I've been hearing some buzz for a while now about the new Slots Club Casino, so I decided to log on and see for myself what all the fuss was about. The fuss, it would seem, is very well founded – it's about the live dealers.

Live Dealers

Okay, I should emphasise from the outset that this is not a site for people on dial-up. To get the best experience out of Slots Club, you need a fat broadband connection, with lots of bandwidth at your disposal.

The reason for this is simply that Slots Club's biggest draw is their live dealer games. If you have never experienced a live dealer game over the Internet, the concept is this: a regular game of roulette or blackjack or any table game you happen to enjoy, but instead of rendered computer graphics, you are looking at a live video stream of a real dealer running a real game.

You can talk to the dealer via a chat box, or through the microphone of your computer's headset - the experience is extremely interactive, and because of the live video stream of the game, it's as close as it's possible to get to actually being at a casino.

But, like I said, it chews bandwidth. But when you consider the experience you will be getting, it's entirely worth it, in my opinion. If you are a casino fan, you should at least check this out – the coolness factor is very high.

No download

Surprisingly, there isn't any software to download or install. Both the regular games that Slots Club offers, as well is the streaming video games, all run inside of a customised flash-based web page.

It seems to be particularly well optimised because despite the level of bells and whistles, it doesn't bog down your system. I have a fairly average Dell laptop, and I had no trouble at all, so kudos to the companies that built it - I gather both Net Entertainment and Evolution Gaming had a hand in it.

Casino games

In terms of games, obviously the big excitement is around the live dealer games. These are all traditional table games including Roulette, Blackjack and Baccarat, plus many others. Definitely give them a try.

Beyond that, though, Slots Club provides a great selection of more traditional computer-based gameplay. As the name suggests, there are a whole slew of great video slot titles, including five that have progressive jackpots.

Also expect to find excellent Caribbean Stud, Casino Hold'em and Red Dog, amongst many other excellent card games. There's also wide variety of different video poker games, including Joker Wild, Deuces Wild, and Jacks or Better.

Slots Club Banking

Slots Club accepts most of the usual suspects when it comes to banking - credit cards, bank wire transfers and alternative methods such as Moneybookers, NETeller, ClickandBuy, Click2Pay ... all of these are most welcome. It's worth noting, however, that Slots Club's target market is unashamedly European, and as such it operates exclusively in euros - no dollars or pounds will be accepted here.