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Want to Play at Gale&Martin Online Casino? Better Lawyer Up!
We’re bringing you another rogue casino review, this time featuring Gale&Martin online casino. In this article, you’ll have the opportunity to see how creative some casinos can be when it comes to defining their terms and conditions. You’ll also figure out what happens when you win more than you “should.”
General Information
Gale&Martin is an online casino owned and operated by Vega World Solutions N.V., of E-Commerce Park Vredenberg, Curaçao. As stated on their website, they currently operate under the Master license, granted by the government of Curaçao.
Interestingly enough, they previously held a license provided by the Malta Gaming Authority. The license switch happened due to ongoing disputes between the casino and the MGA regarding Gale&Martin’s handling of player complaints.
What further undermined the credibility of this casino was the fact that they’ve been caught running pirated NetEnt games in the past. And as a cherry on top of this unethical cake, they’ve confirmed on multiple occasions that they accept players from the UK, despite not holding a UKGC license.
First Impressions
The general look and feel of the website are satisfactory. The site design is definitely consistent with Gale&Martin’s superhero theme and isn’t one of those crappy 5-minute designs.
The homepage hosts a large number of games, divided into three sections: Featured Games, New Games, and “Our Picks.” You can easily browse through the games library by selecting from the categories: Featured, Slot, Table, Live, and All.
Moreover, the menus make the casino fairly easy to navigate, and ultimately save you a lot of time. If you know what type of game you’re looking for, you’ll find it with just a few clicks.
Finally, Gale&Martin attempts to attract new players with a hefty welcome bonus. As soon as you land on the homepage, an enormous banner promoting a €4000 + 100 free spins bonus grabs your attention.
However, it’s not nearly as good as it might appear at first glance. In fact, Gale&Martin’s welcome bonuses are sticky. In other words, the original bonus amount is deducted from your account balance during payout. Moreover, the wagering requirement is 30x deposit + bonus.
After that, you can only withdraw the money if the total amount you’re left with is higher than the bonus you’ve received. This is because the bonus is deducted from your account when you issue a withdrawal request.
Games and Software
This is where the troubles with Gale&Martin start.
Although they offer a wide variety of games (over 300 slots, 22 table games, and 8 video pokers), it’s difficult not to question their integrity. After all, they’ve been caught running pirated Net Entertainment games in 2016.
Currently, they provide titles by Betsoft Gaming, who have been accused of having skewed games (RNG has been tampered with), not paying out progressive jackpots, and have even had their license revoked in 2014.
Furthermore, Gale&Martin appears to be directly connected to Smashing Casino, which is known to have had cheating software.
And if running cheating software and pirated games weren’t enough, Gale&Martin took it a step further. There are a few rather questionable lines in their terms and conditions, which leave the “bonus terms” open to interpretation. This practically allows the casino to severely limit your winnings or downright refuse withdrawal requests.
The Game Tech Group N.V. also prohibits “betting systems.” Their definition of a betting system is nothing short of ridiculous. For instance, flat-betting on a single number in roulette would be considered a “betting system.”
Interestingly, nobody would prevent you from flat-betting. They’d happily keep their lips sealed as long as you were losing money. However, if you won and tried to cash out, the casino would tell you that you’ve breached their terms, and therefore nullify your winnings.
It’s pretty clear that these terms were defined with malicious intent and aimed at exploiting loopholes for casino’s benefit.
User Experiences
When we say that Gale&Martin’s terms and conditions are dodgy, we mean it. They’ve been known to abuse wording in their favor and blatantly refuse to pay the players on multiple occasions.
There have been a number of reports from people outraged by the fact that they couldn’t withdraw their winnings. And here’s the thing — the game doesn’t automatically limit your maximum bet during wagers prior to fulfilling the bonus requirements stated on their website.
In other words, they’re okay with letting you increase your bet and taking more money out of your pocket, but if you win something, you won’t get paid out. They justify this by claiming that the player has “broken the bonus terms.”
Additionally, there have been several instances where the player history clearly showed they’ve met the wagering requirements for the bonus to be active, yet the casino still refused to come through with the payment.
Deliberately relying on unclear wording and utilizing loopholes to their advantage, is in our opinion, equivalent to scamming. If anything, we would dare say that Gale&Martin are nothing but slightly more sophisticated con artists.
Pros and Cons
| PROS Generous welcome bonusA large selection of games | CONS English onlyWithdrawal limits (Minimum: €100; Maximum: €5000/month)Known to refuse withdrawal requestsCaught running pirated softwareSketchy terms and conditionsConstant and deliberate violation of the UKGC regulations |
Our Verdict
Gale&Martin are hyenas masquerading as a company that aims to provide entertainment to their audience. Even after running pirated NetEnt software and disputes with the MGA, they’re still doing everything in their power to make sure you lose money — even when you win.
However, we’re not saying it’s impossible to enjoy their games or win some money. If you don’t mind having a lawyer present while gambling to ensure that you don’t “breach” or “violate” Gale&Martin’s terms and conditions — then, by all means, go for it.
However, we would advise everyone to stay as far away from Gale&Martin as possible, due to their unethical business practices and issues with pirated software and regulatory bodies.
Casino Rating
Customer support: 1/10
Cashout time: 4/10
Software: 1/10
Jurisdiction: 6/10
Total: 3/10
