Genting Casino Manchester City Centre Reviewed

Gaming Floor and What Is Actually on Offer

Portland Street is not a boutique side project. The property at 110-114 Portland Street, Manchester, M1 4RL runs as a full-service land-based casino, operating under Genting Casinos UK Limited and supervised by the UK Gambling Commission. Our team looked at it using the same framework we use for other UK casinos: licensing position, game spread, poker, hospitality, and how practical it is to reach and use the venue.

The table lineup matches what you would expect from a mid-to-large city-centre casino. You get Roulette, Blackjack, Three Card Poker and Baccarat on the main floor. Electronic roulette is delivered on roughly 40 terminals, and there are around 56 slot machines in the room - numbers that align with the more recent £1.5 million refurbishment rather than older, pre-upgrade counts. That kind of spend on a single city location is not trivial. It shows the site is being actively managed rather than just ticking over.

The refurbishment was not a quick lick of paint. Gaming areas, bar, and entertainment were all refreshed together, instead of focusing on one and leaving the rest looking tired. In a city like Manchester, where the casino is competing with a whole nightlife scene, that joined-up approach matters more than it might in a smaller town.

Poker at Portland Street

Poker here runs as a proper product in its own right. It is not a token table squeezed into a quiet corner. Cash games are scheduled every day. From Sunday to Thursday, poker runs from 19:00 through to 04:30. On Fridays and Saturdays, the start time moves forward to 18:00, with the same 04:30 finish. That pattern gives after-work players time to get there, while still working for late arrivals who want a full session.

Texas Hold’em is the format used for both cash tables and tournaments. From our perspective, a clear poker timetable is a real point of difference in Manchester, because it offers a structured, regulated environment that home games or some online alternatives do not reproduce in the same way. You might also see it referred to in poker listings as “Genting Club Manchester”, but that is the same Portland Street casino under a slightly altered name.

If you want to sit in on a cash game, the process usually works like this:

1. Get to 110-114 Portland Street during the relevant window - after 19:00 Sunday to Thursday or 18:00 on Friday and Saturday.
2. At the entrance, be ready to show valid photo ID. Entry is strictly 18-plus.
3. Go over to the poker area and speak with the floor manager to register.
4. Check what the current buy-in level is for the table you want to join.
5. When your seat is called, sit down and take chips from the dealer.
6. Play continues until the room closes around 04:30.

Tournament times are more fluid and do not always show up clearly online. If you are planning a trip specifically for a tournament, phone +44 (0)161 228 0077 in advance. It is one of those details that is better confirmed directly with staff than assumed.

Licensing and Regulatory Standing

This casino trades under a premises licence from Manchester City Council, and its details appear in the UK Gambling Commission’s public register. The operating company, Genting Casinos UK Limited, holds a set of active Gambling Commission licences under account number 537. Those cover Casino 1968 Act Non-Remote, Casino 2005 Act Non-Remote, Casino Remote, General Betting Standard Non-Remote, and General Betting Standard Real Event Remote.

The same corporate licence record includes Gaming Machine Technical Full permissions and Linked Gambling Software licences, because the Genting group runs both physical venues and digital products. For Manchester itself, day-to-day premises licensing sits with the local council, while the Gambling Commission provides the national layer of control.

There is one small technical wrinkle. A separate entry titled “Genting Electric Casino” appears in the Gambling Commission database at the same Portland Street location, but with postcode M1 4RJ instead of M1 4RL. That is a licensing formality rather than evidence of a distinct casino. If you see two entries while cross-checking addresses, this is the reason.

Another regular confusion point involves the online “Genting Casino” platform. The website operates under UK Gambling Commission licence number 39326 and is run by SkillOnNet Limited for Kinetic Digital. It uses the Genting name but is legally separate from Genting Casinos UK Limited. In practice, that means the online product and the Manchester land-based casino have different licence holders, different complaint routes, and slightly different regulatory frameworks. Our team highlights this separation because it does matter if you are ever dealing with disputes or player protection processes.

Opening Hours and Getting There

According to the official Genting Casinos site - and supported by the venue’s TripAdvisor entry - the casino opens daily at 10:00 and closes at 06:00 the following morning. Live dealer tables usually start from midday. Those are the hours that should be treated as reliable.

Third-party listings are inconsistent. Some show 17:00 to 03:00, others suggest 24-hour opening. Both versions are off. If you need to time a visit around specific hours, check gentingcasinos.co.uk or call the venue directly. It takes a couple of minutes and avoids the annoyance of arriving to find the doors shut or the tables not yet open.

You do not need to sign up for a membership to get in. Entry is open for anyone aged 18 or over, subject to ID checks. The dress rule is smart casual. Reaching the casino is straightforward by tram: St Peter’s Square stop is roughly a three-minute walk away, and Mosley Street is around seven minutes on foot.

For late-night visits, especially on weekends, our team always suggests a quick call ahead to confirm any last entry time the venue is using at that point. Policies can shift and are not always clearly updated on external sites.

For a first-time visit, the basic flow normally looks like this:

1. Check the current opening hours on gentingcasinos.co.uk or by calling +44 (0)161 228 0077.
2. Travel to 110-114 Portland Street, M1 4RL - St Peter’s Square is the closest tram stop.
3. At the door, have valid photo ID ready in case security ask.
4. Make sure your outfit fits a smart casual standard before you arrive.
5. At reception, ask about any live promotions, poker events or sport screenings that evening.
6. Head through to the tables, electronic terminals, or poker room depending on why you came.
7. Use the bar area and live sport screens if you want a break between sessions.
8. If you expect to be arriving very late, double-check last entry with staff.

Hospitality and the Broader Venue

The casino is not only about chips and tables. There is a bar on site, with live sport shown on screens and karaoke sessions running at selected times. Food and drink service is available, although the full restaurant detail is not heavily promoted in the official material we reviewed. The bar and entertainment angle positions Portland Street as a night-out venue, not just a transactional gambling floor. That direction lines up with how most competitive UK city-centre casinos have evolved since the Gambling Act 2005 softened older membership and access rules.

No membership at the door, late closing, bar and entertainment under the same roof - this is now the standard model for city-centre casinos in the UK, and Portland Street fits squarely into it.

Genting’s central management office is based at Resorts World Birmingham, Pendigo Way, Birmingham, B40 1PU. The group structure matters because it is the mechanism that funds site-level projects like the £1.5 million refurbishment which this Manchester casino has already seen.

What Our Team Makes of It

Across the criteria we use for UK land-based casinos, Genting Casino Manchester City Centre performs solidly and without major red flags. The licensing position is clear and easy to verify via Gambling Commission records. The gaming floor offers the expected mix of tables and slots, and the poker schedule adds an extra dimension that lifts it above a purely generic floor.

The refurbishment signals that the site is not being left to drift; it benefits from group-level investment decisions. The only recurring practical issue we would flag is the confusion around hours found in external directories. Before you travel, especially if poker is your main focus, contact the venue on +44 (0)161 228 0077 or check gentingcasinos.co.uk for current opening times and any event or tournament details.