Heroes-Jssport Casino is a rogue casino licensed by the government of Curaçao. It is known for confiscating players’ winnings. If someone dared to win at blackjack, they were a labeled a cheater and denied their reward. For Heroes, such unethical actions were an everyday thing, and until now, they’ve managed to scam many of their customers. Take a look at their shady story in our review.
General Information
Heroes Casino had its 15 minutes of fame in 2008 when a player won over $38,000 playing blackjack, and they didn’t pay him. Instead, they accused him of using an automated system to cheat the casino instead. They have been negotiating for months, but without reaching an agreement. Finally, Heroes Casino’s software provider decided to be the honest one in the whole story and paid the player. Shortly after, Heroes and its provider parted ways.
It all started when the player in question requested to withdraw his $34,724 balance. And while Heroes was checking his documentation, he continued playing and winning. Finally, he the user arrived at almost $39,000 balance and re-submitted his withdrawal request.
Soon after, the Heroes Casino informed the player that his withdrawal request was irregular. They also told him that they would have to examine all of his other bets as well. Finally, after a month had passed, they accused him of using a “Bot Play” in order to cheat on their software. As proof, they sent him his hand history. However, there was no evidence of irregular play in the file.
Now, the player did use the Martingale system. He was writing down his bets in order to keep track of them. So his “automated system” actually consisted of a pen and paper! And Heroes Casino labeled the pen as a bot. Impressive, right?! Maybe it was a forerunner to the Party Tools system we have today.
Nevertheless, the Martingale betting strategy is when a player tries to recover all the money lost by betting larger bets after each loss. It can’t be considered a betting pattern for sure. And why is that? Well, for a very simple reason: betting like this makes it almost impossible for a player to lose. It’s rather a lifeline for him. But Heroes refused to give in.
At first, they called the player and tried to make a deal with him about the amount owed. He was ready to accept 80% of his winnings. They refused. Then, he even tried to come to an accord with them by only asking for 50%. However, the people from the contact center informed him that they would have to first verify with their owner if the offer was acceptable and that they would let him know. Needless to say, the owner didn’t accept that amount either. Finally, they offered him only 10%. Naturally, the player freaked out and decided to request the whole amount of his winnings.
Heroes Casino then put its software provider, Galewind Software, in the wrong, accusing it of giving them rigged games. They claimed the software was faulty and allowed the players to cheat the casino. However, that has never been proven.
Finally, after being notified about this issue, the Galewind Software Corporation started their own investigation. Their analysis showed that the player had won fair and square. And since the casino tried to dodge its responsibilities, the software provider decided to be the hero. They claimed that the player won legitimately and that he needed to be paid. So they decided to pay the full amount of his blackjack winnings. This was an unusual situation because online gambling software providers tend to stay away from players’ complaints.
Consequently, the Heroes Casino went offline in 2010 for bad casino practice. According to the reviews available on the Internet, they confiscated players’ winnings, which eventually totaled to around $76,000. Heroes always refused to pay their players’ winnings for the same reason: they blamed the software.
They tried to make a comeback to the gambling scene by changing their name to JSSports, but it didn’t take long for players to discover that there were links to the Heroes Casino on the site — it used the same website template. In conformity with these findings, players didn’t want to risk with them again.
First Impression
Did those guys from Heroes really think they were beaten by pen and paper? Did they really mistake pen and paper for a bot? These are our first thoughts about Heroes. Even if they weren’t as primitive as they presented themselves, we keep asking ourselves why they acted like this. We could even understand that they didn’t want to pay the player his winnings, but they could have found another excuse for that. It seems that they didn’t even try to do so. And this is our strongest impression of the Heroes Casino. This is definitely not how one casino should operate.
Games and Software
Since the casino is offline, we can’t provide you with an accurate games list. So in this review, we are going to rely on some posts from gambling forums. According to the community, the Heroes Casino was offering 2 single-line slots, 3 three-line slots, and 2 four-line progressive slots. Moreover, they even had 6 different video poker and 5 table poker games. We also found out that they used to offer very attractive bonuses, which should never be taken for granted because, at times, it can be an indicator of ulterior motives on the casino’s side. If we take this into account next to the fact that they were known for refusing to pay out their players, we can assume that the generous bonuses were put there just to lure unsuspecting customers in.
However, in the abovementioned story, their software provider is the real hero. Even though at the time of the scandal Galewind Software powered only two casinos, they put the players first and opposed the Heroes Casino. Shortly after, Galewind Software closed Heroes down for their unjust confiscation of customers’ funds.
On top of that, they managed to build a solid reputation in the online gambling world for being one of the most ethical providers on the market. And when it comes to games offered and their graphics, they weren’t as appealing as their main competitors were, but this didn’t impact the overall impression their games would leave. Galewind offered a limited selection of titles on their instant play casino platform, but they offered the best odds for their players. For example, while most casinos’ slots had up to 5% house edge, Galewind’s slot games offered less than 3%.
Hence, we can conclude that Galewind software perhaps wasn’t one of the top providers regarding their game selection and visuals, but they were definitely a safe provider to play with. They put their customers’ needs and company integrity first. So in order to achieve the purposes illustrated above, they were ready to shut down one of its two casinos. Kudos to that!
User Experience
The case of the player who deposited only $200 and won $39k on blackjack and who was trying to get his money wasn’t the only one. On the same forum where we originally found the story, some users claimed that they were going through the same situation. And these were significantly smaller amounts in question. However, in the end, all players got paid by Galewind Software.
Furthermore, there were also users who shared with the community that Heroes removed their bonuses accusing them of playing as “bonus abusers.” It seems that for the guys from the Heroes casino, everyone was cheating! So you could have deposited your money, could have played and bet as much as you wished, but you were never allowed to win. If you won, you were labeled a cheater and your winnings would have been void.
In addition, the Heroes Casino’s customer service was miserable as well. They showed a very unprofessional attitude and were quite disappointing when it came to problem-solving situations. Moreover, the casino’s T&Cs even stated that banned players could have still played and bet, but that their winnings would have been confiscated instead.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- The Heroes Casino will never steal money from anyone ever again
- They made one of the most hilarious excuses not to pay a player in history.
Cons
- They blamed their software provider if their players ever won.
- Players’ winnings got confiscated
- Poor, unprofessional customer service.
Our Verdict
The best thing we could say about this Casino is that it’s offline and it won’t confiscate anyone’s money anymore. Thanks to the gambling community, the story came out, and the casino got blacklisted. This is a great example of the power the gambling community has, so we strongly recommend you first check out some gambling forums the next time you are looking for a site to bet on. Heroes Casino was one of the sites to avoid, and there will always be similar ones. All in all, online casinos simply can’t expect to stay open for long if they refuse to pay their players out.
Casino Rating
- Customer Support: 1/10
- Cashout Time: 1/10
- Software: 7/10
- Jurisdiction: 6/10
- Total: 4/10
It’s pretty obvious why this casino doesn’t exist anymore. So to have a safe online gambling journey, make sure to check blacklists and avoid rogue casinos like this one.