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99 Slot Machines Casino: RealTime Gaming casino with unclear license details; Declined players withdrawals and offered terrible customer support.
The 99 Slot Machines Casino was founded in 2008. It belonged to the Curgam Malta group (also known as Curgam N.V.), which is a name that should get your alarms beeping the moment you hear about them.
The people who manage this group don’t really cater to their customers’ needs and aren’t preoccupied with providing a satisfying service, but rather like to take advantage of the fact that the Internet is a place where you can get away with almost any type of fraudulent behavior without worrying too much about the consequences.
Thankfully, this particular casino won’t be able to continue stealing money from its players. They apparently closed shop, with the website being inactive since August 2018.
First Impression
If the idea behind the website design was to say “this online casino was created 10 years ago, and we couldn’t care less about the visual appeal of it,” then they really hit the nail on the head! A predominant red color with a tacky golden outline — something Meyer Lansky would be proud of. They used chunky blocks for buttons, and the general feel of the website is that it’s outdated.
The navigational menu leads you to different types of games, as well as the FAQ and customer support sections.
As is the case with other blacklisted casinos operated by this group, the casino itself withheld the information about their licensing and jurisdiction from the public. Basically, they made sure to steer away from sharing anything that would make them become credible — our guess is that it happened because they knew they weren’t doing things the right way in the first place.
The casino was based in Costa Rica, a country which gained its reputation in the world of online casinos for not having a strict licensing policy. Generally, the online gambling websites decide to base themselves in Costa Rica because they prefer a governing body that would allow them to bend the rules in their favor.
Games and Software
Despite the design not being something that made this casino stand out in any shape or form, the functionality of its site is surprisingly well-made. They also used to offer a mobile version of the website, compatible with iOS, Android, and Windows Phone smartphones. Moreover, players could have opened the games directly on the website via Instant Play, or you could have downloaded the casino client and had access to a greater set of games. However, they didn’t offer the possibility to play live casino.
RealTime Gaming is the provider behind this casino’s software, a company renowned in the casino world for offering games which are fun to play and pleasing to look at, whilst offering different game modes within their games. All of the RTG games are certified by the TST, which makes sure that all the games are coded to be fair to the players.
Furthermore, there is a variety of games and game types you can play on the website — or could have while it was still operational, that is. Best known for their slot games, RTG gives you the opportunity to play a range of slots, including popular games such as Achilles, Aztec’s Millions, and Bigshot.
Apart from slots, you could have also enjoyed different video poker and table games. There are more than 30 of these games, and the lowest RTP they offer is 97%. The games that you could have found here were the ones you’d expect — Blackjack, Baccarat, Pontoon. and other common table games. As for video poker, you could have played games like Sevens Wild, Jacks or Better, Aces & Eights. I guess you get the idea.
Lastly, if the aforementioned ones didn’t quench your thirst for excitement, there were also several specialty games, including Sic Bo, Bingo, and Keno.
On a different note, when it comes to making a deposit to your account, you could have used MasterCard or Visa. On the other hand, the payment of winnings (not that they would do this often, but we’ll address that in just a second) could have been done through wire transfer or a check. The only two options that users could have used both ways were Neteller and Click2Pay. Now, the question presents itself — why could you make a deposit using credit cards, yet you couldn’t request a withdrawal through the same medium? But then again, they never pretended users’ convenience and experience was something they lost sleep over.
Bonuses
As with pretty much any other website of the casino variety, they achieved their goal with the design in the sense that the first things that caught your eye were the bonus offers that sounded sweet and dandy and made you think you’d be smart enough to profit from their ridiculous giveaways.
99 Slot Machines offered casino bonuses that were just mind-boggling at first glance. The first bonus you’d get after the first deposit of at least $20 was 5000%! And no, that’s not a typo. So for the $20 invested, you’d get $1000 of free cash. The next two times you’d put in at least $25 and $30, the casino would celebrate it with 1000% and 900% deposit bonuses respectively. In simple maths, you put in $75 — you get $1675 for free. So what’s the catch?
The wagering requirements of these bonuses were just plainly ludicrous, to put it bluntly. When you received your first bonus, you’d have to complete a playthrough of 120x your bonus and deposit total before being able to ask for a withdrawal, with that number being 60x and 30x for the other two bonuses. Additionally, it is also worth mentioning that these bonuses were only applicable to slot games.
Added to that, even if you somehow managed to get on top and stay in plus after fulfilling these conditions, the maximum withdrawal you could have made on the promotions was $200. If you earned more than that, well… Tough luck, I guess.
Lastly, they also offered bonus codes which you could have redeemed for free spins and no deposit bonuses, but you would be wise to always check the casino’s terms and conditions before testing your luck with these bonuses, as rogue casinos tend to change those around in hopes that nobody notices it. That way, they could later call you out on it and take all of your winnings.
User Experience and Reviews
The complaints about the casino’s conduct towards its customers were growing even larger in number as time went by. The players had issues with the payments of their winnings. The casino set maximum payout to $5000–$6000 (depending on who you want to trust — it’s hard to know for sure since the website is no longer there), which meant that you couldn’t count on values higher than those to be yours. There was just no way to cash it all out.
There are also countless complaints about the payments being late, with the casino giving all kinds of nonsensical excuses. They’d usually just delay the transfer of money until they come up with a reason to cancel your winnings. In one instance, a customer saw their withdrawal request denied based on the fact that they used a no-deposit chip in one of the 99 Slot Machine’s sister casinos. You’d lose a whole day in vain trying to find the reason behind this explanation.
Although the casino offered a 24/7 customer service with live chat, we’re yet to stumble upon a customer who could say that they were satisfied with the outcome of contacting them. The staff would basically just acknowledge the situation without trying to work it out. In addition, the management of the casino itself never even tried to deny that there was an unacceptable amount of complaints and they never expressed a willingness to change that.
Casinos are supposed to be about having fun with an adrenaline boost of playing with real money. It should be your pastime, not an unsolvable problem and a pain in the backside. That’s why (among other obvious reasons) you should always avoid blacklisted casinos at all costs.
Pros and Cons
As with everything in life, nothing is just black or white. There are several pros to this casino, even though you should never value them above the issues you’d come across. For example, the assortment of the games is at a respectable level — if you’re a fan of casino games, you’d really struggle to get bored with the variety on offer. On top of that, the website’s compatibility with different devices meant that you could enjoy your favorite games on the go and you didn’t need to restrain yourself to a Mac or PC.
They could and should have improved on the design of the website, but then again, there were far more pressing concerns that they couldn’t get themselves to work on. Doing their primary duty of not scamming their customers being the major one. Players who couldn’t bother to check out the reviews of the casino beforehand paid for their ignorance with their own money.
They offered insane bonuses with even more insane wagering requirements, and the secrecy behind their jurisdiction was very telling of their business model.
Our Verdict
The 99 Slot Machines Casino fits perfectly with others in the sea of rogue online casinos. It offered promising bonuses for new players who were unaware of the stipulations behind them. Then they took the money away from their customers without sending payouts on time, or, as is often the case, without paying out at all. With many other credible casinos around, there’s really no reason to play at a casino with similar practices to this one.
Casino Rating
Complaint resolution: 1/10
Jurisdiction: 1/10
Software: 8/10
Cashout time: 1/10
Overall, we rate this casino 3 out of 10 stars. The software is the standout point of the casino, however, it really shouldn’t be enough of a reason to trust it with your money. Although, the bright side is that the casino is no longer around. Hopefully, you don’t already have a complaint pending because — spoiler alert — it will never get resolved.
