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The Golden Nugget Casino is ready to immerse you in pure slot bliss with almost 1500 of today's most thrilling games. From penny slots to $100 games that can truly change your life, you'll have your pick of single game progressives, wide-area progressives, video poker, traditional reels and video slots loaded with fun and exciting bonus games.

Introduction

Owned and operated by Landry's Restaurants, Inc., the Golden Nugget is the largest and probably most desirable casino/hotel in downtown Las Vegas. Golden Nugget Casino was built in 1946. In the 1970's, a hotel tower was added, and over the years, it has gone through a couple of renovations and a few different owners.

Steve Wynn became the Nugget's majority shareholder in 1973, beginning his rise as a major player in the Vegas casino/resort industry. He created Golden Nugget Companies, which eventually became Mirage Resorts. In 2004, Wynn sold the Golden Nugget to Poster Financial Group. In 2005, the sale of the property to Landry's Restaurants, Inc., the current owners, was complete.

Located directly on The Fremont Street Experience, Golden Nugget is in the center of the downtown action. It's got a more classic, “Old Vegas” feel than the strip properties, but it is elegant and upscale rather than being tawdry and cheap. It's opulence stops just short of tackiness.

In December 2009, the Golden Nugget plans to open a new tower of hotel rooms as well as more gaming space and restaurants. During my visit in early July 2009, there was quite a bit of construction going on.

Gambling

The property boasts 38,000 square feet of gaming space and has more than 1,200 slots and video poker machines. Table games at the Nugget include blackjack, craps, roulette, pai gow poker, Three-card Poker, Let it Ride, Super Fun 21 and Texas Hold'em. I noticed some non-smoking tables scattered throughout the casino.

Poker

Newly opened, the poker room at The Golden Nugget offers 10 non-smoking tables. They provide daily poker lessons at 10:00 am, and they have 5 daily poker tournaments with a $65 dollar buy in and one optional $40 re-buy.

Player's Club

24 Karat is Golden Nugget's player club. I had to wait in line about 15 minutes to apply for and get my card. When I checked in to the hotel, I was given a coupon book. One of the coupons was for a chance to “spin and win” some free play when I opened my new player club membership. I've never been lucky with those kind of things, so it didn't surprise me when my spin resulted in the lowest free play amount: $5.00. If I were luckier, I might have secured the $10, $20 or $100 amount.

To use the free play, I had to hunt down machines in the casino with a special sticker on them. I went around the gaming floor twice and found just 2 banks of slots with the stickers. I settled into a machine and promptly gave them back their $5. Later, I noticed the video poker machines on the bar tops accept the free play, too.

Hotel

The Golden Nugget currently boasts 1,915 rooms and suites in three towers according to its Website. 14 years ago, when I was vacationing in Las Vegas, I stayed in the hotel's south tower. I recall the room being large and comfortable with a great view of the mountains. Since then, some of my friends and family have stayed at the Nugget, and their experiences were positive. When I reserved my north tower room for $74, I had high hopes. I decided to stay in the north tower since the property's Website said it was nicer. Apparently the north tower rooms were upgraded and remodeled fairly recently, and they offer a pillow-top mattress, which is not the case in the south tower. Additionally, the north tower rooms are reported to be larger.

I did find the room to be plenty large, as well as tastefully decorated, and the king-sized bed to be plenty comfortable. The upgraded pillow-top mattress was dressed with a down comforter and down pillows. The bed and pillows were very soft and wrapped around my tired body nicely. The sheets, which are advertised as Egyptian cotton, seemed a little on the scratchy side, though. And the pillowcases on a couple of the pillows were worn through in some places.

Directly in front of the bed, mounted on the wall over a large dresser, was a 42” plasma TV. One of the first things I noticed when I entered the room was how big the TV was. I think I even let out an audible “whoa!”

The rest of the room was furnished with a couple lounging chairs, 2 bedside tables, a tall table (tall enough for eating your room service breakfast at), a desk and chair, and a vanity and chair. There are plenty of chairs! The vanity, with a lighted vanity mirror, is located just outside of the very small bathroom. While it has what you need, sink, toilet and tub/shower combo, and it is nicely decorated with marble floor-to-ceiling tiles, its small size was a turn off. When the large bathroom door is open, your access to both the toilet and the shower is obstructed. The towels were, like the sheets, a little on the scratchy side. The bathroom was clean overall, but the tub needed some fresh caulk in some of its crevasses.

