What the Door Staff Will Ask

Eighteen is the line, twenty-five is the prompt

Under the Gambling Act 2005, nobody under 18 may enter the gaming area of a casino, and a venue that lets them in commits an offence. Staff therefore work to Think 25, also called Challenge 25: if you look under 25 to them, they ask for proof of age, and charm will not do instead.

Three documents are accepted: a passport, a photocard driving licence, or a card carrying the PASS hologram. A bank card, a hotel key card or a photo of your passport on your phone will not get you in. If someone in your party is over 18 but looks younger, make sure the real document travels with them.

Three ways past the desk

The casinos on this site admit people in one of three ways, and each hotel page says which one applies there.

• Walk in. No membership, no sign-in; you show ID only if asked. This is how the Genting and Metropolitan/Alea venues work.
• Sign in once. On your first visit you complete a free, one-time sign-in with photo ID, and later visits need no formalities. This is the Grosvenor arrangement.
• Register every guest. Everyone in the party is registered before entry, on every visit. The Palm Beach works this way.

Alea Glasgow is the one gap: its operator publishes no entry policy. The complex that houses it states no membership and Challenge 25, and that is what its hotel page repeats.

Dressing for the gaming room

Dress codes belong to the casino operator, not to the hotel, and most are relaxed: smart casual covers the usual evening. Some operators say standards vary by venue or by event, and one says it prefers long trousers to shorts. Each hotel page quotes what the operator publishes. Where it publishes nothing, so do we, and the desk can tell you on the night.

Manners on the floor

• Arrive clear-headed. A casino must refuse entry or service to anyone who appears drunk, whatever the hotel bar poured earlier.
• Leave the camera in your pocket. Photography on the gaming floor is normally not allowed. Take your pictures in the lobby.
• Phones away at the live tables. Dealers usually ask that phones stay off the table while a game is in play; step aside to take a call.
• Expect a glance at your bag. Some venues may check bags on the way in.

A refusal you can ask for

The door can keep you out as readily as it lets you in. SENSE is the national self-exclusion scheme for land-based casinos in Great Britain. One enrolment covers every participating casino, so you are refused at all of them, not only the one beneath your hotel room. You can enrol at a casino reception or through the SENSE scheme itself.

Your room key is not a pass

The hotel and the casino are separate businesses. Booking a room does not sign you in, register you or vouch for your age, and the casino applies its own admission rules to hotel guests exactly as it does to anyone arriving from the street. Nothing spent at the tables goes on your room bill, either.