The New Jersey online casino scene has a couple dozen brands that are available, and some of them are obviously going to be better than others. However, Virgin Online Casino is one option that offers a pretty good value and a solid selection of titles with software that’s very flexible no matter how you want to play.

This makes it a good fit for a lot of players who want to get in on the action.

It’s an easy site to get started with, but like all other brands within this jurisdiction, you can only play there if you are physically located inside of New Jersey at the time.

A Brief History of Virgin Online Casino

This site was launched in the first quarter of 2014, and it was released under the Tropicana AC license. Each online site in New Jersey has to be operated under the license of an existing land-based operator, and that’s why they’re tied to the Atlantic City Tropicana.

Since opening their virtual doors, this establishment has had a steadily increasing level of popularity, and they have an advantage of being one of the earlier sites that received a license, so they’ve had longer to build trust and a strong reputation.

About the Business

The Virgin Online Casino is owned by two groups. The first is Virgin Group, which is where the popular logo and naming of the site comes from. The other is Gamesys, an extremely popular online casino software company based out of the United Kingdom that has built their reputation for a long time.

What you get from this is that they have a joint venture with two companies that are both particularly well-known and that have super solid reputations in business in general.

Bonuses and Promotions

The promotional approach at Virgin Online Casino is different than most. Their entire structure is based more around rewarding players who stick to their brand instead of offering a big welcome package upfront.

New Player Promotions

Most online casinos offer some type of first deposit bonus, but Virgin Online Casino does not. Instead, they offer two main specials for new players:

  • A free, no-deposit bonus
  • A $100 cash back reward

Anyone who qualifies for the no-deposit bonus can get a pretty good deal. It only requires a 1x play-through, and that can be completed on any game. The value can vary depending on the time of year, however, but something in the neighborhood of $30 is normal.

For the cash back reward, however, not everyone will apply. You need to meet one of two sets of criteria to get this $100 promotion:

  1. If you put in a minimum first deposit of $10, and you lose more than 90 percent of that, then you can claim this $100 promotion within seven days.
  2. Alternatively, if you lose an amount that is less than 90 percent of your first deposit, but you still aren’t able to turn a profit, then you can still claim this offer within seven days. However, if you lost less than $100, then you will receive the amount of your losses instead.

This is a solid enough offer, and it gives you what basically amounts to a rebate on your losses worth up to $100, which is not a bad deal.

Ongoing Promotions

There are a number of special offers that rotate through so that they aren’t usually offering the same thing from month to month. Here are examples of some of the types of specials they run:

  • Happy Hours – These are period of time, usually around lunch and in the evenings, where players can earn bonuses just by playing their favorite titles.
  • Prize Drawings – They give away cash, electronics and other types of goodies, and you gain entries based on how much you wager in real money play.
  • Destination Trips – Twelve times a year, they will have different types of competitions based around each month where you can win a big trip to somewhere like Cancun, Iceland or anywhere else you want to go.
  • Deposit Bonus Promotions – These are usually on the lower end in terms of percentages with deals from 15 percent to 50 percent matches being common. To compensate for this, the play-through requirements are typically really, really low compared to what’s usually seen in the industry.

All-in-all, there’s a lot to get excited about here, but they definitely step outside of the box compared to what you’ll see on the international level as for as casino bonuses and promotions go.

Software and Platforms

Since Gamesys is one of the actual owners of the site itself, it’s not hard to imagine that their software is used here as well. However, that’s not all that they have to offer on the software front. They also have games from top-tier companies like International Game Technology and Net Entertainment.

Each one of these software providers is among the best that the industry has to offer, and to have them all in the same place in the New Jersey market is a pretty big deal.

All of the available games from these providers (and others) have been brought together into one cohesive software package that makes it really easy to play what you want, when you want.

Playing From PCs and Mac

Virgin Online Casino is available for play on both PCs and Mac computers. This is because their entire playing interface requires no download at all. Instead, you can play straight through your web browser and get in on the action from programs like Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome or any other browser that has HTML5 integration.

All you’ll need to do is sign up, navigate to their website, log in and pick out the games you want to play. You can make these titles go full screen or simply play them within the browser window, which also makes it possible to have multiple games on the screen at the same time in different windows or on different browser tabs.

Playing From Mobile

Your experience playing on mobile will be a bit different than playing from a computer. A part of this is the fact that only a couple of dozen games out of their catalog are set to work with mobile devices.

With that said, these games are compatible with virtually everything out there from iOS to Android, Blackberry and other types of devices.

Their mobile selection includes slots, blackjack, roulette and video poker, so there’s still a good amount of variety within that number. Moreover, the games run just as well on their mobile platform as they do when playing from a computer, so there’s no loss there.

Something else worth noting is that you can manage everything about your account from a smartphone or tablet through their mobile platform. That’s really convenient, and it includes everything from handling bonuses and promotions to changing your account information to contacting the support team.

Slots

Between 200 and 300 total slots are available at this casino, and they generally have a number of new games available each year. Something worth mentioning is that this number is actually on the lower end of the available range for New Jersey-licensed casino sites, and that’s something to keep in mind if you really like an overwhelming variety in the slot area.

If you’re familiar with the software offering for companies like Net Entertainment and Gamesys, then you should probably curb your expectations a bit in terms of the total number of games. This is because the full libraries for these providers aren’t available at this or any other NJ online casino site. This has to do with the terms of the licensing and the specific (and honestly somewhat odd) specs that they have as requirements for allowing slots to run in the state.