So I entered the room with high hopes, and it didn't quite live up to my expectations. It was nice enough, but it wasn't really all that special. And when I first entered the room, I was greeted by an unpleasant musty smell. As my visit went on, either I became immune to the odor or it dissipated. Either way, it only bothered me for the first few minutes I was in the room.

So, here are some other details about the room:

• Küdo's Spa made the shampoo, conditioner, soap and lotion I found in the bathroom.
• The closet contained a safe, an iron and ironing board, a hair dryer, a luggage rack (another rack is in the main part of the room) and 2 lovely robes with the Golden Nugget insignia.
• A clock radio was on one of the bedside tables.
• There was decent lighting, mostly via lamps spread about the room.
• There wasn't a TV in the bathroom, but the way the mirror in the bathroom lined up with the mirror on the room's closet allowed me to clearly watch the TV in the bedroom while I spruced myself up.

The check-in line was long and moved slowly – it took me about 20 minutes to get through the process. I had to go back later, as the clerk who checked me in failed to give me the coupon book that came with my Internet special reservation. The coupon book was big and pretty impressive (worth going back for). Here are its contents:

• Two offers for buy one get one free breakfast or lunch buffets (Monday through Friday only)
• $5.00 off lunch or dinner at Grotto (Italian restaurant)
• Up to $8.00 off at Carson Street Café
• Complimentary desert with entrée purchase at Carson Street Café
• $5.00 of a ticket to Gordie Brown Live
• Five different drink coupons to the Nugget's various bars/clubs
• $10.00 off any spa service at Spa and Salon at the Golden Nugget
• $10.00 off any salon service at Spa and Salon at the Golden Nugget
• The spin-and-win free play offer I mentioned earlier
• $10 in free slot play once you earn 500 points in the 24 Karat Club
• $10 match play
• $60.00 in chips for a $50.00 buy-in in the poker room
• 10% off a retail purchase
• $5.00 off one entrée at any Landry's Restaurant
• 15% off Budget car rental through the hotel

Restaurants

The dining selections at The Golden Nugget include:

• Vic & Anthony's: Steakhouse
• Grotto: Italian
• Lillie's Noodle House: Chinese/pan-Asian
• Red Sushi: Sushi
• Carson Street Café: American
• Buffet: Buffet
• The Grille: Sandwiches, burgers, etc.
• Starbucks: Coffee and pastries – there are two Starbucks located in the Golden Nugget

Buffet

The word on the street is the Buffet at Golden Nugget is good but expensive for downtown. I've heard the Main Street Station buffet is just as good, and it costs less.

I decided to have breakfast at the buffet, so I could take advantage of the buy one get one free coupon in my book (my husband and 2 year old son came down and joined me). The food was the usual buffet breakfast fare. The buffet is located on the second level, and you get to it by taking an escalator out of the casino. The dining room is set up well enough; it's pretty big, but even if you're seated in the back corner like we were, you don't have to walk very far to get to the food. The service was poor. Our waitress was slow when it came to clearing our used plates, and she seemed bothered by having to get us a second round of drinks. I was sorry I had tipped her on my way in, as she didn't deserve the generous amount I had pledged.

The food was fine – nothing extraordinary, but it was certainly tasty, and there was a good selection. I liked that they had two omelet stations, but I wish they'd had more fresh fruit. My husband and little boy were both very happy to find they had hard serve ice cream ready to scoop out at 9:00 am.

Buffet Prices

• Monday – Friday, Breakfast (7:00 – 10:30 am): $9.99
• Monday – Friday, Lunch (10:30 am – 3:30 pm): $10.99
• Monday – Thursday, Dinner (3:30 – 10:00 pm): $17.99
• Friday – Sunday, Seafood & More Dinner (3:30 – 10:00 pm): $20.99
• Saturday – Sunday, Champagne Brunch (8:00 am – 3:30 pm): $17.99

Lillie's Noodle House

For dinner the night before, I went to Lillie's Noodle House. Tucked away from the casino, near the south tower elevators, Lillie's is a small and beautiful restaurant. I was thoroughly impressed by the contemporary Asian décor. In particular, I enjoyed gazing up at the exquisite red glass chandeliers and found myself mesmerized by some stunning, backlit artwork on the wall. The light would change from red to blue to green and back to red again, and with each change, the art would take on a different feel/mood.

