For this review, we decided to chase after an online casino playing hard to get. Winn-Palace is a casino that doesn’t exist anymore — it was shut down, and for a good reason; the people behind it weren’t very honest. As far as we could find out, it was established sometime in 2017, and it existed only for a brief period of time. The good thing about that was that, luckily, not many players had their money stolen. If you take the overall sketchiness of the casino into consideration, one can only be glad it existed for such a short while.
First Impression
Fortunately, we managed to dig out some screenshots of how the casino used to look like. The website was mostly colored black, and on the homepage, you could find the newest casino games they had in the offer. Moreover, the casino offered a lot of jackpots, and in case you needed some additional motivation to gamble, there was a list of the newest winners and how much they earned. Furthermore, Winn-Palace mostly focused on players in the United States, however, if you consider their claims to be licensed by the MGA (Malta Gaming Authority), it obviously wanted to hit an international audience as well. As far as we could investigate, there was no welcome deposit bonus for the new players.
Games and Software
The one great thing about Winn-Palace was that their software was provided by NetEntertainment, one of the leaders in the game-making industry. NetEnt was established a long time ago in 1996, in Sweden, and has kept growing ever since. Most of the online gamblers are usually very happy to see a casino equipped with their games, of course, given they are legal. It doesn’t take much research to find out that some online casinos pirated the games by some of the famous game makers. Net Entertainment produces amazing online slots and video poker games, their software almost always has a funny twist to it, and the entire marketing team behind it is quite ingenious. On a more serious note, they promote responsible gaming very seriously, and it only helps their reputation in the online gambling community.
Unfortunately, even though Winn-Palace had good software, it still managed to find itself on the blacklisted group of casinos. It appears to have had a mobile casino as well, but we’re not sure just how developed or decent it was.
User Experience
We’re terribly sorry to disappoint, but there is not much information we could gather on this. There were absolutely no users on the Internet providing any information regarding this casino — nothing about payouts or delayed withdrawals. But hey, we like to stay optimistic, so we hope no players were tricked into giving them too much money. The lack of user evidence online might just be a great thing.
However, Winn-Palace did falsely claim to have been licensed. On their website, you could find the information they were licensed by the LGA (Lotteries and Gambling Authority). Doesn’t sound too familiar? — No wonder, because this was an old name for the MGA, as they started anew in 2015. Seeing an online casino licensed by the MGA pours in a lot of confidence. However, many casinos will shamelessly lie about their license due to this very reason. Luckily, people behind the MGA are smarter than that, so they have a whole page dedicated to unauthorized URLs. This is where you can find websites of all the online casinos that lie about being licensed by the Malta Gaming Authority. So if your gut is telling you that an online casino you’re viewing looks quite sketchy but is still licensed, we advise you to listen to your gut; search deeper and refer to the MGA official website. You might just save yourself a lot of trouble, and more importantly, a lot of money.
Back to the point, Winn-Palace was one of the unauthorized URLs and was marked as misleading and false as a result. We believe this might be the main reason why probably 99% of the players didn’t trust it with real money; many were aware that the MGA didn’t operate by its old name in 2017.
As for the customer support, it definitely existed, but we’re not sure how helpful or honest they were. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any traces of the live chat option. In addition, we couldn’t find anything on their terms and conditions either. It’s evident the T&Cs existed based on the screenshots, but their content has obviously completely vanished, along with the casino.
Pros and Cons
It was a bit hard to sum up all the pros and cons but we still did our best. There wasn’t much to choose from, but we still wanted you to be informed and to watch out for any similar online casinos out there. Believe us, they still exist. Here’s a short list:
Pros:
- Software by NetEnt
- The casino could travel back in time (and obtain the LGA license)
- It is officially closed
Cons:
- False license claims (it never really had one)
- No deposit bonus
- A misspelled name (was there absolutely nobody there to tell them that was not how you write “win”)
All jokes aside, this casino was very dangerous, and we couldn’t be happier that it is gone. If you trust an unlicensed casino with your money, the chances are high that you will never get it back, no matter what you try to do.
Our Verdict
Winn-Palace couldn’t have been more rogue. On top of that, we can only imagine what might have been happening with the payouts, and whether their players ever received their money or not.
Casino Rating
- Complaint Resolution — N/A
- Jurisdiction — 1/10 stars
- Software — 8/10 stars
- Cashout Time — N/A
Winn-Palace Casino never lived long enough to see this review, which still doesn’t stop us from rating it with 2 out of 10 stars. So make sure to always do your research before trusting an online casino; it might seem like a hassle, but you will be rewarded with worry-free gambling experience. Happy betting!