My Experience with Hard Rock Bet
Overall Product Rating & Key Takeaways
Hard Rock Bet Online Casino has received high ratings both our users and ourselves. They were very near in rating, as well, with users rating it 4.5 stars and our experts rating it 4.6 stars. Through my testing, I can confidently say that I believe those high reviews to be accurate.
The Hard Rock Bet experience begins with a unique welcome bonus, part of which offers Bonus Spins. This alone is a great kickoff, but what makes it even better is that the Bonus Spins pay out in cash, and no further playthrough is required. Beyond that, I thoroughly enjoyed the relatively new rebrand, which, aside from changing the name from Hard Rock Casino to Hard Rock Bet, also introduced a streamlined, enjoyable, and thoughtful website design and integration. Hard Rock Bet is fully licensed and regulated by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, ensuring a safe and secure gaming environment.
Furthermore, I really appreciated the gameplay process, beginning with instant deposits and stretching through play all the way to some of the fastest withdrawals available from any online casino, with most withdrawals taking one hour or less. I’ll talk more about my experience with banking at Hard Rock Bet in detail later in the review.
Overall, there was a lot to like and not much to dislike in my testing, and as you’ll see that positive opinion is reflected throughout this review.
Pros & Cons of Hard Rock Bet
When taking a look at every aspect of an online casino, Hard Rock Bet included, there’s a lot to cover. That’s why I like to start my reviews with a simple pros and cons list. This provides a great way to call out the best pros and the worst cons without having them get lost in the detail of the rest of the review.
Pros
- Extremely fast withdrawals.
- Generous Bonus Spins offer that pays out in cash.
- Semi-frequent free entry promotions (free wheel spins, free giveaway entries, etc.).
- Relatively recent rebrand that improved all aspects of the experience.
- Daily jackpots that must drop by 10 p.m.
Cons
- High 20x playthrough on some bonuses, such as the welcome deposit match.
- Large number of excluded games for many promotions.
Where I Found Hard Rock Bet Available
Currently, Hard Rock Bet Online Casino is only available in New Jersey. Luckily, I conducted my testing in New Jersey, so I had no issues accessing any part of the site.
Although it isn’t available in any other states at the moment, expansion is undoubtedly possible. Hard Rock Bet is soon expected to take the spot of the shuttering SI Casino in Michigan. Beyond that, further movement into other states is certainly possible but has not yet been mentioned. For the latest new online casino openings in various states, you can check out our new online casinos page.
Navigating Hard Rock Bet: My Impressions of the Platform
Both the desktop site and the mobile app benefited greatly from the site’s rebrand to Hard Rock Bet, quickly making it one of the snappiest and most attractive looking online casinos on the market. I dove into every nook and cranny to see how the experience holds up across the entire site and app.
Desktop Experience
As briefly mentioned above, the Hard Rock Bet Online Casino desktop experience is fast, intuitive, and attractive. The black/dark purple color scheme evokes feelings of evenings spent in classy yet hip casinos, and the fast navigation and common-sense layout only add to the experience.
From the homepage, it’s easy to find exactly what you want. At the top, you have an integrated sportsbook for players who enjoy both online casinos and sports betting, followed by the main navigation bar on the left of the page. The modern platform shows off right off the bat with nice customization, including a personal welcome message, a row of promotions that might interest you, and games split into various categories.
There’s even the ability to hop back into the last game you were playing on the bottom left of the screen. If I had one negative here, it’s simply that I think it would make more sense to have the “Discover” section that holds the main categories of “All Slots,” “Promos,” and “Card & Table.” I find that these categories are wide-ranging and make more sense at a higher level than some of the more arbitrary categories listed above them, such as “Hard Rock’s Picks” and “Atlantic City.” That being said, I do feel that all the categories on that navigation make sense overall and create some nice opportunities to discover games you may not have otherwise.
As you can see from the above screenshot, some navigational elements simply open in slide-outs, never fully taking you away from the page you’re on. One example of this is the above-pictured Promotions slide, which is able to be sorted into all promotions, casino-only, or sportsbook-only. It’s worth mentioning here that I appreciate the semi-frequent free entry promotions available on Hard Rock Bet, like the free spins promo in the screenshot. Most casinos don’t offer no-deposit/no-wager bonuses for existing players, instead saving them for welcome offers only, if offered at all.
The category pages are clean and fast, with some tiles even featuring animation. What I appreciate the most here, however, is the advanced filtering provided at the top right of the page. Here, I was able to sort games by popularity, alphabetical order, minimum bet, or maximum bet. I was also able to filter by game provider and a ton of themes (Adventure, Ancient, Detective, Fruit, Magic, Space, and more). I also noticed that the theme filtering allowed me to filter by the mechanic, such as Megaways. This is the best filtering feature I’ve come across from any online casino, and makes it so easy to find precisely what you’re looking for.