The food at Lillie's was impressive, too. I had two very good pieces of ahi tuna nigiri sushi and loved that the dollop of wasabi on my plate was shaped like a leaf (it's the little things in life that thrill me). For my entrée, I savored a large plate of chicken chow mien. The noodles were soft, the sauce was mild, the veggies were tender crisp, and the chicken was to die for. I don't usually get all that excited about chicken, but this was probably the most tender and moist bird I've ever had. The entrée portion was more than I could finish, but I made sure I ate every last piece of the chicken.

I was satisfied with the service at Lillie's. My server was charming and very attentive. My dinner bill, before tax and tip, was $20.99, which seems good considering the quality of the food and the pleasantness of the surroundings. I'd eat there again.

Carson Street Café

I didn't get to the café during this visit, but when I stayed at the Golden Nugget way back when, I had several meals there. From what I recall, the portions were large, the food was good, and the prices were fair.

Pool

Referred to as The Tank, the pool at the Golden Nugget is probably one of the most interesting and fun in town. It's certainly the best pool downtown. What makes it so special? It's built around a shark tank and it has a super cool, three-story water slide that zips you through that tank and dumps you into the water. The pool itself is donut-shaped, with the shark tank in the middle. It's a large pool that can easily accommodate a ton of bathers. The deck around the pool, however, isn't so spacious. We arrived at the pool at 10:10 am on a Friday morning. It had opened at 10:00, but in just those 10 minutes, nearly every chaise lounge had filled. We had to search high and low (literally, since there are 3 levels to the pool) to find two together. When we left a little over an hour later, we hadn't even packed up our belongings before someone claimed our spot. I walked around a bit before I left, and I did find a handful of empty chaises on the third floor in the “adult only” sunbathing area, however.

While we were there, a good portion of the sundeck was in the shade. Since it was nearly 100 degrees, I don't think too many people were complaining. Since the pool is in a courtyard, surrounded by the casino and the hotel towers, I'd have to assume you can find a corner with some shade at just about any time of day.

If you don't want to have to fight for a chair, and if you want to be assured of some shade, you can rent a private cabana. The pool boasts 7, and they will cost you $175 Monday through Thursday or $250 Friday through Sunday. I recently spent a lazy Sunday afternoon in one of The Tank's cabanas (was there for a friend's 30th birthday party). I found the cabana to be nicely spacious and well appointed. There were plenty of chairs and chaises, a refrigerator, a flat screen TV and a ceiling fan. The cabanas are located on the 2nd and 3rd floors of the pool area. This location makes for fun people watching from above, but you have to take the stairs (or the waterslide) to get down to the pool.

The hot tub and h30, the pool bar, are probably my favorite areas of The Tank. They're located on the 1st floor, near where the waterslide spills out. While the rest of the pool area closes down at 8:00 pm, the bar and hot tub stay open until 2:00 am. It's a nice place to hang out and relax into the evening, and there is a gorgeous fire pit to keep you both warm and entertained. Also open late at the pool are 4 blackjack tables, complete with beautiful, bathing suit clad female dealers. While you have to be a hotel guest to use the pool, they will let nonguests in to gamble and to patron the bar.

Entertainment

• Gordie Brown Live: I saw Gordie Brown a couple years ago, when he was at The Venetian. I have to assume his show is pretty much the same, perhaps with the addition of some more current pop-culture icons and happenings. He's a singer/comedian/impressionist, and a very good one at that. I found his show entertaining, but his brand of act isn't really my first choice for an evening out – I'm more a Cirque du Soliel or Phantom of the Opera kind of gal. I would recommend him, though, especially since his tickets are so reasonably priced. According to The Golden Nugget's entertainment page, Gordie takes the stage at 7:30 pm Tuesday through Saturday. Tickets start at $39.95.
• Clubs and Lounges: Gold Diggers is the property's nightclub. Its best feature is a 2nd story outside deck that offers fantastic views of Fremont Street Experience and the Viva Vision light show. I spent a little time at Rush, a lounge just off the casino. It's a contemporary, comfortable bar with a friendly staff. I was really wowed by the live entertainment – Frankie Moreno Band. During my short visit, the band belted out spot-on covers of classic tunes. I was particularly impressed with their cover of Johnny Cash. Also on property, in the casino, are Claude's Bar and the International Beer Bar.
• Bowling: No
• Cinema: No
• Bingo: No
• Shopping: There are two retail outlets: Style and Trend (mens' and womens' clothing) and Perfect Timing (watches) as well as a newsstand near the south tower elevators and a small pool shop at The Tank.
• Golf: The golf concierge can set you up at a course, but there is not a golf course in close proximity to the resort.
• Spa: Yes — The Spa and Salon at Golden Nugget is located in the Spa Tower.
• Childcare: No
• Wedding Chapel: Yes

Odds & Ends

Just off the Golden Nugget's main lobby, you'll find “The Hand of Faith,” a 61-pound golden nugget, on display. It was discovered by an Australian dude wielding a metal detector around his hometown. It is the biggest golden nugget in existence and cost the Golden Nugget over $1 million to procure – that's one lucky Australian dude.

