The colors take 888 to a new level
When I landed on their website, I noticed the three panels each offering a separate bonus – either for the poker, casino, or sports areas. The color coding was present there but scrolling down revealed subheadings offering information on each area. And yes, those subheads adopted the same colors. This meant I always knew where to look for the information I needed. It made navigating 888 even easier than I thought – something you’ll notice works well too. Those splashes of color continue with payment logos and even social media links – all of which you’ll learn more about in this review.
888 Logbook: what happened so far
- 1997: 888 starts its offer.
- 2013: 888 begins to target the US market with a poker offering.
- 23. JUNE 2021: We updated our 888 test
Countdown: what you can expect from our 888 review
It is clear upon arriving at 888 that this is a website packed with potential and services. While we can see the casino, poker, sport, and promotions menu areas near the logo on the left, far more striking is the presence of poker, casino, and sport buttons on the right – each color coded as mentioned above. Watch for that coding throughout, as it reduces the time you could otherwise spend searching for assorted services on the site.
When you’re in your spacesuit and ready to get out and explore, you’ll see a separate menu appearing inside each of the three chief areas of the site. Finding our way around is something we always pay attention to in our online gambling site reviews. It should be easy to do from day one, and 888 achieves this well enough to raise our 888 rating. The position of the menu varies depending on where you are, with the casino and sports sections making good use of the left-justified design. However, in every case, navigating this multi-use planet is far easier than you may believe, even if you’re a newcomer to 888. I’m going to take you through each area of the site in turn, while also covering various other areas and notable features. By the time we’re done with our 888 review, you’ll know just how to get around and make the most of 888.
Lift-off: get a headstart at... 888 test
There was a lot to explore when I arrived at the 888 site. One of the biggest questions I wanted to answer was is 888 legit? Things looked promising from the beginning owing to the New Jersey label and American flag at the top of the site. Clicking on this revealed a ‘safe to play’ page that highlighted more information about who can use the website. I should make it clear here that the only US players able to legally use the site are those who are physically in the state of New Jersey when making wagers. It is illegal to do so anywhere else.
A quirk of the law means that anyone within the US can deposit at 888 but cannot make any wagers in any parts of the site unless within the limits of New Jersey. So, this tells us that there is a little more leeway than you might think when considering how and whether you can use the site. You don’t need to be a resident of the state, just within its boundaries. Since you can deposit from anywhere in the States, you can deposit while living in New York, Maryland, Tennessee, or anywhere else. If you know you’re visiting New Jersey in the future, you can deposit from home and play while in the state. Worth knowing if you’re wondering whether you can use 888 or not.
Evaluating responsible gaming in our 888 review
Assuming we arrive on the landing page designed to promote all three parts of the 888 site, we may assume – wrongly, as it turns out – that 888 does not have a responsible gaming area to visit. It may not go by that name, but it does indeed meet its responsibilities in this area. If you head toward the bottom of the site, you’ll see a left-justified menu including something called Patron Protection. This opens a new (and long) page covering topics such as:
- Playing responsibly
- Preventing underage gambling (the site is aimed at those aged 21 and over)
- How to prevent kids from accessing the site
- Setting betting limits
- Limits on playing time and depositing funds
They also cover information on risks you might experience while gambling, along with how to identify whether you have a gambling problem. This may only be a single page but the amount of information and guidance there proves that 888 has taken this topic seriously. Finally, you may also spot a tiny green logo at the top of the site… which does also take you to this responsible gaming page.
Banking at 888
How does the site fare in this area? There are some logos displayed at the bottom right of the landing page, so cool your rockets upon arrival and check those out. You’ll find familiar logos including these:
- MasterCard
- Visa
- Online banking
- PayPal
- Pay with Cash
- Cash at Cage
- ACH Payment
However, we wanted to learn more, and we couldn’t see a banking page anywhere. Fortunately, a little detective work helped here, and it really didn’t take long to find what we needed to know. When you reach the bottom of the site, you will see a link to their site map. Select that, and you can view the map on a separate page. Right near the top, you’ll see a whole section covering deposits. A separate area covers withdrawals, so you can learn all you need to know from those pages. Each one has several other pages to look through as well, giving you lots of detail on each method and how it works.
The depositing page tells us that the site accepts credit and debit cards, while also accepting other methods that didn’t appear in the collection of logos. These include Play+ and Discover, for example. They also give full instructions about withdrawals, where time scales can vary between one to two days and up to four days, with the latter applying to bank transfers.
Are there any 888 new customer offers available?
