overlooking the gaming floor — you eat above the tables rather than beside them, and it is one of the better rooms in Knightsbridge in which to book dinner.
Open 24 hours with live gaming 24 hours, which very few London casinos manage. Step-free access, and reception signs you in with valid ID.
The neighbourhood rooms
Away from the tourist centre, and better for it if you want to hear yourself think.
Grosvenor Casino The Barracuda
1 Baker Street, W1U 8ED · Marble Arch or Bond Street, 6–8 mins · 11am–5am
The only London Grosvenor that keeps ordinary hours. It opens at 11am and shuts at 5am rather than running round the clock, so check it before building a very late plan around it.
The floor splits in two: a main room with the usual roulette, blackjack and slots, and a quieter club room for regulars. There is a poker room, which not every London Grosvenor has, and a restaurant arranged so you can eat while watching the main floor.
On-site parking at the Portman Square end of Baker Street matters more here than in the West End.
Grosvenor Casino Bayswater
79–81 Queensway, W2 4QH · Bayswater, next door · tables 12pm–6am
The casino people go to for dinner. Grosvenor is unusually honest about it: the gaming is fine, but it is the restaurant that is the real draw, on an Arabic-influenced menu that suits the street it stands on.
It is a traditional room rather than a modern one, with a poker room alongside the slots and live tables, and it is the least intimidating casino here for a first visit.
The hours split three ways: the building is open 24 hours, live tables run noon to 6am, and the restaurant serves 6pm to 2am. Next door to Bayswater tube, with step-free access.
Grosvenor Casino Gloucester Road
4–18 Harrington Gardens, SW7 4LJ · Gloucester Road 2 mins · 24 hours
“Exclusively for everyone” is the venue’s own phrase, and this is the most local-feeling casino on the list — a South Kensington room with an intimate bar and restaurant rather than a floor built for crowds.
The menu is Arabic-influenced, like Bayswater’s, and the room is small enough that eating and playing happen in the same space rather than in separate halves of a building.
Open 24 hours with tables running 24 hours, one of very few round-the-clock live gaming floors outside the West End, and two minutes from the station.
Genting Casino Cromwell Road
43–45 Cromwell Road, SW7 2EF · South Kensington 5 mins · 12pm–5am
Formerly Forty Five Kensington, and now the most contemporary-feeling of the Genting rooms — a floor deliberately designed to feel spacious rather than crowded, which is not something most casinos attempt.
Roulette, blackjack, baccarat, three-card poker, slots and jackpot games, with a lounge bar from 3pm, a full restaurant, live sport and a smoking terrace.
Doors at noon, but live tables do not start until 2pm — the latest live-gaming start of any casino here, so an early evening plan works and an early afternoon one does not. It sits between the Natural History Museum and the V&A.
Members only
Two Mayfair clubs where the door is the whole point. Neither takes walk-ins, and neither publishes a price for anything.
Les Ambassadeurs
5 Hamilton Place, W1J 7ED · Hyde Park Corner 4 mins · members and their guests
A members-only gambling club for the premium player — the club’s own description, and the most famous private gaming room in London. It occupies one of the finest Georgian houses in Mayfair, on a quiet corner off Park Lane.
Sixteen tables fill the main floor, running roulette, blackjack and three-card poker, with private gaming rooms behind them and a fine-dining restaurant for time away from the tables. Gaming is available at any hour of the day or night.
You cannot decide to go on the night: members book, and nobody walks in off Hamilton Place.
Wynn Mayfair
27–28 Curzon Street, W1J 7TJ · Green Park 7 mins · members and their guests
A rare piece of good news on a street that also lost Crockfords. Private salons run baccarat, blackjack and roulette, and the feature that makes it unlike anything else in London is that gaming is also available on an open-air rooftop terrace.
There is a bar doing cocktails and small bites, and a dining room for members and their guests. Over-18s and members only, and hours are not published — so there is nothing here to book on spec.
Closed, and worth saying so
The section other guides leave out, and the reason people still turn up at dark doors on Curzon Street.
- Crockfords, 30 Curzon Street — closed permanently. Its operator’s own page carries the words “Now Permanently Closed.” It had traded since the 1820s, which made it Britain’s oldest casino.
- The Ritz Club, 150 Piccadilly — closed. The casino in the hotel’s basement ballroom shut in 2020 and never reopened. The Ritz’s own website no longer carries a page for it.
- The Clermont Club, 44 Berkeley Square — closed. The Georgian townhouse club that gave Mayfair its gambling reputation shut in 2018, reopened briefly, and closed again.
Napoleons has no London venue, despite frequently appearing in London casino lists — its own site covers Bradford, Hull, Leeds, Sheffield and Manchester only.