The Golden Nugget does not offer coin-operated laundry, but there is a laundry service you can use out of your room.

There are no mini-bars in the north tower rooms, but there was a $4.00 bottle of Fiji water on the vanity. Ice machines are on every floor. Vending machines are in the south tower only.

The Golden Nugget does not operate any free shuttles to the strip or anywhere else.

You are not charged a resort fee at the Nugget, so things like Internet and phone calls from your room are a la carte. The charge for 24 hours of Internet (wired or wireless) is $12.99. Local and toll free calls are billed at $1.00 for the first 30 minutes and $.15 for each additional minute.

My Conclusions

I checked into the Golden Nugget with lofty expectations, and though my visit didn't quite live up to those expectations, it was pleasant. I enjoyed my two meals, got a stiff complimentary rum and coke while I did a little gambling, and I slept comfortably in my big room with the soft bed. I would've liked a roomier bathroom and some softer towels and sheets, and I could've done without the musty smell that initially greeted me, however.

I think the pool is outstanding, but unfortunately so does everyone else. I try to avoid crowds, so I would probably be happier in a less busy, less exciting and less cool pool where I can easily find a chair.

One thing that did exceed my expectations was the Viva Vision light show on Fremont Street. I stepped out of the Golden Nugget twice to take it in. The first show, at 8:30 pm, was a somewhat corny effort to “take the audience back to the summer of '69.” It was lively but lacked pizzazz, I thought. That's the impression I've always gotten from the Fremont Street's light shows. But the 10:30 pm show, a tribute to Queen, was awesome. I don't know if that particular musical genre was more appealing to me, or if I was just more excited by the spectacle after my rum and coke (whole lot of rum, little splash of coke), but I really got into it. I keyed in on the quality of the sound system and the intricacy of the overhead light screen. It really rocked!

Location

The Golden Nugget is located downtown on Fremont Street between 1st Street and Casino Center Drive. Across the street is Binions, and nearby are, among others, Fitzgerald's, Plaza, Golden Gate, Main Street Station and Four Queens Casinos. Right outside the casino doors is the famous Fremont Street Experience. Fremont boasts shopping (mostly of the souvenir and convenience store variety), restaurants and attractions. You're also close to many Las Vegas Chapels. The Deuce bus, which runs up and down Las Vegas Blvd. and will take you to the strip, can be boarded a few blocks to the northeast of the Golden Nugget.

Getting There

By car, take I-15 to I-515 S/US-93 S/US-95/S. Use Exit 75B to merge onto N. Casino Center Blvd. Take that south a few blocks, passed Fremont Street, and find the luggage drop and check in on your right. To get to the self-park garage, turn right on Bridger Street then Right on South 1st Street. The garage is on the left.

You should have little trouble finding a cab or an airport shuttle that can take you to the Golden Nugget from McCarran International Airport. Because it is further from the airport than the strip, however, it'll cost you a little more to take a cab or airport shuttle to/from Golden Nugget and other downtown hotels/casinos.

Links

Contact Information

Address: 129 East Fremont Street, Las Vegas, NV 89101
Phone: 702-385-7111
Web site: goldennugget.com/home.asp

Resort and Parking Fees

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WCI is not affiliated with Golden Nugget NJ Casino and is providing an unbiased review only.

Players Accepted: New Jersey ONLY

The Golden Nugget online casino is one of the three regulated online casinos in the state of New Jersey that are owned by the Golden Nugget Atlantic City Casino. These guys won the Operator of the Year award from iGaming North America for the last THREE years in a row, so it is clear that they are doing something right. You won’t have to worry about the possibility of your money disappearing on a fully licensed gambling site such as Golden Nugget since they have a plethora of payment methods that are both 100% legal and secure.

Golden Nugget online casino is known for having the largest selection of games out of all New Jersey-regulated casino sites. They are also known for having extremely high returns on their games, especially when it comes to slots, which return an average of 95%.