With that said, they do have a progressive online slot in the Wonderland title, but most of the bigger progressives you may know through providers like NetEnt aren’t available.

One game that is really worth mentioning in particular here is Tiki Totems. This is a title that is exclusive to the Virgin Online Casino, and it’s the only place online in New Jersey or anywhere else that it can be played.

Table Games

A pretty balanced set of table games and other titles can be found here. They cover a variety of genres, and this gives players a pretty strong level of choice when it comes to picking out what appeals to them the most.

Roulette

A pair of standard roulette games are available here in the usual selection of double-zero American roulette and a single-zero version that’s similar to European roulette.

Unfortunately for players, the single-zero version has a high minimum bet size that the double-zero version does not have, which makes this a bad choice for low stakes roulette fans.

Outside of that, there’s nothing else to really know about their selection of roulette tables.

Blackjack

With a handful of blackjack games, this site gives you a decent amount of depth to choose from. The selection includes a standard single-deck game, a standard multi-deck game and a few others based on location names: Atlantic City, Vegas Downtown and Vegas Strip.

One thing to know about the single-deck blackjack game, which otherwise has favorable rules, is that the dealer is not dealt a card face-up. This means that no checking for blackjack happens, so it’s like playing a no-peek version of the game with all of the strategic adjustments required for that.

The best game in terms of payout rate with correct play is Atlantic City blackjack, which makes sense considering the location of the casino itself.

Video Poker

A few different video poker games are available with Deuces Wild, Jacks or Better and Bonus Poker being the main options. There are versions of these games where you can play three or five hands as well, and they’re worth noting because they have solid payout rates and don’t suffer from the usual drop in pays that you sometimes see when going from a single-hand game to a multi-hand one.

Deuces Wild is the best option here with a little more than a 99.7 percent payout rate with correct play, and it’s an incredibly strategically deep title.

Other Games

A solid variety of other non-slot titles can be found here.

In fact, this is actually one of the few New Jersey-licensed casinos to have a craps game.

Two types of keno games are available, and they also have the really simple Hi-Lo table game. For players who like a bit more action on the card game side, both Pai Gow Poker and Baccarat can be played.

It’s worth noting that this Baccarat game is not an EZ Baccarat variation like what you find in many online casinos that removes the commission. This is a normal style of Punto Banco that includes the 5 percent commission on certain winning bets.

Banking Options

There’s a really good selection of deposit and withdrawal options. Something really important to note is that, like all online casinos licensed in New Jersey, you can actually deposit or cash out from the cage/cashier at the site’s corresponding casino.

For Virgin Online Casino, you can visit the cage at the Tropicana Casino to make in-person deposits and withdrawals.

For players who prefer to keep it all electronic, there are instant electronic checks as well as the Skrill electronic wallet. Mastercard, Visa and other debit and credit cards can be used as well, and they are some of the most popular banking options available overall.

Generally speaking, withdrawals are always paid out via the option that the player used to deposit. Also, it’s important to note that due to PayPal’s general policies about funding online gambling in the United States, it’s not available as an electronic wallet option at this casino (or any New Jersey online casino sites).

Support and Customer Service

Something really great about how this casino is handled is that they’re super serious about providing good customer service. You can contact the support team via any of the following methods:

  • Email
  • Telephone
  • Web-based live chat (available 24/7/365)
  • FAQ system

It’s important to note a couple of things about the support system at Virgin Online Casino. First, all of their customer service staff members are actually working from inside of the state of New Jersey, so you’re not going to be handled by someone who doesn’t actually have immediate experience of what’s going on.

Second, they have support options that are available around the clock. This means that you’ll be able to get assistance with any kind of issue no matter when you’re playing.

Conclusion

With the Virgin Online Casino in New Jersey, you’re getting an established brand with a very good reputation and super strong customer service. They may not have quite as large of a game selection as some of the other New Jersey-regulated options, but they have plenty to keep the vast majority of players in the game as much as they want.

FAQ

Can I play at Virgin Online Casino from outside of New Jersey?

No, you cannot. Their license requires that they block anyone who isn’t physically within the borders of the state. Moreover, using a VPN or other similar setup to play from somewhere else is illegal, and they have some pretty in-depth ways to catch people who do this.

How does this site stack up to others available in New Jersey?

They’ve been around longer than almost all of them, so they definitely have an edge when it comes to reputation and a history of showing how they will take care of players.

With that said, they also have a somewhat smaller game selection than average from within the state, and some of their table games have much higher minimum bet sizes than what you may find somewhere else (their single-zero roulette game being a good example with a $10 minimum wager).

Which is the best way to contact customer service?

This really depends on what you prefer and what you need to accomplish in contacting them. For general inquiries and questions or feedback that aren’t really urgent, we recommend using the email option.

However, if you have something that you need a response on right away, then the live chat or telephone options are much better since you’ll get what you need without having to wait on an email reply.

Which Virgin Casino's banking options is best?

This is something that depends on you as an individual. If you want to make a trip to the cage at the Tropicana to pay in cash, which is convenient if you play there occasionally, then that will be fine for you. Alternatively, if you’d rather pay over the Internet, then any of the electronic wallets or card options will work fine for you.