Yes, you can see these on the landing page, with a green-hued box promoting a bonus for the casino and a blue-hued box promoting a similar bonus for the poker area. There is also an introductory bonus for the sportsbook, although this didn’t appear on the landing page. We did find it once we headed into the promotions part of the menu though, so it doesn’t take long to dig it up when we’re sorting through to find the best deals on the planet.
While you can access the relevant promotions no matter which area of the site you’re in, the easiest way to see all of them is to go through the menu link when you arrive. You can choose whether to see deals for a first deposit and whether you need an 888 promo code to claim them. Our 888 review highlights how many deals the site has, and of course, while the quantity can vary, it looks likely they’ll have plenty of them. Is 888 legit? Yes, in all departments including this one. We do like to ask though, as we have with the ‘is 4NJBets legit’ question.
If you see a deal you’d like to claim, select it and you can learn more about it on the following page. It’s best to see whether you need an 888 bonus code to claim it, as you wouldn’t want to miss out. We’ve covered Caesars Casino promo code info in that article, so we can highlight the importance of finding the correct code info if you need it at 888 too. While you get a mix of deals for various parts of the 888 offering on that landing page, you can choose to view the casino or poker areas individually at the end of the page. The best way to view the sports deals is to head for the sportsbook and select promotions from the opening page. We’re not sure why that is slightly different, but it is still an easy path to take.
Is it easy to get some mobile access?
Yes, and we were impressed by the approach to this portion of the site. There are three sections for the casino, poker, and sports areas near the foot of the site, giving us links to social media accounts and logos for the App Store and Android apps. These logos supply us with some massive clues to the availability of mobile play with the site. While you can view the 888 website for the US on your smartphone or tablet, it’s much easier to head to the correct section and download whichever free app you need. For example, you can download the Android app for the casino if you have that device. If you’re eager to try some sports betting and you have an iPad, you can download that app from the app store instead.
One of the most appealing things about this is that you can download only what you need. We suspect many people will only be interested in one, maybe two, areas of the entire 888 offering. With specific apps aimed at Android and iOS users, covering a certain area of their site, it’s far easier to weed out the bits you don’t want and focus on the bits you do want. Top marks for this as we’ve seen similar sites that don’t have any apps at all… or they do but fail to properly promote them. That’s not true with this shining star.
Seeking an FAQ and some assistance
This can be tricky with some sites, and admittedly there was no clear FAQ or help area anywhere on the landing page for 888. However, there were links to an about us page, another one on patron protection, and a third to security and privacy information. We also have the site map link, and that page acts more than any other as a form of FAQ. There are areas on many topics, including how to play, promotions, bonus policy, and plenty more.
You may notice that we haven’t mentioned a contact page. That’s because we could not find one. We spent some time searching the site and finally spotted an envelope inside an orange circle underneath the social media and app links at the bottom of the site. This lets you email them, but we didn’t see any other options to choose from. However, we didn’t accept that, and eventually found help options available from the individual site areas. The casino has a question mark at the top of the page, while the poker section has a help area in the menu. Finally, online help crops up in the 888SPORT menu at the bottom of that part of the site. The help areas are specific to the site area you are in.
In orbit: discover the possibilities at 888
Live betting has some major appeal at 888. The sportsbook has a live betting area where you can find out which matches and events are happening right now. We liked the Starting Soon area too, as this can be useful to find out more about various upcoming matches to bet on. The poker segment offers plenty of tournaments to try out, with sit and go tourneys beginning whenever all the seats are taken. This has a more immediate feel to it, and we think poker players are going to love that. Of course, we also have the live casino area, although there are just a handful of titles in there. We’ll explore these further in our specific casino review further down the page. However, it’s good to see there are live options in all three major parts of the 888 website.
The site has a big social media presence
When I arrived at 888, I took some time to look around, just as we did with our Betfair review elsewhere at PlayersBest. It soon became clear that they not only have social media accounts on the go, but they have also got more than any other multi-use site I have seen. And their links are just as orderly as everything else about the 888 site. At the bottom of the main US-based 888 page, you’ll see those three areas once more – casino, poker, sports. In each case, there are four circular icons representing these four social media channels:
- Facebook
- Twitter
- Pinterest
- Instagram
This means you can access one or more social media sites for the 888 brand, specifically aimed at each of the major services they offer. If you’re not interested in sports and only want to use the casino, you can head for that section and follow them on whichever channels you have an account with. These aren’t merely generic accounts either – they all focus on the USA version of 888, so you’ll get the latest news and insight into each site area from there. It’s the best social media offering we’ve ever seen.