In this review, we will attempt to understand what Golden Nugget has in store for their players by examining every feature of this online casino to see how they stack up against their competition and find out if they are still the king of New Jersey like they were last year.

Reputation of Golden Nugget

The Golden Nugget is strictly regulated by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement which was established back in 1977. The whole goal of the DGE is to protect the public by maintaining a legitimate casino industry free of cheaters, unfair software, or organized crime.

The only instance we could find where ANYONE questioned the decision-making abilities of the DGE was when they canceled a live brick-and-mortar poker tournament due to one of the players introducing fake chips mid-tournament. When it comes to online casinos, however, there have been no major complaints about the way DGE governs them.

State investigators for the DGE watch over the daily casino operations of the Golden Nugget Casino, and if any criminal disputes arise they have the New Jersey State Police at their disposal. They also have a Technical Service Bureau which audits and evaluates all of the games and payout tables to make sure everything is operating with integrity. With these facts in mind, we feel extremely comfortable saying that the Golden Nugget is a safe place to gamble on the internet due to its highly regulated nature.

Software and Client at Golden Nugget

If you wish to access the Golden Nugget casino software, you just need to visit their website from any web browser. From there you will be able to log into your account and play any of the 533 total games that they have to offer without downloading anything. These games were made by well-known software developers such as NetEnt, Bally Technologies, WMS Gaming, IGT, and Aristocrat. Other notable software providers include NextGen, SHFL, HSG, Spin, Slingo, Konami, and Everi.

One of the coolest features we found when examining the software on Golden Nugget is that when you click on the “Options” button in the middle of any game, you have four different levels of graphics to choose from. This gives those players who don’t have a fast computer a chance to play the games too by lowering the graphics level to low or medium. This setting is automatically set at the 2nd highest level of “High”, so you will need to manually change it yourself if you want to see the “Best” graphics level in action.

Another great aspect of the software Golden Nugget utilizes is that it allows you to practice many of the games for free, without wagering real money. All you need to do is hover your mouse over any game of your choice and then click on the “Demo Play” button. The only catch is that this feature is not available for the Live Dealer games, which is understandable since it doesn’t make much sense for them to pay dealers to run play money games.

Slot Games at Golden Nugget

Slot Providers: Aristocrat, Konami, Spin, H5G, Everi, Slingo, NextGen, IGT, NetENT, Bally, WMS
Number of Slot Games: 478

Nearly 90% of the options in the game library of the Golden Nugget can be categorized as slots, which is to be expected given their massive popularity. The main attraction of their slot games selection is that the average return percentage is around 95% which is very high compared to slot games in unregulated online casinos.

One of the interesting subsections of the slot games is the “Steppers” category which comes with an average player rating of about 3.5 stars. These ten games are much like other slot games except that there are multipliers on the outer reels in addition to stacks of multipliers on the inner reel. This means that there are going to be some massive wins available if you land all of these multipliers at once, which adds a little bit of excitement to these games.

In addition, if you are interested in winning a large amount at once in a high variance game, you can try one of the five slot games that have a progressive jackpot attached to them. These five games include titles such as Captain Nemo, Millionaires Club III, Rags to Riches, Gong Xi Fa Cai, and Divine Fortune, with the jackpots ranging anywhere from $11,000 to $490,000 at the time of this writing.

Table Games at Golden Nugget

Primary Table Games Offered: Blackjack, Roulette, Let It Ride, Three Card Poker, Baccarat
Primary Table Games Not Offered: War, Caribbean Hold’Em, Pai Gow Poker, Mississippi Stud

It appears as if Golden Nugget has eliminated some table games recently such as Pai Gow Poker and Mississippi Stud, but they still have a very wide table games selection compared to other New Jersey-regulated online casinos with a total of 34 games. The strength of Golden Nugget in this category clearly lies in the roulette and blackjack games since these two make up more than two-thirds of all the table games.

Baccarat at Golden Nugget

Types of Baccarat Offered: No-Commission Baccarat

The only version of baccarat you will find outside of the Live Dealer games is No-Commission Baccarat which has a 4-star player rating. As a word of caution, this variation gives the casino a higher house edge than usual when you make the banker bet. Therefore, we recommend anyone who enjoys making this bet to play in the Live Dealer variation of baccarat instead. For more information on the Live Dealer baccarat variation, please check out the Live Dealer section below.

