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African Palace is a South African online casino owned by Vestfin, a company located in London. Firstly, the website is not available from many locations — it is impossible to access from almost all of the European countries. However, African Palace offers a different variety of games, from card and table ones to slots and live games. Slots take up the majority of space on the website, just like in any online casino. This is mostly to attract the betting rookies. Although, something we didn’t see in many online casinos is a whole separate section dedicated to Asian games. You’ll be able to find all the traditional Asian gambling games in African Palace casino. However, what we believe to be a big con is that the website is available only in English. Sadly, during its history, African Palace went through a couple of gambling scandals, leaving it with a horrible reputation.
First Impression
When you enter the website, you’re greeted with an image of a big, expensive lobby with characters dressed in high-class fashion. To us, it leaves an impression of a very cheap casino, as the image is very obviously photoshopped. The website is user-friendly, and all of the games are split into categories, which is always a good sign for gamblers who are not tech savvy. Some players are relatively new to online gaming and simplicity is always helpful.
The colors of the website are quite boring — everything is dressed in gold, what we suppose is an attempt to force luxury. Behind every casino is a whole marketing team deciding how to best play with the psychology of an average player. However, it looks like African Palace either underpays their marketing experts or simply never hired them at all, as the webpage is not very attractive. There is also a chance you’ll be greeted with some promotional offers once the website loads. For example, a $200 bonus on your first deposit from the casino. Unfortunately, the user experience is a proof these free gifts come at a high price. We will explain why a little bit further in the review.
Games and Software
All the games in this casino are produced by Playtech. Nowadays, Playtech games are the leaders in the gambling market, and most of the Playtech casinos are rated very highly. African Palace offers a lot of video slots, and there is something to match everybody’s taste. A lot of gamblers do prefer the old-fashioned overall look for a slot. However, next to this, you can also play a lot of video poker if you’re a fan. The bad thing in all this though, is that the casino never developed a smartphone application, thus excluding a huge part of the mobile gaming audience. All in all, African Palace leaves a player wanting more and fails to compare to other online casinos.
User Experience
Here’s something that will tell you enough about how satisfied users were with African Palace. The casino has been shut down in November 2018. There were so many complaints that casino suddenly decided to close its doors to players. It didn’t come as a surprise to many because the casino already had a terrible reputation at that point. However, what made its downfall definite was a scandal on South African live television. This scandal had African Palace completely cast out from the world of Internet gambling. A South African player Marie Van Wyk appeared on live television explaining how the casino never paid the money she rightfully won. Apparently, she was forced to open an offshore bank account in Cyprus, and this was the case with many other players as well.
From our experience, this should be a red flag for every player enjoying online gambling. No online casino should force its players to open bank accounts in a country other than their own. Marie even confirmed casino executives threatened that a lawsuit won’t help her get the money, as the casino is not based in the South African Republic. But after her appearance on TV, there came a flood of users saying the withdrawal period was endless. This scandal put African Palace on the list of scam casinos. Its sister casino, operating under the name of Indio, managed to become blacklisted as well. The entire user experience was bad from the beginnings of African Palace, and they did little to nothing to fix this issue.
Pros and Cons
It is difficult to count the pros and cons of African Palace, as the list is quite uneven. The only pros we could think of are somewhat responsive customer service and good software. According to many players, customer support was highly selective regarding which complaints they would address. Help was often not offered, and there were no solutions for many issues. It doesn’t take a lot of googling to notice that 90% of the problems weren’t resolved, and just as many payouts were never distributed. Terms and conditions were completely in favor of the casino and were very often re-adjusted according to their needs and circumstances. Now here’s a complete list of pros and cons for your convenience:
Pros
- Decent software
- Somewhat responsive customer support
- Withdrawal methods (Wire transfer, Mastercard, Visa, Neteller)
Cons
- Slow payments or no payments at all
- Online gambling is banned in South Africa (this triggers too many problems with withdrawals)
- No smartphone application
- Available only in English
- Shut down for the time being
Our Verdict
Without any hesitation, we consider African Palace to be a rogue casino. Players could not withdraw their money, and the casino suffered a live television scandal. It was on the verge of illegal activities and forced players to open offshore accounts in order to receive their money. Moreover, their gambling license came from Curaçao. And why is this bad? — because Curaçao jurisdiction does not take part in disputes between casinos and gamblers. To further add to this, obtaining a Curaçao gambling license is very easy, and it usually covers newly-founded, somewhat questionable casinos. If African Palace Casino ever makes a comeback, we do not advise testing your luck with them. The chances are that odds won’t be in your favor at all.
Casino Rating
- Complaint resolution — 2/10 stars
- Jurisdiction — 3/10 stars
- Software — 8/10 stars
- Cashout time — 1/10 stars
In total, we rate African Palace with 2 out of 10 stars. They have proven to be completely unreliable and have failed to build trust from the start. So remember to always make sure to read as many reviews and user ratings as possible before you decide to trust an online casino.
