There aren’t many casinos that are located within a shopping centre, but that’s exactly what you get with the Aspers Casino at the Westfield in Stratford City. There are more than 200 stores inside the Westfield, offering everything from book shops to somewhere you can buy some jewellery, but it is the casino where our interest lies. You will find it on the top floor of the Stratford City Westfield, with the associated Sky Bar and Terrace being accessible from the street level if you’d rather get in without wandering past the shops. It is the only Super Casino in London, helping it to stand out from the crowd.
What Gambling’s on Offer?
As you can imagine from somewhere that is sold as a Super Casino, the Aspers Casino in Stratford City has almost every type of gambling that you could hope for. Open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, it promises free membership to anyone over the age of 18. As you would expect, you will have to prove you’re over 18 if you look under 25 as part of the Challenge 25 system in operation. There are a wealth of different table games available, as well as electronic games such as roulette and, of course, slot machines. If you’re the sort of person that enjoys playing a bet on sports then you’ll be able to do that too.
More Than Just a Casino
It probably won’t come as much of a surprise to you that the Aspers Casino in Stratford City sells itself as being ‘more than just a casino’. Located inside the Westfield shopping centre as it is, it needs to be able to offer something for everyone. As a result, it proudly claims that it is the ‘biggest nightlife venue in East London’, with the interactive shuffleboard experience a big part of that. There are four shuffleboard tables, allowing up to eight players to play a host of interactive games that include SHUFL, Conquer and curling. There is also the terrace bar, which is referred to as ‘East London’s best kept secret’.
The Terrace Bar is hidden on the top floor of Westfield, offering an outdoor area when the weather is good and a quirky, modern look when you head inside. The cocktails available here will delight even to most fussy of tasters, whilst those that prefer their drinks to be a little more regulation can get anything from beers to champagnes, soft drinks to spirits. Head there at the right time and you might experience some live music or a DJ set from some of the best up and coming names in the industry. There is also food available, should you need to line your stomach or get some sustenance before heading back onto the gaming floor.
Poker Room
Ultimately, of course, you’re going to want to go to a casino in order to enjoy the gambling and on that front the Aspers in Stratford City will not disappoint. One of the biggest draws for some will be the casino’s poker room, which promises everything from weekly tournaments through to cash games. The casino itself has been around since 2011 and is still the country’s largest land-based casino, so it is no wonder that the poker room is one of the most popular in the UK. There are 30 tables available inside the poker room, in addition to more that can be used when tournaments are being held and the extra space is needed.
Casino Reviews
We visited the casino on a Saturday night in November, on first appearance; it is fantastic and a real gem for casino lovers, hundreds of slot machines to choose from with loads of different table games, both manual and electronic.
We had a walk around and everyone was having fun, whoops and cheers coming from people winning and it seemed like a great place.
We queued for a while to get a drink, it seemed like the norm as people before us mentioned they were buying multiple drinks as they didn’t know when they were going to get served again.
Sitting at machines, we were surprised that there was no waiter service (this is reserved for table players only, why have so many slot machines if you are not going to value them the same). I was also surprised that tea, coffee and soft drinks were chargeable, I have visited a lot of UK casinos and I have never had to pay for a coke while playing.
We were playing on an old favourite that our local casino doesn’t have any more, the machine we chose was about 4-5 meters away from the entrance to the nightclub (this was not separated at all, no doors and no staff between the two.
After about 10 minutes on the machine, an almightily fight broke out on in the nightclub (right on the threshold), which inevitably spilled out into the casino (causing us and many other people to flee from our machines). I kid you not, I have never seen a fight like it, there were about 10 people involved, bottle and glasses were thrown and one woman even took her belt off and starting attacking people with the buckle end.
This went on for AT LEAST 3-4 minutes before any security arrived. And even then, it was 2 men who then got set on themselves, after another few minutes, more staff arrived and the fight was moved out of the casino.
This place is in desperate need of more security staff and they need to stand between the casino and the nightclub (or section it off with doors), we were allowed in without identification or bag checks.
We won’t be visiting again, which a MASSIVE disappointment as we were so is looking forward to visiting, we travelled all the way from Nottingham just for the Casino. The fight incident soured the whole evening for us, we didn’t go to a nightclub, we went to a casino and expected to have a fun evening gambling with a few drinks. Never again
Visited November 2012
Aspers is the new “supercasino” built in the new westfield. Unlike many other casinos in london (who are either classy and expensive or small and dingy) this casino is big and flashy, and it always seems to be busy – no matter what time of day it is. I actually find it stranger for someone to be in a casino at 1pm than I do at 6am, but I’m guessing they came in to buy some new shoes and nipped in for a quick game of blackjack or a couple of pulls on the one armed bandit.
The casino is quite impressive and seemed to have a large variety of table and slot games. There’s also a bar that overlooks the olympic statdium – it’s worth the trip just to go and have a drink up there!