Blackjack at Golden Nugget

Types of Blackjack Offered: Classic Blackjack (2), Blackjack Pro Multi-Hand Low, Blackjack Pro Multi-Hand, Multi-Hand Blackjack, Blackjack Pro Atlantic City Single Hand Micro, Blackjack Pro Atlantic City Single Hand, Blackjack Pro Atlantic City Single Hand VIP, Sidebet Blackjack, Vegas Blackjack, Blackjack Micro Limit (2)

There are 12 different blackjack games to choose from on Golden Nugget and most of the player ratings on these games are between 3 to 4 stars. The RTP that you can expect will range from 99.5% to 99.6% which means that the games are not that much different as long as you know the proper strategy. However, we recommend avoiding the IGT game named “Blackjack” due to its outdated graphics and the plethora of other options to choose from.

The only thing that they seem to be missing is a single-deck or double-deck blackjack variation, but overall this selection of blackjack games is very impressive. However, one of the games is listed as “New” so it appears that Golden Nugget is still actively working to improve their blackjack collection.

Roulette at Golden Nugget

Types of Roulette Offered: American Roulette (2), European Roulette (2), Roulette Advanced, Classic Roulette, Roulette Master, Double Bonus Spin Roulette, 3-Wheel Roulette

There are seven different roulette games to choose from and the two most popular ones known as American Roulette and European Roulette are listed twice. The minimum bet that you can make each round is $1 while the maximum bet is a whopping $1,000 per round.

We were especially intrigued by the Double Bonus Spin Roulette which has a bonus feature that allows for up to 2 extra free spins whenever the bonus feature is triggered. This game also boasts a higher-than-normal 98.06% return percentage while the other roulette variations are all returning between 94%-97%.

Video Poker Games at Golden Nugget

Video Poker Games Offered: Double Double Regal Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker (2), Five Play Draw Poker Multi-Hand, Triple Play Draw Poker Multi-Hand, Jacks or Better (2), Deuces Wild (2), Deuces Wild Elite, Tens or Better, Regal Poker, Double Regal Poker, Regal Poker Deluxe, Aces and Faces, Jester Poker, All American Poker, Double Bonus Poker (2)

Out of all the New Jersey-regulated online casinos, Golden Nugget is certainly in the running with Caesars Casino for the best video poker selection. These 21 games were created by some of the most well-known software developers in the nation, including IGT GameKing and KGM/Spin. Most of these games allow you to bet between $0.01 and $50 per hand, while the Aces and Faces game allows a maximum bet of up to $500 per hand.

IGT GameKing is the company that makes most of the video poker games you see in brick-and-mortar casinos and, thanks to their relatively generous pay tables, the return percentages are generally between 98%-99.5%. According to player ratings, these are the most preferred video poker games since the top four scores in this section of 4.5 stars were all given to IGT games.

Specialty Games at Golden Nugget

Specialty Games Offered: Virtual Cars, Virtual Horses, Virtual Motorcycles, Virtual Soccer, Virtual Greyhounds, Empire Action, Fireball Action, Slingo Extreme, Slingo Fortunes, Slingo Riches, Slingo Showdown, Slingo XXXtreme, and 12 Scratch Cards

There are 24 specialty games to choose from which include 12 scratch cards, seven bingo games, and five virtual sports games. The player ratings are 3-stars for most of these specialty games except for Virtual Soccer which has a player rating of 5-stars.

The return percentage that you can expect from the bingo games is between 95%-96% but the volatility for some of these games is listed as extremely high. You can bet anywhere from $0.02 to $100 per bingo card.

The return percentage that you receive from the virtual sports games will range between 83% and 95%, depending on your betting habits. You will be able to wager anywhere from $0.50 to $250 per virtual event.

The scratch cards will only return between 90%-93% of wagers to players, which is even lower than the slot game returns are. However, you can bet as low as $0.01 per scratch card if you wish, in which case these cards are probably worth the entertainment value.

Live Dealer Games at Golden Nugget

Live Poker Games Offered: Casino Hold’Em, Blackjack (5), Roulette, Multiview Roulette, Baccarat, Casino Floor Roulette

Back in August 2016, Golden Nugget decided to add the first Live Dealer games out of all of New Jersey’s regulated online casinos. Much like the table games section, the Live Dealer games are also dominated by blackjack and roulette. The player rating on all of these games is 4 or 5 stars, so this is clearly one of the most enjoyable experiences you can find on Golden Nugget.

