If you didn’t already know, I’m travelling the length and breadth of the UK in search of its very best land based casinos. For this review, I donned my thick North Face jacket and beanie, packed my Collins Geordie Dictionary, prepped a ham and pickled sandwich, and headed for the North East of England and to Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. 

First up on my visit to the city? Aspers. In this Aspers Newcastle Casino review, I’ll be detailing my full experience, including the customer service on offer and the games provided at the venue. I’ll also discuss what – if any – promotions and perks are provided to players and members that make this their home from home. 

My knowledge of Newcastle is pretty much reduced to the football team/mags, Newcy brown ale, and Paul ‘Gazza’ Gascoigne singing Fog on the Tyne (which gives away my age). I have of course heard the rumour that locals have no concept of outdoor weather temperatures, especially those aged 16 to 30. I figured this was more than enough information to get me by over three days in this area of The North. 

The precise location of Aspers Newcastle Casino is found on Newgate Street, on the first floor of a centre known as The Gate. The Gate complex is a classic leisure and entertainment area that provides everything from cinemas to restaurants. 

Getting to the Aspers Casino in the Chinatown area was a simple case of getting a taxi from the Newcastle train station, which was barely a few minutes’ drive, and could easily be covered on foot. The area on the whole is pretty central, with many sights and draws surrounding it like the Eldon Square Shopping Centre, Tyne Theatre and Opera House, and St. James’ Park football ground.

When it comes to the gaming at Aspers Casino, you’ve plenty of options. It doesn’t take long to find a quality mix of electronic games, including slots for real money. You’ve the classic table games like poker and roulette, and even something very special called the Super Wheel. 

Other table game options include blackjack. Some of the roulette can be played via the electronic machines if there’s no room at the tables. If you want to up your experience, the casino also supplies games of Punto Banco (baccarat) and Casino War, though these are a little more niche.

Poker

For Poker players, Aspers Casino does host poker tournaments and cash game poker, and there’s also a poker cash dash league. This poker league comes with a guaranteed £15,000 prize pot. There’s also Prime Three Card Poker which is an electronic game that comes with a £1,000 mini royal jackpot.

Slots

If you often play the best UK slots online at home, then you’ll be delighted to find a small area solely dedicated to such games here. There weren’t as many as I thought there would be, given the size of the casino and the free space left available throughout the venue.

VIP and Exclusives

The casino doesn’t have a VIP area for high-stake gaming, but there is one special game that I’ve not yet seen at any other Aspers Casino during my travels. The Super Wheel is a wheel-of-fortune-style casino game that is sectioned into seven coloured segments. The aim of the game is to place a single winning bet on one of the segments.

On the gaming front overall, I did think the offering was impressive, and it’s so refreshing to see a casino provide games that aren’t normally available. Giving the players something different like the Super Wheel is always a step in the right direction for me. Sometimes casinos can be too stale in their games, perhaps thinking the classics alone are good enough. But times and people change, and new games are always going to rouse the interests of players. Just look at how successful live casino game shows are doing across UK casino sites.

A 10-second walk from the casino entrance will find you at the Premier Inn Newcastle Hotel, which is where I was staying. But other options are available.

Hours

Aspers Newcastle Casino opens from 12 noon to 4:00am on Monday to Thursday, and on weekends it stays open all hours from noon on Friday through to 4:00am on the Monday morning. I purposefully arrived later into the evening, at a sensible 8:00pm, to capture what is seen to be the casino’s busiest time.

Inside the venue

The casino is a large and stylish venue that houses enough staff to manage a busy Friday night. Once you step beyond the reception area, where you show your ID if you’re fortunate to look young enough, you enter a gaming floor awash with vibrant colour. At the time, the casino was certainly busy. Every table was open and had a dealer managing the game. I spent my first 20 minutes just wandering through the casino in some bizarre awe of mingling with locals and thinking ‘well, this is alright!’.

The casino had recently gone through a revamp, not only updating their Poker Club area but also installing its new Freya’s Bar. 

Food and drink: Freya’s Bar is a spacious area where you can relax and refill. Various live sports are also played on their 4K TV screens. Now, Google tells me that pre-refurb, this was in fact Freya’s Restaurant. I think that tells you a lot about the food offering and how much of a priority it is. It’s fine, but don’t expect sophisticated. I also spotted on the menu that they only really serve snack food midweek. I’m just about happy to say this casino has a restaurant option, but barely so.

Cash machines and withdrawals: The casino does provide ATMs inside, but there were others around the Gate Complex if you wanted to withdraw any cash before going in. In fact, there is also one right outside the front of the venue door. There's a permanently-staffed cashier inside whenever you're ready to trade chips for notes. You can scuttle away with your winnings whenever you like, cash in hand. Not even many of the best casino sites for fast withdrawal can offer that.

Smoking: the designated area to puff away in is outside of the Gates complex. It’s a brief walk, with free air provided. Sadly, the casino doesn’t have its own terrace or anything like that.

