Vanguards Casino Review

We live in a rapidly changing world, one where man and machine are increasingly living together in harmony, and are equally reliant on one another. Those who fear we’re heading for a Terminator type scenario may be alarmed by this- the more we rely on the robots, the more chance they have of realising they might be better off without their organic masters, but from where we’re sitting, for the time being at least, it seems this is actually a beneficial situation.

Vanguards online casino kind of calls that perspective into question, though. When the landing page loads up – which did take some time – you’re immediately confronted with a kind of nightmarish image of the future. A place where the colours are either dark blue, black or a metallic green-blue, a place that feels non-human; all metal and steel and computer chips and circuit boards.

Sharp and Harsh

This may not have been the intention of the developers at all, but this is definitely the atmosphere we felt the moment we saw the casino site with our own eyes. Even the font is rather sharp-edged and unforgiving, the sort of font that implies our days at the top of the food chain are numbered, and our species is soon to be replaced by superior sentient life that does not require stuff like love, or food, in order to survive.

It all sounds pretty bleak, and it is- this is definitely one of the worst first impressions we’ve had from an online casino, ever, as it’s just not very inviting whatsoever. However, you can’t deny the fact that this is incredibly up to date in terms of how it looks and feels, meaning we can expect lots of high tech games inside the website. Or at least you’d hope that would be the case, anyway.

Download an App

As is often the way with online casinos, Vanguards requires you to download an app to your desktop in order to get the most out of your overall experience. Or at least that’s what the information claims (i.e. you won’t enjoy your gambling as much without a download. Sadly, this isn’t something we felt particularly inclined to do because we struggled to warm to the website in the first place, although this is probably more telling of how subjective themes are overall, rather than a real criticism – some people will love the whole sci-fi idea, it really does come down to taste.

Instant Play

Thankfully – if you also find the theme a bit cold – you can play Vanguards via Instant Play, which means you don’t need to actually download anything onto your computer. This is definitely appreciated from our perspective, and ensured we could have a proper good investigation of what’s on offer rather than just skimming over a few menus to try and put this review together.

Do You Want to Play?

...to paraphrase the classic 1980s AI movie. And yes, of course, we do want to play, that’s why we’re here. Sadly, though, Vanguards Casino doesn’t seem to want to play with us, or at least it seems intent on avoiding playing with us at all costs.

Clicking on Instant Play would suggest that you will be given the opportunity to play instantly, but the truth is far from this. You will immediately be redirected (if you have first disabled ad blockers on your web browser) to a page that has zero resemblance to the Vanguards Casino landing page design – this one looks more like a circus or some other fun-filled place, and actually appeals to us more. However, the fact that it is yet to be updated to the new design make this transition jarring, and could potentially put people off as they may think they are being taken to a completely different website, and run a mile for fear of spy ware or other such malicious intent.

If you do stick with it, you still don’t get to easily see what the casino has to offer you. Even clicking ‘Play For Fun’, which would normally bring up all the options of different casino games you can play, actually leads to a prompt to sign up. In this day and age it’s amazing to think that developers can be so shortsighted as to stop you having a real insight into what you can actually play on unless you actually sign up. If those responsible for this site are reading this please understand that other online casinos make the task of finding out what games are on offer simple, so you’re definitely putting people off by opting for this approach. Stop it, please, stop it now!

Not All Bad News

If there’s one area that Vanguards Casino does actually excel in, or perhaps more accurately, hold its own, it’s in offers, deals and promotions. So whilst it may not be very clear what you can gamble on, the deals are spelt out in no uncertain terms on the homepage itself. So everyone receives a $20, no-deposit required welcome gift, which is OK. Add to this a first deposit bonus of 100% bet matching up to $500, 100% up to $250 on the second deposit and a final third deposit bonus of 50% matched up to $250.

The problem is, these aren’t the most generous, and there’s a big risk that the third deposit bonus won’t actually be taken advantage of. On most other websites, the third deposit bonus is equal to, or greater than, the third, because the developers understand you have to work hard to keep people coming back for more.

There are other ways in which those behind Vanguards try and get their repeat custom, but whether or not these are going to work is dependent on your patience for reading plain white text on a black background. In the world of print publishing, this technique is knowns as ‘reversing out’, and is hugely unpopular for large chunks of text because it is so unappealing for the eye.

If you do read the full description, though, you quickly realise there is an ongoing Loyalty Points scheme, whereby you accumulate points and 1,000 of these are worth one currency unity (so that’s £,€, or $). Not exactly bowled over with generosity, while it’s better than a kick in the teeth we’ve seen more enticing deals elsewhere. That said, when you combine this with the casino bonuses, and the cashback system – which works on daily, weekly and monthly cycles- it’s not too bad. Although the cashback system is ridiculously complicated and explained in writing, rather than graphics, which would help you get your head around things.

Vanguards Conclusion

As you may have guessed from the tone of this writing, we’re really not very impressed with Vanguards Casino. It looks quite ugly and dated, despite being themed on the future and sci-fi, but worse still it doesn’t really give you any information about why you would want to sign up for an account, other than the bonuses which are nowhere near as good as others we have come across on rival websites.

The information is, on the whole, poorly presented, with a lack of pictures to explain more complex topics and offerings. On the whole, you could be forgiven for thinking your browser had logged onto a time machine and was giving you a look at what an online casino called Vanguards looked like before it was properly modernised. Not really worth bothering with, then, our best advice is to move on and look for a better alternative than this, which shouldn’t be that hard.