The strange thing about these games is that they do not all operate on a synced schedule, they appear to be spread out all over the place. The only game which operates 24 hours a day is the Casino Floor Roulette games, while other games will generally only operate between 7-15 hours a day.

The RTP that you can expect from these Live Dealer games range from 95% to 99%. The max bet is $2,000 for most of these games, except for Casino Hold’Em which imposes a $250 max bet. The minimum bet for all of these games is set at $1 except for a couple of the blackjack games which require you to bet at least $25-$50.

Mobile Games at Golden Nugget

As long as your iOS or Android device has Wi-Fi and GPS both enabled, you will be able to download the Golden Nugget casino app. This app is completely free to use although you will not have access to their entire game library from your mobile device.

Many of the slot games and video poker games are available on the mobile app but there is a serious lack of table games such as roulette or blackjack. However, ALL eleven of the popular Live Dealer games are mobile-compatible, which we did not expect to see.

Sign-Up Bonus at Golden Nugget

The very first deposit you make onto Golden Nugget is going to come with a one-time 100% match deposit bonus of up to $1,000. All you need to do is select the offer from the “Available Bonuses” section of the deposit screen and make a minimum deposit of at least $30 in order to be eligible for this bonus.

Other Promotions at Golden Nugget

Even though the list of promotions is pretty small on Golden Nugget it is important to remember that they run a ton of seasonal promotions that expire quickly. We have not included those seasonal promotions on this list due to their low turnover time, but we felt the need to mention them in order paint a clear picture of how much Golden Nugget cares about promotions.

In our opinion, they should add in a VIP Club with more tiers and maybe a few more deposit bonuses to round out this decent selection of bonuses that they offer year-round.

Refer-A-Friend Bonus

If you have some friends who like to do a little bit of gambling, it might be time to refer them to Golden Nugget so you can claim the $50 Refer-A-Friend bonus. To start off, you will need to visit their webpage for this promotion here. After you fill in your account information and your friend’s full name you simply need to send that friend the referral link at the bottom of the page and click on the “Submit” button.

In addition to the usual sign-up bonus, your friend will also have the option of claiming a 100% match deposit bonus of up to $50 on their second deposit.

Play+ Instant $10 Bonus

There are a lot of advantages to depositing money using the Play+ banking option including $1 cash back on deposits of $100 or more, instant transactions, and no deposit fees whatsoever.

In addition to all of these perks, Golden Nugget is giving a $10 bonus to anyone who signs up for a Play+ account. The only downsides to these cards are that there is a $2 charge on ATM withdrawals and there is also a $2.95 per month fee that begins after a year of inactivity.

$500,000 Race

This exciting promotion features a weekly, monthly, and yearly leaderboard with very lucrative prizes for players who play the most on Golden Nugget. By playing in the casino games often, you will earn more Golden Points than other players and climb your way up the pay table.

The top three prizes on the yearly leaderboard are worth $30,000, $15,000, and $12,000 while the top 25 places will all get paid at least $1,500. For the monthly leaderboard, the top three spots will be paid $5,000, $3,000, and $1,500 while the top 589 spots will get paid at least $2. The weekly leaderboard is predictably the tamest of them all since the two highest finishers only get paid $500 and $100 while the rest of the top ten finishers will get $50.

Golden Rewards Player Club

You are automatically signed up for this club once you make a real money account on Golden Nugget and you can then begin to accumulate Golden Points. The most common way to accumulate these points is to play in the casino games, but you can also earn them by making deposits or opting into special promotions. The going rate for 100 Golden Points is $1 and you can redeem them by simply visiting your account cashier and clicking on the yellow “Redeem” button.

The pace at which you earn Golden Points in casino games all depends on what type of game you are playing. For example, wagering $100 on slot games will earn 5 Golden Points while wagering $100 on every other game will only earn 1 Golden Point. There is also an addition 10 Golden Point bonus for each individual day that you placed a real money wager.

The pace at which you will earn Golden Points through deposits all depends on how much money you are depositing. For example, if you deposit anywhere from $50 to $99 you will receive 20 Golden Points while a deposit of $100 or more will reward you with 40 Golden Points each time.

VIP Rewards Club

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Once you have earned at least 3,000 Golden Points you will automatically gain entry into the VIP Rewards Club. This club features awesome perks such as weekly cash back bonuses, surprise VIP happy hours, and free rooms, meals, or event tickets at Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City.