There is wheelchair access at the venue, which is made easier by entering via the Stowell Street entrance. Once inside, all gaming areas can be accessed. There are also disabled toilets in the casino and within the wider Gate complex. 

So does the Aspers Casino in Newcastle provide players and VIP members with any promotional offers or discount deals? Does it challenge the realms of the best payout casinos? In the world of online gaming it’s a given to reward players, but on the high street, casinos are known to be somewhat flat in the field of gratuity. 

Aspers Casino Newcastle is a classic example of your typical casino on the high street. Ladies and Gentlemen, when you arrive at Aspers Casino, you can lavish yourself with £4 pints of beer between the hours of noon and midnight. That’s not all, as you can also enjoy a pizza and a pint for £10. Are you yet noticing a theme to all of this?

Am I being too cynical? No. Food and drink offers are great, but they’re not proper player incentives in my view.

Millionaire Maker

There is at least some reprieve, as this Aspers Casino comes with the Millionaire Maker. Yes, as the advertisement goes, one lucky player could walk away with £1M! The game is free to play, and you’ll be entered into weekly draws that take place. That leads up to a Grand Final in London where the jackpot can be won.

Two lucky guests of the Aspers Casino Newcastle will be awarded a Golden Ticket to the finals, along with £250 spending money. For players getting to the final, even if you don’t land the million-pound prize, you will still pocket a fantastic £10,000.

Membership

Now, there is one more subject on bonuses and promotions, and this leads us nicely to the Aspers World Membership. It’s a loyalty rewards scheme that works across all four Aspers casinos in the UK. The membership allows you to earn Aspers World Points that, once accumulated, reward you with special benefits and privileges. Earn as you play across any slot, table, or electronic terminal. Redeem your points for Freeplay Chips and Freeplay Xtra. You can also use the card when ordering food and drink. 

The Aspers Casino membership card comes in three categories, Giraffe, Elephant, and Rhino. The differences are minimal; the only changes are food and drink discount and the free parking - the rest is all the same. 

The Aspers Casino at The Gate in Newcastle comes with exactly the sort of energy I expect from a venue in its type of location. The atmosphere was lively but calm, busy but not packed, and withered out as it approached 10:00pm. 

Given the size of the place and its heavy-footfall location, the casino’s level of cleanliness is pretty impressive. For the three hours I was there, I spotted cleaners zipping around me more times than I could count. 

I didn’t get to try the food as there were no free tables at the time. The menu looked good, offering up typical meals like burgers, steaks, and curry. But I can’t pretend this is a strong suit for this venue – it’s all a little basic. And to be honest, the Gate Complex houses many crowd pleasers like Nando’s, which dare I suggest might be a better pick. 

If you’ve never been to a casino before, then Aspers Casino does provide more than just the basics and will offer enough to impress. And while there isn’t the same level of playing promos as you would find with an online casino, the membership card does give you access to Freeplay if you accrue enough Aspers World Points.

⭐ Standout Moment

Seeing a place at its peak is always enjoyable to me. Friday night here is buzzy and just the right level of busy.

Overall, this casino got all the basics right. When it came to gaming, the dealers handled their tables very well, and in some instances, they got to show their humour and not just stand like robots. The facilities were well-maintained, and the games were in good condition. I didn’t see any seats that were damaged. The staff seemed to care, and the place has a quality look about it.

Would I recommend this casino to other players? I suppose I would but not solely for the casino itself - more for the area. The location is perfect as you are within distance of all that the city of Newcastle has to offer. The wider complex allows you to make an entire day of it, with food, cinema, gambling, and perhaps drinks after – though I can’t say the complex was to my liking, and I prefer a casino to stand on its own two feet. Is it my favourite casino in Newcastle? No. But don’t let that put you off, it’s a good venue. 

Aspers Casino is situated on the first floor of the Gates Complex on Stowell Street and Newgate Street. The former is the closest to the entrance of the casino, while Newgate is more descriptive of where the complex sits. It’s also on Stowell Street where you will find the best place to park – this is the official parking area for the whole complex. The postcode to get here is NE1 4XQ.

Now Stowell Street doesn’t have anything distinctive about it, it's like a large back alley, but it leads out to St. Andrews’ Street to the north and Friars Street to the south. Because this area is known as Chinatown, you don’t have to over-imagine just what kind of shops and restaurants are in this area. If you walk here, as soon as you smell the mouth-watering Chinese food, you’ll know you’re close by.

If you’re travelling in from across the urban area, you can arrive and leave by the closest Tyne and Wear Metro line, which is at St. James. Once there you head out the station, onto Gallowgate, joining with St. Andrew’s Street, and down onto Stowell. It’s roughly five minutes in total.

Those coming from further afield would do well to arrive into Newcastle Central railway station. The casino is an eight-minute walk from here, but you could also use the aforementioned Metro to shorten that distance. 

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