Play safely
The house has an edge on every game in the building. Decide what you are willing to lose before you go in, and treat it as the price of the evening rather than a stake.
The National Gambling Helpline is free and open 24 hours a day: 0808 8020 133 in England and Scotland, 0808 2819 265 in Wales. It is run by GamCare, which also offers live chat. GambleAware has a self-assessment, a spend calculator and a finder for free local support.
If you want the decision taken out of your hands, SENSE is the industry’s national self-exclusion scheme: one application excludes you from every licensed land-based casino in Great Britain for a minimum of six months, and you can enrol at any casino reception.
What to know
- Check a casino is still there before you go. Three of Mayfair’s grandest rooms have closed since 2018, and several are still listed as open by other guides.
- The hours are not what the sign says. St Giles and Bayswater run croupiers only from noon to 6am, Genting Cromwell Road from 2pm, and the Palm Beach and Chinatown from 1pm.
- Bring photo ID even if you are visibly forty. The Empire asks everyone after 9pm, Stratford asks everyone at the door, and the age limit covers the bars and restaurants too.
- Put your phone away on the gaming floor. Photography is prohibited and phone use at the tables is prohibited.
- Check the wheel and the blackjack payout. One zero costs you 2.7%, two costs 5.26%. Blackjack at 3:2 is the best bet in the building; 6:5 is not.
- Cheap is genuinely cheap. £1 live roulette at Stratford, £2 roulette at Horizons, 10p electronic roulette at Grosvenor, 1p slots — and every table posts its minimum.
- For a non-gambler, the Hippodrome is the visit. Seven floors, nine bars, two restaurants, three roof terraces and a theatre, free to walk into, at any hour of any day but Christmas.
Continue planning your London trip
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- 🎪 The Best Cabaret in London
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- 🗺️ The Mayfair Area Guide
This guide is independent and contains no paid placements. Every venue was checked against its own website on 2 September 2026. Hours, minimums and door policies are the venues’ own published figures and can change without notice — the sign at the table is always the authority.
Common questions
Do you need to be a member to go to a casino in London?
Not for most of them. The Gambling Act 2005 abolished the old rule requiring casinos to operate as clubs with a 24-hour membership wait, and the big West End rooms now advertise free entry with no membership. Grosvenor will still sign you in at reception on a first visit, which takes a couple of minutes. The Mayfair private clubs — Les Ambassadeurs and Wynn Mayfair — are the exception and admit members and their guests only.
What ID do you need for a London casino?
A passport or a photocard driving licence. Every operator runs Challenge 25, so if you look under 25 you will be asked. The Empire in Leicester Square goes further and asks every customer for ID to enter after 9pm, and photo ID during the day even if you are only visiting a bar. A photograph of your passport on your phone will not do.
Can you take photos inside a London casino?
No. Genting's terms prohibit cameras and any device for taking photos or footage without prior consent, and bar phone use at the gaming tables, at the machines and in the card rooms. Assume the same applies everywhere — the reasoning is identical at every venue. Ask a host before photographing anything, even in a bar.
Is there a dress code for London casinos?
Smart casual, and far less strict than people expect. Grosvenor says there is no need to dress like James Bond. The Empire and The Sportsman both allow jeans and trainers as long as they are not scruffy, and the Hippodrome has no set dress code at all. What gets refused is specific: sportswear, football shirts, vest tops, caps and soiled clothing.
What is the cheapest casino to play in London?
Horizons in Leicester Square is the only West End room that publishes its table minimums — roulette from £2, baccarat and three-card poker from £5, blackjack from £10, slots from 1p. Genting Stratford runs £1 live roulette, and Grosvenor's electronic roulette starts at 10p a bet. Every table carries a sign stating its minimum.
How many zeros are on the roulette wheels in London casinos?
British casinos overwhelmingly use single-zero wheels — 37 pockets, and a house edge of 2.7%. A double-zero American wheel has 38 pockets and a house edge of 5.26%, nearly twice as expensive for the same bet. Confusingly, several London casinos advertise American roulette, which in Britain usually describes the table layout rather than a double-zero wheel. No London casino publishes the house edge on its own tables, so count the zeros on the wheel before you sit down.
What blackjack rules do London casinos play?
The British norm is blackjack paying 3:2, the dealer standing on soft 17, four to six decks, and no hole card — the dealer does not take a second card until every player has finished. Played with basic strategy that is a house edge of around 0.5%, the best odds on the floor. Watch for tables paying 6:5 instead of 3:2, which costs you several times more for the same hand and is signposted on the table.
Can you go into a London casino without gambling?
Yes, and several are worth it for that alone. The Hippodrome has nine bars, two restaurants and a theatre across seven floors. The Empire's sports bar runs around the clock. You still need to be over 18 and carrying ID, because the age limit covers the whole building rather than only the gaming floor.