Overall, the desktop experience was extremely enjoyable for me through and through. I came across no issues and actually found my time between games to be enjoyable rather than tedious or frustrating.
Mobile App Experience
The mobile app is equally as impressive, featuring some of the highest ratings I’ve seen of any online casino app. It currently holds 4.9 stars with 211K+ reviews on the Apple App Store and 4.7 stars with 44K+ reviews on the Google Play Store.
As you can see in the above screenshot, the layout is very reminiscent of the desktop experience. One thing I didn’t like about the mobile app, however, is some slight differences in navigation. For example, when I went to the “All Slots” tab, I expected to see all the slots in a grid pattern, like on the desktop site. Instead, I found rows of slots sorted into various categories. One thing I loved, however, was the fully customized “For You” section on the app, which showed lists of my latest played games, rewards that I’m eligible for, and more. This truly showed off the modernity of the app platform.
Exploring the Games: What I Found & What Stands Out
| Hard Rock Bet Casino | DraftKings Casino | Caesars Palace Online Casino | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slots | 2,630+ | 2,000+ | 1,720+ |
| Table Games | 90+ | 110+ | 55+ |
| Live Dealer | 60+ | 60+ | 45+ |
| Specialty Games (Originals, Bingo, etc.) | 5+ | 10+ | N/A |
| TOTAL: | 2,785+ | 2,180+ | 1,820+ |
Slot Games
Hard Rock Bet has one of the larger slot selections available at online casinos, sitting at over 2,600 at last count. What impressed me more than the sheer number of games, however, was the variety within. All the classics are here, including Cleopatra, Bonanza, and Fortune Coin, but there was plenty more on offer.
There are about 20 exclusives, the majority of which are branded Hard Rock, such as the above Hard Rock Pork n Roll slot (New Jersey natives may notice it’s not named Hard Rock Taylor Ham n Roll). Of course, you’d expect to see pop culture and music-themed slots here, but the catalog takes it to the next level with even more customized Hard Rock-themed slots.
Beyond that, there’s an entire category of daily jackpot slots, which feature large progressive jackpots that must drop by 10 p.m. every day. Through my research, I couldn’t find out the exact amount that these jackpots are seeded at, but it appears to be high as they were already over $40,000 just after 10:30 a.m. on the day of my testing. All in all, there’s plenty of variety here for players to enjoy. And, I’d be remiss not to mention the advanced filtering and sorting options one more time, as these genuinely allow players to find games they’ll love.
Table & Live Dealer Games
There are also plenty of table games available to players, sitting at over 90 options when I counted. These featured basic games, including blackjack, roulette, and all the classics you’ve come to expect, but they also include excellent variations that allow you to play the way you want.
One such example is the above-pictured Hard Rock Bet Penny Roulette. It seems like any other roulette game at first glance, but it features a minuscule $0.01 minimum bet, which is hard to find anywhere else. This is especially true at land-based casinos, where roulette table minimums may be at $5 or even $10. Other table game variations include side bets and unique rules that create more exciting gameplay and even, in some cases, increase payout potential.
Hard Rock Bet also features a respectable slate of over 60 live dealer games, ranging from typical table games to gameshow-style games, such as Crazy Coin Flip and Adventures Beyond Wonderland. This selection also includes three Hard Rock Bet exclusive blackjack tables, which are provided by Playtech and feature exclusive Hard Rock branding throughout the games.
Does Hard Rock Bet Offer Games You Can’t Find Elsewhere?
As briefly mentioned above, Hard Rock Bet does have a decent slate of exclusive games, but I will say that the selection doesn’t come close to sites that make exclusives one of their primary focuses, such as DraftKings Casino. That being said, I was happy with the selection and think that it was a higher-quality list of exclusives, being that they were mostly custom Hard Rock-branded rather than simply being early-release exclusives or games that will shortly be found available on other platforms.
I found the exclusives all had something specific to offer, whether it be the $0.01 minimum bet of Hard Rock Bet Penny Roulette or the uniquely humorous rock n roll theme of Hard Rock Pork n Roll. Much like most other sections of the site, I believe the exclusives were carefully curated and thoughtfully implemented.
Specialty Games
There are a select few specialty games available, which I found easily by sorting the slots section by “Arcade” theme. These included a couple of LuckyTap games, but beyond that, mostly featured slots that just seemed normal in format, in my opinion.