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After you have achieved entry into the VIP Rewards Club, you can begin to try and gain entry into the VIP Elite Club by gambling even more. This club is invitation-only, but once you get in you can enjoy all the perks of the VIP Rewards Club in addition to a personalized VIP Account Manager, specialized holiday or birthday gifts, and faster withdrawal speeds.

Bonus Terms and Conditions at Golden Nugget

The sign-up bonus comes with a relatively easy playthrough requirement of 10x the amount of the deposit plus the bonus. For example, if you deposit $1,000 to get the full bonus amount of $1,000, then you will need to wager $20,000 before you can withdraw any funds.

The wagers that you make will contribute differently towards the playthrough requirements depending on which game you are playing. Wagers on most slot games will contribute 100% while any other game will contribute 20%. This is great news for blackjack or video poker players because in most other online casinos these games will only contribute 5% or less due to the small house edge.

If you do not wager or make a deposit for 90 days in a row, Golden Nugget will void all of the Golden Points sitting in your account. We recommend redeeming these points for dollars as often as possible to avoid any problems.

Customer Support at Golden Nugget

Customer Support Options: Live Chat, Email, Telephone

There are three ways to get ahold of the customer support team at the Golden Nugget. This is completely standard for an online casino to have three methods, but the only way to know how effective they really are is to test them out.

The instant you create an account on Golden Nugget and log-in you will be contacted by a Live Chat specialist. If you wish to get ahold of Live Chat any time after this you can click on the red “Chat Now” speech bubble in the lower right-hand corner of their webpage. Their Live Chat response time is under 3 seconds most of the time, so this should be your go-to method for contacting customer support.

If Live Chat is not working or not your preferred method of contact then you can just give them a call at 855-582-5117. We gave this number a test run on a busy Friday afternoon and we were talking to a human representative within 5 seconds of waiting.

Finally, if you wish to contact them in the slowest way possible you can always send them an email at support@goldennuggetcasino.com. There is really no reason to use this method since the gap in response time will be massive compared to the other two contact methods.

Deposit and Withdrawals at Golden Nugget

Minimum Deposit: $10
Maximum Deposit: $100,000
Deposit Methods: Play+ Prepaid Card, Visa Card, Mastercard, VIP Preferred E-Checks, PayNearMe, PayPal, Neteller, Online Bank Transfer, Bank Wire, Cash at Casino Cage, Golden Nugget Safekeeping
Withdrawal Methods: Play+ Prepaid Card, VIP Preferred E-Checks, PayPal, Neteller, Check via Mail, Cash at Casino Cage, Golden Nugget Safekeeping, Bank Wire

There are 11 different ways to deposit money on to Golden Nugget. This impressive list includes a number of bank cards, e-wallets, cash options, and pre-paid cards, so there should be no problem finding a method that works for you. The best aspect of these deposit options is that they all come with no fees attached!

The minimum deposit limit for every deposit method is between $10 and $20, which is great news for low rollers who want to splash around with a few bucks. The maximum deposit limits vary quite a bit since the PayNearMe limit is set at $500 while the Cash at Casino Cage method will let you deposit up to $100,000 from the cashier cage at the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City.

Normally, every deposit option at an online casino will complete your transaction instantly, but Golden Nugget has two deposit methods which will work a little slower than that. If you deposit money using the PayNearMe method at your local 7/11 store, your funds will be available within 30 minutes of completing the transaction. If you deposit using the bank wire method, you will need to wait 5-7 business days before your deposit appears in your Golden Nugget account.

Once it is time to withdraw some of your funds, you will have a total of eight options to choose from. Just like with the deposit options, none of these withdrawal options will charge you any fees which is always a huge plus in the online casino world.

The minimum withdrawal limit for each of these options is between $10 and $20, with the exception of the checks which require a minimum of $300 and the bank wires which require a minimum of $500. The maximum deposit limits range anywhere from 10k for the check by mail, Neteller, or Safekeeping methods to an unlimited amount for the bank wire method. It is also noteworthy that you can withdraw up to $100,000 in cash with the Cash at Casino Cage method which puts it firmly in second place in that category.

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When it comes to withdrawal speed, nothing can be faster than the lightning-quick nature of the Golden Nugget Safekeeping, Neteller or Play+ Prepaid card methods. The Cash at Casino Cage method is instant as well, but you have to travel to the Golden Nugget Casino in Atlantic City first. The slowest withdrawal methods by far are the check by mail which takes up to 3 weeks to receive, and the bank wire which takes 5-7 business days to receive.