Galacasino Poker Review
Gala is one of the most recognisable and trusted names in gaming in the UK, operating brick and mortar casinos across the UK for over a decade and operating over 140 Gala bingo halls across the country. After it's merger with Coral Eurobet in December 2005 GalaCoral group became a top 100 company in the UK with immense expertise in the gaming sector. Galacasino is part of Gala Interactive which was formed in Gibraltar in 2011 prior to and instrumental in the relaunch of GalaCasino.com and GalaBingo.com.
Galacasino poker offers everything you would expect from a well regarded brand; great software, great bonuses, a great choice of games, and excellent customer service. Galacasino runs the Playtech platform and the poker room now makes up part of the iPoker network after recently switching from Ongame. Consequently you get the benefit of a player pool in the tens of thousands (with an average daily peak of around 7,000 players making ipoker currently the second biggest network for traffic after PokerStars), state of the art software and an excellent graphical interface. Promotion wise Gala themselves offer great incentives, tournaments and competitions just for Galacasino registered players.
Galacasino Poker Sign Up Bonus
The traditional sign up bonus is a whopper - with 200% up to $2000 on offer for first time depositors, as well as automatic entry into a $500 first time depositors freeroll.
To release the sign up bonus you need to accumulate Gala Status Points - and you accumulate 20 points for every $1 you rake. The bonus is then triggered as follows;
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The first 20% of your deposit amount will be released to cash in your account at a rate of $1 for every 50 status points earned playing poker
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The next 30% of your deposit amount will be released to cash in your account at a rate of $2.50 for every 150 status points earned playing poker
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The remainder of your bonus amount will be released to cash in your account at a rate of $5 for every 400 status points earned playing poker
The first redemption rate is limited to $20 cash released and the second redemption rate is limited to $30 cash released and the remainder of the bonus will released at the third redemption rate of $5 for every 400 status points earned.
Galacasino Poker VIP program and Promotions
The loyalty program offers VIP points, which accelerate with multipliers as you reach higher and higher levels - ie: the points you earn enable you to reach new VIP levels and with each new level the amount of points you earn per $1 of rake is multiplied. Accumulated points can then be exchanged for cash. One interesting feature of note here is that regardless of which currency you play in (dollar, euro or sterling) the requirements to earn each VIP point are the same - something most other ipoker skins don't offer.
Galacasino also offer plenty of special promos on tournaments and sit and go's with new promos starting all the time. A current promo is the SNG "High Gear Leaderboard Challenge" which rewards players who string together the best block of 15 consecutive SNG's. There are three cycles to play in between May and October with a total of $150k up for grabs with weekly prizes given to those on the three leaderboards (which one you're in depends on the stakes you are playing. There are also steps tournaments where from as little as $0.16 you can play to earn a $215 entry into the weekly $200k guaranteed event (or if you choose to bail out before reaching the final step you can redeem your token for a variety of other tournaments). There are also a variety of "Jackpot" sit and go promo's (including "Maui", "Fort Knox" and "Dirty Dozen" where players can win big prizes by winning consecutive SNG's (the amount depends on the individual promo and number of consecutive wins required).
As well as the tournaments Gala also offer all the major variants of cash game poker from micro stakes up to nosebleeds and you can also choose to play all manner of casino games such as roulette, blackjack, branded slots and other digital games through the poker client. The games (both poker and casino) can be played both via a downloadable client as well as a browser version.
Galacasino Payment Methods
As a trusted and long standing ambassador of gaming Galacasino offer a multitude of secure payment and withdrawl options; including Visa, MasterCard (Debit or Credit Cards) Maestro, Neteller, Skrill (Moneybookers), PayPal, uKash, Click2Pay, ECO, paysafecard, clickandbuy and Bank Transfer. Other than bank transfers, which may have differing minimum withdrawl amounts, the minimum withdrawl for all methods is just £1/$2. Withdrawals to e-wallets/